Question about a multiple battery flight

[Forby]

Legal? I think you mean "compliant." We're always legal. We're not always compliant. I can't map a 15 mile corridor if I have to have "eyes on" the entire time. Keep in mind we're not mapping roads. We're mapping power routes that go through hills, forest, rough terrain, etc. Setting up spotters along the way would be cost prohibitive and in some cases, impossible. These corridor missions are always devoid of traffic, buildings and/or warm bodies. So if the drone does go down, nobody gets hurt. My rule of thumb is pretty simple. Don't endanger people, animals or property. That's been my RC Helicopter mantra since the 80's.

D

This was helpful.. Thank you.

We have a team set up for Wednesday if the weather works out. I may have short changed the size of the property in my initial estimate. May be closer to 500 acres. Thinking of self announcing on the CTAF even thou I'm not supposed to because helios tend to com thru our area at sub 400 altitudes....

 

[RMartin]

This was helpful.. Thank you.

We have a team set up for Wednesday if the weather works out. I may have short changed the size of the property in my initial estimate. May be closer to 500 acres. Thinking of self announcing on the CTAF even thou I'm not supposed to because helios tend to com thru our area at sub 400 altitudes....

Filing a NOTAM via ENII works better....you reach a wider audience.

 

[Forby]

Filing a NOTAM via ENII works better....you reach a wider audience.

Thanks.....

I'll look into that!

We did shoot last Wednesday. We encountered an issue with Pix4D where after succesfully getting thru battery one, the drone went back into mission for battery two and started skipping photos!! After battery three, it went back landfilled in most of the missing images. There were still some areas not shown as photographed. They were on the exterior fringes at one spot and one in the middle. I'm waiting to here from the client on that.

lessons learned:
1. Binoculars are usless. The drone is too fast to have a spotter follow with them. Solution... need more spotters or better vantage point.

2. One strobe on drone ineffective for locating against bright blue sky. Solution... need more strobes to be able to see drone at all flight attitudes.

3.I need to test the RTH function on drone while operating outside of DJI go4. I didn't trust it enough for this mission.

4. Percentage remaining on battery while in Pix4D is slaved from the drone and the percent limit until RTH is also slaved from the settings on DJI Go4

5 I set DJI altitude limit to 600feet temporarily so it didn't create an issue while flying at 400 feet. I was afraid of a conflict between the drone and Pix4D. Reasoning was that the Pix4D flys based on point of launch. If the drone flew over a gully that was a few feet deep, would it trigger a limit on the drone??

6. Charging a Phantom battery via a car voltage converter yields one almost completely full battery for every three used to 25 %

7. I need to set the percentage that triggers a RTH lower to achieve more flight time. Et the same time, I need to be aware of how far out the drone is and have a good idea of when to land it prior to RTH. I'm thinking 18%

 

[licensed pilot]

Using binoculars is a violation of 107.31 but am sure you knew that.

 

[Forby]

Using binoculars is a violation of 107.31 but am sure you knew that.

Not if used by an additional person as a spotter as long as someone has eyes on without an aid to vision.

So I'm following the bird going out. My spotter says "I'm picking up the bird thru the glasses coming my way" ...

I say "bird getting small can you get eyes on?"

Spotter says "eyes on- my bird"

When the drone is coming back spotter says "bird getting small.. let me know as soon as you have a good visual"

I say "I have the bird"

It went that way for about an hour!! I walked about a mile as the bird worked its way downrange and so did my spotter but on the other side of the property.

It was a bit stressful since I was often looking into the sun.

 

[Forby]

It should be noted that seeing a drone at great distance and being able to clearly identify altitude and direction are different. I can see the drone at distance, but having someone nearer to the drone is a much better expierence.

Personally, I think all of this will change in the near future with FPV getting better than LOS and autonomous mission profiles getting more reliable.

 

[RMartin]

Thanks.....

I'll look into that!

We did shoot last Wednesday. We encountered an issue with Pix4D where after succesfully getting thru battery one, the drone went back into mission for battery two and started skipping photos!! After battery three, it went back landfilled in most of the missing images. There were still some areas not shown as photographed. They were on the exterior fringes at one spot and one in the middle. I'm waiting to here from the client on that.

lessons learned:
1. Binoculars are usless. The drone is too fast to have a spotter follow with them. Solution... need more spotters or better vantage point.

2. One strobe on drone ineffective for locating against bright blue sky. Solution... need more strobes to be able to see drone at all flight attitudes.

3.I need to test the RTH function on drone while operating outside of DJI go4. I didn't trust it enough for this mission.

4. Percentage remaining on battery while in Pix4D is slaved from the drone and the percent limit until RTH is also slaved from the settings on DJI Go4

5 I set DJI altitude limit to 600feet temporarily so it didn't create an issue while flying at 400 feet. I was afraid of a conflict between the drone and Pix4D. Reasoning was that the Pix4D flys based on point of launch. If the drone flew over a gully that was a few feet deep, would it trigger a limit on the drone??

6. Charging a Phantom battery via a car voltage converter yields one almost completely full battery for every three used to 25 %

7. I need to set the percentage that triggers a RTH lower to achieve more flight time. Et the same time, I need to be aware of how far out the drone is and have a good idea of when to land it prior to RTH. I'm thinking 18%

I've had that issue with the Inspire and Pix4D Capture. Never did figure it out. Just created a flight plan to fill in the affected area and stitched it all together. All your failsafe limits are filled out in the GO app. If one of them ever kicks in during a Pix4DCapture flight they still apply and will activate when needed to perform the programmed event. I always used the RTH command to bring the aircraft back to its start point. I never used the RTL option.
Hot swapping batteries works. You do need to set your limiters to get the aircraft back to the home point without drawing down the charge to far as to damage the battery. Not that big a deal for DJI; a lot more important in commercial craft and a good habit to get into. My current drop dead RTH for low power is 21.5 volts; though that is on the outside edge and is potentially damaging the battery. My RTH value is set a lot more conservatively at 22.5 volts which is about 15 minutes in the air without risking the battery.

Bear in mind that your altimeter is a barometric altimeter; not a radar altimeter. Gullies do not enter into the picture so setting your altitude limit to 600 feet is counter-productive. 400 feet AGL works and is legal.

As a last note, if you are flying large areas you need at least a decent charger that will turn a battery around quickly....and will handle multiple batteries. A small generator to power it would be nice as well. I picked a Wen 2000 up that handles my base station, the data link and GPS base station, and my dual charger for under $600.00. It also powers the fans which are nice in the summer (for the electronics, of course).

 

[licensed pilot]

Not if used by an additional person as a spotter as long as someone has eyes on without an aid to vision.

So I'm following the bird going out. My spotter says "I'm picking up the bird thru the glasses coming my way" ...

I say "bird getting small can you get eyes on?"

Spotter says "eyes on- my bird"

When the drone is coming back spotter says "bird getting small.. let me know as soon as you have a good visual"

I say "I have the bird"

It went that way for about an hour!! I walked about a mile as the bird worked its way downrange and so did my spotter but on the other side of the property.

It was a bit stressful since I was often looking into the sun.

Hey if you see it, you see it. Just pointing out that binos don't count.