I'm currently flying a Mavic Air 2 and have a little issue with being outside cell tower range while running a Litchi waypoint mission. I took a look at a property I'm going to be mapping earlier today and when I got out there I realized I had no phone signal, so there's going to be no GPS or map to work with on-site. There's a small chance of being able to connect to land-based wifi, but even that might not be able to happen.

I was hoping to use a waypoint mission to run a little outside the property borders on all sides and take photos looking in and down at regular intervals. It's dense jungle around there and locating the exact edge of the property boundaries manually is going to be very tricky. The site starts high and drops down at least 50m. I plan on flying from the hill overlooking the property so getting a signal from the drone to the controller (and vice versa) shouldn't be an issue. Full property area is around 55 square acres.


Questions:
1) If I set up a waypoint mission ahead of time and fly the drone to the specific location it's set to start its mission and then point it in the correct initial heading will the drone carry out the mission and maintain waypoints consistently even without proper GPS/map access.

2) If I set manual waypoints while I'm on-site and then run the mission, will the lack of actual cell GPS signal be an issue?

3) If I can hook up to wifi I assume all my issues will go away. Is this actually the case?

Thanks in advance for the help!

I took a look at a property I'm going to be mapping earlier today and when I got out there I realized I had no phone signal, so there's going to be no GPS or map to work with on-site.
Why no GPS?
The GPS signal comes from a constellation of satellites orbiting in space ... not from a cell phone tower.

Full property area is around 55 square acres.
Square acres ??   

1) If I set up a waypoint mission ahead of time and fly the drone to the specific location it's set to start its mission and then point it in the correct initial heading will the drone carry out the mission and maintain waypoints consistently even without proper GPS/map access.
You don't have to tell the drone which way to go.
That's all programmed into the mission.You can launch it facing any direction.

will the drone carry out the mission and maintain waypoints consistently even without proper GPS/map access.
You can't fly a Litchi mission without GPS, but why would you imagine that GPS would be a problem?
2) If I set manual waypoints while I'm on-site and then run the mission, will the lack of actual cell GPS signal be an issue?
Why no GPS?

3) If I can hook up to wifi I assume all my issues will go away. Is this actually the case?
Wifi would allow you to download maps.
But it doesn't provide the GPS signal that you are so concerned about.

Labroides Posted at 10-13 22:14
I took a look at a property I'm going to be mapping earlier today and when I got out there I realized I had no phone signal, so there's going to be no GPS or map to work with on-site.
Why no GPS?
The GPS signal comes from a constellation of satellites orbiting in space ... not from a cell phone tower.

Thanks for the quick reply! Looks like I have a little bit to learn about GPS signals...and acreage measurements. I assumed no cell tower meant no GPS, so I appreciate being set straight. Happy days

Hello there. Good day and thank you for reaching out. Since you wanted to use and 3rd party application ( Litchi ), I hope that you will get the best information with regards to this matter from our fellow DJI co pilots who have tried using the said application. Just a reminder to please use the recommended DJI application when flying your DJI Drone to ensure stability and comparability during flight and 3rd party applications like Litchi can void the warranty of the said DJI Drone as well. Thank you and safe flying always.

Labroides Posted at 10-13 22:14
I took a look at a property I'm going to be mapping earlier today and when I got out there I realized I had no phone signal, so there's going to be no GPS or map to work with on-site.
Why no GPS?
The GPS signal comes from a constellation of satellites orbiting in space ... not from a cell phone tower.

Hi bud, I use litchi occasionally with no problems, however if I just go and load litchi in the field there is no map, however if I load litchi at home with WiFi and then turn off and go to the field and load again the map is there. No expert here but I guess its still in the cache, also I've found a way point mission saved at home also shows the map when I get to the field.
Now that's just what I've found with my very limited experience.
There'll be good advice from more experienced members I'm sure.

djiuser_e5KH56fqyYHn Posted at 10-13 23:21
Thanks for the quick reply! Looks like I have a little bit to learn about GPS signals...and acreage measurements. I assumed no cell tower meant no GPS, so I appreciate being set straight. Happy days

Get in a bit more practice flying with the software in question, and you'll soon come to love it