Flying at night a good idea?

[MacCool]

I haven't tried it myself, but I doubt the built-in lights on the Phantom/Inspire (to say nothing of the Mavic) are good enough to meet the three-mile rule. I picked up a strobing bike light from REI that I'm going to try out one night, if it ever gets above zero again.

I also have one of these now, but I need to research how to wire it up.

There is no 3 mile rule for recreational flying at night under part 101. Such flying is governed by a "community-based organization". That would be the AMA, which says :RC night flying requires a lighting system providing the pilot with a clear view of the model’s attitude and orientation at all times. The Phantom already has that.

Commercial (Part 107) can't fly at night at all.

 

[charsean]

Where did you get those lights. They're Brilliant

Lol
Well, it seems some of the Brits are getting upset at the OP, it this the guy that posted like his first flight downtown London? And (to me) looked like he sport mode'ed up and down the Thames a couple times! Lol, I actually thought "wow that guys ballsie for his first time" I have seven (lol I know right) 7 whole hours and haven't done anything even close to that kind of flying.
Some ppl think these are toasters, that it's in a box from Best Buy or wherever and they'll just do exactly why you want with nary a problem, ever, signal noise be damned!! It may be a generation thing, being a retired mechanic (Pipefitter) and RC hobbiest for years and years, I'm prolly one of the more "afraid" guys. As a matter of fact, hell my first 4-5 flights I was sweating and all nervous and shaking, expecting it to fall out of the sky at any time, couldn't believe how after 30+ flights 100% of all flying time was phenomenal.
I just don't know if attacking the guy, or being belligerent in any way, and not that there's a lot of that going on, but it might be better to explain to the OP these are subsequent to crashing and damaging property or injuries and can cost you money if any type of misjudgment, miscommunication, lapse in objective thinking, a small error can lead to real injuries to ppl, to me that would be the worst, to think I'd hurt someone because I wasn't thinking like an adult, or for some, like a human being, forget the drone, how'd you feel if you really hurt some poor sob, or their kid. So we can set aside the laws and such for a second, where you live and regulations, and just think objectively about, you know, how close are you to people? How well do you know how to fly? Is the environment a good one to fly in? Not just for humans, some places might look great, but not if some animals are using that air space to hunt or mate, i know I'm reaching, but we should all keep these in mind, the better we garrison ourselves, the less impact we'll have on society, or less negative impact anyway, the media doesn't have a story on the family that had a great day draining 4 batteries and some great footage of a family day out, no they'll air the story of the jack face who crashed into hwy 101 because he was hovering only 30' from the highway at 300' up, or the crazy guy downtown or on the beach scaring ppl.

We all have different interest and some guys don't fear crashing, or even cops, or hurting ppl like some of us others, doesn't mean they want too, they just didn't SEE it that way, they took it for what DJI kinda claims, it's 100% safe all the time everywhere! (That's kinda how DJI sell the P4 so you can't really blame the OP) But at least he's on here and he seems to want to learn and know things, maybe in hindsight he's like "whoa! I can't believe I just flew my stuff around like that!" Lol

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[Mimoid]

I am not going to write about the rules and regulations, but from the strictly technical point of view, the P4 is perfectly capable of flying in total and utter darkness (of course).

However the camera system will fail to be of any use for you to navigate if you would lose the GPS signal, and you would not be able to fly home in ATTI-mode using the video feed (as it will just show a more or less black screen).

Also you will most likely not be able to capture any useful footage. I once tried flying above our residential area at night, but even with the red LED's switched off, all I could see were pale blurry dots instead of the streetlights and an abundance of ugly, multi-colored hi-ISO noise.

 

[luke14321]

Do you recommend it? How often do you find yourself flying your P4 at night?

It just started raining right as I was about to shoot the sunset [emoji25] I've flown twice today already, got nagged by several security officers in central London but can't wait to fly more though! This is really addicting...



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London is not a good idea to fly and is in fact meant to be a nfz! It's up to you want you want to do but please at least keep it in line of sight and fly it lower so you don't hit any planes!


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[luke14321]

I am not going to write about the rules and regulations, but from the strictly technical point of view, the P4 is perfectly capable of flying in total and utter darkness (of course).

However the camera system will fail to be of any use for you to navigate if you would lose the GPS signal, and you would not be able to fly home in ATTI-mode using the video feed (as it will just show a more or less black screen).

Also you will most likely not be able to capture any useful footage. I once tried flying above our residential area at night, but even with the red LED's switched off, all I could see were pale blurry dots instead of the streetlights and an abundance of ugly, multi-colored hi-ISO noise.

Try changing your exposure rate!


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