I've taken up my advance a few times and nervous about each time.  altitude stright up doesn't make me that nervous but moving it away from me does, even if it's only 80 feet high.  Hard to imagine allowing this to be 2000 feet+ away from me.  How many flights did you do before flying it out of sight?

I would say for me about 30 flights or so. BUT you really should keep it in sight and practice, practice and practice plus read the manual, watch videos to learn everything you can both with normal flying and if an emergency happens.
You are a pilot after all. Safety is very important. With all that come lots of fun.

I have never flown my drone out of sight. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Yes, me too. I never fly my aircraft out of sight, the type of shooting I do does not require it.

My eyesight is so good, impossible to be out of my sight.

However, I flew it out of most peoples sight within the first half dozen flights.

dkruseski Posted at 2016-5-24 09:27
My eyesight is so good, impossible to be out of my sight.

However, I flew it out of most  ...

I have no reason to fly it out of site

If you should ever blink, it's completely out of sight. Hahaha
So for me, that's frequently the case. ;-)

RedHotPoker

When I know its going to be out of sight for a while it does not bother me.   
However, when its at distance, and I take my eyes off it to do something else for just a couple seconds and look back and can't see it................ I always feel a "slight" panic till I figure out where it is.   
Figure that one out

2 or 3....just had to

Yes, NEVER.. not once!!! I watch it like a hawk.. Now, looking at my healthydrones, AFTER the fact, as i always fly line of sight.. I have gone up to 7000ft distance from "home" last weekend, and 3000 ft 2 weekends ago.. and i am pretty sure about the 15th flight or so, i went 2000ft...
It is very stressful to watch it, but thankfully i fly RC for 10 years now, so I can pretty much feel my sticks, and do not have to look at the controller all the time! It's called touch-sticking, i believe....
I wish FAA dropped the line of sight thing.. it really cuts on the enjoyment of the damned hobby!!!

dkruseski Posted at 2016-5-23 19:27
My eyesight is so good, impossible to be out of my sight.

However, I flew it out of most  ...

So is it DKruseski, or dKruseWski? I think we may have simmilar genes, that cause our eyeski to be very hawski! I am very prowsdski of youski, for flyski in sightski!

If you don't have your aircraft in sight, then you are not in full control of it.
I have been flying my V+ for 2 years and its never been out of my sight, maybe that's why its still on the original props and in perfect condition.
Part of the reason is a V+ in CE mode is range limited, so cant go that far away anyway

I can neither confirm or deny flying 3 miles out.....

Phantomski Posted at 2016-5-24 01:34
So is it DKruseski, or dKruseWski? I think we may have simmilar genes, that cause our eyeski to be ...

Whether outsideski or FPVski, always in controlski of the aircraftski, my broski!

johnwarr@live.c Posted at 2016-5-24 01:46
If you don't have your aircraft in sight, then you are not in full control of it.
I have been flying ...

By that logic, a fighter pilot is not fully in control of his fighter unless he's looking at it from the outside?

At first I was also nervous about flying it out of sight but that was only my first  5 times using it. Now I fly it out of sight quite a lot and the furthest Ive ever flown my drone away from me was about 1300 feet .

My 15thish flight was yesterday, and if it wasn't against the rules , I would've gone out 1.5 miles.

kdcox Posted at 2016-5-23 23:39
2 or 3....just had to

same here.

if I can see it, it is boring

specially using litchi waypoints

First flight. After flying a lot of R/C drones 30-120 bucks where I had to manually maintain elevation and control, flying the P3P was easy breezy and the confidence only builds from there. my personal record is exactly 2 miles.

I have done about 60+ where I fly out of sight and even to the point the FPV goes out.
The key is to insure you have all the settings correct, and also get yourself a lot of practice in.
Find a nice empty area to try a few things to get used to the RTH and fail safes such as RTH altitude, fail option as hover or RTH, etc.

Fly out till you loss signal, or even just turn off your controller.  Also learn about the RTH fail safe switch on your controller.

My P3P flew at 35,000 feet to Hawaii and was out of sight for the entire flight in the overhead carry-on storage bin.  

Since photography is my primary interest, I've never understood the fascination with max distance and max altitude. Although there have been some amazing videos posted showing incredible distances and altitudes. So the DJI fleet of aircraft are capable of impressive flight envelopes.

I think that as long as you adequately evaluate your risks versus rewards; plan appropriately by always being the responsible pilot; and taking full responsibility to mitigate your failure risks..... then any flight should be as successful as possible, even if something unplanned happens....  

Defying gravity inevitablty includes risks...

