RC Dork for 50 years.... "Drone" pilot for 10 days!! lol... Mavic Air

Mithrandir · Mar 19, 2019

Howdy folks.... I have been tuned RC for like 50 years... done Sailplanes, Heli's, Pattern a bit and mostly Giant Scale 3D gas... finally picked up a "DRONE" a week'r'so'ago.... (Mavic Air)...A different paradigm for sure.... hard to get accustomed to the high degree of automation and feeling of not really really flying the drone, but steering it..... I have put a few of my videos on my yuotube page....mike stroup
Though not really edited or anything... just the raw video uploaded....
I have seen "21 minutes endurance" claimed for the Mavic Air... I am getting 11 to 13 minutes.... I don't fly it aggressively and I land at 30% battery....
not even close to the 21 minutes advertised.... anyone else experience similar??

tnx

msinger · Mar 19, 2019

Welcome to the forum!

Mithrandir said:
I have seen "21 minutes endurance" claimed for the Mavic Air... I am getting 11 to 13 minutes.... I don't fly it aggressively and I land at 30% battery

That 21 minute spec is the max flight time when there is no wind and you consume all of the available battery power. Neither of those things are normally achievable (or desirable) when flying outdoors, so you likely won't see 21 minutes often (if ever).

11 minutes is unusual. Are you using brand new batteries?

Mithrandir · Mar 19, 2019

I bought the system new from Best Buy 10 days ago.....
I have a lot of RC experience with LiPo's... I understand heat is their #1 enemy.... so I am pretty diligent to initiate landing when the 30% alarm happens... I don't think I have ever landed below 25%.....
mike stroup
In my youtube videos, pretty typical flying going on... not a lot of "Sport mode"... just a few fast passes my son does.... Some of the flying was windy days...some on calm days.....

msinger · Mar 19, 2019

Can you upload one of those TXT flight logs here and post a link back here? If needed, that page includes instructions for locating your TXT flight logs.

Mithrandir · Mar 19, 2019

DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

is this what you mean?

msinger · Mar 19, 2019

Mithrandir said:
is this what you mean?

Yes. Thanks!

I don't see anything unusual in your flight log. Had you continued to fly, you probably would have been able to fly for about 3 more minutes before the battery reached the critically low level. And since the wind wasn't calm, that would have reduced the usable flight time some too.

Mithrandir · Mar 19, 2019

What percentage would be considered dangerously low?

msinger · Mar 19, 2019

Do you mean critically low? If so, there is no set percentage. Check out this video for more details:

Mithrandir · Mar 19, 2019

OK... thanks for the help!!

With my RC Electric planes... 30% is generally regarded as a safe capacity lower limit for long battery life with no degradation over time....
Is there such a discharge point for the Mavic Air battery? (LiPo's are LiPo's...so I imagine about the same no?)

msinger · Mar 19, 2019

Mithrandir said:
With my RC Electric planes... 30% is generally regarded as a safe capacity lower limit for long battery life with no degradation over time....
Is there such a discharge point for the Mavic Air battery?

DJI has no recommendations for the minimum discharge percentage. Since I've never seen anyone document batteries side-by-side to compare the lifetime at different discharge percentages, I really cannot recommend a specific minimum discharge level. However, I can tell you that you likely don't want the battery to reach the critically low level when flying. If that happens, the Mavic Air will auto land at its current location. That auto landing cannot be cancelled.

Aerial-Pixel · Mar 26, 2019

Mithrandir said:
Howdy folks.... I have been tuned RC for like 50 years... done Sailplanes, Heli's, Pattern a bit and mostly Giant Scale 3D gas... finally picked up a "DRONE" a week'r'so'ago.... (Mavic Air)...A different paradigm for sure.... hard to get accustomed to the high degree of automation and feeling of not really really flying the drone, but steering it..... I have put a few of my videos on my yuotube page....mike stroup
Though not really edited or anything... just the raw video uploaded....
I have seen "21 minutes endurance" claimed for the Mavic Air... I am getting 11 to 13 minutes.... I don't fly it aggressively and I land at 30% battery....
not even close to the 21 minutes advertised.... anyone else experience similar??

tnx

Welcome to MavicPilots from Dayton Ohio! Enjoy your new Mavic Air, I love mine.
Your flight times are about average, maybe a little on the low side.
Here is a video I did comparing hover times for the current DJI drones:
Fly safe and have fun!