TREES

[360 Guy]

TREES A PROBLEM, FYI:

I recently flew from a new location so I would be alone, away from prying eyes.
In doing so, there is a place that I used for home point in a cut out of trees. When I say" cut out”, by that I mean the cut out is “U” shaped just one way in and out.
The trees are all pines and the growth of the trees is rather thick with all trees standing forty foot in height.
My destination was approx.one mile away by air, an easy flight for my Mini 2. (I love this bird, it does all that is needed)
Understand that in an open area, I can fly 3 to 4 miles with this drone.

Take off was normal, getting above the trees and flying to the designated area was also normal, but at approx. 800 feet out I started to lose signal. At 800 feet out??
Standing outside in the cut out I turned the controller in the direction of the drone with little help, another 100 feet closer, my signal is lost completely.
When I encountered signal failure at 800 feet, I knew it was the trees when signal was lost, I returned to home and packed up.

CASE IN POINT: not only will trees, short and tall, eat your drone, they will degrade your signal big time.

360

 

[mavic3usa]

I think the Mini 2 is Occusync O2 which is pretty old and while still admirable, just didn't have any penetration. We're up to O4+ and maybe even O5 shortly; time to upgrade. Because even with my O3, it could do some serious distance as long as there is no obstruction. It's going to be awhile before we get something decent.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Basic rule of drone flying signal stability is to maintain a clear LOS (line of sight) for an unobstructed signal. If you can't see the drone with binoculars because something is in the way (not because it is too small to see), your signal is obstructed. VLOS is another matter entirely, but if you do maintain VLOS (an FAA requirement), you will not lose signal, because VLOS is a subclass of LOS requiring your unaided eyes to be able to see the drone at all times. Hence, no visual obstructions and no signal obstructions. You can still have signal interference at any distance, but that is different than signal obstruction.

 

[AnzacJack]

TREES A PROBLEM, FYI:

I recently flew from a new location so I would be alone, away from prying eyes.
In doing so, there is a place that I used for home point in a cut out of trees. When I say" cut out”, by that I mean the cut out is “U” shaped just one way in and out.
The trees are all pines and the growth of the trees is rather thick with all trees standing forty foot in height.
My destination was approx.one mile away by air, an easy flight for my Mini 2. (I love this bird, it does all that is needed)
Understand that in an open area, I can fly 3 to 4 miles with this drone.

Take off was normal, getting above the trees and flying to the designated area was also normal, but at approx. 800 feet out I started to lose signal. At 800 feet out??
Standing outside in the cut out I turned the controller in the direction of the drone with little help, another 100 feet closer, my signal is lost completely.
When I encountered signal failure at 800 feet, I knew it was the trees when signal was lost, I returned to home and packed up.

CASE IN POINT: not only will trees, short and tall, eat your drone, they will degrade your signal big time.

360

what you say is true. As well as being out of VLOS, you are also trying to force your signal through trees. You are bound to encounter these issues

 

[Meta4]

CASE IN POINT: not only will trees, short and tall, eat your drone, they will degrade your signal big time.

Radio waves don't pass through water and trees are full of water.
You won't notice it when there's just a branch or two between your controller and the drone, but add more branches and whole tree canopies and eventually your signal just can't get through.

 

[AeroJ]

Yeah, problem is all those pesky leaves, diffusing our signals and redirecting them in every bloody random direction !
I did some tests with my Mini Pro 4 a while back, dropping down behind varying thickness banks of trees and other foliage to see how much signal I lost and how quickly.

To be fair to it, OccuSync 4 is fabulous in that respect, especially in more open woodland, in that it always seems to have much better penetration than I am expecting, but it still a long way short of ideal, and remains utterly defeated should you ever let a huge building or land mass come between your antennas and the UAV.

Biggest danger I found is flying from the bottom of hills, and then flying to the top of them, and venturing too far back from the visible ridge line, where we lose VLOS and control signal very quickly if winds blow us back there. But is rarely an issue to get 50 -100 ft above the general tree canopy and maintain that out to huge distances, if we remember to add more height as we go further out.

 

[Cafguy]

REMEMBER You must be able to have VISUAL contact with your drone. you must also be able to know the Drones orientation with the unaided eye... At 1 mile thats not possible.
Sure your drone will fly 3 to 4 miles out ....BUT not legally.

 

[Droning on and on...]

Radio waves don't pass through water and trees are full of water.
You won't notice it when there's just a branch or two between your controller and the drone, but add more branches and whole tree canopies and eventually your signal just can't get through.

A dense, visually impenetrable grove of trees covered in leaves might as well be a wall of water.