I think all FPV aircraft like this lack the ability to "look around".. also biofeedback of tilt, acceleration, so on...  Does not mean u cannot fly far and do it well and relatively safe, but lack of the above does limit your awareness somewhat. Also, if you ever get into "RTH" then you are NOT in control for a moment possibly.. depending on how RTH takes over. If you fly to the point of losing signal, and are waiting for RTH to get you back to solid signal, that time is also not under your control.. so depending how you dice the whole thing... but overall, if you've planned well, set your flight parameters right, your failsafe, it is not without risk, but certainly better than just flying with no plan. Again, considering the application of phantom, there's really no reason (usually) to fly out of sight, but then again, given to us, we will do things that are cool, just because they are cool! I cannot say that I would not love to go 3 km up and just see how it feels....  That is why humans are explorers.. we care to see and taste things that are not normal.. and this platform enables it it many ways.. and we hate the limitations put on us by DJI, by FAA or another entity, by people telling us we cannot fly over their property or they gonna shoot us down,,,,
Human nature!
If you think about, most discoveries and advancement did not come by following the rules.. it's usually those who break the rules and do the unexpected....  this is just the way it is. I am not saying break the rules, but I think the overall focus should be more on using regulation to one's advantage to be as safe as possible, but I wish there would be enough room to do the unexpected without significantly decreasing the safety, or worrying about punishment for "breaking the rules".. but it's always a mixed bag between assessing the risks, taking the risks, and still keeping the envelope of safety and responsibility....

First of all in the USA it is against the rules to fly out of sight, you agreed to this when you registered your MR.

It is also IMHO a very bad idea, one that gives this hobby a bad name.

I have flown MRs for over 5 years and model planes for decades. I have never flown any of them out of visual range. For me on a P3P is 1200-1400' max and on a larger MR like the S900 1500'. Large gliders 12' wing span 3000'.

Sean,

Some of these replies are serious, several are tongue in cheek, and what you're not seeing is all the other folk who fly LOS but aren't saying so here (because once it's on the internet, it's forever!).

The truth is, you have to a) have great eyesight and b) never take your eyes off the bird (as in looking down at your FPV device). Any deviation from that and you've likely lost sight of your bird, even if you tried to keep it LOS.

Then there's the people that fly and KNOW they're going to lose actual eyeball sight of it. They should still try to be virtually LOS, meaning that there are no objects between the remote and the craft. It's not difficult to achieve this, since you can see what your camera sees. You can just turn around to be sure the take off point is in sight of the craft, for one thing.

Terry: "Since photography is my primary interest, I've never understood the fascination with max distance and max altitude".

I hear you Terry. I'm not out to break any records either. But I can think of several times when I wanted to get shots or video of something, say the waterfront of the city I live in, but have to launch from a location that's a hefty distance from it. I am well within the RC/aircraft range and pay heed to antenna orientation, other aircraft in the area, etc., but I can't always actually see the craft. I still know about where it is and be sure to use the FPV camera to know my surroundings (looking for things like tall lighting structures near loading docks, etc.) and I don't stick around -- I take my shot and return.

Sean: a direct answer to your question: I flew in beginner mode for only a few days, then took a few weeks building up confidence in flights beyond that, but it probably wasn't more than 2 months before I learned not to freak out when I lost sight of the thing.

Chris

I don't go forward and out of sight. However, I have gone up to 1200' and did a slow video pan. It was very interesting to review the video later on and identify all of the remote locations and surroundings of my home. Nervous about it, yes. Have I done it since, no.

Flew 390' alt, 10k feet out in the middle of the desert.  Have never done it since but am tempted to so do over water...unfortunately, there's a lot of air trash around the beaches here.  (ad planes, heli's, etc.)

Westside Osprey Posted at 2016-5-24 14:04
First of all in the USA it is against the rules to fly out of sight, you agreed to this when you reg ...

LOS is subjective, since people's sight varies greatly.

And really, the worry is people/property damage if anything goes wrong,  correct? Well, being in LOS as your bird flys away, or drops out of the sky is not made safer because you can see it. It's still going down, out of your control.

Every situation is different as well. Flying 3 miles out over open water is safer than 1000 ft out over a neighborhood.

I love distance, and will push it until it can't be pushed any farther.

Ive had mine for 2 months and getting out of sight still gives me a high pucker value...But being a brave soul i tried out my Litchi app for the first time yesterday and set on a couple 1mile+ flights...I didnt feel that kind of anxiety when i booted my kids onto a school bus for the first time

Westside Osprey Posted at 2016-5-24 11:04
First of all in the USA it is against the rules to fly out of sight, you agreed to this when you reg ...

I've never flown my P3P out of "line of sight" but I've flown it "out of sight". At 7000 feet away line of site, I cannot see my P3P at all.

I've also flown it "out of site"

sorka95032 Posted at 2016-5-25 12:07
I've never flown my P3P out of "line of sight" but I've flown it "out of sight". At 7000 feet away  ...

