Return to home or Dive to death

[RangerOne]

Above ground is a different thing again.
Your drone has no way to tell how high it is above the ground below it.
If you are in a flat area, it will be the same as height above launch point, if you are in less flat country, the height AGL could be very different from height above launch point.
All heights for your drone are relative to the launch point and thinking of heights any other way will only confuse the issue.

Ok that is good to know. so your saying that it is like a variable zero point altimeter. only accurate to the launch point of each location at the start of any mission or place whether in the the Rockies or at the sea shore. all locations are relative to each individual location.

 

[Juggler]

he has a MA2 its in the OP

 

[Meta4]

Ok that is good to know. so your saying that it is like a variable zero point altimeter. only accurate to the launch point of each location at the start of any mission or place whether in the the Rockies or at the sea shore. all locations are relative to each individual location.

yes

 

[RangerOne]

Thank you one and all for your in put. It has helped greatly and answered and cleared up a couple of strange return to home recalls I had. Good flying to you all and thank you for your in put. Have a good day, evening or night. RangerOne clear for now.......

 

[vindibona1]

I don't know enough to advise you beyond the cardinal rule my dad drilled into my head as I began to drive: "Never do anything you're not 100% sure you can do". I think that's still pretty good advice when it come to flying drones as well.

 

[RangerOne]

I don't know enough to advise you beyond the cardinal rule my dad drilled into my head as I began to drive: "Never do anything you're not 100% sure you can do". I think that's still pretty good advice when it come to flying drones as well.

I agree that is why I came to the Forum of the wise MavicPilots and sought a little wisdom. It pays to ask a dumb question then grieve over having not set aside my pride and asked before I made an decision that I couldn't fix or recover from..... or take back.

 

[Brockrock]

Could you make it a fun mission yourself and maybe even with some other friends to climb the mountain and fly from the top? You could take a bunch of pics/videos safely and then share them with your older friend. 2100' is a fairly quick hike depending upon the terrain...

 

[Waldo Pepper]

Sounds like an adventurous flight, for both you and your old timer friend.

I’ve flown flights similar to this one, although not as high elevation as yours but over mountain terrain. Keep track of battery consumption, the higher the elevation the more battery will be exhausted.

If you have a tracker, Mount it just in case your drone goes down. A disconnect will only show last known connection, it can be impossible to find your drone without a tracker.

Good luck,
Paul

 

[diver dave]

This is similar to much of my flying, in the scottish mountains looking at deer herd movements. I take off from a lodge, fly up to the hill top, where the deer often are, in a dip by a pond, and if i dont find them i go over the top to look for them. However, i dont dip down on the far side, as you just lose signal. I can dip a little, but generally its just seconds below the skyline and if you are there for any length of time you just lose signal, so stay high above the tops and its fine. As soon as signal wobbles i push up on the left stick and in most cases it will be rising as soon as the signal is strong again. You will be able to look over just as well from a height above the hill top
I fly in a few similar situations, and generally plan to reset RTH when i get to the maximum planned height if the area is complex and new, and this has helped a few times. Just remember, when returning to home after flying up a mountain, that you could be very high up above the launch site, but its great fun to be whizzing down the valley at speed on the way home. I also find that returning home, flying forward and down uses way more battery than i would have expected, its not like returning at a constant altitude, so this needs to be considered. It may be just me and my drones, but its worth considering and watching for.

 

[Duggy]

I have a friend that would like me to flight a mission over a mountain rig to see what is on the other side. I always have the return to home on my Mavic Air 2 to count on. I have the return altitude set to 300ft. If I fly over this rig that is 2200 ft in elevation and I loss signal, is my drone going to dive in to the ground trying to get to 300ft. return to home altitude or is it going to maintain 300ft above ground level?
Could a more experienced pilot give me some wise wisdom here?

 

[Duggy]

Looking at the comments by people far more experienced than me, I wouldn’t attempt this. TBH if your drone gets lost I think your friend would be as upset as you , for asking you , to try this. ?

 

[DavidT_ NZ]

Idea number 2: I looked up on Google Earth where Edna Bay is... lovely part of the world! Take a boat to the side of the mountain you want, and fly from there..keeping the drone in line of sight from the boat. With no Wi-Fi interference, if it's also not windy, you should be able to get maximum range.

Just stop at “Google Earth” ......... and save your drone! ?

