What is the maximum VLOS you've ever achieved yourself?

[RGS2010]

Way back when the DJI Mini 2 first came out AND before I realized that BVLOS was not allowed by the FAA AND before I got my Part 107 and became air aware...

I flew 12,000 feet down range at about 300 feet altitude way out in uncontrolled airspace in the country. It came back with only electron fumes but it made it. DJI makes the best drones...I just wish they wouldn't lurk in my software to take my info to their servers or stop me from taking off in my own country!

 

[RGS2010]

I'm not 100% sure of this, but I don't think that would be a good test because the signal strength is usually much weaker when the drone is close to the ground because of all the obstacles in the way. Maybe taking a boat out on a lake rather than a car might be a better test? Just a gut level thought here.

Just remember that the signal acts crazy when the drone gets close to the water, especially with the downward landing sensors. I have seen quite a few YouTubes of people crashing into the water when they got below 10 feet of altitude due to this problem. Be careful.

 

[NightFlightAlright]

…..my research shows that a 20/20 human eye effectively has a much greater megapixel resolution than my camera. I guess a telephoto lens would ameliorate that.

Just FYI, 20/20 is not perfect vision. Perfect human vision is more like 20/12 to 20/16.

The human eye has about 5 million cone cells, so each eye is sort of like a 5 megapixel camera.

Except the opponent process/ganglion cells reduce it to about 1.2 million to fit down the optic nerve pathway.

By far, the densest area of cones is the 2 degrees of central vision (about the size of your thumb with your arm stretched out)

For 20/20 vision, that means you can resolve a capital E on a chart that occupies 5 arc minutes of visual angle as subtended onto the retina.

For vision as good as 20/12 or 20/16, that’s 3 or 4 arc minutes visual angle (VA) respectively.

The equation is: VA = (size/distance) * (180/pi)

If the thing you see is 1 foot in size (from the angle you are looking) and needs to be 5 arc minutes so you can determine orientation, then it can be up to 687’ away.

With perfect 20/12, maybe up to 1145’ away.

If you need to see it as about the smallest dot you can resolve, literally a dot with no orientation, and perfect 20/12 vision and optimum viewing conditions for max contrast, let’s say 1 arc minute…

3400’ distance for a 1’ wide drone as a < 1 arc min dot…

 

[tls3601]

Just FYI, 20/20 is not perfect vision. Perfect human vision is more like 20/12 to 20/16.

The human eye has about 5 million cone cells, so each eye is sort of like a 5 megapixel camera.

Except the opponent process/ganglion cells reduce it to about 1.2 million to fit down the optic nerve pathway.

By far, the densest area of cones is the 2 degrees of central vision (about the size of your thumb with your arm stretched out)

For 20/20 vision, that means you can resolve a capital E on a chart that occupies 5 arc minutes of visual angle as subtended onto the retina.

For vision as good as 20/12 or 20/16, that’s 3 or 4 arc minutes visual angle (VA) respectively.

The equation is: VA = (size/distance) * (180/pi)

If the thing you see is 1 foot in size (from the angle you are looking) and needs to be 5 arc minutes so you can determine orientation, then it can be up to 687’ away.

With perfect 20/12, maybe up to 1145’ away.

If you need to see it as about the smallest dot you can resolve, literally a dot with no orientation, and perfect 20/12 vision and optimum viewing conditions for max contrast, let’s say 1 arc minute…

3400’ distance for a 1’ wide drone as a < 1 arc min dot…

Very well put.

 

[AMann]

10 miles


Just kidding, but wow - this one would extend VLOS a lot further than most drones!

 

[TonyPHX]

Not very far for me. Bright days in Arizona, and I frequently have to reposition myself during a capture to keep VLOS. No regrets though in following the rules. Strobes help. : )

 

[NightFlightAlright]

In reference to my previous post, that was optimistic, was assuming the drone was a big fat phantom or something. The low profile mini or Mavic may be a foot wide, but are very low profile… so probably cut those estimates down quite a bit… also those were assuming a jet black drone against a light sky.

Lighting:

Something else to add: the FAA does not specify a luminance output for anti-collision lights.

Instead they say “visible from 3 miles”

Well, the human vision system is pretty amazing—if fully dark adapted, a human can detect a candle flame at 30 miles.

whether or not you can see a light 3 miles away has much to do with the ambient illumination and the eye’s adaptation state.

A flashing strobe is more noticeable than a static light of the same luminance, because the vision system is tuned to detect temporal changes.

 

[EssenYVR]

...adding lights to the aircraft for the sole purpose of seeing it from a distance goes against "with vision that is unaided by any device".
Check out 14 CFR § 107.31 - Visual line of sight aircraft operation. for more detail.

"Vision unaided by any device other than corrective lenses" refers to devices that enhance vision (i.e., binoculars), not devices that enhance the visibility of the drone (i.e., lights). It would be a dumb regulation indeed if it restricted you from enhancing the drone's visibility, which improves safety by not only making the drone visible to its operator but also to other potentially conflicting aircraft.

Note also that marine-style navigation lights (red, green and white lights visible only over nonoverlapping horizontal arcs of 120 degrees each) are adequate to determine which way the drone is pointing. I have no idea if any actual drone lights are arranged this way, but the whole point of it for marine use is to determine which way another vessel is heading at night.

 

[sdcaver]

VLOS is such a big issue for drone pilots, and a lot of times when I'm reading a post about some distance from the pilot, my mind can't help but think, "Is that beyond VLOS?" So, this thread is about polling our community for your max VLOS based on answering these questions:

1. What's your max VLOS?
2. What was the weather and what were the lighting conditions / time of day?
3. What drone were you flying?
4. If you had lights or a custom skin or anything else that you think makes a difference, mention that.

I know I've gotten over 1,000 feet with an Air 2 on a clear day, but now I'm going to actually do a test and see what my limit is and answer my own poll here when I get a chance.

I can see my Air2S out to about 700 feet on a clear cloudless day at 300 feet altitude. I know the attitude because I was just flying it straight away, no turns. No lights or skin. I had a yellow skin on my Mini, but didn't seem to help.