What's the fascination of flying out as far as you can

Flack · Feb 28, 2016

I have just done my first mile flight, I was about 60 feet up on a car park over looking a marshy area where I grew up as a kid, its about a 4 mile square marshy land with the main river flowing through it.
What a difference when you see the marsh from 300 feet up, and all the places I have been to when I was a kid. Its that rush you get when you push the limits and see the land you love from that height.
I feel confident that I now could go further but I love to video and take pictures rather than going for distance. Its trusting the technology that you need to build on..

Flack

nix240z · Feb 28, 2016

I like that little warm fuzzy feeling I get in my gut every time I go out. Then something goes wrong and your heart starts racing but it all ends well. Try it sometime ,it is rather fun and exciting.
Plus you get to spend more money on add on parts.

Dirty Bird · Feb 28, 2016

My personal favorite thing to do is program autonomous flights to an area I may not be able to reach via direct control, or where I can set the camera to automatically capture & focus on items of interest, and send the bird on her way. What I would give for a 60 or 120 minute battery!

PhotoJim · Feb 28, 2016

With The Birds said:
Your question presupposes the long flight is with the intent of capturing stills or footage of some distant POI.

For many in the pursuit of distance the distance recorded, a number of feet or metres is the prize.

Tinkerimg and hardware mods, using the breeze, choosing altitudes and speeds of flight to better your own previous record or acheivements of others.

Its all within the pursuit of and just another facet to the hobby and brings pleasure to those who go for distance.

I know a few people who dont take off from anywhere outside their property and one who hardly flys seemingly enjoying looking at the phantom on the shelf in the office. I dont understand that but they are happy and not for me to judge.

To each their own.

Well said my friend. Qualifying that I am quite conservative on my distance and choosing my location for my ventures.

Thopper · Feb 28, 2016

Didn't know you could set autonomous flights beyond the RC signal reach? How do you do that?

DroneDestination · Feb 28, 2016

Thopper said:
Didn't know you could set autonomous flights beyond the RC signal reach? How do you do that?

The wonders of Litchi Litchi for DJI Phantom/Inspire
$15 on iOS ( or $20 on Android i think)

Dirty Bird · Feb 28, 2016

Litchi or one of the other aftermarket flight apps that allow autonomous mission planning beyond controller range. I have a couple of really long distance flights I'd like to attempt.

First is Ft. Smallwood Park to the Key Bridge & back.
23,450' one way. 46,900' round trip. 8.88 miles.

Second is the Bay Bridge Run. Western Shore to Eastern Shore.
23,970' one way. 47,940' round trip. 9.08 miles.

Both flights would be completely over water so no civilian risk is involved. Obviously these flights need to occur in warm weather. Would have to commence flight in the early AM in calm conditions. At 30 mph the Phantom covers .5 miles per minute so a 20 minute flight would cover 10 miles. At 35 mph that works out to .583 miles per minute or 11.8 miles total for a 20 minute flight.

It was this sort of mission that led me to purchase a Standard as the couple extra minutes of flight time afforded by the lighter weight (1216g vs.1280 for Pro/Advanced) could be the difference between a successful mission & coming down in the Bay. There is no room for error on this mission. If you fall short she is landing in the Bay!

Before undertaking such a mission I would head to the Eastern Shore for some over-land range tests, progressively working her out towards 10 miles round trip. If I can successfully achieve 10 miles over land then I plan on attempting these missions.

Thopper said:
Didn't know you could set autonomous flights beyond the RC signal reach? How do you do that?

DroneDestination · Feb 28, 2016

Good luck with that @Dirty Bird !! I think we all wish you luck on your 9-mile over water flight!!

Mark The Droner · Feb 28, 2016

I'll be lookin' for a new entry in the flytrex record book!

Dirty Bird · Feb 28, 2016

I keep doing the math on this mission in my head...

At 30mph it takes 18.16 minutes to cover 9.08 miles.

At 35 mph it takes 15.57 minutes to cover 9.08 miles.

With warm temps, calm winds, a good battery @ 100%, I think this is doable.

I think....

