Scary situation

[twoheadlines]

That's my intention. Though I'm aware the real estate on the bottom of the M2P is pretty crowded with sensors etc. If I can locate it on an area just behind the gimbal housing then it might just work.
A case of suck it and see really. But all won't be lost if this option ends up being unworkable. There will still be one strobe on the top, with what will then be a spare unit being fitted to my Yuneec H520. That one will really only go on the top of the aircraft as well.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Don't forget that you also always have the bright white LED Landing Lights on the Mavic 2, which can be turned on at any time through the controller, to assist in being seen, and VLOS from below! They are quite bright!

 

[twoheadlines]

True!

While I've only done a little flying around dusk, I have found those lights have really only been helpful with maintaining VLOS when my M2P is close to being overhead at any sort of modest altitude. Great for lighting a landing area from about 3 - 4 metres AGL though. My Yuneec H520 has great nav' lights on all 6 arms, making it much easier to orientate the aircraft - for', aft', port and starb'd, as well as helping maintain VLOS.

What none of the nav' lights do, on the M2P and H520 is effectively add visual anti-collision avoidance when flying in the dark. I haven't completed the final section of NZ CAA Part 102 (US Part 107 equivalent) yet, so won't be attempting to night fly/photograph until that has happened. But, since the airspace in my local community includes an uncontrolled GA airport less than 4 kms away, plus a hospital heliport little more than 1km away I'm more than happy to think ahead and try to do the right thing, flying responsibly, instead of waiting to be regulated; hence fitting one or two Lume Strobe lights to the M2P, possibly for testing this weekend.

Last week I was informed I will be one of a small number of New Zealand UAV pilots picked to have an ADS-B transponder unit made freely available for use on their UAV aircraft. There will be a trial conducted around this group of UAV transponder users - the outcome of which I'm picking will be used to "help" the government here form new regulations around licensing of UAV operators - deciding the future of the where and the how of flying a drone, in this country at least.

Happy flying everyone.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Last week I was informed I will be one of a small number of New Zealand UAV pilots picked to have an ADS-B transponder unit made freely available for use on their UAV aircraft. There will be a trial conducted around this group of UAV transponder users - the outcome of which I'm picking will be used to "help" the government here form new regulations around licensing of UAV operators - deciding the future of the where and the how of flying a drone, in this country at least.

Such tech will one day be very handy for drone / manned aircraft safety.

Do all NZ aircraft have ADS-B ?

That's the only issue with it here, as while small aircraft (inc helis) CAN have it, but most don't due to cost.
Of course it's these small aircraft that are a concern to drones pilots more than commercial size that do have mandatory transponders fitted.

I wonder if this is possibly due to just how congested such a system might be if all aircraft were fitted up ?
It might be so confusing / cluttered that it might be almost unworkable ?

Maybe pilots can clear that up if familiar with such things.
I think US airspace MIGHT all be fitted with ASD-B.

 

[twoheadlines]

Not sure if ALL NZ registered aircraft must have ADS-B.
I use "Flightradar24" for monitoring the airspace around me. I'm sure it probably doesn't see all aircraft, but even over New Zealand which is generally well away from anything like the congested airspaces over the US, Europe and China it can be quite scary just what is up there, pinging away on transponder. It helps to cement my belief that the airspace we do have MUST be shared with responsibility. I'm more than happy to stay well under 122 metres while making sure helicopters and the like can see me, visually and electronically, as far away as possible.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Yeah, I'd say it's like Oz, just the medium - larger commercial craft.
Almost useless for drone operators, but something to work towards for CASA / CAA NZ.

I recall a couple of years ago departing Queenstown and our ANZ flight took us out past Mt Cook, Mt Aspiring in the distance, and over Milford Sound, truly awesome from the air.
We saw almost all of the places we'd just spent 19 days walking / tramping around.

 

[JS1600]

I just ordered the 4 pack and can't wait for them to get here.

drone strobe lights

drone strobe lights

www.firehousetechnology.com

.
Maybe I'll get a strobe after.

 

[Endeavor]

I have one of the C buttons programmed to turn on the bottom lighting which can be seen for a long distance also use litchi as the map is more intuitive and tells you how far the drone is from you and how it is faced. I normally fly home backwards so you know right from left in FPV style.

 

[Joe Boudreault]

Thought I would post an experience I had with the M2P. It was just after sunrise on an overcast day where I was flying low along a river and my attempt to bring it back to me manually went very wrong. I thought I was on the right course and then because it was very dark, I lost sight of it. When I was able to see it, it was about 30 feet from me but very close to the level of the river. I began to panic and my inputs were not responding in that when I tried to bring it higher off the water surface it wanted to either fly to the bank or fly upwards into branches. I have had the drone for almost a year and I came so close to losing it in the river (in my mind I was visioning how much I would have to come up with to replace it). I did manage to get it back close to heart attack time. I am looking for advice and at the same time perhaps help others. In retrospect, it was in tripod mode so perhaps I should have switched back to P mode, also I think the vision sensors were not working correctly because it was pretty dark.

Does your Pro 2 have RTH? hat is supposed to work every time, no matter what flight mode you are in, isn't it? It does on my Air... AND always watch the direction your drone is in regards to the control sticks. Drones always flt in the direction of the camera except for side=wise on right stick...this can confuse your orientation. Machine only do what they are told to do, even in auto mode.

 

[ajkm]

Here’s a question related to the suggestions to add strobe lights: how do you verify and record added weight and check for changed CoG?

