I recently filmed a private party/festival for someone I know. It was near an FRZ (1km from boundary) but spoke to the ATC and they didn’t object or request info of start/stop despite being a military airfield and a small local airshow on one of the days of the event. (The event I was recording was before/during and after this event)
Some of the filming was at night time. I, at any stage didn’t fly over groups of people, more so around them, happy to share footage of what I did get. I feel a bit disappointed with the shots I got as I was being quite risk averse and staying “wide and high”. Looking back at the footage I know I could have gone a bit closer, (and still been legal and safe) but hey ho.
One thing I learnt very fast and adjusted my ground controller position is that it’s easy to lose vlos in the dark despite the drones flashing lights, the couple of times I momentarily lost sight I did I didn’t panic, I stayed put, did a visual check around with the onboard camera, got my bearings and then adjusted flight in a very controlled manner.
I never felt in a panic like I was going to lose my drone… But I have been thinking that I’m going to buy a couple of strobes if I try this again.
All in all it was a very safe few sorties and I want to try it again. But am asking the group for any tips please ? If anyone has done something like this before please could you share what you did and how you did it.
There’s a few threads / topics ( for flying at night ) if you type it in the search bar that may help you however,
When you go to fly an area at night if your not familiar with it, my go to would be to go & take a look in the day get real familiar with your surroundings & where you want / will be flying, trees buildings things around you that may look totally fine in the day but could potentially be hazardous at night if that make sense just better to be safe than sorry,
that as well, as said you can plan better,
That’s a great idea for night flying & can even help at times in the day & as a GADC paid member take a look here with 15% discount
You can program one of the auxiliary buttons on the back of the controller (C1 and C2) to switch the ‘landing light’ (I think it might be called the auxiliary light) on and off at will.
It’s very bright and will help to ‘find’ it in the sky if you need it, but can be easily switched off if it’s not needed.
Skytron Strobon; 4g weight so it goes on my Mini 2 SE and stays under the 250g limit, claims to be visible up to 3 miles (an I’ve no reason to doubt this against a dark background). No problem locating the drone after looking at the screen, and much more visible than the green flashing status light. Mine’s mounted under the left rear motor, didn’t trust the metal hook attachment so I reinforced it with superglue.
The landing light may suffice for your needs, though. Check out any area you want to fly in at night in daylight for any trees, overhead cables, or other drone-unfriendly sky furniture; I tried night flying for the first time this week, at a location I knew well, and the street lighting is enough to prevent your being able to see any of such obstaclses in the dark. A light on the drone will help you locate the drone for VLOS, but not illuminate anything in it’s way…
I’d suggest a pencil torch with the light shaded red by a filter. Then you can look at various things (like propeller security, card slot filled etc.) without affecting your night vision too much.
As a general reading/inspection light, I use an led bike light that has low, medium, and high settings for this, and for general drone bag illumination even in daylight (the drone bag is an old rucsack for now until the proper Mini 2 SE bag I ordered arrives in August, and it’s dark down in there. There are tribes that have never seen a white man, and ancient civilisations).
Daytime recce is advisable, regarding strobes, sometimes I use them but I’ve only got 1 tiny led miniature version, usb charged, it’s visible enough at a fair distance at night because your in a dark sky with out any other form of illumination. A spotter is always handy, coz a quick glance at the screen and it’s gone from view. You’ll spend more time looking at the screen than looking at the drone(hence the spotter). I’ve never experienced any intrusion from bystanders, many coz nobody will know your location at night. All my drones have had auto landing lights, they came on around 8ft from the ground, creates a 6ft well lit area, if you turn it off, the drone can’t recognise the ground and slam’s down on landing. Have fun
that as well, as said you can plan better,
