Just wondering what distance more experienced people fly the Mini 4 Pro to and comfortably maintain VLOS?
I have strobes and the furthest I’ve set the max distance to was 250m. I could still see it although it did feel a long way away. Have to say the beeping alarm when I reached the limit made me panic a bit. I think it depends on the sky at the time too as some conditions it’s easier to see it than others. Just wondering how brave I should be / how far to push it. (noting the earlier conversations about CAA guidance).
What are you Mini 4 pro pilots generally comfortable with? (height and distance please).
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This is more down to peoples eyesight. If my mom had a drone she would not see it on the floor in front of her.
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If you use an app to register your flight before TOAL there is an option for you to circle the area you wish to fly in
You can set it for 1000m circle and fly from the edge of the 1000m 
how good is you’re eyesight and the spotters at 1000m
My long distance vision is not bad but I doubt I’d see it at that distance! Plus I get scared if I take my eye off to look at the controller that I can’t find it again.
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Exactly that! 
Also, it’s down to lighting, clouds, background.
Evenly white clouds I find are the best, the more patchy/dark they are the less easy.
You’d think blue sky background is best, but I’ve not found it to be. It’s actually a lot darker than white clouds, so the contrast with a dark spec-of-a-drone is also less.
Obviously, hills as a background make it more difficult, even more so if covered in woodland.
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Totally agree with that one, especially flying over the sea. I find overcast conditions are ideal for me.
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If you had another person watching the drone and they where at the point where you lose vlos, and they could seee it from thier position, can they where in radio communication with your would they then be able to take over the vlos from their postion so you could go further to a point where you lose vlos but they have vlos in sight? abit lit fpv when people where the headset, you are meant to have another person who can see the fpv drone
I believe they have to be with you.
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What, so you’re saying I can take off from the mainland, send my Mrs over on a ferry to the Isle of Wight and she can call me up to say she can see it as I descend into Cowes Harbour! 
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Maybe you are pushing that a little bit, but if you where doing a circle around a tall building and once the drone goes behind the building you have lost vlos, but if you had someone on that side of the building you would be able to complete the mission.
Or if you want to push vlos, if you where a passenger on a microlight can you fly your drone that way? I had a very quick look on caa and I cannot see anything saying you have to on land for vlos, the diagram show a figure on the ground.
i think the CAA need a spotter to be next to you, not a distance away & communicating by phone, but that is for FPV flying, and it could be different for ‘normal’ flying. But the bottom line for ‘normal’ flying seems to be that VLOS is needed between the drone & the pilot ‘at all times’. This comes up a lot on the forum, and clearly needs sensible interpretation, because you can’t fly a drone snd keep your eye on it at absolutely ‘all times’, any more than you can drive your car without glancing away from the road to check mirrors or the speedo. You need information from the screen and to check the surrounding airspace!
I interpret it as being able to see the drone immediately at any time while it is in the air even if you’ve looked away from it, because you know exactly where it is relative to you. For this reason I put it into a hover if I’m going to look away from it, so it’s in the same bit of the sky when I look back!
How far away I can see it varies; silhouetted against the sky, about 300’ unless there is a lot of glare, more in dusk or night flying because I use a Strobon Cree light, which I can pick out at the full height allowed, 420’, though the limit cannot be far beyond that; the light is a pin-prick at that range!. Against a background of trees or buildings the distance varies, but is much less, sometimes as close as 50 or so feet away, and the Strobon is a help even in full daylight, though less so in bright sunlight!
I cannot in all honesty claim to be able to see my drone all the time like I should, and I doubt if many of us can, but I try my best! One sees videos that show the drone covering huge distances, over a mile somtimes, and of course most of the time the screen and the bearing map show you exactly where the little fella is even if you havent a snowball in hell’s chance of actually seeing him, and no real problems ensue. The drone can cope, because it is well within range of the RC & video signals. Of course a large drone will be easier to see than my Mini.
Until there’s something else in the airspace that you can’t see at that distance and isn’t on the map; birds, other aircraft, kites, cables, whatever.
It’s chancy, and to my mind an unessessary & therefore unacceptable risk to take, because if anything goes amiss and you cause loss or injury, or worse, to anyone the insurance won’t cover you and the CAA and/or the 5-0, not to mention the victim’s legal people, will be on your case! Personally, I keep within a pre-set range of about 100 yards. I’d stress out otherwise!
I know some of you think I worry too much about this sort of thing, and you might have a point, but my experience of life in general is that if anything can go wrong it probably already has, and my luck is not good enough to be relied on; like John Lee Hooker says ‘if it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have no luck at all’. I have to be careful…
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As a few have said already, VLOS is different for everyone, different drones, and different conditions. Height wise I always try to stay within the limits, sometimes I might stray a little, but always bring it back down after a look at the screen. Distance wise? I mainly fly in wide open spaces with no people, traffic, houses etc. I’ve accidentally lost sight of the drone loads of times, you need to be able to look at the screen to compose your shot/video, to get the info to keep you at a safe height, to check signal strength and gps lock. Trust the tech in your drone, use the map, use the screen and if all else fails hit RTH. I also find that if I lose sight, moving vertically seems to be easier to pick it up. If I know I’m going to push my limits then I fit the strobes on, red on left and white on right, helps with orientation too.
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As @Foley said, “The UA Observer must be situated alongside the RP.”
You may also not use vision enhancing equipment beyond normal corrective lenses.
But there’s nothing to say you cannot move to maintain VLOS. (AFAIK)
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Hard to give precise figures because of the varying lighting conditions, cloud colour etc but I have one of the programmable buttons on my RC2 set to switch the landing led on & off. Helps to confirm the dot you’re staring at is actually your drone without pushing you over the 250gm limit.
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You really can see your drone from say 500m away with that inbuilt light on??
I don’t bother with it, my strobe is 100 times better.
I have flown from central pier to north pier (Blackpool), at around 100’, which is near as damn it 500m, at dusk and had perfectly clear view of it, no lights needed or seem to make much difference .
On another occasion in bright sunlight I’ve lost view of it almost immediately after take off, with the added “bonus “ of not being able to see the screen on my RC2, could only discern it’s position through being able to hear it.
I should have been clearer, this is related to night flying. There’s no way on earth you can see that built in light from say a distance of 500m away.
I agree with what you’re saying about distances but the little led does come in handy at times!
Yeah reckon your right divide that distance by 10 and you stand a chance.
However I reckon you can see the lights on the Mavic series at distance, the lights on my M2Pro are really quite bright. I’ve seen a couple from my house which I reckon have been flying up & parallel with the prom at night and could clearly see them from around a 1/4 mile away.
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