 

[ajkm]

Drones always flt in the direction of the camera except for side=wise on right stick...this can confuse your orientation.

Nope - the whole point of a quadcopter is that it can fly in any of 360 degree directions horizontally or vertically. Also it’s possible to pan the gimbal left and right, so even flying with a 0 degree heading will not be flying “in the direction of the camera”.
If one is “confused” by a drone’s orientation, then one needs a ton more practice.

 

[V2Rotate]

What shop in Sydney ?

Price point was definitely an issue. Availability also.
Initially I was looking at importing from the US. However the ridiculously high shipping charges to New Zealand killed that idea.
Fluidity Technologies FTA flight controller was $US90. Not to bulky a package and not really that heavy.
Yuneec Electric Aircraft Typhoon H520 with accessories and soft case, about 5kgs total weight $US95 from China.
Two Lume Strobes, with packaging, less than 400gms $US90 shipping.
So, I have waited - patiently - until this same product has just become available in Australia and bought two from a Sydney shop who has a branch store in Auckland. Total price in $NZ barely more than the $US equivalent plus $NZ5.00 courier charge.
Two Lume Strobes should be delivered before the end of this week.
A no brainer really!

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Here’s a question related to the suggestions to add strobe lights: how do you verify and record added weight and check for changed CoG?

You don't have to in general, the aircraft takes all that into account.
If you had a lot of weight uneven on a drone, and it went into atti mode for whatever reason, then it may require more hands on flying.
Putting 4 FHT ARCIIs on the arms would be almost dead even, putting a Lume Cube strobe on top centre would also be a sweet spot or close enough.
Not sure you could get a Lume Cube underneath dead centre, sensors (?) so that might need to go on the back if possible.

Landing extension legs are probably a good place to put them.
These could be removed and refitted between flights quickly and keeping the strobes fitted to them.

 

[twoheadlines]

What shop in Sydney ?

C R Kennedy. Located in Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns and Perth, as well as the Sydney store.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

I have one of the C buttons programmed to turn on the bottom lighting which can be seen for a long distance also use litchi as the map is more intuitive and tells you how far the drone is from you and how it is faced. I normally fly home backwards so you know right from left in FPV style.

How far out can you see those landing lights on a pitch black night ?

 

[JS1600]

Not sure if ALL NZ registered aircraft must have ADS-B.
I use "Flightradar24" for monitoring the airspace around me. I'm sure it probably doesn't see all aircraft, but even over New Zealand which is generally well away from anything like the congested airspaces over the US, Europe and China it can be quite scary just what is up there, pinging away on transponder. It helps to cement my belief that the airspace we do have MUST be shared with responsibility. I'm more than happy to stay well under 122 metres while making sure helicopters and the like can see me, visually and electronically, as far away as possible.

I love Flightradar24 it even shows me the small planes and the life flight Helo that lands on the hospital. For the bigger airlines it even gives the pilots names. I don't think it shows military planes but they usually fly a lot higher. I'll have strobes by next week, Firehouse Tech has great customer service.

 

[Kappy5003]

Why not use the drone landing lights.

I put my zoom up in my back yard (1000 acres) at night and tried the landing lights worked a treat.

 

[twoheadlines]

I have had no intention of hijacking the narrative around being in a "scary situation" as described in the original post of this thread, but I do sort of feel the subject of my original post (#7) has slewed the topic off in a slightly different direction.
That said; I am sure few would argue the MP downward facing lights are very bright and can be seen from a reasonable altitude, with some also suggesting they can be seen a reasonable distance away. As I have said, they are great for lighting up a landing area, but I suggest they do well in that task because they are "flood lights". Granted, in a recently posted video these lights could be seen for quite a distance - if you happen to be following the track of the particular MPZ from take off.
What do you do, if for some reason you have lost sight of the UAV you are flying and cannot orientate the UAV in relation to your own position using the "radar" blip from your ground control monitor - which represents only a 2 dimensional view? I would suggest even with the lights being toggled on and off, environmental interference may still make it almost impossible in many situations to get a fix on the UAV. If you are looking up, because that is where you presume it should be, when in fact it may be at a much lower altitude, getting a visual fix simply might not happen.
Having at least one effectively positioned strobe on the UAV should make the difference between getting "your bird" back under VLOS control or "pranging" it. At 1, 2 or 3 thousand metres getting a fix on a pulsing strobe should happen a lot easier than looking at an acutely wrong angle for a downward facing light whose beam will quickly be lost at almost any position except just about vertically underneath it.
I would hope that as government's from multiple countries tighten the screws on UAV flying, the likes of DJI and Yuneec will actually incorporate anti collision strobes and more effective navigation lights into future UAV models. Electronic visualisation through compulsory use of some sort of transponder will be inevitable on pretty much all UAVs, sooner rather than later. So should it be that visible warning systems are installed, even before it may well become compulsory for them as well!
In the meantime, I believe common safety in the air, never mind keeping a good look out for our "expensive equipment or toys" should be matched with us taking responsibility for the installation of strobe type devices on our UAVs!

Happy flying

 

[Skywatcher2001]

Your sensors won't work in the dark and your senses and perception are also unreliable in the dark.

Very good point Meta4 . . .

 

[twoheadlines]

Could have saved myself a lot of writing and just written "what he said...." acknowledging the post from Meta4, adding that the MP down lights are not a replacement for a good strobe!