Maybe by activating 'Dynamic Homepoint' in Litchi and driving your vehicle with RC and GPS-enabled Smartdevice simultaneously along (more or less) the flight. You must stay connected all the time.
Long Litchi Run
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No, the worst thing that could happen is some emergency helo (Care Flight?) flying by that you can't see (like the guy in New York that hit the military helo) because of the distance, runs into your bird.
Don't get me wrong. I love all this long distance stuff, but this part of it is what keeps me from doing exactly what you're doing. I've watched some absolutely amazing videos of Litchi flights and long to try some myself - but I guess I'm just 'chicken'.
I routinely do 5 mile round trips and with windsurfers, I rarely lose signal. This is usually over uninhabited marshes in Florida @ 200'' or 300'. I recommend that you verify winds at altitude. Use this: UAV Forecast
Ok, I take it the P3P does not have a smart battery that calculates everything meaning if mission cannot be accomplished due to lack of battery life, Drone just Aborts trip and warns to return home and does so? Cause your answer to try this and that first seems that the Drone can be lost due to power loss.
I have the P4P and don’t worry about battery anything it looks after itself. Low battery it warns that you’ve reached your max distance to be able to return safely and it’s up to you to cancel and loose it. Is that maybe what their doing above, cancelling warnings and risking eg., stretching beyond limits?
All DJI drones as of (at least) P3 have smart batteries. Regardles which app you use (all DJI, Litchi, UF, etc.), Low battery RTH will always kick in (or Hover/Land).
If you put a gps tracker on your bird, you may follow your flight progress in real time and you may find it if it lands someware in the bush.
The litchi app let me save the mission which is 5342m one way. So i guess i was off in the first est. Still don't have the weather to try it.
Once I flew around, I got several warnings about high velocity which I did not care about since it was not blowing where I was standing..
However; When I got the low battery warning and pressed RTH, the bird very, very slowly returned homewards due to heavy head wind.
When it was half way home, the batts were out of juice and the bird decided to land. I quickly turned the camera downwards and then I spotted an emty parking place to which I guided the bird before I lost RC connection due to a hill.
I jumped into my car and found the bird sitting excactly where I expected it to be!
After this I always consider wind before and during flight!!
However; When I got the low battery warning and pressed RTH, the bird very, very slowly returned homewards due to heavy head wind.
When it was half way home, the batts were out of juice and the bird decided to land. I quickly turned the camera downwards and then I spotted an emty parking place to which I guided the bird before I lost RC connection due to a hill.
I jumped into my car and found the bird sitting excactly where I expected it to be!
After this I always consider wind before and during flight!!
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Here is my take on a 5 mile run. I live in MN and have just configured 3 litchi mission plans to run in Mazatlan when we go there next month ( amazing isn't it) These all involve 2.5 mile round trips across the ocean to island beaches and then RTH. The claim by litchi is 12-15 min but I have the 1 mile run across the ocean at 30mph however ran the calculations at 20mph as stated before the time given does not account for wind. I would use caution. I estimate the actual time will be closer to 20 min which is pushing it and I will eye the wind closely before the attempts. In your case you may crash but find it in mine I have a credit card.
Not trying to talk OP out of it , but I had a flight of about 4 miles out that didnt make it that far because of low battery and it was a good thing too. This was with my P4 and not my Mavic . I have other videos of dual and even a 3 drone mission , and not all went well. This was a year and a half ago and havent used Litchi much recently .
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5.4 miles is not to bad- I get 17mins using my P3S and I am sure it'll fly that far.
As stated by others:
Check your altitude at launch- does Litchi take in account terrain?
Use a real map and a satellite map of the route, look for bridges, trees, water towers and other obstacles.
Maintain line of sight (Here in the USA this is required by FAA regulations.) by having a person follow the drone.
I like the idea of launching a couple blocks away ;-)
As stated by others:
Check your altitude at launch- does Litchi take in account terrain?
Use a real map and a satellite map of the route, look for bridges, trees, water towers and other obstacles.
Maintain line of sight (Here in the USA this is required by FAA regulations.) by having a person follow the drone.
I like the idea of launching a couple blocks away ;-)
If you are an American citizen, the latest definition for VLOS requires you to know your drone’s orientation. That goes beyond just seeing it. The distance you are talking about goes beyond your even being able to see the drone if you are at 200’. So ... (again if your are a US citizen) get with it!
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Personally I would say give it a shot. If possible try to do a Manuel run by letting someone drive the route your planning to do as you control the drone from the car. This will give you a great insight to make sure you got the right height and that there is nothing in the way that you wasn't expecting (like a crane or something)
If it’s getting smaller it’s heading away from you......
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It is a good thing the FAA does not pay attention to our Forum because doing missions like that is a good way to get a visit by them you must maintain visual line-of-sight in the event something were to go wrong I know it is not likely but if it did and there is an injury then guess what you bring more b******* regulations to the rest of us who do things right if you want to plan long flights to see how far it will go go somewhere where you can actually see a long way and for the record even though you can have visual observers to help the FAA says that the pilot in command must be able to see the Drone also
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You got that all day long. Add in elevation relative to ground as well to account for any variations. Also, I'e noticed that the flight time, in this case 15 minutes always seems to be much less in reality. Your bird will probably make it back in 12 minutes or so. Remember that if you lose signal, your gimbal controls will remain static so I would pre program manual gimbal angles etc. and get your receiver up as high as possible like a roof or deck so try and maintain line of sight.
Having someone you know at the farthest waypoint is definitely in your favor. Some one to verify it's arrival, remember to get the wind at your back for the return trip whenever possible ....Good luck.
Wil a P3S make and one way 5.4km at approximately 120m high. I would be able to be have my wife drive me and stay with it just curious at the max distance others have done a litchi mission.
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