New drone pilot FAQ?

[Glenn22x]

Hey guys, I'm very new to the whole drone thing, in fact I've taken only 3 flights so far with my Solo. (They were awesome). I have a number of questions regarding solo and drones of this sort in general. I'm wondering if there is a comprehensive FAQ type post somewhere that would answer these types of questions. Here are the sorts of things I'm interested in knowing:

1) how windy is too windy to fly solo? I live on a mountain and wind can gust rather suddenly.
2) What happens with solo should it lose connection during flight?
3) how weak can the connection on the controller to solo be before its in danger of losing connection altogether?
4) what about line of sight, does it need to be in line of sight at all times or is there some wiggle room there, if so, how much?
5) will solo emergency land itself at critical battery charge levels? If so, at what point?

I have more questions, but you get the idea here.

 

[Raybro]

Hi Glenn.
In GPS mode the Solo will maintain it's position pretty well in windy conditions, usually within 5 or 6 feet. The most wind I have flown in is around 15 to 20. I probably would not want to try it with gusts over 25, takeoff might be ok but landing would be tricky.

At takeoff if you have a good GPS lock the starting point is marked as Home. If you go out a few thousand feet and it looses connection it will initiate return to home. At any point on it's return after it reconnects to the controller you can hit the Fly button and regain control.

When flying out you will see the signal meter start dropping in strength....once you get down to the last bar the signal meter turns red. Even after it turns red you usually can still maintain a connection. More importantly are the RSSI numbers. If they get to around -80 you are close to losing the signal. Try to prevent putting the Solo behind obstructions that block line of site to the controller. Fly the Solo at a greater altitude to improve the signal to the Solo. The closer Solo is to you, the more wiggle room you have with line of sight. The signal meter is your clue to how good your signal from Solo is.

At 10% battery the Solo will initiate a RTH. Usually when I am at 30% I start bringing it closer to home.

 

[Glenn22x]

Hi Glenn.
In GPS mode the Solo will maintain it's position pretty well in windy conditions, usually within 5 or 6 feet. The most wind I have flown in is around 15 to 20. I probably would not want to try it with gusts over 25, takeoff might be ok but landing would be tricky.

At takeoff if you have a good GPS lock the starting point is marked as Home. If you go out a few thousand feet and it looses connection it will initiate return to home. At any point on it's return after it reconnects to the controller you can hit the Fly button and regain control.

When flying out you will see the signal meter start dropping in strength....once you get down to the last bar the signal meter turns red. Even after it turns red you usually can still maintain a connection. More importantly are the RSSI numbers. If they get to around -80 you are close to losing the signal. Try to prevent putting the Solo behind obstructions that block line of site to the controller. Fly the Solo at a greater altitude to improve the signal to the Solo. The closer Solo is to you, the more wiggle room you have with line of sight. The signal meter is your clue to how good your signal from Solo is.

At 10% battery the Solo will initiate a RTH. Usually when I am at 30% I start bringing it closer to home.

Thanks very much for your very well explained reply Raybro!