- Joined
- Aug 4, 2016
- Messages
- 169
- Reaction score
- 56
- Location
- Seattle area
- Website
- www.aerialwhidbey.com
As part of my pre-flight checklist, soon after I arrive in a field location I look around to see where the drone *might possibly* travel behind trees, hills or buildings. I use some battery energy to discover the height of the tallest object that is above and in sight of my launch zone. Lately, I've started to use the tiny SkyViper 2450GPS for this task. I add 20 feet to the height of the tallest object and use Solex to reset the RTH altitude value for the Solo I am operating that day. I always fly line-of-sight in compliance with Part 107, however unexpected things can happen. For me, 1500 feet is what I consider to be the limit of line-of-sight, and I rarely need to send the drone that far. When I do, I also use the nifty Brite Lite LED system offered by Maddog.You have FPV if you start losing FPV connection there is no time to wait, throttle up for more altitude and hopefully you will regain communication to
the quad. Waiting can cause the quad to go into RTH and the worse senatorial, the quad is lower than the RTH setting which means it could crash into
a obstruction. The best solution is to fly responsibly and know the flight path and never fly behind a obstruction even a mountain! Signals can be
blocked by obstructions and WiFi interference and is no exception. Fly responsibly, know where you are flying and and try to stay in sight of the
quad. Flying FPV is actually safer than flying line of sight since you are in the pilots seat. RTH can give you a sense of false security since the
Solo on the stock bird flies back to RTH backwards and a obstruction could be in it's flight path. Turn the quad 180 degrees on RTH and watch the
flight path and don't rely on the RTH to get you home safely always monitor altitude and visual flight home.
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