To VLOS or not to VLOS, that is the question.
I read lots of post where people are questioning about flying VLOS or not.
Every argumentation seem to be (more or less) reasonable, with someone pointing to the FAA rules and some other to the "experience" of the pilot or to the enormous quantity of electronics (IMU, GPS, Compass) that "should" make the flight flawlessly.
I am not on this or that side, but not long ago I had an issue with my P3A.
I had lifted off since a couple of minutes, the craft was very within VLOS when the compass failed. I am not an experienced pilot, I have probably 120 flights or so under my belt, all of them with my P3A (which is absolutely an easy craft to pilot, since every movement is assisted by a bunch of sensors) therefore when the craft started wobbling around I got really nervous.
I switched to ATTI but it was very windy, so it was quite difficult to keep the bird in place and (I must admit) I was flying above a few houses. The space to land was very narrow.
Luckily all ended up well, but that day I realized the risks of fling beyond VLOS.
What if the compass have failed when the bird was where I could not see it? What if the compass should have failed, and I could not find my exact way back? What if the DJI GO App should freeze and require a tablet reboot (it was something which happened quite often in the early days of my P3A) while in ATTI mode with a windy day???
It happens to me to see some cool footage taken in great places (I often dig youtube in search of ideas/places to fly), but many of these are cities. I saw cool footages of NYC (my sister lives there, and I'd really LOVE to fly my P3 down there) as well of VENICE (Italy, which is where I live), but these are crowded areas, and I am sure that if my P3 should fell from the sky hitting someone in the head, well, it could really hurt badly. Or damage someone else property.
By the way, if for any reason a "drone" falling from the sky should injury one of my daughters, I would really get angry with the drone owner.
That said, flying beyond VLOS is a really cool experience (if you have the proper space/area). I have never flown anything bigger than my P3, but flying FPV sometimes really makes the magic to make me feel like I'm "there" in the sky.
But I'm very careful lately.
And all I can say is: PLEASE, be careful you too...
I read lots of post where people are questioning about flying VLOS or not.
Every argumentation seem to be (more or less) reasonable, with someone pointing to the FAA rules and some other to the "experience" of the pilot or to the enormous quantity of electronics (IMU, GPS, Compass) that "should" make the flight flawlessly.
I am not on this or that side, but not long ago I had an issue with my P3A.
I had lifted off since a couple of minutes, the craft was very within VLOS when the compass failed. I am not an experienced pilot, I have probably 120 flights or so under my belt, all of them with my P3A (which is absolutely an easy craft to pilot, since every movement is assisted by a bunch of sensors) therefore when the craft started wobbling around I got really nervous.
I switched to ATTI but it was very windy, so it was quite difficult to keep the bird in place and (I must admit) I was flying above a few houses. The space to land was very narrow.
Luckily all ended up well, but that day I realized the risks of fling beyond VLOS.
What if the compass have failed when the bird was where I could not see it? What if the compass should have failed, and I could not find my exact way back? What if the DJI GO App should freeze and require a tablet reboot (it was something which happened quite often in the early days of my P3A) while in ATTI mode with a windy day???
It happens to me to see some cool footage taken in great places (I often dig youtube in search of ideas/places to fly), but many of these are cities. I saw cool footages of NYC (my sister lives there, and I'd really LOVE to fly my P3 down there) as well of VENICE (Italy, which is where I live), but these are crowded areas, and I am sure that if my P3 should fell from the sky hitting someone in the head, well, it could really hurt badly. Or damage someone else property.
By the way, if for any reason a "drone" falling from the sky should injury one of my daughters, I would really get angry with the drone owner.
That said, flying beyond VLOS is a really cool experience (if you have the proper space/area). I have never flown anything bigger than my P3, but flying FPV sometimes really makes the magic to make me feel like I'm "there" in the sky.
But I'm very careful lately.
And all I can say is: PLEASE, be careful you too...