Flying a Litchi course out of line-of-sight

[suasys]

Litchi and flying out of line-of-sight.

I'm flying a P4 and using Litchi.

How far from HOME can I safely fly my P4 under control of a Litchi course? The furtherest distance from HOME to a point on the Litchi course is about 1.4 miles, but will be out of the line-of-sight.
Can I set up a Litchi course where the P4 will be out of the line-of-sight and fly it safely. Trees and hills will get in the way. I will be over water going around the coastline of a bay.

Thanks, in advance, for your quick response.

Sterling

 

[Mark The Droner]

By "course" you must mean "mission."

I'd say it depends on your definition of "safely."

For example, as a pilot's AC disappears over the trees and his screen suddenly freezes and won't update, and he has no idea whether his aircraft is airborne, in a tree, or underwater, some would find this utterly terrifying. Others find it exhilarating.

I think if I was new at this hobby, I'd probably want to save that kind of a flight until later when I had more confidence in the aircraft and the app.

You also might want to take a look at FAR Part 101.

Welcome to the site!

 

[WilliamM]

Litchi and flying out of line-of-sight.

I'm flying a P4 and using Litchi.

How far from HOME can I safely fly my P4 under control of a Litchi course? The furtherest distance from HOME to a point on the Litchi course is about 1.4 miles, but will be out of the line-of-sight.
Can I set up a Litchi course where the P4 will be out of the line-of-sight and fly it safely. Trees and hills will get in the way. I will be over water going around the coastline of a bay.

Thanks, in advance, for your quick response.

Sterling

1.4 miles in total, or 1.4 miles out?

Sent from my HTC 10 using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[MacCool]

That's not a stretch for the Litchi app. Theoretically, you can hit "start mission" and then go have a beer if you trust the drone and as long as you're certain that your mission time is less than what your battery can support. Note that if your battery hits the low-power warning, it will likely try land in place. That's a problem if it's out of line of sight or out of range because you won't be able to fly it home. I would certainly get a pair of windsurfers to increase your odds of having the drone respond to an RTH command while it's out of line-of-sight.

And do read part 101 of the FARs.

 

[WilliamM]

That's not a stretch for the Litchi app. Theoretically, you can hit "start mission" and then go have a beer if you trust the drone and as long as you're certain that your mission time is less than what your battery can support. Note that if your battery hits the low-power warning, it will likely try land in place. That's a problem if it's out of line of sight or out of range because you won't be able to fly it home. I would certainly get a pair of windsurfers to increase your odds of having the drone respond to an RTH command while it's out of line-of-sight.

And do read part 101 of the FARs.

I thought even with Litchi the FW is still supposed to keep track of battery level and complete a RTH if needed when flying a Waypoint mission.

Sent from my HTC 10 using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[With The Birds]

I thought even with Litchi the FW is still supposed to keep track of battery level and complete a RTH if needed when flying a Waypoint mission.

Sent from my HTC 10 using PhantomPilots mobile app

That may be dependant on whether you have smart go home enabled

 

[WilliamM]

That may be dependant on whether you have smart go home enabled

Don't think Litchi has a Smart RTH option in its app. Only a RTH if signal is lost, which doesn't apply to a Waypoint mission anyway. That's way I thought it was programmed into the FW. But I could be wrong, and not about to put that to the test.

Sent from my HTC 10 using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[Dirty Bird]

Running at 30 mph in moderate winds (<8 mph) you can easily complete missions of 40,000' roundtrip, or about 20,000 out. That's almost 4 miles one way so 1.4 miles is a piece of cake. Even if you lose RC the bird will complete the mission just make sure you have carefully planned the mission to avoid any obstacles.

NOTE: You'll need to disable Smart RTH to complete missions of this length.

Litchi and flying out of line-of-sight.

I'm flying a P4 and using Litchi.

How far from HOME can I safely fly my P4 under control of a Litchi course? The furtherest distance from HOME to a point on the Litchi course is about 1.4 miles, but will be out of the line-of-sight.
Can I set up a Litchi course where the P4 will be out of the line-of-sight and fly it safely. Trees and hills will get in the way. I will be over water going around the coastline of a bay.

Thanks, in advance, for your quick response.

Sterling

 

[With The Birds]

Don't think Litchi has a Smart RTH option in its app. Only a RTH if signal is lost, which doesn't apply to a Waypoint mission anyway. That's way I thought it was programmed into the FW. But I could be wrong, and not about to put that to the test.

Sent from my HTC 10 using PhantomPilots mobile app

I said "may depend" as I don't know. I disabled smart GO home the second I found it in the menu. It's annoying as it's over conservative.

 

[Dirty Bird]

If Smart RTH is enabled (from the Go app) Litchi will apply it's settings if it senses the Battery RTH threshold has been reached & cause the aircraft to return home at the RTH altitude. It is rather conservative in estimating battery life & longer missions require disabling Smart RTH to fully complete.

I thought even with Litchi the FW is still supposed to keep track of battery level and complete a RTH if needed when flying a Waypoint mission.

Sent from my HTC 10 using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[Snarfleblaster]

Wouldn't a SMART return to home function go to the destination location if it's closer than the launch location? Is it smart enough for that?

 

[With The Birds]

Wouldn't a SMART return to home function go to the destination location if it's closer than the launch location? Is it smart enough for that?

No.... that would be smart GO destination mode.

If smart RTH is working correctly the AC will make it home to the launch point regardless of where the destination might be. In most instances flying to the destination would be less desirable and may be dangerous.

 

[PLPhoto]

If you lack the confidence, you could make two separate missions that you can splice together. Just a thought.

 

[jndalee]

Lost control of gimbals after reviewing the results of a Litchi curved turns mission, the footage showed when the P4 went behind the small church for about 10 - 15 seconds the camera pointed directly to the ground only returning to the (POI) when P4 was back in view and passing the next WP. I updated the mission with a lot more WP hoping it will regain the signal sooner, hoping to test when weather permits.

Question when changing altitude while pointing at a (POI) the gimbals settings are being changed constantly where is that being calculated on the bird or the iPad?