I am guessing that this is for whatever reason a dumb question because I can not find where anyone has asked it so there must be something I missed in the manual explaining it, that being said, is course lock not available for the Inspire 2 in GO 4? It is easy for me to get confused as to the orientation of the aircraft when it is quite a distance away and I almost lost it in the river the other day in a low battery situation when it just kept going further away no matter what I tried...  The Inspire 1 with the DJI GO app had this option but I can not find any reference to it for the Inspire 2 under GO 4???  OK, so let me have it...  What am I missing here???  Thanks in advance...

Its coming. Wait a little

Mike-the-cat Posted at 2017-1-22 05:13
Its coming. Wait a little

Sarcasm??  I am not quite sure I hope it's coming, in the meantime, how do you other pilots deal with orientation of your aircraft when it is too far to visually determine it's direction? Usually I can barely see the aircraft but I can not see the green or red lights or determine which way it's pointing...  We live in a very mountainous region of central Idaho near the rugged Salmon and Snake Rivers...  I would appreciate any tips or advice anyone is willing to share...

fans413ab842 Posted at 2017-1-22 10:06
Sarcasm??  I am not quite sure  I hope it's coming, in the meantime, how do you other pilots deal with orientation of your aircraft when it is too far to visually determine it's direction? Usually I can barely see the aircraft but I can not see the green or red lights or determine which way it's pointing...  We live in a very mountainous region of central Idaho near the rugged Salmon and Snake Rivers...  I would appreciate any tips or advice anyone is willing to share...

Not sarcasm, It took awhile to deliver this on the original Inspire when P2's had it already. It must be related to parameter tuning as the basic algorithm is there already.

Forget about using lights. You can easily tape the legs in different colours. However, it is MUCH easier to orient by 1) using the FPV and 2) your choice of orientation markers - map or the radar tool.

Exactly because of the 3D nature of undulating terrain, its important to get the aircraft view of obstacles as opposed to line of sight view. It takes valuable brain time to orient aircraft and movement direction whereas you have all the info in front of your eyes when you look at the display. The comparison is like instrument flying vs. visual flight in a storm in a real aircraft.
FPV equipped quads are SO different from regular aircraft. They have a slew of advances but I suspect old time flyers haven't learned to use these. Once you do, its a whole new ball game. You have to trust the instruments. They actiually work.

Mike-the-cat Posted at 2017-1-22 16:16
Not sarcasm, It took awhile to deliver this on the original Inspire when P2's had it already. It must be related to parameter tuning as the basic algorithm is there already.

Forget about using lights. You can easily tape the legs in different colours. However, it is MUCH easier to orient by 1) using the FPV and 2) your choice of orientation markers - map or the radar tool.

Excellent - Excellent advice and I can totally relate...  I rarely, if ever, have attempted to use the radar or map or fpv camera for that matter as a source of orientation...  I have only used the monitor to get the best shot and determine distance height and % of batteries left...  I will start practicing in safer areas using the instrumentation as you suggest and I know that you are correct...  Thank you very much for your advice...  It is much appreciated...

fans413ab842 Posted at 2017-1-22 17:25
Excellent - Excellent advice and I can totally relate...  I rarely, if ever, have attempted to use the radar or map or fpv camera for that matter as a source of orientation...  I have only used the monitor to get the best shot and determine distance height and % of batteries left...  I will start practicing in safer areas using the instrumentation as you suggest and I know that you are correct...  Thank you very much for your advice...  It is much appreciated...

Just to echo what Mike said, I regularly use the compass on the bottom left corner of the app display to orient the drone when it's far off. Once I see the red arrow pointing back at me, I know I can fly it forward and it will return. I also watch the distance to make sure it's decreasing. When I was first practicing with the simulator, I'd get the sim drone way out there so I couldn't even see it on the screen, then use the instrument data to get it back. Works the same way in real life situations.  

I don't need to worry about course lock!! all I need to do is look at the I2 sitting on the desk to figure out which way its pointing

My first reaction to the question is naturally, don't fly so far out that you can't see the bird to determine orientation. Visual line of sight is more than just words, it's actually a good practice. Or, bet as much as you can afford to lose, that being your inspire. But, it's also a good idea to learn the telemetry of the app too. It is there to aid you in flight. Not sure if the simulator is up and running with the I2 yet, but that's a great place to learn everything about flying within the app. But take it a step further in the simulator. Rather than just learn instrumentation to get you around and to show you orientation, fly the sim bird out far but still close enough to see it and spin it around without looking. Then try to get it back using only the sticks and what you see the bird doing. That'll teach you how to understand orientation by how the bird is reacting by looking at it and nothing else. But seriously, if you almost lost it in a river because you hit critical battery for lack of navigating back in the correct direction, you should absolutely not be flying beyond visual line of sight yet. Smart modes be dammed, don't rely on them. Take it slow and just fly closer to see the bird. Good luck.

fans413ab842 Posted at 2017-1-22 17:25
Excellent - Excellent advice and I can totally relate...  I rarely, if ever, have attempted to use the radar or map or fpv camera for that matter as a source of orientation...  I have only used the monitor to get the best shot and determine distance height and % of batteries left...  I will start practicing in safer areas using the instrumentation as you suggest and I know that you are correct...  Thank you very much for your advice...  It is much appreciated...

Hello,

Imagine you're far away and your Inspire is just like a small black point and you don't have telemetry because you don't have some battery left on your phone or tablett...it's quite easy to get your bird back!

First push the stick for a forward movement and observe the small black point. When it moves to the left, give a smooth yaw input to the left until your point seems to stay still in the air. That means it is flying back to you. Same thing when your point goes to the right (forward and yaw to the right until your black spot doesn't move anymore...it's heading back to you).
When the black spot doesn't move with forward stick input, you need to give some yaw to the left or right and then follow the points as described.