Flying TIME with one battery pack

Nazgul · Nov 1, 2015

Hi guys

I have a question :
- How much it is time flight with SOLO ( with gimbal, gopro camera...) with one battery?

My flyght time with gimbal, gopro 3+ Black was about 15 minutes.
Flight mode - medium;
I will make a new test, with a timer, wind condition until the battery reaches 25% or Solo will land himself.
I personally would prefer to cancel GoPro power supply from the main battery; because I have spare battery for Gopro.

What is your flight time???

Earldgrayjr · Nov 1, 2015

Nazgul said:
Hi guys

I have a question :
- How much it is time flight with SOLO ( with gimbal, gopro camera...) with one battery?

My flyght time with gimbal, gopro 3+ Black was about 15 minutes.
Flight mode - medium;
I will make a new test, with a timer, wind condition until the battery reaches 25% or Solo will land himself.
I personally would prefer to cancel GoPro power supply from the main battery; because I have spare battery for Gopro.

What is your flight time???

Mine is about 15 also. FYI, the GoPro charging takes almost nothing. The battery backpack also won't fit with the gimbal.

DattaGroover · Nov 1, 2015

Depends on the wind and elevation. For me, fifteen minutes is fairly typical, but at launch altitudes over 5k feet it's less, especially when fidgeting wind.

DodgeP · Nov 1, 2015

13 to 15 minutes consistently. Just tested yesterday because I had a feeling that my batteries were draining rather quickly.

Chip Luck · Nov 1, 2015

Same here, about 13-15 minutes. Better be ready to RTH when battery hits 30% depending on where you are VLOS, cause it drops like a rock once it hits 25%! I drained battery number 1 down to 10%, which is NOT good.

Chuck · Nov 1, 2015

Same here. 15 minutes is about my average. I can maybe get 16 or 17 if I really take it easy flying, and it is calm.

Bishamoten · Nov 5, 2015

15 minutes with 25% battery left of calm days. 8 mph wind today 15 minutes with 18% left

Maddog · Nov 6, 2015

Chip Luck said:
Same here, about 13-15 minutes. Better be ready to RTH when battery hits 30% depending on where you are VLOS, cause it drops like a rock once it hits 25%! I drained battery number 1 down to 10%, which is NOT good.

Ditto! About 15 minutes. You're not kidding about dropping like a rock!
At 25% you better be able to land in about 2 minutes.

twitchyzero · Nov 7, 2015

Chip Luck said:
Same here, about 13-15 minutes. Better be ready to RTH when battery hits 30% depending on where you are VLOS, cause it drops like a rock once it hits 25%! I drained battery number 1 down to 10%, which is NOT good.

Is this just common sense? Manual just says don't let it hit 0% I've let it hit 1% a few times....but then again I'm the same guy who'll drive his car until the last few sips of gas (everyone says it's bad for the engine despite ther being a fuel filter but i digress)

Once I'm under 20% i'll fly back close to home but I dont initiate RTH/land until 10%

While we're on the topic, someone recommended an android app that tracks flight time etc and other stats but i forgot what it's called. Anyone help me ID that app?

Ralph E. Johnson · Nov 7, 2015

Hello. When my battery's were new I was getting 17 min but now depending on how high I go and what I am doing 10 to 15 at the most. While recently filming aerial maps of small towns in Mexico I had a scary problem. I went high at the end of my flight instead of at the beginning and ran out of battery coming down from a thousand feet. My son in law caught the Solo as it started to fall from about 50'. He ended up with a couple stitches in his finger. I learned a lesson from that. I was trying to come down fast before I lost power and when I tried to reverse my descent it would not even slow down. So in the future I will never be up high with a battery less than 50-60 % or even more

Any one else have a problem like this?

Vashaun Henderson · Nov 7, 2015

twitchyzero said:
Is this just common sense? Manual just says don't let it hit 0% I've let it hit 1% a few times....but then again I'm the same guy who'll drive his car until the last few sips of gas (everyone says it's bad for the engine despite ther being a fuel filter but i digress)

Once I'm under 20% i'll fly back close to home but I dont initiate RTH/land until 10%

While we're on the topic, someone recommended an android app that tracks flight time etc and other stats but i forgot what it's called. Anyone help me ID that app?

twitchyzero,

You don't want to be always draining your battery below 20%, this will reduce the lifetime of the battery and you will soon begin to notice reduced flight times. I recommend planning you r flight to start from the fartherest out and head toward home, this way you are not too far when you get you 20% warning.

Vashaun Henderson · Nov 7, 2015

Ralph E. Johnson said:
Hello. When my battery's were new I was getting 17 min but now depending on how high I go and what I am doing 10 to 15 at the most. While recently filming aerial maps of small towns in Mexico I had a scary problem. I went high at the end of my flight instead of at the beginning and ran out of battery coming down from a thousand feet. My son in law caught the Solo as it started to fall from about 50'. He ended up with a couple stitches in his finger. I learned a lesson from that. I was trying to come down fast before I lost power and when I tried to reverse my descent it would not even slow down. So in the future I will never be up high with a battery less than 50-60 % or even more

Any one else have a problem like this?

