What is the longest distance you can see your Phantom?

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One of the general safety measures is to see the AC by your own eyes.
Do you always fly like that.
According to many posts here this is hard to believe.
It would be interesting to see what is the longest distance at which you still can see the bird.
I can see it at 300-400m depends on the background. As I have the white P4P it is better to have darker background. If I look at the screen meanwhile even 300m can be a problem.
 
Great Post Andy......Im just like you.I can get a very good visual on mine with good day light like you do....However i have made a tiny very lite weight LED strobe unit...that allows me to see my Drone slightly farther and in the twilight hours slightly after sun set i Love that strobe !...Plus for a day time visual....i have 2 day glo vertical strips on the rear landing gear legs...and some other droners has seen my landing legs idea and liked it enuff to do it to theirs too !
In the picture...the multi led strobe is not on......it cost less then $2.50 to make and a old TOY drone flight
battery...Thought you might like to SEE my ideas
IMG_3411 (Large).JPG
and it might help others !
 
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One of the general safety measures is to see the AC by your own eyes.
Do you always fly like that.
According to many posts here this is hard to believe.
It would be interesting to see what is the longest distance at which you still can see the bird.
I can see it at 300-400m depends on the background. As I have the white P4P it is better to have darker background. If I look at the screen meanwhile even 300m can be a problem.

The main problem is the colour.
I would imagine the Obsidian is a lot easier to see.
 
Color is only relative to the current sky/light conditions. After so many feet away they all become a small dark speck.

Keep in mind that the actual requirement isn't just to be able to "see" the speck but be able to see and determine orientation etc in order to be able to See & Avoid other aircraft. While I can "see" my Mavic Pro many thousand feet away the "able to determine orientation" aspect is much Much MUCH less feet away. It's much easier to see a non-symmetrical aircraft like a fixed wing than a symmetrical airframe like a MultiRotor.

Adding marking lights (Day and night) helps significantly especially if they are Ultra Bright High Intensity units like mentioned above.
 
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If I keep my eyes on the bird I can see it to around 2k' out in daylight. If I take my eyes off it for even a split second I cannot find it again out there. There are times when I'm coming back in that I can hear it 400' in front of me but it takes a bit to spot it. I absolutely prefer to fly at night with strobes (and daylight waiver in hand) for an easy visual no matter the circumstances.
 
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I have flown free flight model for over 50 years.
also timed them too.
no matter what color or combination of colors you use at a distance they all become black .
as far as how far away you can see the p4 depends on how good your eyesight is.
 
It may be true that they all become dark specks when they get a certain distance away but when you look down at your screen then look up to make visual contact again, I can pick up a dark bird much easier than a white one against white clouds all day long.
 
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We have spend a lot of hours on this research as to what is the best color to fly for distance and what we have found out is that having Two Contrasting colors such as Red and Black is better than all one color.

This is why all the Phantom Rain Wet Suits with the Exception of the All Black provide you with a much better Visual and provide you a quick orientation of the drone being that it is two tone..

Note putting a shiny type sticker on your drone is going to make the visual worse so we recommend you do not do that, You want a flat texture for the best visibility.

Tonight we flew out exactly 2300 ft with the Red and Black Trauma 1 Wet Suit as you can see below in the video , and what you can see is simply a black Speck in the sun lit sky. The problem is if you take your eyes off the Black speck for just a minute you are not able to find it again, so that give you an idea as to how tricky 2300 ft is.

Overall a white drone in the sun lit sky cannot be seen at more than about 1300 ft , I will also include a picture from the camera but edited as to what it really looks like with the naked eye.
The sun was so bright I was purposely trying to avoid the sun thru the flight.

If you really look you can see the speck of what I saw, however remember if you take your eyes off the Drone , you will not find it . This is the limit for the Phantom Rain Wet Suit.

Should be noted that part of the reason you can see it from so far away is that the Neoprene has no shine to it, thus you can see it further.
The Color of the Wet Suit also helps to Identify it in the sky however RED and BLACK now turns to just Black.

Flying over the trees requires that you need to know how high those trees are before flying over them and having confidence that your numbers are sound.
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My Bright White P3 SE.....is much cooler on a really hot day then any other colors.....for what i do with my drone....I can see it quite nicely where ever it is....and IF its lost.....My Bright White drone will sure be easier to find then a black n blue and black n red or a orange drone ! I always keep my Drone in a visual Line Of sight.... isn't that the law ?
 

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