I have the 2 . Big fun
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Well I still have my damaged Mini 4 Pro thatās sold on here for Ā£100 if buyer still wants.
Also have Mini 3 Pro Combo with custom carry case. Was going to keep the 3 Pro as a back up, but not sure if should sell that too to put towards Avatar ???
I have a Strobon Cree white led and find it very effective for relocating the drone after Iāve looked away at the screen, but today recieved (tx Amazon) a set of 4 multicoloured rechargeables. Yet to fly with them but the idea is that a green light at the front and a red at the back, accompanied by the Strobon, will make it easier to determine the orientation of the drone. This is not always obvious on what is basically an X shape silhouette at range, and of course one wants to avoid having to look at the screen for the little arrow on the map to preserve VLOS. Thereās some dull weather coming up over the next three days according to the forecasts (and too windy on Sunday) so Iāll do some squares & circles practice and let you all know how I get on with the lights.
With the darker evenings upon us, Iām turning my mind to night-flying, and to locations where this is worth filming. Being able to locate and orientate the drone will be a big help!
My drone is almost certainly a smidge over 249g now, but Iāve decided not to lose any sleep over itā¦
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Green and red marker lights have a recognised position in aviation - putting them front and back of your drone may confuse othersā¦
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Fair enough, but in this case established aviation practice might be hard to replicate on a small drone. Red/green facing forwards replcates marine practice, as does white to rear but ships also carry a white masthead light facing forward. On a drone this would need separate red and green leds on the forward legs and separate white leds on the rear legs, plus another white on the rear of the drone body, 5 leds, well over weight for a 249g bird and probably enough to affect performance. Iāve already had a maximum load warning with the prop guards fitted to the Mavic Miniā¦
Iām sort of conditioned to red being the rear light (cars, bikes, trains) and white on the front as a headlight, and this seems easier and more understandable to people on the ground who are not familiar with aviation practice. There are, TTBOMK, no rules for lights on drones, and practice, if there is such, seems to be blue front red rear if leds marketed for drones on Amazon is any guide!
I already have a powerful white strobe on the drone, so another white light seems superfluous and possibly confusing. Iām unsure of blue in case it is mistaken for an emergency service light, and yellow/orange in case it is mistaken for a vehicle/roadworks warning light, so that leaves green. Or purple.
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Thats great John, thanks for this. Ive been worried about adding strobes/lights just incase it takes it over the 250g
Would you say it not an issue if stopped at any point?
My little defense back would be ālights help for safetyā¦ really sorry a bit over, would you rather I fly blind and cause an accident and take them off?ā
Surely if stated in such a way, authorities would appreciate it. I just get paranoid because if stopped and asked at any point and told to point to drone, after being disturbedā¦ may not be able to point at it right away.
Thanks again for great info there.
Rich
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Theyād probably rather you just flew within the realms of the drone code 
Would they?
Good luck trying to convince an insurance underwriter to pay out too, you know they only need the slightest reason to not cough up 
You can spin it anyway you like but the bottom line is still:
And if it is +249g then itās not a problem, you just need to do the same thing and fly within the drone code
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I appreciate what you are saying regarding drone code and I stick by it. With posting what I did was a possible example if stopped etcā¦
You state convincing insurance companyā¦ Why would that happen unless 249g wend down and caused damage.
To me with your reply there saying insurance companyā¦ So, If out flying and drone fails a little, or freak wind picks up and takes it off your line of site and crashesā¦ Would insurance be void as they claimed it crashed and caused damage away from line of site of where take off point was?
Perhaps driving at 100 will mean you spend less time on the roads, making them safer for longer ?
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Come onā¦ Im just stating a fact that if drone got blown away out of sight on last comment I made.
Chris, have you or any others been stopped by drone police or police in generalā¦
Ive had replies such as yours and above regarding car speedā¦ LOL!!! makes me laughā¦ Why compare a dangerouse HUGE car to a small droneā¦
So, flying a small drone and wind takes it away and you try to click RTH or land where it is going to go down, and causes damageā¦ Would insurance not pay out as out of sight?
I understand your paranoia, Whadda, but what would be most likely to happen in the real world if you have a brush with the 5-0? Assuming the constable that showed up was fully conversant with the drone regulations, he is unlikely to have a set of calibrated weighing scales about his person, even if you havenāt been able to quietly remove some of the lights without him noticing.