Ralph, 1000' is well above the safe operating limit for recreational or commercial use without special flight operating clearance, i would suggest not planning to go that high in the future as depending on the area you could possible be crossing into controlled airspace and put people on the ground at greater risk. As for the rapid decent, if you are coming down in your own turbulence you will accelerate because you are entering a stream of fast moving downward air that requires you to increase the "effort" or thurst to maintain your prior decent speed. This case would have been worsened since your battery was near dead and had less available energy for the motors to draw from to produce said thrust. I hope your son in law is doing fine, no drone is worth spilled blood, let it eat dirt next time. Fly safe

erikgraham · Nov 7, 2015

When folks report their flight times in this thread, it is important to mention altitude above sea level since that has such a big impact on flight time.

Tomorrow I'm going to launch from about 160 meters above sea level (525 feet) - assuming I don't get rained out. I'll keep an eye on flight time and post back.

It would be awesome to have enough reports so we could start to put together a table of expected flight times at different altitudes.

(I use an iPhone app called My Altitude to check)

Maddog · Nov 8, 2015

erikgraham said:
When folks report their flight times in this thread, it is important to mention altitude above sea level since that has such a big impact on flight time.

Tomorrow I'm going to launch from about 160 meters above sea level (525 feet) - assuming I don't get rained out. I'll keep an eye on flight time and post back.

It would be awesome to have enough reports so we could start to put together a table of expected flight times at different altitudes.

(I use an iPhone app called My Altitude to check)

That is a very cool app- thanks!

Ralph E. Johnson · Nov 8, 2015

Vashaun Henderson said:
Ralph, 1000' is well above the safe operating limit for recreational or commercial use without special flight operating clearance, i would suggest not planning to go that high in the future as depending on the area you could possible be crossing into controlled airspace and put people on the ground at greater risk. As for the rapid decent, if you are coming down in your own turbulence you will accelerate because you are entering a stream of fast moving downward air that requires you to increase the "effort" or thurst to maintain your prior decent speed. This case would have been worsened since your battery was near dead and had less available energy for the motors to draw from to produce said thrust. I hope your son in law is doing fine, no drone is worth spilled blood, let it eat dirt next time. Fly safe

I agree 100%. I wish he hadn't caught it. It was a scary situation. I was trying to get a final high shot to use to piece together all of the lower altitude shots. Not sure what airspace in the outback of Mexico are but in the USA I know it's 400 feet.

Ralph E. Johnson · Nov 8, 2015

Oh by the way my starting altitude was over 6000 feet as we were in the mountains. So from there I went up 1000'. The way the drone came down and I wasn't able to slow its descent on a near dead battery was totally unexpected.

Marich · Nov 8, 2015

I use Hover just to keep track of things. Other stuff is handled by one of my geocaching apps. Hover is pretty cool.

Nazgul · Nov 8, 2015

Today I make some fly tests.
So: fly mode : medium
temp: 8° C
wind: 3-4m/s SE
sky: covered.
with first pack I have 14-14:30 min until 15% gopro with CPL filter from polarpro;
with second pack I have 14:50min until 15% gopro only with 3DR sunshade.
At 30% I have 12- 13 min fly. I gues whem the pack have 30% must return at home with Solo. At 150m distance from take off point I have 45dB on antenna signal ( not stock antennas). I whant to turn ON/OFF the charging of gopro in gimbal.
Where is the problem of flight time because is flying less than Phantom Vision 2+( Solo is with 300-400gr. heavy than PV2+). Estimated fly time is 25min we do not have any 18min or max.20min.

Ralph E. Johnson · Nov 9, 2015

Been trying to upload a video from my computer also my iPhone and every time I get a message that says "Dies not have a proper or allowable extension" can anyone tell me what is the problem. The video is from my GoPro and one is from and android phone

Chip Luck · Nov 9, 2015

Ralph E. Johnson said:
Hello. When my battery's were new I was getting 17 min but now depending on how high I go and what I am doing 10 to 15 at the most. While recently filming aerial maps of small towns in Mexico I had a scary problem. I went high at the end of my flight instead of at the beginning and ran out of battery coming down from a thousand feet. My son in law caught the Solo as it started to fall from about 50'. He ended up with a couple stitches in his finger. I learned a lesson from that. I was trying to come down fast before I lost power and when I tried to reverse my descent it would not even slow down. So in the future I will never be up high with a battery less than 50-60 % or even more

Any one else have a problem like this?

Mine fell from about ~2,000ft at with 0% battery, spinning down and crashed in parking lot. Ripped the HDMI gimbal connector right off, and GPS module damage, etc. NEVER/EVER fly outside your battery levels, EVER! Head home at 25% period, flight is over man. Land at 10% all the time, and you can kiss you expensive battery goodbye, period.

Cheers