What's the point in long range flying?

[RogerDH]

... Just a quick thought: what is the point of going over the speed limit (even 1 MPH more)...what is the point of coming to a complete stop at a stop sign at 2 AM in the middle of nowhere America? What is the point of crossing a street before you see the "WALK" light illuminate?

Just food for thought.

Bad analogy, unless you can show me tons of YouTube videos of, say, people testing how fast their cars can go on the interstate or how many stop signs they can run without getting caught.

 

[SpinItUp]

Because it can & is actually part of the marketing so WTH not?

 

[Siam]

Bad analogy, unless you can show me tons of YouTube videos of, say, people testing how fast their cars can go on the interstate or how many stop signs they can run without getting caught.

I was not making an analogy...if it was I would have said : "flying long distances is like driving over the speed limit..everyone does it." That is an analogy.


I was just making an afterthought observation that many people that complain or question one thing, are often breaking laws or regulations themselves because they do not feel that it is "bad" to do so.

 

[CanadaDrone]

Because it can & is actually part of the marketing so WTH not?

Do you drive at your vehicle's maximum speed on public roads as well? Same logic I'm not picking on you, but some people actually believe what you wrote.

People are free to do as they please as long as they accept the consequences but my issue with it is that the people who think they can pick and choose which safety rules to obey are directly responsible for how restrictive drone laws are currently, and it's only getting worse. Unfortunately that affects all flyers, including the ones who put in the effort to fly safely and within the regulations.

This is also why there are so many "no drone" signs up at places that would otherwise be legal to fly - all it takes is a few selfish idiots on vacation and voila, you get a "no drone" sign after there has been an incident or enough complaints.

 

[SpinItUp]

I'm very picky about how/WHEN I bend rules.
I have no vehicle apart from a flying one and am aware of the risks/consequences being inflicted upon the airspace I chose to abuse.
I don't go around thinking it's ok and am quite ashamed for doing it but thrills are thrills and adrenaline overrides any desire to comply fully with keeping the sticks within legal limits.

I agree there are lots of flyers who take it to extremes but II think it tends to be those new to the hobby and have a rather warped mindset to start with.

When I first got a drone (the Mavic Pro) I was very weary of all the rules and abiding wholly with them but that has now gotten boring leading to a few rules being bent.

Manned pilots break rules so it's not only drone pilots that should get a bad rap.

 

[footfly]

Enough of that propaganda - we all know the Earth is really flat

what?! darn! i thought i could fool people into believing the earth was round! oh well. worthed the try. (-:

 

[netfolks2000]

As LOGGER intimated above, those of us who live in rural areas do have good reason to go far to check livestock, water, gates, hay, fencing, crops, etc. In very wet conditions we can't even ride a four-wheeler to some places. A drone can go find a bull faster than saddling up a horse or trying to get a four-wheeler to an area. The drone sees further.

 

[basyok]

This is a photography drone: If you wish to take a photograph at a location 5 or 6 miles away, just go there and fly your drone at the location...

Your answer is within your question. If you're truly asking why, and looking to ignore the dangers and rule breaking of it, then it's because you want to take pictures or videos from a place you *can't* go yourself. If you could go there, you wouldn't need a drone at all. Whether it be a difficult or impossible place to get to otherwise, or the span (for a video) of terrain that you can cover.

That's the why.

The why not is a different question, and not the one you asked.

 

[Virgil Quick]

I own 1,250 acres of rural real estate which is actively managed for timber production and hunting. My Mavic 3 helps keep a lookout for poachers and trespassers. Need the extra range over this property which is subject to unauthorized entry for nefarious purposes.

 

[Torque]

As LOGGER intimated above, those of us who live in rural areas do have good reason to go far to check livestock, water, gates, hay, fencing, crops, etc. In very wet conditions we can't even ride a four-wheeler to some places. A drone can go find a bull faster than saddling up a horse or trying to get a four-wheeler to an area. The drone sees further.

Yup, my cousins free range their cattle in the high Uintas (Rocky Mountain Range in NE Utah) and this is the only time they ever use their Phantom 3 is to check cattle. Almost 100% of the time BVLOS. I can't fault them in their use.

 

[Robert Prior]

If you could go there, you wouldn't need a drone at all.

