Questions from a new pilot

[Markah2007]

Hi just got my mavic and excited to fly it sorted all my settings ect flew it around the house in opti mode feels very smooth and responsive however i have a few questions, if you take off and fly up on top of a cliff when you go past the cliff edge so theres a drop will it suddenly up the altitude on the display or keep the altitude from the take off point ? Im just curios regarding return to home ect if i go down below the cliff will it then read minus figures on altitude until i fly up higher than my take off point

 

[Top Hat]

Not sure but I think it will display a negative alt reading if you descend off from a cliff.
Many expert will chime in....standby and WELCOME to the FORUM!

 

[MacIak]

Altitude is in relation to homepoint. Welcome indeed!

 

[DroneTone]

Current altitude is always referenced from the takeoff point.
The takeoff point elevation begins at zero regardless of the mean sea level (MSL) elevation.
This means when taking off from Death Valley, (below sea level) or from a top Mt. McKinley, the indicated starting altitude is always zero.
Also means that if you go off a cliff and descend below your takeoff point elevation (zero), the altitude will indicate in negative numbers.

If the aircraft goes into return-to-home (RTH) mode for some specific reason, while it is far from the home point and at a negative indicated altitude,
it will first ascend al the way up to the positive RTH altitude you had previously set in the GO 4 app and then begin it's journey home.

 

[Markah2007]

Current altitude is always referenced from the takeoff point.
The takeoff point elevation begins at zero regardless of the mean sea level (MSL) elevation.
This means when taking off from Death Valley, (below sea level) or from a top Mt. McKinley, the indicated starting altitude is always zero.
Also means that if you go off a cliff and descend below your takeoff point elevation (zero), the altitude will indicate in negative numbers.

If the aircraft goes into return-to-home (RTH) mode for some specific reason, while it is far from the home point and at a negative indicated altitude,
it will first ascend al the way up to the positive RTH altitude you had previously set in the GO 4 app and then begin it's journey home.

Excellent reply thank you just what i needed im going on holiday tomorrow to brean and im going to attemp to fly from the brean downs cliff across to western super mare pier 2.5 miles and steepholm island 2.9 miles to get some footage and hope its not to windy and drops in the sea. Am i right in thinking if i stay down towards the water it will be more stable but up higher i will get better connection ? One last thing my rth is working spot on landing on a slab on my grass but will it return home if the controller turns off for some reason or the app crashes. Cheers

 

[JJ-Norfolk]

You'll find quite a few threads on here with warnings about getting too close to water. I've only had my Mavic for a month or so but I live by a river and have a number of lakes on my land too. I find it much more difficult to maintain a constant height over the river when flying along it than I do over land and I keep it well within sight when doing so. RTH will bring it back in a straight line if the connection from the controller fails so make sure you have set a RTH minimum height sufficiently high to take account of anything it could possibly encounter. As you appear to be UK based too, have you downloaded the Drone Assist app? I'd suggest short flights, over land at first until you feel wholly confident. My original drone failed on its second day. DJI replaced it, acknowledging there had been a compass error. Had I been more familiar with everything it's possible I might have been able to intervene to prevent its fatal crash. Great that DJI replaced it but it was still a real frustration to be without it for three weeks when, like you, I had been excited to get it.

 

[DroneTone]

Excellent reply thank you just what i needed im going on holiday tomorrow to brean and im going to attemp to fly from the brean downs cliff across to western super mare pier 2.5 miles and steepholm island 2.9 miles to get some footage and hope its not to windy and drops in the sea. Am i right in thinking if i stay down towards the water it will be more stable but up higher i will get better connection ? One last thing my rth is working spot on landing on a slab on my grass but will it return home if the controller turns off for some reason or the app crashes. Cheers

Being in the USA, I'm not familiar with your chosen location, however any danger would be related to how strong the wind is.
I will say be prepared for unexpected strong updrafts and/or downdrafts when flying close to the cliff face and top.
Yes, a lower altitude closer to sea level will be more stable, and RC connection depends on line of sight, favoring altitude.
I'd mention too you'll find when you approaching the limit of signal range and the connection strength is wavering,
it's also important how you hold the controller and orient the antennae.
Doing it as shown in the DJI manual and facing the antennae at the aircraft can make the difference between
maintaining control and getting the photo shot and angle you want, or only getting high altitude shots and an undesired RTH.

