I am new member after finally buying a drone after several years of thinking about it, mainly for use in scouting out landscape photography opportunities and compositions
I have a DJI mini 4 pro and so far it appears to be exactly what i wanted after my first flight today.
My concern is the rule that you need to fly it in line of sight si that you can see which way it is facing.
How??? this thing is tiny. Out at 30m i can’t tell which way it is pointing by eye and it is still in the same field i started in!!
Also, i am allowed to fly it up to 120m high, but still need to be able to tell whcih way it is facing. HOW??? Do the CAA people have some form of special eyes that we mortals don’t posess?
How can i use this device to scout around ? my experience today was that it is much easier to fly using the onboard camera up at 30m, than trying to watch it by eye, and i felt much safer using the screen - but i appeared to have been breaking the law doing this as i had no spotter with CAA eyesight with me.
This line of sight rule appears to defeat the object of actually haing the drone
Welcome and welcome to the confusion that is the CAA at times.
I know the frustration of what you say only too well - but really its a bit of a guidance thing - how will they know that you didn’t know what way the drone was facing ? They wont - its quite simple. Also when will they ask you ? Only if your really doing something wrong. So keep within the rules as much as you can as no one has ever truly flown to the letter of the law. Its just not possible.
You will notice that the rules / advice / law around the drone code is quite open to interpretations at time - like the VLOS bit and the need for spotters. The spotters bit is needed if you plan to use just the controller or goggles and not look at the drone at all. They say you can look at the controller to change settings / setup a shot etc but they do not define how long that look at the screen can be for - so when does it become a FPV flight then ?
The basics are - know where in the sky your drone is - be sure to know what is around it - keep an eye on the drone as much as you can as we all know when we look down to see why the controller beeped or you changed a setting and looked up your not going to see it first time right away and you will need a few seconds to pick it up.
Be safe is the key thing here and keep the sky as safe as you can by doing what you can to adhere to the CAA drone code.
‘visual line of sight operation’ (‘VLOS’) means a type of UAS operation in which, the remote pilot is able to maintain continuous unaided visual contact with the unmanned aircraft, allowing the remote pilot to control the flight path of the unmanned aircraft in relation to other aircraft, people and obstacles for the purpose of avoiding collisions
So: you must be able to see your drone at all times (but that doesn’t mean you have to look at it continuously), and this must allow you to control the parth of the unmanned aircraft in relation to aircraft, people and obstacles, to avoid collisions.
The CAA interpret that in their guidance as meaning you must be able to see the orientation of your drone.
I don’t think most drone pilots agree with that interpretation, so long as they are confident they can avoid a collision e.g. because they already know which way the drone is facing without having to look at all.
Thanks both that is some relief.
As an engineer, complying with the spirit of the CAA and applying a little common sense whilst keeping safety as a priority (i designed and programmed industrial robots, so safety is second nature) makes me feel a lot more comfortable about this new experience
As the others have said as long as you are confident where the drone is then that’s fine and after all you just have to be able to see it if they can’t that’s their problem not yours , also worth remembering you don’t have to talk to anyone while flying as that’s a distraction so you are well within your rights to say you will happily talk to them AFTER you have landed the drone .
You must have the drone in your visual line of sight ‘at all times’ so that you can see where you are going and that there are no obstacles or other traffic (such as birds) in the vicinity, but you are allowed to look at the screen briefly! In fact, of course, it is essential that you do so in order to check basic safety information such as your battery, number of gps satellites your drone is locked onto, height, distance, &c.
The screen has a live map which shows the position and bearing of the drone relative to the Home Point, which is where you are, and the direction/speed the drone is moving in! It also shows the orientation of the drone (in the form of an arrow icon), which is not the same as the direction the drone is moving in; you can be flying sideways, diagonally, or backwards!
As well as that, of course, there is the live feed from the camera, which will show you visually the direction that the camera is pointing in. You know from the live map arrow icon and the stick movements, the direction that the drone is moving in and it’s orientaion.
You will also need to use the screen to frame and compose the video or photos.
Sound advice - one of the best things I did was ensure I know how to use the mini ‘radar’ screen to check on wind, and to understand what the colours mean etc for home point, drone orientation, flight path taken and returning. VFR in full sized flight is analogous … but there’s no way a pilot can spend 100% of his time looking out for other aircraft without changing radio frequency, checking airspeed and so on. It’s a sensible safety based compromise always
The drone camera is always in the same orientation of the arrowhead (pointy bit) - maybe that will help.
What you shouldn’t really do is fly it say half a mile away at 120m then on hearing a low flying helicopter, not be able to react safely as you’d potentially be unfamiliar with the topography below or beside it at that time.
No idea about non-dji stuff…not sure who would go to the trouble of building a racing fpv drone for use with racing goggles and team racing etc…to take photos!!
I’ve seen some drones folks bought on Ali and Temu, and most won’t make it off the ground without crashing, will get played with twice then binned! - the OP was related to LOS with a DJI Mini 4 Pro
Even if you cant see which way is forward, so to speak and i do agree with the op about difficulties with that.
So long as you can see the drone you can easily work out which direction it’s pointing just by comparing your stick movements with what you see the drone doing.
Ie you push the stick to move forward and you dont see any left or right movement then you know its either flying toward or away from you. Introduce a turn and you can work out where its going from there.
Buy an absolutely H U G E drone so that you can see it a mile away, but make sure it is under 250g. Or under 2 kilos with A2 CoC?
You may feel my advice is unrealistic, but hey, the CAA started it!
I like yopur idea. I will build it 5m wide from unobtainium and make sure the weight is actually below 0g, then the CAA will love me forever - and at below 0g the battery life will be impressive
Sounds perfect. With a weight below zero grams, you may have to expend some effort keeping it below 120m, but at least there will be no fire hazard from your LiPo cells.
I think the point of the requirement to always be able to orientate your drone visually is that you may need to take emergency action without the luxury of time to faff about moving the sticks back and forward trying to figure out which way you’re facing.
You could easily be over uninvolved people, even with something as big as an Air 3S now, so straight down or cutting the motors in flight may not be the best option. Where you’re going instead should be part of the risk assessment before (and continually during) the flight.
Not being a dick or suggesting that anybody flies BVLOS illegally. The OP asked about knowing which way his drone is facing, and at certain angles, against some backgrounds, and the further away from the pilot the drone is, it is perfectly feasible to have your drone clearly visible in LOS but, due to it’s shape, not be certain which way it is facing. The arrow icon will show you which way it is facing and, if it’s moving, which way it is moving.
In an area clear of obstacles, it would be possible to fly entirely ‘on instruments’ without looking at the drone, not quite FPV bit a similar principle, using just the RC and the screen, but for the CAA rules, and similar rules exist in nany countries. Roolz iz roolz in my book, sensible in this case, and should be complied with as far as is reasonable, but we can dream, can’t we.
Why can’t I fly, say, Cococabana Beach by hiring a drone in Rio, flying it on my RC/phone here, retur ing the drone to the hire company, and uploasing the video?
