Well, I've created a couple of waypoint missions around my neighborhood. One is a photo mission to take a trip around the new train station being built nearby, my plan it to fly this weekly then compile the pics into a flip book type video in a year or so when its done. Using Litchi GS will enable me to take the same pictures from the same spots over and over. The issue I have in flying it manually, is to get down to a low enough altitude to take a decent pic, I lose signal through the houses nearby. I was able to fly the mission once before the snow hit and it worked great. I actually drove over there, took off, flew back to my start point above my house then initiated the mission from a wide open place from where I retained signal for the mission. This enabled me to monitor everything the first time. Then I went back home and initiated the mission again, during which time I did lose my signal as it dropped to 100 feet at the far end of my run. I was super nervous, but every few seconds the position indicator would jump a little further down the line letting me know that she was still executing the mission, and I would see flickers of video here and there. Within a few minutes, the photo run was over, she popped back up to 300 feet, and I was able to monitor the rest of the flight home! I spent the evening tweaking the camera angles and heights as well as extending the run a little. Looking forward to flying this again when it warms up!
Still snowing... So I have created another mission, this time video, to fly around the small lake nearby. I tried to do this last week with the DJI Pilot app, and the 500 meter limit would not allow me to set waypoints on the far shore, cutting me about 100 feet short over the lake. I suppose in retrospect, I could have reset my home point out over the water somewhere, then I could have reached all around it within 500 meters, sketchy!!! Anyway with this new "Trip around the lake" mission, I fly over to it at 400 feet from my house, then swoop in to 120 feet which is my lowest limit for the first flight. I plan to review the video and make altitude adjustments after the first flight. At this point I expect to lose signal completely as there is neighborhood 50 houses deep between me and the edge of the open spaces around the lake. From there maintaining 120 feet, she will navigate through 20 some waypoints covering about 8,000 feet of travel which includes a short run over the water and around a tiny island in the middle, before popping back up to 400 feet, where I should regain signal, and flying home. At just a hair over 2 miles total for the trip, I am expecting to be dark for 3-4 minutes or so... I also plan to physically go over to the lake the first time and monitor the entire flight from a location that I can maintain control and oversight.
Thanks for all your help getting started!
