Litchi downloaded, I have some questions

[Archangel3356]

Good morning and Thanks for looking in. Download Litchi last night and have been going through the app and making some test flight plans. Question is can you have Litchi keep a Phantom 4, running on IOS 11.2.2, X amount of feet over the ground agl along the flight path? Also I see no aircraft “radar” on the screen, is their one or something similar? And last, what do you all set up as cruise speeds in the mission settings? Appreciate any help, looking forward to trying Litchi out this afternoon. Any other advice for a new Litchi user I am sure wide open to it. Thanks again all !

 

[Fly Dawg]

Question is can you have Litchi keep a Phantom 4, running on IOS 11.2.2, X amount of feet over the feet agl along the flight path?

Not automatically per say. All the aircraft knows is its approximate altitude above the takeoff point. You would need to set your altitudes accordingly AGL. And what you have to remember is, between waypoints, when you change altitude, this does not happen instantaneously. It is a gradual climb or descent between the two. So plan carefully.

 

[Archangel3356]

Oh that was the other question. How quickly does it change altitude. Thank Fly Dawg, I know a little more now and that’s a good thing.

 

[Fly Dawg]

That depends on the distance between waypoints and your speed settings. E.G. Waypoint 2 is 200ft. Waypoint 3 is 300ft. The closer your waypoints are together, the steeper the climb angle will be. Farther away and the angle is less.

 

[GrammatonxXXxCleric]

Lots of waypoints are usually advised if flying over/around objects. Point A to point B over a tree may need more than one waypoint to be safely past/around it.

 

[bsartist]

When programming a flight over changing terrain, you definitely should have waypoints close together to stay as close to the terrain as possible. BUT you also must be sure to set altitudes as “relative to ground.” Otherwise they all default to relative to home point elevation. Once you drop all your closely spaced waypoints, select them all and do a bulk edit. Then set relative to ground. You will then see the altitudes all change to be your set height above the terrain. This only works in the app. Not the hub. If you don’t know how to do a bulk edit, check the manual. It should be well explained there.

To reiterate what others have already said, elevation changes go in a straight line connecting one waypoint to the next. if your points are too far apart and a hill juts up in between, you’ll hit it. Dropping more points increases your chance that won’t happen.

At the risk of overstating the obvious, remember it’s above ground, not trees and obstacles. Add enough height to clear the tallest trees. Then add more.

 

[GrammatonxXXxCleric]

Also take into consideration the altitude errors. I have seen altitude reporting in ERROR 15-20 ft from what the drone is actually at. From what Iv'e seen flying above 50-75-100 ft up then decending, the reported altitude is higher than what the drone is . In addition... errors in GPS posistioning +/- upwards 5-7 ft laterally (Side to side).

 

[Archangel3356]

Thank you all for some very good information. Taking all this into consideration I think for my first Litchi flight I’ll head out to an open area to see how the Phantom responds to Litchi. Lots of tall cactus and Hawks on my property so I’d rather test it the first time somewhere open. I want to see what it’s like taking back control of the aircraft and what input I have during a mission other than selecting the sport flight mode. BTW, does it actually go into the GO sport mode or just cancels the mission? Well thanks much, don’t want to crash so all your advice is well understood. Thanks