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Why bother?
- Thread starter Vzr1
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Truth be told there is a lot of pilots that fly where there are times you cant see it anymore. Even without anything in the way the all white Phantom for example just gets lost among the colors of the shy. I can tell you i believe this isnt intentional. I dont think any careful pilot just flies without any concern for where their drone is but a lot of us are pretty comfortable that we've done a good job prepping and becoming as familiar as we can be with the location we're flying in. It also includes being familiar with whats on our screen so every decision is a good decision.
That being said, The statement of flying within visual line of site is an excellent law to live by. Its just the right discipline to understand and to live by. Its a good rule to put our there especially for the hobbyist who may have just gotten a drone for Christmas and want to throw it up in the air thinks they know everything. If I was teaching someone how to fly thats a statement i would definitely use. Even though like i said a lot of us unintentionally break that rule.
Hope that made sense
That being said, The statement of flying within visual line of site is an excellent law to live by. Its just the right discipline to understand and to live by. Its a good rule to put our there especially for the hobbyist who may have just gotten a drone for Christmas and want to throw it up in the air thinks they know everything. If I was teaching someone how to fly thats a statement i would definitely use. Even though like i said a lot of us unintentionally break that rule.
Hope that made sense
Yes, many fly till they can’t see it and turn around till they see it again. The law has been broken. I fly through the camera. It is the most accurate and easy way for me to fly. Most of my incidents comes from my visual flying. I have bobbled off the wire across the street from me by watching my drone. My perception is bad with visual flying. I am so much more comfortable flying through the camera. I fly around me usually close, but many times, just beyond vision. Never had one incident flying that way.
With your reasoning you shouldn't be allowed to operate a drone.Why bother making a drone if you have to have the bloody thing in sight?
PhantomWetSuits
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Visual Line of Sight : LOVE / HATE relationship
It really comes down to this :
If it were not for Birds and Atti Mode I would feel slightly different about VLS and of course other drones and planes.
We all know that Disconnects happen and when they do your really happy when you have VLS because fly aways happen.
When your flying over the ocean or the lake , its smooth sailing and Visual Line of Sight is a Pain in the Mod Removed Language ), however you have to be aware of birds , and you cannot do that if you cannot see your drone.
Common sense is the controlling factor ,
The DRONE POLICE our far worse on this than the FAA ever could be, on this VLS .
Im not sure why this is , maybe they wanted to be policeman when they grew up, , its funny to me...
None the less the VLS is there for our protection of your drones as well as others because there not perfect .
I like that we can surpass VLS, as I like that I can go fast on the highway well aware of the cost .
Keep this in mind no one is stopping you from going past the VLS but your self based on your common sense.
If you feel the flight is worth it , than you do you.
The day is coming when the 400 ft ceiling level will fade to 200 ft and the perimeter of a flight will be 1500 ft. and your drone will stop and just hover and the Drone police will become silent.
The drone police our they only eyes and ears that the FAA ever had,, and im sure they our great-full for there snitches.and the countless lives and drones they have saved...
Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your drone in and out of the storm
Coal
It really comes down to this :
If it were not for Birds and Atti Mode I would feel slightly different about VLS and of course other drones and planes.
We all know that Disconnects happen and when they do your really happy when you have VLS because fly aways happen.
When your flying over the ocean or the lake , its smooth sailing and Visual Line of Sight is a Pain in the Mod Removed Language ), however you have to be aware of birds , and you cannot do that if you cannot see your drone.
Common sense is the controlling factor ,
The DRONE POLICE our far worse on this than the FAA ever could be, on this VLS .
Im not sure why this is , maybe they wanted to be policeman when they grew up, , its funny to me...
None the less the VLS is there for our protection of your drones as well as others because there not perfect .
I like that we can surpass VLS, as I like that I can go fast on the highway well aware of the cost .
Keep this in mind no one is stopping you from going past the VLS but your self based on your common sense.
If you feel the flight is worth it , than you do you.
The day is coming when the 400 ft ceiling level will fade to 200 ft and the perimeter of a flight will be 1500 ft. and your drone will stop and just hover and the Drone police will become silent.
The drone police our they only eyes and ears that the FAA ever had,, and im sure they our great-full for there snitches.and the countless lives and drones they have saved...
Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your drone in and out of the storm
Coal
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Flying on only visual line of sight is useless from my perspective. There are very few places in my part of the world where the trees don't obscure visibility of the drone. I can't even look close at the gutters on all four sides of my house without breaking those rules, unless I am walking around the house at the same time I am filming. Kinda pointless, actually. I can guarantee that I can put up a ladder and walk around the roof line of my house FAR quicker than anyone can assemble a P4P, launch, navigate & film, then download images, and view the detailed results. Of course, that won't be true for all homes, nor for many other similar situations.
I don't know about you guys, but I cannot see my white P4P when it is 60 meters up and 60 meters away. Then toss a bunch of trees in the way, and you are breaking a strict interpretation of the rules. We all know that it is quite impractical to consider using binoculars to visually keep an eye on the drone, too.
And as far as that goes, the video and pictures obtained from such a limited use of the drones makes them not worth the trouble. All those grand videos, the sweeping, beautiful views of our world that we see posted in this forum? I don't think I've seen one yet that actually conforms to the sight distance rules imposed by the FAA in the USA.