I disagree. I haven't flown more than 500 m distance (Canadian laws), but some of my best shots were taken a dozen metres away — and 50 m up.

I'm not really joking when I say I think of my Mavic 2 as a 120 m tripod.

 

[Droning on and on...]

LOL. Of course you are - that's exactly what you're doing.

This is why the regulations always become more restrictive.

Acknowledging behavior is not the same as endorsement. Nor is analyzing relative impact to the reputation of the hobby.

Defending these practices would include encouragement, not simply recognition.

 

[basyok]

I disagree. I haven't flown more than 500 m distance (Canadian laws), but some of my best shots were taken a dozen metres away — and 50 m up.

I'm not really joking when I say I think of my Mavic 2 as a 120 m tripod.

There's nothing to disagree with. I wasn't saying that the faraway shots or videos are better, just that sometimes, it may be the only way to get them.

Also, you still need a drone for 50m up and a dozen meters away, right? You can't "go" there without a drone.

 

[Droning on and on...]

Every lawbreaker is not the same. Everyone here has exceeded speed limits, perhaps accidentally, but a violation just the same.

That's not near enough for me to judge them a "criminal", immoral, a bad person. Steal something, maybe, need more context. Murder, definitely.

To me BVLOS is like speeding, in drone-land. At the other end flying the FPV in manual over a dense crowd diving at them gets close to the drone-flying equivalent of murder, in terms of the severity of the violation.

As to the subject, I can think of many reasons to fly BVLOS, but in the end with the exception of range tests, it's usually to see something you otherwise can't, from a perspective you otherwise can't.

Which doesn't seem so hard to understand to me

 

[basyok]

Interesting, although not surprising, that this question has become a discussion about breaking the law, which the OP was clearly putting aside in the interest of understanding "what's the point".

 

[netfolks2000]

Interesting, although not surprising, that this question has become a discussion about breaking the law, which the OP was clearly putting aside in the interest of understanding "what's the point"

 

[Robert Prior]

There's nothing to disagree with. I wasn't saying that the faraway shots or videos are better, just that sometimes, it may be the only way to get them.

You were (I thought) disagreeing with Amit's comment:

If you wish to take a photograph at a location 5 or 6 miles away, just go there and fly your drone at the location...

I was (am) disagreeing with your disagreement, and agreeing with Amit.

 

[netfolks2000]

If we were sitting together at a table with our drones in front of us, I think we'd understand each other better. It's not to be a lawbreaker, but to understand things like, well, if you had a snakebite in the country and needed to get to an ER fast, you'd ask the driver to perhaps go above the speed limit. If you were supposed to see your daughter's first performance in a play, you might actually use your mother's handicap tag to park quickly and get inside for the moment she needed you there. If you were told there were intruders on your property shooting at your cows, you might just fly a mile over there BVLOS to get evidence for the law. When you've had a lot of rain and can't ride there you MIGHT fly a mile or more to see if the fence across the creek was blown apart. There are many other examples. It's not to say "disobey the law" but to show that there are a few times that to obey a law literally every time can be harmful. That is why laws change or get removed. Look at the hundreds of laws on books no longer enforced. In Kansas it's against the law to fish with your hands. In some states it's against the law to eat chicken with utensils. In Oregon it's against the law to pump your own gas. In a town in Md. it's a misdemeanor to curse in a moving car. Bottom line: I think at least a rural drone owner would have a good case for flying BVLOS.

 

[basyok]

You were (I thought) disagreeing with Amit's comment:



I was (am) disagreeing with your disagreement, and agreeing with Amit.

Ok, but sometimes it's not possible

 

[Mikieh]

Some of the youtubers seems to be obsessed with long range flying, sending their drones miles away. Other than the fact that this clearly breech the requirement for VLOS, and other than the fact that the higher the range - the higher are the chances it will drop somewhere along the way, I really fail to see the the point in all that. This is a photography drone: If you wish to take a photograph at a location 5 or 6 miles away, just go there and fly your drone at the location...

I think the longest range I've sent my M3P to, would probably be around 1km, along the shore line, or down some road etc. Other than that, I did fly it for a few km, but that was while it was active tracking my car, so at no point did the drone move more than 20-30 meters away from me.

When all aircraft are forced to play by the same rules I will sit still for beyond VLOS rules.