I need to fly below a ridge to do a survey. The drone will be out of sight but it will be high enough where there are no obstacles. Will I loose signal if it drops on the other side of a ridge-line?
Reception below ridge
- Thread starter vegasteacher
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That depends greatly on the specific circumstances. You may be fine or you may lose signal. Be very careful as worst case scenario you could lose signal between controller and craft and the craft could also lose GPS reception (depending on line of sight to satellites). It has happened to others in the past.
msinger
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You will lose signal if any large obstacles (like a ridge-line) come between the drone and the remote controller.
I lose signal often for those reasons. I set my RTH high enough that it will automatically ascend and then I regain control.
vegasteacher: We have the issue of ridge lines, etc in our mountainous and undulating plateau terrain.
As others above have answered, it's basically a "yes" - but with some leeway, in our experience. You will first get a warning about a weak signal. When this happens, you have two choices: either quit and return, or keep going but very slightly adjust your height as you move further away. By doing this, we've been able to achieve flying/filming which we initially thought wasn't possible - although there are still limits. I'm a biologist/psychologist by training, not a physicist, so please excuse the lack of precise detail or knowledge here, but it seems the signal can "bend" to some degree between drone and RC even when there is solid ground (e.g. an elevated ridge) blocking VLOS.
As others above have answered, it's basically a "yes" - but with some leeway, in our experience. You will first get a warning about a weak signal. When this happens, you have two choices: either quit and return, or keep going but very slightly adjust your height as you move further away. By doing this, we've been able to achieve flying/filming which we initially thought wasn't possible - although there are still limits. I'm a biologist/psychologist by training, not a physicist, so please excuse the lack of precise detail or knowledge here, but it seems the signal can "bend" to some degree between drone and RC even when there is solid ground (e.g. an elevated ridge) blocking VLOS.
Yeah, but It's illegal to fly out of view. I had a similar situation this past year and just positioned myself on the ridge so I could see down the other side and keep it in view with a strong signal.
[EDIT] Oops. Didn't notice you were in the U.K. Not sure of the laws there. Carry on.
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Meta4
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It doesn't matter what country you fly in, the laws of physics are international.
You must have a clear, unobstructed line of sight to be able to control your drone.
N017RW
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Meta makes a good point and by now the need for LOS should be well understood.
However in this case seeing the drone below you places the aircraft in an RF ‘shadow’.
With the antennas located below the aircraft radio performance will be compromised.
Though RTH settings can mitigate the risk it should be no surprise if it activates despite the unobstructed view.
However in this case seeing the drone below you places the aircraft in an RF ‘shadow’.
With the antennas located below the aircraft radio performance will be compromised.
Though RTH settings can mitigate the risk it should be no surprise if it activates despite the unobstructed view.
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Not true. As line of sight between controller and drone is maintained you should be good. Note that antennas on drone and controller must be oriented correctly eg parallel to one another.
N017RW
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As a physicist I read your reference, and it clearly applies in situations different than flying from a line of sight perspective. The shadow effect begins only when you approach the edge of line of sight, and becomes significant only when the los is partly occluded. Read my original post carefully
Meta4: As I said above, this is what I first assumed. But we have managed to fly where there is a physical elevated ridge of 10-20m in height blocking or obstructing any line of sight or transmission. We've done this several times at distances of 2 to 5 km between us and the drone. (Before anyone suggests that we were flying dangerously, this was done on our own land which is many miles across in size.)
