I have done all my flying far away from power lines. The other day I stopped at the side of a country road where I wanted to take a video of something. However, there was a power line running along the road and I decided not to fly. I know that flying near power lines is not advised, but are we talking about major transmission lines or just everyday lines? I see lots of videos taken by folks flying in their backyards in a city where there must be power lines nearby. Anyone got a rule of thumb for how close?
How close to power lines?
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My Phantom is on order, and I've yet to fly one, but I've given thought to this, since I live in an area with plenty of aboveground power lines. My conclusion, and answer to your question, is: don't fly at any distance from a power line where the possibility of hitting it is not zero. It's just not worth it, for any purpose I can foresee. Not even worth the chance of damage to your Phantom, let alone the real possibility of causing damage to the power line.grochester said:
canadavenyc said:
Not concerned with running into the power line as I would be flying away from it. Concerned with the effect of radio interference from the power line
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Oh, I see. Well, I guess I'd say that if you're at a distance from the power line where your chance of hitting it is zero, then I'd say the chance of EM radiation affecting the controls is also probably going to be zerogrochester said:
But at this point I'll let more experienced pilots chime in.
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If you're talking about the little lines that run around your neighborhood (distribution lines), I've touched my landing gear to the one near my house with no weird effects.
Transmission lines (the ones on huge towers) I wouldn't go within 100' feet of.
Just my $0.02
Transmission lines (the ones on huge towers) I wouldn't go within 100' feet of.
Just my $0.02
The EMI around 13.8kv lines is minimal.
And will not effect the 2.4ghz or the 5.8ghz communications.
The problem arises when you fly in-between two of the phases and over come the dielectric resistance of the air and zap!
an arc across the two phases and fry the electronics in your UAV.
And will not effect the 2.4ghz or the 5.8ghz communications.
The problem arises when you fly in-between two of the phases and over come the dielectric resistance of the air and zap!
an arc across the two phases and fry the electronics in your UAV.
I live next to some high voltage transmission lines and fly over them, under them and have been within a foot or two from them and have had absolutely no issues with them. I have never been concerned by flying close to them. These poles are high level, so mostly fly over them and around 80 feet high also.
My SOP for power lines, or any overhead lines, is to stay as far away as possible. I'm the kind of guy who sees a cliff and decides to stay as far back as practical rather than seeing how close to the edge I can come without falling over.
grochester said:
you mean these
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7EAS9sG ... ture=share
not an issue have flown over, around, under and have had no effect
would be nice if DJI let us set our RTH altitude higher than 66ft so I could clear them if its activated
skyhighdiver said:
You can set a new HP while in the air, which achieves the same effect. Climb to your chosen point and height and switch S2 5 times between MID and BOTTOM position, you should get the green flashes. Of course if your Vision App is set to Dynamic Home Point it will overwrite it again. I don't use DHP - I'm wary of the phone GPS going out of whack and telling the P2V+ that HOME is somewhere over the rainbow ...
Note that switching S2 between TOP and BOTTOM sets both Course Lock and Home Point. TOP/MID just sets Course.
KG4MXV said:
It can't be said more concisely than this. The problem arises in air conditions during the flight. Normal humidity and air density will be different with every region and elevation. You may fly 5' from a line today and a week later it zaps the bird.
General rule of thumb. If the birds aren't gathering, neither should you.
My RTH is 150'. We have some tall trees in my area.
One of the places I like to take off from is right below a high transmission line. Way below. I don't get any interference with the control transmissions.
Grochester, I would not attempt to claim to be an expert on the subject, however I can relate my recent experiences on this subject. We routinely fly parallel and along both Transmission Lines and Distribution Lines. We fly both Inspire 1's and Mavics. Our distance is as close as 50' to 100' from these lines. As part of our Safety Protocol we make considerations reference the wind direction and wind speed. As far as the interference of transmission between the aircraft and the controller, we have not experienced control issues but I will say that our video transmission feed distance does seem to be somewhat reduced. (more so on the Inspire 1) when operating along side the transmission lines. I have not noticed this reduction of distance if only a distribution line is present.
While I am not an expert on the subject, answer for the distinction between the transmission or distribution line is probably obvious.
Having said all of that, I still remain concerned and am looking at the Matrice 200 or Matrice 210 which I believe claims to be resilient to these issues.
Just my experience, hope this helps. [email protected]
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