The FAA rule is in visual range and always in sight. These are the rules you agreed to when registering your model aircraft in the USA.

Fly below 400 feet and remain clear of surrounding obstacles
Keep the aircraft within visual line of sight at all times
Remain well clear of and do not interfere with manned aircraft operations
Don't fly within 5 miles of an airport unless you contact the airport and control tower before flying
Don't fly near people or stadiums
Don't fly an aircraft that weighs more than 55 lbs
Don't be careless or reckless with your unmanned aircraft – you could be fined for endangering people or other aircraft
If you have a 333 excemption the rules are even stricter.

How long before FAA will makes DJI to cut its copters' range even further?

dkruseski Posted at 2016-5-24 20:33
LOS is subjective, since people's sight varies greatly.

And really, the worry is people/property ...

It will not matter how far you can go when the cellular control technology comes into play

Westside Osprey Posted at 2016-5-25 12:37
The FAA rule is in visual range and always in sight. These are the rules you agreed to when registe ...

It never left my line of sight. Re-read my post. And the rules don't say "visual and in sight", they say "within visual line of sight".

So now you got me the thinking about what I can do to increase the range at which I can physically see the AC with my eyes.

So perhaps white is not the best color against a blue sky. A bright yellow would allow it to be seen, even as a dot, from much further away I would think.

Westside Osprey Posted at 2016-5-25 15:37
The FAA rule is in visual range and always in sight. These are the rules you agreed to when registe ...

Only rule I agreed to was registering it.

As far as their "safety guidance", which includes the following:

I will fly below 400 feet

I will fly within visual line of sight

I will be aware of FAA airspace requirements: faa.gov/go/uastfr

I will not fly directly over people

I will not fly over stadiums and sports events

I will not fly near emergency response efforts such as fires

I will not fly near aircraft, especially near airports

I will not fly under the influence

Well, I do 6 of those religiously.

I ignore the stupid ones.

sorka95032 Posted at 2016-5-25 20:58
So now you got me the thinking about what I can do to increase the range at which I can physically s ...

So would a bright strobe. I think a beacon/strobe is your best bet if you want to push your range. Full scale planes use these, and I would not be surprised it it becomes a requirement for some classes of UAVs in the future.

And don't kid yourself, when the FAA talks about VLOS, it means you have to keep the aircraft in sight w/o the use of binoculars or any other visual aids than prescription glasses or sunglasses.

There is a term called EVLOS, extended visual line of sight, and that means a number of observers along a route that keep the aircraft in sight and is in communication with the PIC (pilot in command) but this is not legal in the USA at this time.

dkruseski Posted at 2016-5-24 02:27
My eyesight is so good, impossible to be out of my sight.

However, I flew it out of most  ...

You must be very special.

johnwarr@live.c Posted at 2016-5-24 06:46
If you don't have your aircraft in sight, then you are not in full control of it.
I have been flying ...

That's not true at all.  FPV flying is perfectly safe & legal if done correctly.  Your observer, who can see the aircraft doesn't need to do anything unless there's a problem.  The CAA have even issued an exemption to allow FPV flight up to 1000ft AGL when a competent spotter is used.  The very nature of FPV means the aircraft is out of visual sight of the operator.

The only reason to keep visual line of sight is to detect & avoid other aircraft.

Line of sight and within sight are two different things.  If you flew your drone straight toward the moon, it would be line of sight unless you went BEHIND the moon, then you would not be within line of sight.  You can fly your drone 10 miles away and be in line of sight.

line of sight
phrase of line

    1.
    a straight line along which an observer has unobstructed vision.
    "a building that obstructs our line of sight"

To answer the question of the OP, my answer is "It doesn't matter."  The unwillingness to fly the drone out of your sight does not make you a wimp, and flying it 10 miles out does not make you a stud.  Being COMFORTABLE with flying out of sight involves LOTS of variables that have nothing to do with bravado.  If you have tons of money, you may fly with less reservation than if you are on a strict budget.  If you're surrounded by wheat fields, you may have more confidence than if you are surrounded by alligator infested swampland.  So if it takes you 2 years and 200 flights before you are willing to fly more than 1000 feet, it's just fine.

Maybe my eyes are an anomaly, but I can fly out a few hundred feet (maybe 1500), look at my iPad for a while to frame a shot, etc., and have some trouble immediately spotting my drone when I look back up.  Is that unsafe?  Of course not!  I see what the camera sees, I can see its location on a map, and I can see the direction it is pointing via the compass.  Nigel is right.  FPV flying is perfectly safe.  Sometimes looking AT the drone is best, and sometimes looking THROUGH the drone is best.  It depends on the scads and scads of variables present in each and every flight.