Range Testing the DJI Air 3 Drone

[The Droning Company]

Range Testing the DJI Air 3 Drone

 

[MS Coast]

Taking a break from the interesting evening news, I skipped past 12 minutes to see what the end statements were. At about 12:50 the narrator says the he discontinued the flight at 17,000 feet distance because he could no longer reliably maintain VLOS with the drone.

This ranks right in there with the recent Yourube video claim that you can start the motors on a Mavic drone by turning one prop backward four times.

 

[mavic3usa]

Wow, that's pretty awesome if you can still see the Air 3 at 350 feet high and 17,000 feet away. Pretty impressive.

 

[Torque]

I watched this last night and chuckled each time he claimed he could still see the drone. "Taking it up to 300 ft to keep VLOS" - lol.
Now I did go rogue with mine. I started in a grove of large cottonwood trees and flew out 4900 ft following a local river, BVLOS once I cleared the top of the trees. Very rural area and I launched from the end of a dead end road - but at that distance I got skeered and turned around. I was very impressed though that I never lost a bar despite the trees surrounding me and the controller. Forgive me FAA.

 

[DARKSeifer]

On FCC mode signal should go further than the Mavic 3, but you are still bottle necked by the battery, so max range should be around 9-10Km and back with around 20% battery left on a day without wind at sea level, just like the Mavic 3.

There's still no FCC hack for the Air 3, but I'll probably get the RC 2 for my Mavic 3 as soon as a hack is available and compatibility is fixed, as it will be a huge improvement over my current RC-N1.

 

[Prop Wash]

17000' = 3.22 miles!
Those sun glasses must be REALLY good! Did your VO have a pair them too?
My understanding is the VO needs to be near the RPIC to be in direct communication.
I would ask where to get those glasses, but I'm 67, wear corrective lenses, so I doubt they would help me see that far anyway.

 

[Droning on and on...]

I watched this last night and chuckled each time he claimed he could still see the drone. "Taking it up to 300 ft to keep VLOS" - lol.
Now I did go rogue with mine. I started in a grove of large cottonwood trees and flew out 4900 ft following a local river, BVLOS once I cleared the top of the trees. Very rural area and I launched from the end of a dead end road - but at that distance I got skeered and turned around. I was very impressed though that I never lost a bar despite the trees surrounding me and the controller. Forgive me FAA.

 

[Droning on and on...]

17000' = 3.22 miles!
Those sun glasses must be REALLY good! Did your VO have a pair them too?
My understanding is the VO needs to be near the RPIC to be in direct communication.

Yes, but even more to the point is a VO doesn't relax the VLOS requirement for the PIC at all. S/he still must be able to look away from the screen (take off goggles) and see the aircraft.

All a VO allows is for you to take your eyes off the drone. The PIC and VO must both be able to see the aircraft at all times, and one must be actually following it with their unenhanced eyeballs.