Possible interference from Mobile towers?

[Doink70]

Hi all - I have flown my mini regularly and without issues so far but I read with interest all the flyaway and crash stories and I was wondering if flying in proximity to cell or mobile phone towers might cause any of the unexplained issues we have seen? All thoughts greatfully recieved.

 

[Meta4]

I was wondering if flying in proximity to cell or mobile phone towers might cause any of the unexplained issues we have seen?

None yet.
Interference at worst might swamp your control signal but that would only trigger RTH.
It wouldn't cause the drone to fly off into the distance.
At the separation distance people are likely to be flying their drones, there won't even be any interference.

 

[Magilla Gorilla]

I can't speak for the Mini but my recently deceased buddy used his Phantom 4 for cell tower inspections. Except for one issue with unable to takeoff due to NFZ close to an airport he had no issues and provided excellent photos of installed antennas for RF engineers.

We were always talking of the probability of interference but he was unafraid and did POI videos and photos up close to many cell towers.

Phantom 4 uses Lightbridge, Mini uses enhanced Wi-Fi for control.

Good question. Others may have a better answer.

 

[Lastrexking]

I fly my Air on the village cricket field, and there's a mobile tower there. It's never been an issue. The Air uses the same kind of system as the Mini.

 

[BadRad]

I'm wondering about sizeable TV towers, probably more radiation? More conflict? I may get as close as 500 yards, but so far no problem with MP. Years ago a Phantom went down there. See pic ... flown from street loop. Seldom go beyond.

 

[Franco7]

I use my Spark and Mavic Air for cell tower inspection without problems or interference (I fly really close to the towers), I have no experience with Mini but I suppose they use same kind of communications between RC and the drone, so, you should no have any problem at all.

 

[Mikey's]

Cell networks (communication cell to phones and cell to cell) are using different frequency bands than the RC (doesn't matter which band is used by the RC).

 

[BigAl07]

99% (or more) of the so called Fly Away are more accurately the aircraft doing something within normal operating procedures but the operator being well outside of competent and safe abilities with the aircraft.

I don't know the last time I saw an actual "Fly Away" that was not Operator Error.... if you don't know the aircraft well enough you don't know the things it CAN and CAN'T do.... it's simply the operator making mistakes and then claiming Fly Away. . . .

 

[Doink70]

Thanks everyone - this gives me a bit more confidence. I agree with one of the posts above that a little bit of common sense goes a long way in avoiding issues. I use the UAV forecast app and have set all the parameters to be 1/2 of the max ratings of the mini and whilst it has limited some opportunities to fly but I believe in ‘better same than sorry’.