When I took my first flight with my Mavic Mini the other day the controller briefly warned me about interference from nearby objects. I moved the drone a couple of inches to the left and it didn’t happen again. In all likelihood what it was most likely detecting was the mass of my nearby car (it was right next to us).
This raises the question of what would happen if I tried to use the roof of my card as a takeoff and landing pad. I know, I know, it sounds a bit daft. My reasoning is this, the area I was flying had been subject to days of rain and was covered in mud. It was also slightly inclined which led the drone to complain about not being a safe place to land.
I just got a landing pad (one of those pop-out things) and was going to try putting it on the roof of my car and launching from there.
I’ve experienced this with my MP after taking off from the roof a building with lots of metal around. Was quite scary because of where I was. ‘Insurance Claim’ was being repeated in my head. To my surprise the MP sorted it self out after countering all of its movements and raising its altitude.
If you do by any chance take off with magnetic interference it will affect the compass. (It has 2 of them)When the drone is away from whatever is causing the interference the compass will then show the correct heading etc but this won’t tally with where either compass thinks it is in time and space, it loses its point of reference and you could end up flying southwards and the compass telling the drone it is going northwards, or vice versa. This will also affect any return to home settings as you might record them correctly but the drone won’t know where it is once away from the interference.
This thread although specific to the Mavic Air is a salutary lesson on magnetic effects. Couldn’t get my Air in the air until I sussed the watch was the culprit. Leave the watch in the car now some way from landing mat or get someone else to calibrate it but it doesn’t ask me now I don’t wear it!
Definitely land NOT on a car roof or indeed any raised surface. If if doesn’t land spot on it can topple from a height and do damage to car and itself. Flat ground only. Also keep out of long grass if you can as Minis not good at mowing.
Also a possible gotcha is if using a pad make sure to hammer pegs flat to ground as if drone lands near a raised peg one of props may well get trashed. Nearly happened on my first ever go with a M2P which is a tad bigger than a Mini but noticed it was going to happen and managed to sort matters. Now use leg extensions which I keep on permanently on the M2P and use a mat.
Yeah, I found that out today on my test flight in the garden: it took off ok from a wooden garden table but refused to land on it as it was deemed “unsafe”.