If you lose your connection and the GO4 app is set to RTH upon loss of connection,
(with a sufficient RTH altitude set to avoid obstacles), the aircraft will reliably return home.

Be aware of the difference between the two signals in use, video display vs. aircraft control.
There have been times where I had sufficient aircraft control and no RTH occurred, but the video display was broken up or intermittent.
Orienting the controller antennae correctly is crucial to help with this.
Understand that a RTH begins after a period of loss of aircraft control signal, not video feed signal.
When the video is breaking up or sporadic, while it's hard to keep the aircraft oriented correctly, you may still have definitive aircraft control if a RTH has not occurred yet.
This means don't panic and just get the shot as best you can. When ready back off the distance a bit or add altitude to get a more steady video feed.

For me, whenever I find the aircraft has initiated a RTH due to loss of signal, invariably my connection will reconnect long before it's near home again.
At that point, I either go back out and try to complete the "mission" paying more attention to why I lost signal the first time,
or I cancel the RTH and fly it back myself. Only rarely do I let the aircraft in RTH fly itself all the way back and land.
(What fun is that? I want to do the flying...)

 

[Markah2007]

You'll find quite a few threads on here with warnings about getting too close to water. I've only had my Mavic for a month or so but I live by a river and have a number of lakes on my land too. I find it much more difficult to maintain a constant height over the river when flying along it than I do over land and I keep it well within sight when doing so. RTH will bring it back in a straight line if the connection from the controller fails so make sure you have set a RTH minimum height sufficiently high to take account of anything it could possibly encounter. As you appear to be UK based too, have you downloaded the Drone Assist app? I'd suggest short flights, over land at first until you feel wholly confident. My original drone failed on its second day. DJI replaced it, acknowledging there had been a compass error. Had I been more familiar with everything it's possible I might have been able to intervene to prevent its fatal crash. Great that DJI replaced it but it was still a real frustration to be without it for three weeks when, like you, I had been excited to get it.

Thanks for the info no i didnt know about the drone assist app ill take a look i just have dji go 4 which is working perfect on android on galaxy s8 although ive seen many complaints about the app. Im very familiar with flying helicopters and ive custom selected controls to match so i dont have an issue flying its just learning to control the gimball smoothly at the same time i suppose and im wondering why i can zoom in 4k mode and if i can in 2.7k. How did you know it was a compass error by logs ?

 

[ICHOTT]

Excellent reply thank you just what i needed im going on holiday tomorrow to brean and im going to attemp to fly from the brean downs cliff across to western super mare pier 2.5 miles and steepholm island 2.9 miles to get some footage and hope its not to windy and drops in the sea. Am i right in thinking if i stay down towards the water it will be more stable but up higher i will get better connection ? One last thing my rth is working spot on landing on a slab on my grass but will it return home if the controller turns off for some reason or the app crashes. Cheers

With respect - and its you and your drone I'm thinking of but it sounds like you need more practice / experience with your settings and what the equipment is telling before you attempt to fly 2+ miles away !!! Sounds like a recipe for disaster!

What will you do when you get to 998m area and you've reached max distance? Exactly! you need to know all this before sending it out of sight.

 

[Markah2007]

Being in the USA, I'm not familiar with your chosen location, however any danger would be related to how strong the wind is.
I will say be prepared for unexpected strong updrafts and/or downdrafts when flying close to the cliff face and top.
Yes, a lower altitude closer to sea level will be more stable, and RC connection depends on line of sight, favoring altitude.
I'd mention too you'll find when you approaching the limit of signal range and the connection strength is wavering,
it's also important how you hold the controller and orient the antennae.
Doing it as shown in the DJI manual and facing the antennae at the aircraft can make the difference between
maintaining control and getting the photo shot and angle you want, or only getting high altitude shots and an undesired RTH.

If you lose your connection and the GO4 app is set to RTH upon loss of connection,
(with a sufficient RTH altitude set to avoid obstacles), the aircraft will reliably return home.