 

[Cdcolt]

Although in your case, legally not recommended as you’ll be losing VLOS, there are solutions that will allow you to send your drone on a “mission” that can reliably return it from a loss of signal situation. Litchi is one of those and will work with most DJI drones (May not be available for the MA2 yet).
You’ll have to use something like Google Maps with 3D information turned on to accurately plot out waypoints that will take your drone up and over the mountain ridge and down the other side and back again while maintaining a safe distance above the terrain. You should familiarize yourself with the terrain, weather conditions and all obstacles (power lines, buildings, etc) that you may be flying over so as to make accurate and safe waypoint choices.
This is not something that you should approach nonchalantly and you should have plenty of experience flying your drone in VLOS before attempting it. Again keep in mind that the rules call for VLOS at all times. Only you know if your neighbors and local authorities are likely to see this as safe and innocent or dangerous and illegal.
FYI: there are plenty of videos and articles on using Litchi if you should choose to go this route.

 

[RangerOne]

Sounds like an adventurous flight, for both you and your old timer friend.

I’ve flown flights similar to this one, although not as high elevation as yours but over mountain terrain. Keep track of battery consumption, the higher the elevation the more battery will be exhausted.

If you have a tracker, Mount it just in case your drone goes down. A disconnect will only show last known connection, it can be impossible to find your drone without a tracker.

Good luck,
Paul

Thank you for your comment. I got to focused on the marketing hype about find your drone to remember this fact. I will buy a track ASAP. Any recommendations?

 

[DanMan32]

Find My Drone simply shows you the GPS coordinates on the map where the AC was last heard from, which often is close enough to where it actually is. If you have or can regain communication, you can command the AC to EDIT: beep.

 

[Masbrew]

HA HA HA!

 

[Mavic Maxwell]

Kind and respectful intention but difficult to execute.
I think Edna Bay has an airport.....so chase the bear that went over the mountain, by taking the old chap for a flight....might be more cost effective than replacing an MA2.
Safe flying mate ....from Down Under

 

[Waldo Pepper]

Thank you for your comment. I got to focused on the marketing hype about find your drone to remember this fact. I will buy a track ASAP. Any recommendations?

I use Trackimo, the Guardian 3G model. Very small, unlimited range and accurate.

Yearly subscription, but with a purchase first year service is free. Afterwards, $60.00 yearly fee. Breaks down to $5 bucks a month, we’ll worth the investment.

Be careful, Some Trackers have magnets. Fancy magnetic charge connections, Will effect calibrations, which effect flight. The tracker I use doesn’t have magnets, just be careful.

Good luck
Paul

 

[vindibona1]

Although in your case, legally not recommended as you’ll be losing VLOS, there are solutions that will allow you to send your drone on a “mission” that can reliably return it from a loss of signal situation. Litchi is one of those and will work with most DJI drones (May not be available for the MA2 yet).
You’ll have to use something like Google Maps with 3D information turned on to accurately plot out waypoints that will take your drone up and over the mountain ridge and down the other side and back again while maintaining a safe distance above the terrain.

I thought of Litchi and was surprised that as of this moment is not listed as being available for the MA2 while it is currently in beta for the Mavic Mini. The program is fabulous for plotting missions and running virtual flights . I'm not sure if it requires VLOS with the controller to maintain the mission or the full mission gets transmitted to and stored on the drone which executes the mission independently of the controller until you retake control.

 

[wsalopek]

This is similar to much of my flying, in the scottish mountains looking at deer herd movements. I take off from a lodge, fly up to the hill top, where the deer often are, in a dip by a pond, and if i dont find them i go over the top to look for them. However, i dont dip down on the far side, as you just lose signal. I can dip a little, but generally its just seconds below the skyline and if you are there for any length of time you just lose signal, so stay high above the tops and its fine. As soon as signal wobbles i push up on the left stick and in most cases it will be rising as soon as the signal is strong again. You will be able to look over just as well from a height above the hill top
I fly in a few similar situations, and generally plan to reset RTH when i get to the maximum planned height if the area is complex and new, and this has helped a few times. Just remember, when returning to home after flying up a mountain, that you could be very high up above the launch site, but its great fun to be whizzing down the valley at speed on the way home. I also find that returning home, flying forward and down uses way more battery than i would have expected, its not like returning at a constant altitude, so this needs to be considered. It may be just me and my drones, but its worth considering and watching for.

Dave...using more battery flying DOWN/descending as opposed to level, sounds impossible? (All else being equal.) The drone WILL use less energy descending as opposed to flying level.

Maybe when you are descending you are also flying way faster? Even then I'd think flying level would use more battery per unit time. Drones use the vast majority of their battery just holding themselves up in the air...the percentage increase in battery use to fly faster and faster is the smaller percentage of the total energy needed in a given moment.

There IS a sweet spot in efficiency, which with these drones seems to be about 15-20 mph...the propellers are most efficient when moving forward at a "medium" speed as opposed to hovering because the air moving over the blades due to that forward speed (or hovering stationary in a 15mph breeze) adds some lift. That's why a helicopter can fly at a higher altitude if it's moving forward as opposed to hovering (out of ground-effect).

Anyway that's an interesting observation you made there and yes, is something to keep in mind.