Visual line of sight 2300 ft - Pushing the envelope

[PhantomWetSuits]

Visual Line of sight is one of those Gray areas,

There have been a lot of posts about how flying a drone now kind of sucks because of Visual line of sight and Height Restrictions , so this posts shows what I consider my Visual Line of sight which is still an adventure for many.

I also wanted to point out that you do not have to fly really high to get a dramatic effect as going over the tops of trees give a pretty nice cinematic approach and does not require crazy height.

The video also show that using the RTH to come home once visual sight is lost can also provide you with another cinematic view coming back .

I want to make it 100% clear that the Visual I am showing is with a Phantom 4 Pro wearing the Phantom Wet Suit the Trauma 1 which is Red and Black Neoprene. The Neoprene has no shine thus providing the best visual possible on the drone in the sky, trees ect.

I also think its kind of Cool to see a Drone wearing the Phantom Rain Wet Suit that has been through so much Extreme Weather still Providing Stunning 4k video which just blows my mind, when I think of the abuse we put it thru this this year and last..

You can see the extreme weather at phantomrain.org


A lot of people cannot really justify in there head what 2300 ft is so the video adds a pretty good visual to show how quickly that can come up.

2300 ft for me is pushing it , if I were to go into atti mode it would be hard to get the drone back.

I think that last thing I wanted to point out was that even seasoned pilots use RTH every chance they can to get the orientation of the drone back as quick as possible conserving the most amount of battery life by doing so..

That black dot below the line is the naked eye picture I see at 2300 ft , which is are limit before the RTH is engaged and made useful.

I do realize that seasoned pro's may know all this but I can assure you that new pilots do not..

This is the Actual flight below

This is the drone

 

[MotorCycle-Man]

I cant see much in this post.........what are you actually telling Us ....this makes no since please do explain

 

[PhantomWetSuits]

I cant see much in this post.........what are you actually telling Us ....this makes no since please do explain

Good point I did not really detail in the post as I sometime come back an add a few things.

 

[Deleted member 62848]

Uuummm I'm presuming because of the phantom wetsuit you can still see it at range,correct,I was tempted by your suit being in a pretty wet nz,but has anything been designed to keep remote dry like the wetsuit or take the umbrella, ps ,I use a black skin and good to see at distance for looking back at drone after looking at device,bit easier to re spot it than clean white .red to me at distance is invisible compared to the black,so Yeh is there a water proof remote in the making,that just might twist my arm

 

[Deleted member 109724]

Why are you saying 2300 feet is pushing it? I have gotten my Phantom 3 standard to go over 4000 feet at 400 feet up in a wifi-crowded neighborhood, while still keeping vlos. I only tried that once to see what my limits were, but I comfortably fly it between 1500 and 3000 feet without any trouble, and this is the Phantom 3 standard! I thought that the Phantom 4 pro could go over 4 miles! (Which I would never suggest because you cannot see the drone from that far.) When you pass 5000 feet is when vlos rule starts to get broken IMHO. But I agree with you @PhantomWetSuits that it is MUCH more cinematic to fly low than high. I love passing through openings in trees, I usually fly between 1 and 150 feet to get good cinematic video. (Unless I'm in a neighborhood, I tend to fly higher so nobody gets scared thinking I'm spying.) My favorite is to fly it across a large field with the legs and camera about 6 inches off the ground, zipping around at 35 mph getting great action shots. That took a lot of practice!

 

[PhantomWetSuits]

Uuummm I'm presuming because of the phantom wetsuit you can still see it at range,correct,I was tempted by your suit being in a pretty wet nz,but has anything been designed to keep remote dry like the wetsuit or take the umbrella, ps ,I use a black skin and good to see at distance for looking back at drone after looking at device,bit easier to re spot it than clean white .red to me at distance is invisible compared to the black,so Yeh is there a water proof remote in the making,that just might twist my arm

We have gone back and fourth this and here is why. We have never tried to shield the Controller in any of the extreme Rain we have put it thru and it has just been amazing.
However with that said , just the other day a jet ski came by and just blasted the controller with water , which I wrote about in another post , so yes we are going to be adding the Wet Suit to the Controller.

Perfect timing.
Thank you.

 

[Deleted member 62848]

Cool,Yeh would be great not that I want to stand in the rain all the time but be good knowing it's capable of not relying on a shelter. I be watching with interest, thank you

 

[PhantomWetSuits]

Why are you saying 2300 feet is pushing it? I have gotten my Phantom 3 standard to go over 4000 feet at 400 feet up in a wifi-crowded neighborhood, while still keeping vlos. I only tried that once to see what my limits were, but I comfortably fly it between 1500 and 3000 feet without any trouble, and this is the Phantom 3 standard! I thought that the Phantom 4 pro could go over 4 miles! (Which I would never suggest because you cannot see the drone from that far.) When you pass 5000 feet is when vlos rule starts to get broken IMHO. But I agree with you @PhantomWetSuits that it is MUCH more cinematic to fly low than high. I love passing through openings in trees, I usually fly between 1 and 150 feet to get good cinematic video. (Unless I'm in a neighborhood, I tend to fly higher so nobody gets scared thinking I'm spying.) My favorite is to fly it across a large field with the legs and camera about 6 inches off the ground, zipping around at 35 mph getting great action shots. That took a lot of practice!

Flying low is a blast.
If you look at that picture we posted you can see for that run 2300 ft was the very edge of being comfortable for me.

