Litchi Waypoints Mission Time

[Flipsonic]

I realize you have to account for various atmospheric layers such as wind direction, speed, etc. when planning your mission. But since we don't know what the conditions will be until flight time, what is the ballpark mission time you are targeting (no battery mod)? Anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes? Sorry if there is really no quick answer to this. Just wanted to know what everyone is targeting?

 

[Flipsonic]

Anyone?


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[BobMcKinlay]

I don't go under 50-60% battery life if the drone is out of line of sight. So let's say about 9-10 minutes of mission time. That way I have plenty of time to get things back manually before I hit my 20% panic mark.

 

[happydays]

I did a large set of missions recently to map the course of a 32 mile canal in many stages. I aimed for 15-16 minutes max as the phantom (in my experience) gets 18-19 minutes of battery before the warnings start. Even a 16 minute mission planned on mac in advance ended up coming in early; I reckon 12-13 minutes was about the average. Only on one particularly windy flight did the mission last anywhere near what it said on the screen. I set everything up to fly at 28kph.

 

[CenLA]

My rule of thumb is not to go more than 2/3 battery life on both my P3 and P4.

I'm not sure if Litchi builds it into the program or what but like happydays indicated the flight is usually over before the time on screen. If I set up an an 18-minute, 20,000 foot mission the bird usually gets home about 15-16 minutes so I'm always waiting for it to make sure it doesn't overshoot and land in a tree.

For me personally, whenever possible i also try to have the last leg of the flight over an open area (not water!) so I don't have to hunt for my bird in the woods if it finds high winds aloft that slows the return (which I did twice).

 

[Flipsonic]

Thanks all. All that is good to know. But I will have my finger over the RTH button just in case I'm feeling uneasy about the remaining battery.

Happydays - nice vid. Did you speed it up? Looks faster than 28 kph.


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[Corey Tucker]

I used to plan 20 minute missions and always wonder why it would come back in RTH mode. Realized the low battery warning was kicking in. Sucks it won't do more. Mine was always out of sight so good thing there was no wind.

 

[fastfed]

Im learning how much wind really effects things..

During a long distance records flight for me last night, I hit almost 2 miles and while heading out there I was flying @ a high alt. and almost 40mph with only half stick forward.

on the way back which was 75% battery life, I hit a max speed of 11mph made it back with 23% batter and hate that feeling not knowing if you will make it or not.

having to lower your alt. to get better wind sucks too