Flying Mini 2 off the sunroof with me inside my car!

I am only a casual user AT PRESENT! … I have found finding places to fly from much easier, if all I have to do is park my car. I slide open the glass sun roof and put the mini on top, for take off, with me staying in the car(heater on) I found no signal lose. However I have not really tested thoroughly as max range I have flown has been 1km… really did not expect it to work but it seems to…

Anybody tested this way of flying. Took my 89 year mother for a drive and it was so eye openning for her as we flew around her local reservoir she has not been able to get to for over 10 years!..

My car is an MG electric so happy to sit with heating on for the duration, luxury on cold days…OK its not lazy its just so much easier to find a place to fly from.

SO technically, If I am taking off from my car, am I taking off from somebodies land?

Landing is fun as with the sunroof closed, you are landing on your face(not literally)!

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If you’re parked on some ones land then YES you are taking off from their land also. :+1: and permission maybe required

It’s great you’re able to get out and fly and even take your mother with you on your trips.
I would advise caution when doing this though as parts on and in your car can cause calibration problems and may even cause the drone to fly away. You also have the added possible issue of VLOS, Visual Line Of Sight and hearing… Can you hear approaching manned aircraft? I’m not saying you can’t see your drone from where your parked/sat but just bare this in mind.

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:rofl:

I often fly out of my campervan and use an external antenna kit: Titan Atlas antenna mod + car kit (modified it again since, but you’ll get the idea).

Never took off from the roof though (too high, can’t reach) :smiley:

If the mini is 1km away it won’t really matter if he’s inside or outside of the car, it’s too far away to see.

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LOL that is true :face_with_monocle:

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Sorry but 1km is BVLOS, no matter where you are flying the drone from… If an area you wish to fly over, is that far away, then maybe drive a bit closer first.

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Unless it’s at night and you have crees … like me, and many other users in GADC :wink:

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I once got to 0.5km with two strobon crees on and could just make my drone, actually all I could see was the crees flashing, nothing else. 1km is just not possible.

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I have flown over 1km at night with crees and could still see them flashing. Firehouse Technology ARC “V” crees advertise their range at 3km at night. And this chap (below) shows them visable at 2km :+1:

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Those ARC V crees look good …

How do they perform in the daytime?

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Amazing! Not as good as night, but definitely helps see the drone better.

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Agree, they are the best thing going to help keep in touch with the machine and which way it is facing.

That’s interesting. I wonder if it’s because I’ve got mine pointing down, I see his crees are facing back. Either that or I need to go to Specsavers :wink:

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Another thing is the colour. I have the white, red and green crees. And by far, the white is the brightest. I also attach them to the front legs of both the Mini 2 and M2P with velcro. It doesn’t affect the antennae strength either.

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I would say so.

As a test, don some shades, turn on the cree whilst holiding it, then, whilst looking at it …

  1. Face the cree down towards the floor, then
  2. Face the cree towards you

I know first hand which is brighter … except I tried it without shades :confounded:

However, surely the drone is above you, so would expect down facing to be better?

With rear facing are you going to see them at all if the drone is flying towards you?

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I have mine rear facing, 99.9% of the time you fly the drone forwards, away from you, you are facing the drone for best reception so can always see the strobe. It also helps with orientation, if you cannot see the strobe you must have turned the drone, just pull left or right on the left stick until you can see the strobe clearly, drone will be facing away from you, pull back on the right stick to bring it home. Bottom mounted gives you no indication of orientation.(I know you can use the map but I use a phone with no sim in it so have no live map updates).

I bought 2 face down clips and now I shall be buying some rear facing clips. As you have mentioned I stuggled with orientation with the downwards. I might put 1 downwards (white) and 1 rearwards (red) see what does!

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I’ve had no problems seeing the downward facing strobes, one green one white. Surprisingly the colours are clearly distinguishable and I know which way it’s facing by the position of them.

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I have a red cree on the battery door and a white one facing forward stuck on the uppy bit near the wizzy bit.
I use velcro and to date have had no problems. They are from my experience much easier to see and much easier to know which way the machine is flying.
Of course I can use the screen but it is always safer to have a second opinion.
On my Mavic pro I used to piggy back two Red cycle lights, forward facing one on strobe and the other on constant facing to the rear. Never any problem locating the machine after a quick glance at the machine.
oops! its a mini 2!

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