The most likely scenario is that he/she is following up on a complaint from a member of the public, as they have to. If you have been flying within the drone code and the regulations and not being an overt nuiscance to neighbours, perving in on people taking showers, not causing a noise nuiscance, and generally behaving yourself, and you are not transgressing in terms of no-fly zone or NOTAMs, the result of the encounter is that the 5-0 are going to see that you are not causing any trouble, you are going about your lawful business, and the complaint will not be upheld.
In fact the unyeiding gaze of The Law may in the event fall on the complainant, who could be regardes as wasting police time, and if they are close to, possibly with illegally interfering with a drone pilot.
You donāt want to be night-flying without lights, youāre not a cyclistā¦
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Just go and fly your drones, and have fun, they arenāt death traps
Don your strobes it will all be fine 
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Thank you for comments and enjoyed reading them, some informative of so called rules and some with great common sense with not all rules undertaken when flying.
Will not go into comments regarding some that stated cars etcā¦ as when stopped in car you can get a god officer, or as myself, never been stopped since driving from 17 years of age and now 51yrs.
Thanks again one and all for replies.
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I guess if they asked for logs they could certainly try wriggle out of it.
Itās one of the reasons care refresh is so good.
As for the car analogy, itās a nice easy one as everyone does it (breaks the speed limit). Perhaps a better one is ātakingā stationary from work, theft is theft.
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Iāve just bought one of these ( HeiyRC mini strobe ), to help visibility in daylight as in uk weather = grey drone/grey sky. Bought it in a little plastic case for protection. Put on drone with a rubber band (courtesy of Royal Mail- thatās recycling for you). Put on kitchen scales 249g. DJI mini 2 Se btw. Only trouble is I donāt know where to put it without interfering with the ventilation.
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Dont forget quite a few sub 250g drones already have strobes too. How bright do you need?
Also the strobe can mess with your photos and video unless its built in, DJI will momentarilly turn strobes off for recording and pictures.
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Rubber band will be prone to perishing and failing when it has lulled you into a false sense of security; plascticised nylon/silicone is better.
Positioning is not ideal on a DJI Mini bodyshell with vents underneath. I attach the lights to the arms, with the velcro stickypad under the motor housing left rear for the bright Strobon and around the left rear and right front with the (supplied) nylon bands for the other two. I donāt trust the velcro and have reinforced the bond with poundshop superglue (which can be broken if I need to remove the light).
I prefer to have my lights facing downward, as their purpose is to help me locate and orientate the drone after Iāve consulted the screen, so there is no point in sticking them on top; other aircraft donāt need to see them if Iām below 400ā AGL. They probably upset the balance of the aircraft a bit but DJIās self-levelling compensation circuitry and the motors seem to cope; there may be a slight detriment to battery life but Iāve adopted the idea of starting the journey home when thatās down to 20% before things get critical after one or two close shaves! The strapped on lights have to be removed when the drone is folded up.
My Mini 2 has an led mounted internally at the front, but it is not powerful enough to be of much use at any sort of range, and neither is the Mode light under the battery door. One of the few good points of my previous H8 drone* was that it had very bright leds where the DJI has the front vents on the nose, which could easily be seen from half a klick away.
I find them helpful even in bright sunlight when the drone is below the horizon and effectively vanishes unless itās really close. In poor light or at night they are very effective unless the background is of traffic, a fairground, fireworks, or xmas lights!
*Itās only other good point was being bright orangeā¦
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I always wondered with my mini 3 pro, why DJI chose to make the built in strobes on the front arms both green when itās in flight ? Surely it would have made sense to have red on one side and green on the other ? ( and possibly have this repeated on the rear arms, although I suppose they had weight to consider ) 
Aviation red/green/white Navigation lights are ALWAYS static lights, not strobes.
The rare exception is when a plane doesnāt have flashing/rotating red beacon (also called taxi light). But they are still āflashingā lights, not the intensity of āstrobesā, that are intrinsically different.
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My point about them was more to do with knowing the orientation of the drone at a distance, rather than letting other airspace users see it. The heights I usually fly at, Iād be very surprised if other airspace users were seriously affected by it. ( yes I know all about emergency helicopters etc)
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