I’ve established some data. I can see the drone silhouetted against a lighter background (the sky) at 300 feet, about 80m in new money, so for now I’ll make that my ceiling. Against a darker background it’s a different ballgame and depends on a lot of variables, but about 120’ seems sensible. The new light might make a difference, but there’s no post til Monday so the above will be the rule for the time being. I think a dayglo orange skin might be useful within the 120’, but the drone is just too small for it to make a difference past that. Maybe lit by the sun against a dark background…
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You can set maximum distance and height in the app if you so wish ;o)
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Yes, I’ve done that. Part of establishing the above dietances was to replace the previous settings, which were 100% guesswork! The app is now set to 300’ height and 120’ distance/radius around base station. I’ll probably increase these distances when the Strobon arrives (should be tomorrow) and I’ve flown with it, but I want especially to try it in bright sunlight for locating the drone, and there is going to be precious little of that next week according to UAV Forecast, who seem pretty accurate.
I’m going over the rec later to practice using the app’s map feature with the drone.
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Someone metioned earlier high vis orange. All my drones have orange skins for VLOS enhancement. Against the typical grey sky the colour is obvious. On a sunny day you get a very bright reflection from it too.
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But almost invisible on Franks bench ;o)
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I have the flytron they are very bright.
Not tried at 3km.
For visibility the white lens is the best due to wavelength.
Navigation red/ green.
Also since joining GADC ive noticed a discount code in the members section for 15% off, too late for me.
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Strobon not come in the post yet; Royal Mail 24hr Tracked apparently means 72hr with the specific 24hr not specified… UAV says ‘Not Good To Fly’ in daylight today anyway, bit gusty.
Again, I am not intending to attempt to fly my drone at 3km range even by fpv (which I suppose would be legal if I had spotters strung out along the flightpath in relays), 3km is the distance the Amazon LEDs I was thinking of buying before I decided on Flytron Strobon were claimed to be visible from, and my original title for the topic was ‘LED astray’, which I thought was rather clever. The site altered this to ‘Are LEDs visible at 3km’, which has distracted corresponents ever since.
I was having trouble locating the drone at any sort of distance if I’d glanced at the fpv screen for information, and wanted to discuss ways of picking it up more easily in different conditions. I’m not sure what the side does to change my topic headling, but I suspect it is some sort of AI; ‘Are LEDs visible at 3km’ (yes, at night in dark rural areas, presumably, but who cares, I can’t fly that distance anyway) is a bit different in meaning to ‘will I be able to more easily pick out my drone at 100m with an LED underneath it in bright sunlight?’. Topic title is a required field, but what’s the point if they are going to change it anyway?
Having unwillingly sacrificed a previous, luckily cheapo, drone to the flyaway monster, I’m not about to send my pride & joy off into the wide blue yonder in the vague hope that it might come back, automatic low battery/signal loss RTH or not. My gut feeling is that, if I can’t see it, I might not ever see it again!
Is there a way I can edit the topic title, or will it just be changed back to something generated by the site that is not really suitable anyway?
Unless you’ve paid for Special Delivery, never expect anything from Royal Mail in 24hrs… It’s false advertising!
I take UAV Forecast with a pinch of salt… I personally use Ventusky which I’ve found to be spot on.
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Ok, I’ll check out Ventusky. I find ‘Windy’ pretty good for wind direction and strength forecasting as well, though it is not particularly drone-specific or localised. Tx for the headsup, HantsFlyer.
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Downloaded; I like it! Attractive, looks easy to use, and two weeks forecasted. Tx again, Hants!
Ditto
Best forecast is what you see with your own eyes imho 
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I almost lost a drone in the wind with UAV forecast. I find Ventusky far more accurate, along with using my own eyes and ears!!!
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I agree… Whilst Apps are good I’ve often arrived at the location and said to myself " Not today ."
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I tried my mini 4 Pro in a straight line 60m up in virtually no wind. Signal great (ie full at 850m I live in a suburban environment but close to a flood plain) after the recent frequency upgrade.
Just for reference, as I can see you have no intention to push ya lovely new beasty to its limits:
- I lost sight at 650m.
- Flight end-to-end took @5 mins.
- Airdata reckoned I would have had a flight of @24min before battery completely flat.
- Airdata averaged a possible flight at 8km.
Mindful, this was a flight in totally banign conditions, in normal mode at full tilt. 
No. " You can ask someone to be your observer when you fly. They must stand next to you and you must be able to talk to each other at all times . One of you must be able to keep your drone or model aircraft in direct sight and have a full view of the surrounding airspace at all times."
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Ok, must be alongside me and keep eyes on at all times, fair enough.
You may have figured this out already: don’t push your flight batteries close to 0%.
We make poor decisions when there is time pressure, and it’s a nice luxury to have five minutes of flight time to nail the landing.
The controller beeps all the time battery is low / critically low. It’s annoying at best and can increase the sense of urgency to land and make poor decisions.
Flight batteries shouldn’t be stored nearly empty, so landing with some spare charge obviates the neto charge them back up to a sensible storage charge before storing them.
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I’ve found my flight times to be pretty close to 30 minutes, and I appreciate the beeping and warning when the battery is starting to worry. Time to press RTH, which also beeps and tells you when it’s landing during it’t final vertical descent. Not at all annoying or stress-creating, and rather satisfying when the drone behaves in the expected way.
Flying earlier this evo I got a high wind warning which asked me to land immediately, but she settled down when I’d lost a bit of altitude. I wasn’t surprised; my impression was that the wind was a little stronger than forecast…
I experimented with the LED bike light mentioned earlier this evo and I didn’t think it made much difference when the drone was more than about 50’ away. The Strobon is going to be delivered tomoz lunchtime according to RM tracking, and perhaps that will be better. I’ll have to wait a few days before trying it out, though; the wind is set in until Sunday by the look of it!
I personally only use the RTH in an emergency and never take my batteries below 35% remaining power. When you’re into sea flying as I am, you don’t want to be running on empty out there.
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Agreed; you need to keep a close eye on things even if you are flying over small areas of water never mind the open sea! The ultimate conclusion of overstretching battery runtime and distance from base would be that the drone would warn you of low battery, and even begin RTH, run low, hover, and gently land. In the drink, end of sports even if you’re only a few feet off the shoreline.
Over land you’ve got a chance of finding it, map showing where it went down fairly accurately, but dead batteries mean no flashing lights or beeping to help you in the foliage!
Keeping within VLOS would mean that the drone would be close enough to the shoreline to have plenty in reserve to rescue itself when the warnings start, but that is definitely the time to head for home, whether you fly home or rely on the RTH. Probably a good idea to stop filming as well as that is a further, albeit slight, drain on the battery.
I work to to principle that the battery, and the drone, are intelligent and I’m stupid (there is plenty of evidence to support this assertion). It is therefore sensible to listen to what the drone and the battery are telling me, rather than push the envelope!