Range?

Hallywood78 · Feb 6, 2020

Curious about what range everyone is seeing. I made it 1.1 miles before I lost all connection. I was in the city but on the edge, flying into the countryside. Not a big city either. Not many buildings over 2 story. I expected a bit more range.

MAvic_South_Oz · Feb 6, 2020

LOS for signal ?
What's between you and the M2 will affect signal, be it wifi, buildings, trees etc, which brings us on to . . .

Height of drone ?
Obviously the higher your drone, the better LOS signal will be.

If you fly from a hill out over surrounding valleys, you will get great range flying straight out, and up or down.

Hallywood78 · Feb 6, 2020

400 ft up. Definitely a lot of trees along the route. I was following a large creek.

MAvic_South_Oz · Feb 6, 2020

Hallywood78 said:
400 ft up. Definitely a lot of tree along the route.

Trees along the route wouldn't matter too much, as long as not too close to you to block some signal.
If you were 5800 feet out and 400 feet up, that would be a fairly shallow 4 degrees, so likely it was trees.
Trees closer to you (maybe out to 1000 feet or so ?) could have probably blocked some signal.

Not A Speck Of Cereal · Feb 6, 2020

This is me from the 'Just In Case' department: did you have the antennas oriented flat-side toward the aircraft?

Chris

Hallywood78 · Feb 6, 2020

Not A Speck Of Cereal said:
This is me from the 'Just In Case' department: did you have the antennas oriented flat-side toward the aircraft?

Chris

Yes

new2mavic · Feb 6, 2020

mine can do over 6 km out which is the limit of the battery :

MAvic_South_Oz · Feb 7, 2020

new2mavic said:
mine can do over 6 km out which is the limit of the battery :

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You sure like living on the edge !!
That was close, was thinking 1km out 11%, it's going to auto land, and a second later . . .

Your attitude level seemed slightly higher on the return leg, do you think you did go out with the wind, and had a little headwind returning ?

new2mavic · Feb 7, 2020

MAvic_South_Oz said:
Your attitude level seemed slightly higher on the return leg, do you think you did go out with the wind, and had a little headwind returning ?

Yes, if you look at the % power figure at the lower left corner, you will see that the power was higher in the return trip. The altitude reading was 3 m higher after landing because the height is mainly determined by the baronmeter output. The sea-level pressure must have lowered a bit after the flight.

Checki · Feb 7, 2020

It always depends on many factors, you can't tell the range.
But if you watch some YouTube videos, you see the maximum range in free areas.

Gindra · Feb 7, 2020

new2mavic said:
mine can do over 6 km out which is the limit of the battery :

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My pulse rate soared just watching this! Can't believe it made it back home. Looked like a goner for sure. Whew!

Cyclops2100 · Feb 7, 2020

I tend to get 1-2 miles max near urban areas. if I get too close to some businesses I lose signal fast. I have to avoid those completely or try to fly over them real quick.

Checki · Feb 7, 2020

In Germany you are not allowed to fly out visual sight, I just tried it once and I flew 2 kilometers when I started feeling uncomfortable so I decided to fly back.
I don't see a reason to fly like 5km...but sure you can. Maybe not in the city, but countryside very possible.
But like I said, it always depends where you are.