Be aware of the difference between the two signals in use, video display vs. aircraft control.
There have been times where I had sufficient aircraft control and no RTH occurred, but the video display was broken up or intermittent.
Orienting the controller antennae correctly is crucial to help with this.
Understand that a RTH begins after a period of loss of aircraft control signal, not video feed signal.
When the video is breaking up or sporadic, while it's hard to keep the aircraft oriented correctly, you may still have definitive aircraft control if a RTH has not occurred yet.
This means don't panic and just get the shot as best you can. When ready back off the distance a bit or add altitude to get a more steady video feed.

For me, whenever I find the aircraft has initiated a RTH due to loss of signal, invariably my connection will reconnect long before it's near home again.
At that point, I either go back out and try to complete the "mission" paying more attention to why I lost signal the first time,
or I cancel the RTH and fly it back myself. Only rarely do I let the aircraft in RTH fly itself all the way back and land.
(What fun is that? I want to do the flying...)

Very reliable info thanks ive took it all in and i fully understand what your saying and i know about the difference in video feed and control signal ive watched tonnes of videos by many people my favourite being coptertube chasing cruise ships. Also yes definately more fun to fly back manually im just in the stage of making myself confident that it all works so been doing many rth tests lol thanks alot my drone was from usa so will i get more range due to higher rc power or does it lower due to my location ? Thanks

 

[JJ-Norfolk]

I guess that the logs must have shown the compass error but I didn't spot this. It was DJI who put their hands up, so to speak, and said that the equipment had failed and that it was a compass error failure - hence the replacement would be covered under warranty. I didn't think I had done anything wrong but being so new to the Mavic I couldn't be certain. Others will correct me if I am wrong, but I think the zoom is digital only which is why it will work in modes other than 4K but once you are in 4K everything is in the highest quality already so no zoom is possible. Gimball - you can adjust the sensitivity. I turned mine right down to make it smoother.

 

[Markah2007]

With respect - and its you and your drone I'm thinking of but it sounds like you need more practice / experience with your settings and what the equipment is telling before you attempt to fly 2+ miles away !!! Sounds like a recipe for disaster!

What will you do when you get to 998m area and you've reached max distance? Exactly! you need to know all this before sending it out of sight.

What do you mean by 998m thats 0.6 miles i thought in uk under good connection with no interferance it will do 2 miles ? And thats fine i understand your concern im going to be flying it learning for the first half of the holiday before attempting any long distance

 

[Markah2007]

I guess that the logs must have shown the compass error but I didn't spot this. It was DJI who put their hands up, so to speak, and said that the equipment had failed and that it was a compass error failure - hence the replacement would be covered under warranty. I didn't think I had done anything wrong but being so new to the Mavic I couldn't be certain. Others will correct me if I am wrong, but I think the zoom is digital only which is why it will work in modes other than 4K but once you are in 4K everything is in the highest quality already so no zoom is possible. Gimball - you can adjust the sensitivity. I turned mine right down to make it smoother.

Ok i see cool glad you got a replacement and ive already fine tuned all the settings and slowed down the gimball movement it was crazy fast out the box lol cheers buddy

 

[ICHOTT]

What do you mean by 998m thats 0.6 miles i thought in uk under good connection with no interferance it will do 2 miles ? And thats fine i understand your concern im going to be flying it learning for the first half of the holiday before attempting any long distance

Good question and I don't have the answer yet !
Yesterday I took the courage to fly cross country to a local viaduct only to get a "max distance message" about 300 m short of target, distance was. 998 m so I was surprised but hey!

I was simply off beginner mode and guess that there are set max distances according to mode, I need to investigate further my self.

 

[Markah2007]

Good question and I don't have the answer yet !
Yesterday I took the courage to fly cross country to a local viaduct only to get a "max distance message" about 300 m short of target, distance was. 998 m so I was surprised but hey!

I was simply off beginner mode and guess that there are set max distances according to mode, I need to investigate further my self.

Go into your setting you can enter a max distance you have one set i already seen that

 

[ICHOTT]

Of course, cheers

 

[Markah2007]

Of course, cheers

No problem if youve accidentally over looked that please make sure you check your return to home settings and sensor settings because if youve got return home altitude to low and sensors off itll crash