Recent content by JamesRPurdon

This is certainly true for Mavic Pros; one of the sites I fly at is a sloping field and the home point is at the top of the slope. Traveling downslope while maintaining a constant altitude above ground results in a negative altitude being reported.

So, without any idea of windspeed, you launched your drone into the sky and flew it about without checking the battery drainage until it was too late. Just so that you know, there aren't probably any apps that will let you know what the windspeed is at altitude - most likely all the apps are...

I've been told that the earlier Phantoms with their larger motors handle the wind better than the Mavic, by a guy who flew around Pinal Island in Saint Martin. I have no idea if it's true or not, but it makes a certain kind of sense, if you don't overthink it...

Um, you don't need an app to see that it's windy. Moving tree tops, waving flags, blowing leaves, these are all clues. There's also the trick of throwing grass or bits of paper into the air and watching them come down.

Looks like Mr. Claus is below 400 feet and flying in a reckless fashion.

Um, 500m is more than 1500 feet. You are unlikely any trees that tall. Perhaps you meant 50m?

oh nevermind, I see they use bluetooth...

I assume that these modules use the lightning port is there a passthrough?

I do also have an ancient first generation iPad with cellular (but no service) that I used to record my travels in the bush in Senegal without issue using an app called Maps 3D. Imagine my disappointment when I tried to do the same thing with a third generation wifi only iPad in Cote d'Ivoire...

My wifi-only iPad also asks me about location, and displays my location correctly on a variety of apps. However, out in the wilderness away from wifi it has no clue as to where I am. I suspect either the ipad is able to get this information from the internet somehow, either there's a database...

Thinking about loopholes, well kites aren't banned, in fact there's an exclusion for them. You can get a pretty big kite for a nominal cost, I bought one big enough to carry a gopro, and maybe a light gimbal and its battery for 60 dollars. I used it take to pictures, like this - I'm the little...

I always download from the sd card onto my laptop to review my footage, regardless of the app I use, so I've never bothered to look for that option. I do know that some options are only available when the application is connected to the aircraft, that's one of the flaws in most of these apps (i...

This is a bit of a mystery to me, my assumption has been that altitude limits were in relation to the home point. To fly in mountainous or hilly terrain, I imagine you would need to take off from the highest point or set altitude limits based on the altitude of the highest bit of ground you...

I have been using Litchi exclusively since June 2017 with my Mavic. I use it mainly for the FPV mode, the waypoint mode, and the panoramic mode, and I have it set to provide verbal telemetry. Technically, I always fly within line of sight, but at distances of more than 400 ft it is difficult...

The manual says the transmitter range is 2000 meters, I think. That's crazy - I limit mine to 100 meters altitude and 50 meters horizontal...