Hello All,

Can we fly the Mavic Air with a preprogrammned flight plan?

I am new to drones. Prior to purchasing the DJI Mavic Air in February I purchased my first drone off of Slickdeals.net deal for $240, the Bebop 2 with Skycontroller. Parrot, who makes the Bebop 2, had a flight plan app, which had an in-app purchase for $20 and it allowed to make autonomous flights, changing the gimbal positions, setting point of interest, spin, rotate at a specific speed. It was nice because I could premake the flight and show up and let it run.

I was missing this feature on a recent trip to Mexico, where I realized I was constantly on the drone. I would have enjoyed setting up flights in advance an instead of actively being on the sticks I could be having a coffee or a beer whilest watching the drone (line of sight of course) for safety.

Are there reccomendations for Apps doing what I described?

Not yet, other app suppliers like Litchi awaiting dji to release SDK to get working on developing new programs.

So, with the DJI models that do support autonomous waypoint missions, do you still need to be in contact with the controller during the mission, or can you go out of range?

cspain Posted at 2018-3-23 15:04
So, with the DJI models that do support autonomous waypoint missions, do you still need to be in contact with the controller during the mission, or can you go out of range?

Once the mission is uploaded into the craft, it will perform the flight without maintaining contact with the controller i.e. it will not return home when connection is lost. But make sure that you have enough battery life to do the flight, allowing a good buffer in case head winds are encountered on the way back. And don't have the return flight over water for that reason.

Punchbuggy Posted at 2018-3-23 15:42
Once the mission is uploaded into the craft, it will perform the flight without maintaining contact with the controller i.e. it will not return home when connection is lost. But make sure that you have enough battery life to do the flight, allowing a good buffer in case head winds are encountered on the way back. And don't have the return flight over water for that reason.

That's cool. One of the biggest limitations I have is flying from a field surrounded by forest on all sides. I sometimes can't get very far due to the nearby trees blocking the signal. I work around it by flying high, but you just don't see as much detail up at higher altitudes.

cspain Posted at 2018-3-23 15:52
That's cool. One of the biggest limitations I have is flying from a field surrounded by forest on all sides. I sometimes can't get very far due to the nearby trees blocking the signal. I work around it by flying high, but you just don't see as much detail up at higher altitudes.

Then apps like Litchi will help, but you need to plan your waypoints, heights and path carefully between each. Once it's out of sight...
Note that Litchi still hasn't been updated for use with the Air yet though. As others have commented, DJI haven't updated their Software Developers Kit with the software calls for that model yet.

Diego, sorry to tell Mavic supports neither Waypoints Mission nor GS Pro at this point. Thank you for your support.

Thanks for the suggestions! I will stick to DJI apps for now.

The technology behind DJI is second to none, and the quality of images are also second to none. I would love to see this feature in the future. Thanks!

Dirty Bird Posted at 2018-3-23 15:04
There is an app that does this called Litchi.  It works with most DJI drones with the exception of the Mavic Air.  When/if DJI released the Air SDK the Air will be capable of programmed autonomous flight.  It's an awesome feature.

https://youtu.be/0Fl0e91hAi4

Thank you. Great footage. I wish it was supported by Mavic Air. I would love this feature, but weary of the 3rd parties.

DiegoMayra Posted at 2018-3-26 08:30
Thank you. Great footage. I wish it was supported by Mavic Air. I would love this feature, but weary of the 3rd parties.

Litchi is a great Mission App, here is an example of a pre-planned flight, just load the mission and watch it go, many features over the Go4 App. But alas as stated above no support for the MA, we are all eagerly awaiting the updated Litchi.

Here are a couple of pre-planned images

QuadKid Posted at 2018-3-26 08:56
Litchi is a great Mission App, here is an example of a pre-planned flight, just load the mission and watch it go, many features over the Go4 App. But alas as stated above no support for the MA, we are all eagerly awaiting the updated Litchi.

Here are a couple of pre-planned images

Wow that does look amazing. Are you preplanning with a Google Earth format? or is that the preplan xml/gpx put into google maps?

I don't know, I still haven't found an app that makes my coffee.

DiegoMayra Posted at 2018-3-26 09:40
Wow that does look amazing. Are you preplanning with a Google Earth format? or is that the preplan xml/gpx put into google maps?

It was planned using Litchi, then exported as a KML file, then imported into Google Earth.

I have parrot bebop. It has way points and points of interest you can pre plan and fly an autonomous course. Can either Mar or Mpro do this? Still deciding which to purchase

Yes, they both have those. However, for the MA you need Litchi to use waypoints.