Buzzyone
Second Officer
Flight distance : 4647913 ft
United Kingdom
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Now the weather in the UK has finally given up trying to blow us all away, got a chance to do a bit of a range test. Took the Air to a farm I have flown the Spark at to do a comparison. I sent the Air away at 20mtrs hieght and set off away from me, 750mtrs and it was still going strong, it used 2.4ghz all the way out. It was down to 50% on the transmitter strength at 800m which took me over a wooded area, so came back.
The Spark managed 550mtrs in the same conditions, using the Spark controller connected with WiFi. It was at the end of its range.
At a push I think it (the Air) would go 1500mtrs line of sight.
Decided to confirm how RTH works, never normally use it but decided to give it a test. As it’s different to the Pro.
The manual states that with a loss of signal the Air will re-trace it’s flight and return home. Flew the air away and performed a few direction changes. Then with Air about 100mtrs away, turned off the remote (gulp)
After a few seconds, the Air climbed to the RTH altitude, turned and flew back to the home point, following the route I flew in reverse. Once it was close in, powered up the controller and it reconnected after a few seconds. Stopped the RTH and moved onto test two.
Flew the aircraft the same course, then pressed RTH button, the Air climbed to the RTH altitude and flew straight back, I allowed it to land, it was off by only 30cm, so pretty impressive.
I conclude that some of these reported fly-aways are most likely a loss of connection followed by the drone retracing it’s steps. Downside is low battery what happens then? It lands, maybe that’s what is happening the drone appears to be a flyaway, In fact it’s just retracing it’s steps an runs out of power.
Flew the Pro next, must say I feel the Pro is a better aircraft, more stable in the wind, more configurable with the camera settings for example. While there are more gadgets on the air, sensors everywhere but I never needed them before so don’t miss them on the Pro. The Air is fantastic, but the Pro is just better.
I was joined while flying by a Red Kite, a huge bird of prey, who came for a look, while watching him/her soaring the wind, we were joined by 4 more, 5 of them, I thought the Mavic was going to be in a bit of trouble, but they seemed to have little intrest after a couple of passes they all flew away.
May have some video of the encounter, will have to check!
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