Hi All,


New drone user, with a brand new Mavic Air II. I think DJI claims a 10 Km range, I understand this is not realistic, but I was expecting something between 4 and 6Kms.

I live in a suburban neighborhood in France (EU), and I'm able to fly for about 700 Meters max, then the signal disconnects, the drones goes into fly home mode, and a few seconds later reconnects.

I heard the Occusync Technology was supposed to be really good, so far I'm not impressed. maybe I'm missing something?

Thanks in advance for any pointers/tips.

Yes environment makes the most difference how far your signal can reach, also altitude and how you correctly line up Antennas in direct line to craft. Reading the manual reference the part about correct way to place and hold RC will help. Interference will also be your downfall less possible interference will help.

I think DJI claims a 10 Km range, I understand this is not realistic, but I was expecting something between 4 and 6Kms.
The range in DJI's specs is realistic and achievable.


I live in a suburban neighborhood in France (EU), and I'm able to fly for about 700 Meters max.
I heard the Occusync Technology was supposed to be really good, so far I'm not impressed. maybe I'm missing something?
You missed the word Max in the specs.
Max Transmission Distance10 km (FCC), 6 km (CE)You have to be in an interference-free environment to get max range.
Urban areas are full of wifi interference which will reduce your achievable range.
You have to be in an interference-free environment to get max range

Also, note that when the drone is far ahead and low, you are supposed to "point" the antenna at it for best comms. That often means it is hard to see the phone's screen without extending yourself over it and looking down. You may want to consider an adapter that allows the phone to be angled toward you. Having the display ahead of the RC has it's advantages and disadvantages.

I saw that DJI used a speed of about 18kph to get there max flight time of 34 minutes.  Using 30 minutes of battery at that speed will only get you 9km...  Getting 10km at a faster speed seems possible if you don't plan on returning to home.  Yesterday and today, i flew over 11km in each flight.  The furthest I got from home was 4.7km.

"I heard the Occusync Technology was supposed to be really good, so far I'm not impressed. maybe I'm missing something?"

Occusync has little to do with range. It is a form of protocol for the transmission of video data back from the drone to the RC unit, and only works in that one direction.

Silver31581 Posted at 5-16 20:17
I saw that DJI used a speed of about 18kph to get there max flight time of 34 minutes.  Using 30 minutes of battery at that speed will only get you 9km...  Getting 10km at a faster speed seems possible if you don't plan on returning to home.  Yesterday and today, i flew over 11km in each flight.  The furthest I got from home was 4.7km.

He said he was expecting 4-6 km.

GaryDoug Posted at 5-16 21:10
He said he was expecting 4-6 km.

Exactly, 700 meters (half a mile) is a really short distance for the comms to disconnect. I did one flights in the forest, (environment with virtually no interference), and I think the range was approx 2KM, again pretty disappointing results in terms, of range. I think I'm holding the controller right (towards the drone), in this model there are no antennas per say, they are built in the controller.

jdemay Posted at 5-16 22:41
Exactly, 700 meters (half a mile) is a really short distance for the comms to disconnect. I did one flights in the forest, (environment with virtually no interference), and I think the range was approx 2KM, again pretty disappointing results in terms, of range. I think I'm holding the controller right (towards the drone), in this model there are no antennas per say, they are built in the controller.

The maximum theoretical in the EU at our transmission powers is 6km not 10km. Even so quite disppointing. The uban test not so much - who knows what noise is there. But the forest test you would have thought would have been better.

If you were in a forest were there any trees etc in the line of sight between the drone and the controller? It might have needed to be at a higher altitude to maintain that line of site between drone and controller.

Reliable connection with occusync rather than wifi is definitely a reason why the MA2 is the minimum spec for my next drone (though I will be waiting until it officially gets the C1 CE rating so it is future proofed beyond 2022) so your experiments are disappointing to me.

However, (and for me it is a big however for the future of us recreational users being allowed to use these indefinately), you should not be flying it that far from you. It MUST be kept within VLOS - i.e. you can actually see it with the naked eye whilst you are flying it. You must have incredible eyesight to be able to see it even 2km away. Please don't follow the bad example of some people here and elsewhere flying their toys illegally.

Over in Singapore (CE region), I'm not getting over 1km in urban areas. Went to the beach - signal pretty much lost at the 1.2km mark.

jdemay Posted at 5-16 22:41
Exactly, 700 meters (half a mile) is a really short distance for the comms to disconnect. I did one flights in the forest, (environment with virtually no interference), and I think the range was approx 2KM, again pretty disappointing results in terms, of range. I think I'm holding the controller right (towards the drone), in this model there are no antennas per say, they are built in the controller.

Forest yeah I now see the problem..

jdemay Posted at 5-16 22:41
Exactly, 700 meters (half a mile) is a really short distance for the comms to disconnect. I did one flights in the forest, (environment with virtually no interference), and I think the range was approx 2KM, again pretty disappointing results in terms, of range. I think I'm holding the controller right (towards the drone), in this model there are no antennas per say, they are built in the controller.

The MA2 RC uses a patch antenna and not the normal omni antenna as with the older Mavic RC's - the tip of the device holder needs to be pointed at the drone. There must be no physical obstructions in the environment that stands between the AC and RC to block the signal such trees (forests), hedges, buildings, cars, people etc - any object at all. The environment must also be free of interference that can impact the quality of the signal such as WiFi which is often found in or near congested areas.

Another consideration is what frequency you are using in the app. If set to auto the RC may auto switch to 5.8ghz if interference is detected - this tends to restrict the range of the signal. Try manually switching to 2.4ghz in the app, fly in the right environment if maximising your range is key and you should reach the max 6KM/3.7 miles in a CE compliant region such as the EU. (10KM is in FCC regions such as the US). Whether you would have enough battery power left for a safe return is another question and without being a kill joy - lets just say you won't be able to see your drone beyond a few hundred metres - at 6,000 meters... Let's hope there are no police nearby!

I got 2.5km yesterday flying over my village. I would have gone further but 3 warnings for strong winds unable to RTH made me turn back

No loss in signal what so ever flew around 100m high for better signal when it got back it still had around 45% battery

When DJI eventually updates the Smart Controller firmware to function with the Mavic Air 2, can it be assumed that the Smart Controller will get better range than the Mavic Air 2 controller?

delsol95 Posted at 5-17 10:44
When DJI eventually updates the Smart Controller firmware to function with the Mavic Air 2, can it be assumed that the Smart Controller will get better range than the Mavic Air 2 controller?

No, that assumption would not be correct