Hi, all. I have been flying the Spark for over a year but only occasionally. I have always flown manual and never flew the Spark when there's some wind even when I took the Spark on vacations. (Not intelligent mode, that's how "occasionally" I fly.) I'd say I'm on the careful side of things.

Less than a month ago I bought the Mavic 2 Pro after watching several drone crash videos on YouTube and practicing my flying on the Spark rather extensively to gain confidence. I have flown the Mavic 2 Pro quite often on top of lakes, cliffs, etc., and uploaded YouTube videos since then for friends to see.

That's the sum of my experience. I always stay away from trees and only take off and land on wide open spaces. (Early on, I crashed the Spark on a tree and my house's wall, so I have experienced crashing.) Not sure where I'd fall in terms of experience. I thought I'd give that brief background before asking my question.

I volunteered to fly my drone for aerial views of my church's surroundings in a rural setting. My church's administrator (who I'd refer to as "friend" from this point on) asked if I could fly the drone from the post office, 0.6 miles away, toward the church so the viewer can get a good idea of where the church is located.

I figure there are two ways:

1) Set waypoints (one waypoint per turn on the road for a total of about 3-4 waypoints) from the post office to the church, with the drone on "hover" once the drone reaches the church. Upon launching the drone at the post office (first waypoint), I'd hop in the car with my friend driving so we can head on over to the church, while watching the drone above us and I monitoring the dron on my controller and smartphone.

2) Use Active Track for the drone to follow us inside the car with my friend driving and I monitoring the drone on my controller and smartphone.

I'm preferring Active Track as it does not require too much use of software, but wondering if drone's camera will always be pointed down on the car and therefore will have a (low) height limit.

Thanks a lot for any advice, suggestions, or tips.

So first of all I would not use Active Track with you in a car watching the drone. Being in a car with your controller can cause signal loss or disruption.
I also wouldn't use waypoints becuase if your following a car and have to stop or speed the drone will loose site of you because its traveling at the speed you set before hand.

If your goal is to watch a car driving from the Post Office to the church and its only .6 miles away I would stand at the Post Office and just fly the drone yourself following your friends car and then once you reach the church bring the drone back to you. I would also do a bunch of test runs to look for any obstacles on the way, trees, electrical poles, etc. Then once you have a safe flying height you can concentrate on following the car and not crashing into stuff.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

HurleyBird Productions Posted at 6-5 08:48
So first of all I would not use Active Track with you in a car watching the drone. Being in a car with your controller can cause signal loss or disruption.
I also wouldn't use waypoints becuase if your following a car and have to stop or speed the drone will loose site of you because its traveling at the speed you set before hand.

Thanks a lot, HurleyBird. I will fly manually from the post office to the church, then fly backward back to me at the post office.

I posted my question because a couple of YouTube videos advised against losing line of sight (indeed, some say always fly with a spotter). But if it's just a short distance away (0.6 miles), and after I do some runs along the flight path from the ground in my car to inspect for powerlines, tall trees, etc., I will fly the drone manually. I do not necessarily have to follow a car on the ground -- I just thought it might be easier. So instead I will just fly a straight line to-and-back.

VVCar Posted at 6-5 10:35
Thanks a lot, HurleyBird. I will fly manually from the post office to the church, then fly backward back to me at the post office.

I posted my question because a couple of YouTube videos advised against losing line of sight (indeed, some say always fly with a spotter). But if it's just a short distance away (0.6 miles), and after I do some runs along the flight path from the ground in my car to inspect for powerlines, tall trees, etc., I will fly the drone manually. I do not necessarily have to follow a car on the ground -- I just thought it might be easier. So instead I will just fly a straight line to-and-back.

Glad to help. And let us know if you need any other assistance. Good luck.

Flying manually for 0.6 mile from post office to church and back worked well.

I made a mistake, though -- I didn't hit record the first time so I went back a second time. (I remember having to tap the camera icon to switch to video so I doubt not hitting record after that, but who knows...)

The first time, as soon as the drone reached the church 0.6 mile away and I was about to fly back to the post office, my drone warned of weak signal. It did not do an automatic return-to-home so I was able to pilot it back.

The second time, I started from the church (instead of from the post office) then flew toward the post office. About half-way in the flight I started losing signal again and the drone did an automatic return-to-home.

So I moved to another location which was about halfway between church and post office then flew from there. I first flew backward to the post office (I can fly safely backward now because I now know from the first flight that there are no obstacles), then forward to the church passing above me, then back to me.

End of story is I got the footage my friend wanted.

Thank you for the tip!

Excellent detail

VVCar Posted at 2020-6-12 07:52
Flying manually for 0.6 mile from post office to church and back worked well.

I made a mistake, though -- I didn't hit record the first time so I went back a second time. (I remember having to tap the camera icon to switch to video so I doubt not hitting record after that, but who knows...)

Strange that you lost signal at 0.6 miles...I have an MA2 and the only experience of loosing signal was when I was too low and far...Always imagine a direct line between your controller and your drone...as long as you have that line without obstructions, will be fine.
If you go far, you increase the altitude in order to maintain that line as a straight line, without interferences like buildings and trees.
In city at 10 floors blocks i had to reach the limit of 120 m altitude, as the drone moved around 5 km...no signal loss, always 2 lines at least...
Cheers.

I've followed myself controlling the drone from inside in my car with my GF driving for 11 miles...  I didn't use any tracking I just put the drone up to 150ft above the tree line directly over the car and used the controls to follow the car around some back roads.   I never had signal issues, but I also was never more than 150-250 away.

great details on how you achieved this.