DroneDestination said:
Good luck with that @Dirty Bird !! I think we all wish you luck on your 9-mile over water flight!!

shorttimer · Feb 28, 2016

Actually I flew it out there over 10k feet just to see. I live in a very rural area and fly out my backyard. Everyone has minimum of 5 acres but many have hundreds or even thousands of acres. But quite honestly I enjoy even more just flying on my property and the vacant lot behind me. That is what I enjoy the most. Just going up, flying around and taking videos and pictures. Had to try the long distance flight once but enjoy most just around my place. Sometimes I even get lazy, open the sliding glass door, take off from the deck and fly from the couch. You get lazy when you get old.

shorttimer · Feb 28, 2016

Dirty Bird said:
I keep doing the math on this mission in my head...

At 30mph it takes 18.16 minutes to cover 9.08 miles.

At 35 mph it takes 15.57 minutes to cover 9.08 miles.

With warm temps, calm winds, a good battery @ 100%, I think this is doable.

I think....

It is good to be adventurous as well as ambitious but there's not a lot of margin for error/miscalculation. But I have to admit DB it was seeing that initial post you posted with the film of you going along side the bridge that motivated me to take a long ride. It's not so bad say if you miscalculate that all you have to do is land early and go to your neighbor's and pick it up. But if you're talking water all the way with no safety net that's a little too risky for me. I enjoy them too much.

Mark The Droner · Feb 28, 2016

A lot of the guys that go for the big distance lose birds. So that's just part of the deal I think. You lose one. You get another one, make a tweak and try it again. You gotta be willing to risk losing your aircraft. But that's also what gets the adrenalin flowing. Hence, the phrase "range junkies."

donnyf · Feb 28, 2016

I am all about being adventuresome but I do think there needs to be limitations on how far one is able to go. For one thing there are the FAA regulations limiting drone flight to line of sight and under 400 feet. It is one thing to to fly out in the middle of nowhere but I cringe when I see videos of people far exceeding the regulations around cities and towns.

Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

John Locke · Feb 28, 2016

donnyf said:
I do think there needs to be limitations on how far one is able to go.

The skies the limit!

John Locke · Feb 28, 2016

clarky150 said:
am I missing something but if you want to shoot something that's 2mile away why not just get closer rather than risking it and flying so far away

Sometimes you can't get closer, like the lighthouse in this video, 1.5mi away from the nearest launch point (without a boat).

solsystem · Feb 28, 2016

Dirty Bird said:
Litchi or one of the other aftermarket flight apps that allow autonomous mission planning beyond controller range. I have a couple of really long distance flights I'd like to attempt.

First is Ft. Smallwood Park to the Key Bridge & back.
23,450' one way. 46,900' round trip. 8.88 miles.

Second is the Bay Bridge Run. Western Shore to Eastern Shore.
23,970' one way. 47,940' round trip. 9.08 miles.

Both flights would be completely over water so no civilian risk is involved. Obviously these flights need to occur in warm weather. Would have to commence flight in the early AM in calm conditions. At 30 mph the Phantom covers .5 miles per minute so a 20 minute flight would cover 10 miles. At 35 mph that works out to .583 miles per minute or 11.8 miles total for a 20 minute flight.

It was this sort of mission that led me to purchase a Standard as the couple extra minutes of flight time afforded by the lighter weight (1216g vs.1280 for Pro/Advanced) could be the difference between a successful mission & coming down in the Bay. There is no room for error on this mission. If you fall short she is landing in the Bay!

Before undertaking such a mission I would head to the Eastern Shore for some over-land range tests, progressively working her out towards 10 miles round trip. If I can successfully achieve 10 miles over land then I plan on attempting these missions.

I have litchi on my ipad mini, but haven't used it yet? Question does or can it take off by itself? Thanks

With The Birds · Feb 28, 2016

Dirty Bird said:
My personal favorite thing to do is program autonomous flights toy an area I may not be able to reach via direct control, or where I can set the camera to automatically capture & focus on items of interest, and send the bird on her way. What I would give for a 60 or 120 minute battery!

The hydrogen fuel cell will give us the flight time, applicatio