Exploring Range Pt.1 5.8Ghz

[Northwood Mediaworks]

So, another farm video... Flight 33 this time (do I hear a collective groan? ) if you've seen enough of these already... feel free to change the channel , but then everyone slows down to look at a car wreck!

So, I am getting braver each time I fly... and thanks to having mostly wilderness around us, I can start pushing the envelope more. This weekend I got out for an early morning flight, thinking about range... and before the rains came on Saturday, and then sadly the rest of the day I was grounded. Again today I got out there mid-day, nearly no wind, really hot... and thought again about exploring range...

I've never done anything other than 5.8, so I decided to push 5.8 more than I had before, crossed over to my neighbor's airspace (200 acres - with their permission, they are absentee owners) and flew as far as I dared until something happened.... with my house and a stand of trees in-between. Sure enough, about 500m from where I was standing, I suddenly had a disconnected video feed, the aircraft was still under my control... and the video feed returned just seconds later. I brought it back to the airspace over our place. That was the very first video disconnect I have seen...

Now we have a large-ish property, about 108 acres. (43 hectares), and mostly wooded, its like a jungle, thick boreal or taiga forest. I've been back on land to the south west corner, on foot, and summarily on ATV (quads). But we dont have groomed trails back that far (yet). So in this video, I got close enough over that corner to see the "beaver valley" which at one time was a really large pond, a grassy meadow now. The dam was breached a few years back (I suspect my neighbour broke it as the pond was starting to flood his land to the south of us.) The signal on 5.8 got down below 50% but no disconnects... I had some good altitude, and no trees between me and the AC. Here's the resulting video, with some canned music this time... Part 2 will be the 2.4 range test... total distance on that flight, 2.5km, my longest ever. Yay!

If you've read this far, you must be a Spark geek... hope you enjoy. Part2 is coming soon. Why you might ask? I know some people cannot get enough Spark video. The only cure is something up from it! Also a frame grab of beaver valley. Its a long video... this aint cinema...

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[Excesstext]

Yep I have my geofence set at 500m and will touch it most flights. As long as there’s not too much interference I get rock solid connection and video at that range.

 

[Koala Tails]

I’m guessing you flew it in a spark’s mode of FPV, Rue-be-Red would have been less than a speck on the horizon.
I have admit I didn’t watch the entire video, instead I skipped through it trying to catch the highlights. How about a sped up version?

 

[Northwood Mediaworks]

I’m guessing you flew it in a spark’s mode of FPV, Rue-be-Red would have been less than a speck on the horizon.
I have admit I didn’t watch the entire video, instead I skipped through it trying to catch the highlights. How about a sped up version?

Yes, a speck indeed, I have great eyes (wife says they are bedroom eyes... rrrrr.rrrrrr!) And it did come with a warning... long video! However, most of my other videos are shorter... so once in a while an epic (sleep aid) is okay no? Or is time longer down under?

Next one I will probably speed up, or not... its very cool (at least to my geek brain)

 

[Northwood Mediaworks]

Yep I have my geofence set at 500m and will touch it most flights. As long as there’s not too much interference I get rock solid connection and video at that range.

I seem to have the luxury of no wifi or other pollution, nearest cell tower is like 3km away. I was actually with the 500 in both directions.

 

[Koala Tails]

I was geeky enough to read the entire prologue. I didn’t take the warning seriously enough.
In every other drone range test video I have watched they infer the possibility of a crash. I begin watching & calculating the odds for success, & survival of the quad.
Rue-Be-Red was an unbackable favourite to return safe. No suspense!
If you could organise the occasional naked lady or Canadian Yeti in your next long video, I will watch it in entirety. ; )

 

[graywoulf]

Then its a Spark Geek I am! And proud of it.

 

[Poletramp]

Was waiting for a moose to appear at any time lol

 

[Northwood Mediaworks]

I was geeky enough to read the entire prologue. I didn’t take the warning seriously enough.
In every other drone range test video I have watched they infer the possibility of a crash. I begin watching & calculating the odds for success, & survival of the quad.
Rue-Be-Red was an unbackable favourite to return safe. No suspense!
If you could organise the occasional naked lady or Canadian Yeti in your next long video, I will watch it in entirety. ; )

Too funny! Actually she's Roo-Bee-Red but whats in a name.... I will ask the wife how she feels about getting an all over tan! We have cameras in the woods ready to catch mr. sasquatch (now THAT's retirement planning for you!) If you look at my YT channel there are several Trail Cam vidoes of creatures in our woods, along with my still image gallery, at Our Wildlife | The Woods Gallery so feel free to meet our forest friends.

Right, how about a Roo from your side? Wallaby? Koala..... we're waitin'

 

[Northwood Mediaworks]

Was waiting for a moose to appear at any time lol

Moi aussi! Actually, there's a moose video on my YT channel right up at the end of that largest field of ours, We call that field the "holster" as it sort of resembles a hand gun holster....

I am hoping / looking forward to that possibilty whilst flying... most of the animals seem to be nocturnal around our place...

 

[RPL]

I remember the first time I flew my P3A over 3 miles away. Talk about an anxious experience. Eeeek.....

 

[Excesstext]

I’ll say it, a Spark out at a 500m out over the South China Sea made me nervous because there’s no “it was a heck of a bush walk” recovery story. But no matter where and what we fly over the fact these small AC do it so easily is a testament to the quality of the DJI package and the maturity of the platform.

At the same time having already clocked circa 1.5-2km flight distances means I have absolute confidence in operating out at that sort of range frequently.

I’ve been more nervous when I was 25m, a thicket of trees and a river/dam from the bird when it started an auto descent due to low battery - I’d forgotten that when “that close” it just lands and doesn’t RTH!

Will have to remember to adjust that setting if possible!