Hi,
If I were to stand in a very large open field with very good GPS with no obstructions or trees between myself and my airborne drone, what would the drone's maximum operating distance from the remote control.

Cheers
Rob

Please refer to the picture below, you can also find it on our official web: http://www.dji.com/mavic/info#specs

Thanks Thor, is there any tolerance in those figures above, as there is say with the battery life, i.e. weather conditions etc.   Also will the RTH function, if enabled, still operate at 4 miles from the controller ?

Rth will work no matter how far u are from controller. How it works is if it loses signal for more than 20 seconds (either 20 or 30) it activates rth .....also need to have a gps signal. Which in most cases most people do.

Best advice I can give you to calm nerves is to always go through a checklist before taking off. I have a card I carry in my flight bag that I go through every time prior to takeoff. That involves checking settings, setting home point, checking compass, GPS, etc. It's saved my bacon a couple of times.

I think a lot of people who are having "fly away" problems are simply not taking the time to check their aircraft prior to takeoff or flying beyond what the aircraft was designed for. This is really not a toy and I wish more people would think about that prior to flying without any type of familiarization with the aircraft or even the instructions.

Paul_IA Posted at 2017-9-12 07:06
Best advice I can give you to calm nerves is to always go through a checklist before taking off. I have a card I carry in my flight bag that I go through every time prior to takeoff. That involves checking settings, setting home point, checking compass, GPS, etc. It's saved my bacon a couple of times.

I think a lot of people who are having "fly away" problems are simply not taking the time to check their aircraft prior to takeoff or flying beyond what the aircraft was designed for. This is really not a toy and I wish more people would think about that prior to flying without any type of familiarization with the aircraft or even the instructions.

Excellent.. Would you care to share your checklist..  
I have a kind of list in my head. Includes ensuring the flying zone is safe, GPS signal is strong, RTH
settings recorded/updated, etc.. would be good to see what your list entails.

Do you have a specific kneeboard list for venturing out over a lake ?

Regarding flyaways... I wonder if find my drone would work for the duration of the time the battery remained alive, in the event of a fly away.. It might give a gps location as to where it has come down ??

Rob Hulford Posted at 2017-9-12 07:15
Regarding flyaways... I wonder if find my drone would work for the duration of the time the battery remained alive, in the event of a fly away.. It might give a gps location as to where it has come down ??

There's actually two parts to this. First is selecting a takeoff location. Pretty common sense items like:

a) Make sure you have a fairly open area for launch devoid of surrounding tall objects. I want to be able to see the MP take off and see it coming back to land.

b) Stay way from metal structures. I've had compass problems flying near my house that has a metal roof.

c) Safety and courtesy. Stay way from crowds, cars and other people's property.

The checklist (don't have it in front of me at the moment) is also pretty basic, but it helps me prevent skipping steps:

1) Visual inspection of MP for prior damage (props, sensors, arms, etc.)
2) Verify gimbal cover and gimbal lock removed
3) Boot RC, Googles and MP (in that order)
4) Battery status on RC, MP and Googles
5) Check MP operational status (first screen that comes up in GO 4 app when MP connects)
6) Check compass status (for interference)
7) Set Home Point (and verify that GO says "Home point set. Please check on map"
8) Check camera settings (shutter speed, ISO, etc.)

I always use the "auto takeoff" from the GO 4 app, checking the "set precise location". Then I let the MP takeoff, ascend to altitude and then let it sit for about 10 seconds before flying.

That allows me to verify that the MP can hold position. I've had two occasions when I've done this that the MP will start to drift (badly). Landed, rebooted everything and no problems afterward.

If I do this procedure and everything checks out, I've never had the MP miss the landing pad during RTH by more than 6 inches.

I know others have similar lists and I don't claim mine is definitive or better. But it works for me and has save me a great deal of grief. I would advise that you create something that works for you and update it as you go.

Hope this helps.

My understand of a fly away is that the MP has to be able to communicate to the RC in order to report last known GPS position. For example, if the MP flies away from you and you lose connection to the RC, then the MP is basically autonomous and can no longer tell the RC "here's where I currently at". I believe you'd have to get close enough to the RC again for the MP to connect and report it's current location. The GO 4 app has a menu item that will tell you where the MP last reported it's position. That'd be a great starting point to see if you could get the RC to connect again.

I believe a lot of what is being report as a fly away is simply pilot error. I don't hold the MP to be perfect, but it appears to have been designed to RTH on it's own under most circumstances. But that depends on the pilot using some common sense. For example, I refuse to fly my MP where I can't get a solid GPS lock with a lot of satellites. I also check to make sure that the RTH mode is set if the RC loses connection (that's the default mode unless you change it). I keep an eye on the battery, especially if I'm flying in wind and make sure I'm either close when the battery is running low or the MP will have the wind at it's back on RTH. Again, not anything new, but pilots need to think about their flight before taking off and I think this would solve a lot of issues you see here.

Again, hope this helps.

Thanks for taking the time to post that..
Thats interesting what you mentioned in the last few paragraphs. Ive noticed my MP, when using RTH returns sometimes a couple of meters away from the point from which it lifted off from, even when app says, 'home point set".  Where exactly is the "set precise location" ?

Rob Hulford Posted at 2017-9-12 07:48
Thanks for taking the time to post that..
Thats interesting what you mentioned in the last few paragraphs. Ive noticed my MP, when using RTH returns sometimes a couple of meters away from the point from which it lifted off from, even when app says, 'home point set".  Where exactly is the "set precise location" ?

A window pops up after you initiate an auto take-off. Select yes.