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VLOS article I found interesting

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Phantomrain.org

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A client sent me this article, what is your take ?

The furthest I can see my drone is 2000 ft and with the Rescue Jacket 3000 ft.

Let me Clarify that Phantomrain.org did not write this Article. This was written in the drone Pilot School


Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain.

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Am i reading that right? the furthest you can see a quad is 1-2 miles away, maybe if it has a strobe light of a good intensity its possible
 
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Am i reading that right? the furthest you can see a quad is 1-2 miles away, maybe if it has a strobe light of a good intensity its possible

Yeah, and probably not even then.

The limit of resolution for the human eye is 1000ft typically for an object mavic-size. This is based on the density of "pixels" (chiefly rods) on the retina. Some people at the upper gaussian tail of the population can barely see a Mavic out to near 2000ft.

Anyone that tells you they can see their drone at a mile is lying.
 
I cannot understand why so many people like to do this distance thing. There's just so many things, unexpected things that could happen that makes flying in this way unacceptable , it's just not worth the risk. Oh yeah and if something serious does goes wrong because of your actions you're responsible, why is that so difficult for these pilots.
 
Buick from the 70's though..lol. I owned one got about 8mpg on all the hills here.
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I can see how that rescue jacket would improve one's ability to see it better...but 3,000 feet?...That's a stretch....My take on the article?......someone is embellishing....and the video that is available in the first post by clicking on the link.......does not show the drone at any distance, yet claims 3,000 feet visibility which sounds to me like wishful thinking at best.....You asked
 
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Am i reading that right? the furthest you can see a quad is 1-2 miles away, maybe if it has a strobe light of a good intensity its possible
I am not sure what you are basing the distance you mention on but a UK mile is 5,280ft.
I cannot understand why so many people like to do this distance thing.
I can understand the desire to test range and have done so over open and empty sea with virtually every drone model that I have. Open and empty sea is the only place I would range test.
For me the motivation was just to see how far 'I'/it could go but once I got that out of my system for that particular drone I'm basically VLOS.
That said my nerve went before the connection went with the mavic 2, which is possibly just as well because I was being to sweat the battery level whilst still at sea lol.
 
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Merely "seeing" the drone at 1000 ft, is one thing. Sure, you can see if it's moving left/right or up/down. But accurate depth perception at that range is pretty much impossible by eyesight alone.

Without the use of an onboard camera and the image being transmitted back to your monitor, using just your eyesight alone, would you be able to fly straight out 1000 ft and then safely circle around and behind a tree?
Judging purely by VLOS, I couldn't tell for certain whether the drone would pass in front of the tree, behind the tree, or directly into the tree.

Without the aid of transmitted telemetry, I can't accurately judge the distance to my drone beyond a couple of hundred metres. Using Google maps, I know the distance from our dock straight across the lake to the point on the opposite shoreline is about 250m (~800ft). Or the furthest distance I can see down the lake on the opposite shoreline is about 550m (~1800ft).

I have flown my Mavic Mini to those points from our dock and I definitely can still "see" it at that range. I could even accurately land it on my neighbour's dock at that range using the transmitted video feed. But I'd never attempt that using unaided VLOS.
 
Merely being able to see it is not compliance.
Exactly.

You also need to be able to monitor a sufficiently large area of the environment in which the drone is being operated to scan for conflicting traffic or obstructions. But that all depends a lot on where this is happening.

If you're flying your drone straight out to sea, then you've got a wide open field of view to scan for any other approaching aircraft or cruise ships etc. In that case, it's possible to fly a much greater distance where just being able to "see" your drone might be sufficient to ensure safety. What could possibly go wrong...
 
I can see how that rescue jacket would improve one's ability to see it better...but 3,000 feet?...That's a stretch....My take on the article?......someone is embellishing....and the video that is available in the first post by clicking on the link.......does not show the drone at any distance, yet claims 3,000 feet visibility which sounds to me like wishful thinking at best.....You asked

Wishful thinking , Flying in the Rain, Extended VLOS is always best shown with our Phantomrain Videos .

My take on VLOS has everything to do with Birds, Thus I need to know where my drone is at all times and bright lights on the Drone in the sun do not provide the amount of VLOS a rescue Jacket can provide.

For me the key is if you can take your eyes off the sky and continue to find your drone than I feel safe.

So if I have some Representation of my drone I can be more aware of the Birds , that have taken down my drones over the years.

This was the Air 2 , but the Mavic 3 has even a little more range closer to 3000 Ft .


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Apparently, BVLOS is safe in some countries.
That's another difference between Canada vs USA.

BVLOS requires the use of a Visual Observer spotter in both countries. In the USA the FAA requires that the spotter to be "co-located" with the pilot. Not so in Canada.

Our regulation CARS 901.20 (1) requires that, "reliable and timely communication is maintained between the pilot and each visual observer during the operation."

One of the questions on the licence exam asked about possible ways that this reliable communication might be interrupted, with the correct answer being radio interference! That implies that the pilot and "each visual observer" [daisy-chained?] is allowed to be in communication with the pilot by radio, not necessarily co-located.
 
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That's another difference between Canada vs USA.

BVLOS requires the use of a Visual Observer spotter in both countries. In the USA the FAA requires that the spotter to be "co-located" with the pilot. Not so in Canada.

Our regulation CARS 901.20 (1) requires that, "reliable and timely communication is maintained between the pilot and each visual observer during the operation."

One of the questions on the licence exam asked about possible ways that this reliable communication might be interrupted, with the correct answer being radio interference! That implies that the pilot and "each visual observer" [daisy-chained?] is allowed to be in communication with the pilot by radio, not necessarily co-located.
As far as I know under the new regs, there is no such thing as a spotter anymore in the US.
This use to be my Go to but I was politely told it was no longer acceptable.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain. Land on the Water, and not fly with a Spotter .
 
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