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.

 

[GadgetGuy]

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.

Additionally, if you intend to venture over the back side of a hilltop, it is essential to set your RTH altitude to elevate to well higher than the hilltop peak, so that loss of signal can be recovered by elevating immediately.

 

[mavic3usa]

Additionally, if you intend to venture over the back side of a hilltop, it is essential to set your RTH altitude to elevate to well higher than the hilltop peak, so that loss of signal can be recovered by elevating immediately.

Listen to how Ken H. describes the Mini 5 Pro signal penetration especially behind a building (just for reference).

starting at 7:55

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[GadgetGuy]

Listen to how Ken H. describes the Mini 5 Pro signal penetration especially behind a building (just for reference).

starting at 7:55

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I haven’t tested OS4+ yet myself in similar situations, but I am happily impressed. No need for Wayoints now to cover such obstructions.

To be fair, however, it was the narrow side of the building and not the wider side, and he was quite far away on the back side. This is very useful for flying behind taller buildings for orbits, with the assistance of hybrid zoom to stay farther away. I suspect, had he flown toward the obstructing building, after hovering directly behind it, instead of continuing to orbit around it, at some point, the signal would have become completely blocked, like with his Phantom disaster.
Eager to test it with properly set signal loss setting for well higher than the top of the building height for old style RTH.

 

[Dmcvey]

Can’t fly a mini more than 1000 feet legally.

 

[Cafguy]

Can’t fly a mini more than 1000 feet legally.

You can't fly higher than 400 ft legally. But, If you are close enough to the building you can fly 400 ft from the top of the building.

 

[MS Coast]

You can't fly higher than 400 ft legally. But, If you are close enough to the building you can fly 400 ft from the top of the building.

Only Part 107 pilots are allowed to fly up to 400' above a structure while remaining within 400 laterally of the structure.

 

[Dmcvey]

You can't fly higher than 400 ft legally. But, If you are close enough to the building you can fly 400 ft from the top of the building.

I was talking distance……..

 

[Dmcvey]

Fly BVLOS:

A drone hit and damaged a Canadian firefighting tanker plane, a "Super Scooper," while it was fighting the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles in January 2025. The pilot, Peter Tripp Akemann, was later sentenced to two weeks in prison for recklessly operating the drone in a restricted airspace. The aircraft was grounded, but landed safely with no injuries, and the drone operator was ordered to pay for the $65,169 in repairs.

 

[Cafguy]

Fly BVLOS:

A drone hit and damaged a Canadian firefighting tanker plane, a "Super Scooper," while it was fighting the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles in January 2025. The pilot, Peter Tripp Akemann, was later sentenced to two weeks in prison for recklessly operating the drone in a restricted airspace. The aircraft was grounded, but landed safely with no injuries, and the drone operator was ordered to pay for the $65,169 in repairs.

??
I remember that Day.. The FBI swarmed Afflec's house, He had just evacuated and from what I understand was pretty angry.
He had to give the FBI permission to break into the house so that they could retrieve the video footage of the incident. The whole incident was caught on his homes security cam.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I was talking distance……..

Then how did you arrive at 1000 feet?

 

[Dmcvey]

Then how did you arrive at 1000 feet?

If you can see the a mini with your eyes and tell orientation, direction and the other FAA requirements that define VLOS at a 1000ft, you are an eagle. I can’t do that with my Mavic and Evos at 1200. That gray mini disappears, at my guess, around 500 feet.

There is NO way anyone can maintain VLOS on any UAV over 2000’. All these, pardon my language, idiots flying 1, 2, or more miles are just stupid and reckless.

 

[AeroJ]

There is NO way anyone can maintain VLOS on any UAV over 2000’. All these, pardon my language, idiots flying 1, 2, or more miles are just stupid and reckless.

Not everyone who occasionally doesn't follow the rules to the letter is an idiot or necessarily reckless. The sheer amount of people who DO successfully fly their UAVs out those sort of distances, and back should tell us that the capability and resources to do it safely BVLOS at hobbyist level ARE there. I watched tons of range tests where pilots are careful to do all the sensible things; fly out against the wind, gain altitude as they go, don't overfly anything other than fields, don't top 400 ft, and carefully monitor all the things they need to in order to maximise the chances of things going well. And in most of those cases it does go well and they return home unscathed, usually having got a great deal further than they expected to...

I am not saying we should all routinely disregard all the rules all the time, but if we are happy to retain accountability for our actions, and feel our flights that don't adhere to the letter of the law are to some extent defensible for their safety and success, then I am hesitant to be so critical of people who succumb to that temptation.