I don't know about you guys, but I cannot see my white P4P when it is 60 meters up and 60 meters away. Then toss a bunch of trees in the way, and you are breaking a strict interpretation of the rules. We all know that it is quite impractical to consider using binoculars to visually keep an eye on the drone, too.
And as far as that goes, the video and pictures obtained from such a limited use of the drones makes them not worth the trouble. All those grand videos, the sweeping, beautiful views of our world that we see posted in this forum? I don't think I've seen one yet that actually conforms to the sight distance rules imposed by the FAA in the USA.
PhantomWetSuits
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You make a good point VLS is different for everyone , the problem with the tress and you being on the ground floor is that your drone is prone to loose GPS signal. Thus for you flying out way past VLS is more or a risk as it is for me flying from my roof top over the trees.
Have you had your P4 loose signal yet. ?
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I would like someone to make a survey on this.With one question and one answer. Do you fly out of VSL. yes or no
If someone could make this were people could answer anomalous I am just curious how many would say yes.
I would do it myself But I don't know how.
If someone could make this were people could answer anomalous I am just curious how many would say yes.
I would do it myself But I don't know how.
Never. On my older phone, I couldn't see the video reliably, mostly because the phone was just too slow to process, or so I thought. The screen would black out, but the device was always talking to the receiver. The furthest I have been out is about 1/4 mile, which is vastly further than I can see, even at 400' altitude.
I made a rather nice video of a large cemetary, while my customer (management) was watching.
I don't quite understand all the concerns about a "fly away". Doesn't the contraption reliably come home if you always set a home point and your controls are set to return to home on lost signal?
I generally set my "return to home" altitude at 200', well above the tree tops, and I try to never have branches overhead, either. What I don't yet know, is how that turns out if I start the flight from the bottom of a hill, ascend geographically 150' in altitude, but remain only 50' above the ground. We have LOTS of trees that will happily catch a drone returning home at that height.
And...the only time I have been caught by a tree was when I was flying VLS. I still got snagged, 'cause I was watching the video, and flying sideways. Those side-viewing obstruction avoidance sensors don't work on tree branches, let me assure you!
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To many variables to give a definitive NO, but the honest answer to that is, “it’s supposed to”. Having said that, I don’t think the RTH button was intended to be used as a normal part of flight, but as a last ditch option if your drone losses signal. Looks good in the manual but I’ve read to many instances of it not functioning to expectations. I could be wrong.
Some confusion for me there in your answer.
I was not referring to the "return to home" button. My P4P has a built in function that supposedly flies back to "home" if the battery gets too low or if it loses the connection. I have always thought that these functions work independently of any action by the controller.
Obviously, if it has lost the connection, then pushing the RTH button won't help.
I was not referring to the "return to home" button. My P4P has a built in function that supposedly flies back to "home" if the battery gets too low or if it loses the connection. I have always thought that these functions work independently of any action by the controller.
Obviously, if it has lost the connection, then pushing the RTH button won't help.
Because you could hurt or kills someone! And no, I am not the drone police!
I would love to fly my drone outside of VLOS but I have experienced enough surprises that I do not want to take that chance. I do not fly near any airports or heliports but have been surprised numerous times to see a low flying helicopter or small plane appear that I would have never expected in that particular area, the last one being just last week. Because I have my drone in sight, I can react and take appropriate action.
Also, I have had my Spark loose GPS and go into Atti mode without warning in an area flown in many times. Thankfully it was in VLOS and I could take control immediately and fly it back.
Willingness to take risks is a personal choice and so is deciding whether you want to fly within the current rules and regulations.
Chris
FPV puts the UAV pilot in the cockpit. And I can't think of safer place to be in the event of failure. Furthermore, I can't think of a single FAA pilot who would prefer to pilot his/her full scale aerial vehicle from the ground. The whole "line of sight" rule is full of hypocrisy.
D
D
Failure is one thing, what about situational awareness? The scariest time for me happened this past January, I was flying my P3S well away from any airports (well beyond 5nm) in an isolated rural area off a trail in the bush and along comes a small plane just above the tree line. I saw him and quickly descended. If I was flying FPV there would have been no way for me to see him as he was to my left way out of the cameras field of view. I was startled and a bit shaken up. After I landed I re-checked my flight apps (UAV forecast, AirMap and TC Site selection tool) to see if I made a mistake.
Don’t get me wrong, I would love to see how far I could go with my drones but having an experience like the one above, I never want to take that risk.
Chris
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I bet every one this forum has flown out of sight at some point so don’t give me that nonsense
Not nonsense, just common sense! Yes, I have gone out and lost visual on my drone (for my P3S that is around 500m on a clear day, for my Spark it is around 300m) but I quickly come back in sight.
Do I wish I could fly out beyond VLOS, certainly, as there are lots of places i'd like to check out with my drone that I can't get to on foot or that would be too hard to get to, but I am not going to take the risk because as I said, I have already had some surprises/scares and am thankful I have been in VLOS.
You may want to more risk than me and that is your choice, so is deciding whether you want to continue in the hobby with all the rules that are becoming more stringent. Me, I love flying my drones and even though I can't go out of VLOS, I still can get some shots I never could with just my DSLRs, so I will continue to fly them as long as I can.
Chris
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Too late you broke the law here is your fine in the mail LOL
Yip I can fly into sunset if need be but I keep things on a leash now days,,2 reasons
1,safety
2,to expensive to replace
1,safety
2,to expensive to replace
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