I would love to see a Visual drone at 4000 ft , that is an exceptional distance that I have never seen. When I look at 2300 ft and think of doubling that , it hard to picture , that is for sure.

 

[PhantomWetSuits]

Cool,Yeh would be great not that I want to stand in the rain all the time but be good knowing it's capable of not relying on a shelter. I be watching with interest, thank you

I will keep you posted, do you have a plus controller or standard ?

 

[Deleted member 109724]

Flying low is a blast.
If you look at that picture we posted you can see for that run 2300 ft was the very edge of being comfortable for me.

I would love to see a Visual drone at 4000 ft , that is an exceptional distance that I have never seen. When I look at 2300 ft and think of doubling that , it hard to picture , that is for sure.

Granted, all I can see is a tiny dot at 4000 feet, barely visible unless you keep your eyes on it at all times, but technically still vlos! I almost lost my drone once from going too far, so now I specialize in short distance low to the ground flying. My videos are 4000 times better! (I mean, what fun is it looking at rooftops for 20 minutes on a 8000 foot round trip anyway?)

 

[Deleted member 62848]

I will keep you posted, do you have a plus controller or standard ?

,,phantom 4 gl300c remote thanks,

 

[PhantomWetSuits]

Why are you saying 2300 feet is pushing it? I have gotten my Phantom 3 standard to go over 4000 feet at 400 feet up in a wifi-crowded neighborhood, while still keeping vlos. I only tried that once to see what my limits were, but I comfortably fly it between 1500 and 3000 feet without any trouble, and this is the Phantom 3 standard! I thought that the Phantom 4 pro could go over 4 miles! (Which I would never suggest because you cannot see the drone from that far.) When you pass 5000 feet is when vlos rule starts to get broken IMHO. But I agree with you @PhantomWetSuits that it is MUCH more cinematic to fly low than high. I love passing through openings in trees, I usually fly between 1 and 150 feet to get good cinematic video. (Unless I'm in a neighborhood, I tend to fly higher so nobody gets scared thinking I'm spying.) My favorite is to fly it across a large field with the legs and camera about 6 inches off the ground, zipping around at 35 mph getting great action shots. That took a lot of practice!

Speaking of flying low , we have been making an attempt at flying backwards in sport mode so as not to have the props showing up . This has proven to be a challenge as the result is awesome but the learning curve is taxing. Have you tried it or seen some of the video of the effect ?

 

[Deleted member 62848]

Granted, all I can see is a tiny dot at 4000 feet, barely visible unless you keep your eyes on it at all times, but technically still vlos! I almost lost my drone once from going too far, so now I specialize in short distance low to the ground flying. My videos are 4000 times better! (I mean, what fun is it looking at rooftops for 20 minutes on a 8000 foot round trip anyway?)

Ha that's a good one I think the same ,

 

[Deleted member 62848]

Speaking of flying low , we have been making an attempt at flying backwards in sport mode so as not to have the props showing up . This has proven to be a challenge as the result is awesome but the learning curve is taxing. Have you tried it or seen some of the video of the effect ?

Yip watched many clips of flying backward,I got nearly 60hours flying and you think I can fly backwards in a straight line,omg nearly killed me drone few times ,it not easy as sounds,keep it up

 

[PhantomWetSuits]

Yip watched many clips of flying backward,I got nearly 60hours flying and you think I can fly backwards in a straight line,omg nearly killed me drone few times ,it not easy as sounds,keep it up

Good to know we are on the same page, as every try is a risky one and will keep trying.

 

[Nightwolf]

I added an ARC2 strobe light to my P3A. I took it out to 3,350 ft at night and could still tell orientation.

 

[PhantomWetSuits]

I added an ARC2 strobe light to my P3A. I took it out to 3,350 ft at night and could still tell orientation.

Strobe lights are powerful for night flying and increase the visual dramatically for night flying , do the strobes interfere at all with the video as I h

I added an ARC2 strobe light to my P3A. I took it out to 3,350 ft at night and could still tell orientation.

Strobe lights are a great solution for night fling , the problem we had is sometimes they catch the wind. We have been using a bar light that attaches across the legs of the drone, but not as bright as strobes but for night flying works well.
Not as bright as you can see, but very aerodynamic and can also be seen about 3000 ft or so. Do you have a picture of your strobes ?.

 

[Basspig]

View attachment 99545
This is the Actual flight below

This is the drone

View attachment 99546

Wow... you sure have a lot of trust in your drone, to fly that low over trees! Spectacular effect, though.

I find that the most cinematic footage is the type shot at altitudes below 50', with the drone descending slowly as it moves slowly to the side. This looks a lot like jib crane shot on a big budget movie.

 

[PhantomWetSuits]

Wow... you sure have a lot of trust in your drone, to fly that low over trees! Spectacular effect, though.

I find that the most cinematic footage is the type shot at altitudes below 50', with the drone descending slowly as it moves slowly to the side. This looks a lot like jib crane shot on a big budget movie.

Agreed, Almost every movie now starts with a drone shot that is low and detailed. We are always looking now for the dramatic effect and the more crane like the better. Flying backwards at top speed is what we are now trying for effect. lol

 

[Basspig]

With a drone, we can achieve the camera moves that only a crane and a grip truck and a crew of six or more operators would achieve. So I like to practice those kinds of moves.
Flying backwards.. definitely under visual contact only. The advantage is that you don't see the props in your frame, even if you have the camera pointing up a little.