Well fellow armchair aviators I finally went for broke today in seeking to establish a personal distance record flying my trusty Mavic 1 Pro fitted with this phenomenal game-changing jumbo battery still on sale with Ali Express. The test flight was successful beyond my wildest aspirations, with the drone completing the epic voyage and soaring into view for landing with just 15% remaining on the battery after covering a round trip distance of 61,280 feet or 11.64 miles while cruising at a set 28mph, under full autonomous control of Litchi’s wondrous waypoint planning facility, whose praises I simply cannot sing loudly enough.
Winds were calm so the assigned cruise speed was maintained for 95% of the round trip. Normally, when my drones are off on long trips beyond the horizon, I typically power down the controller and relax indoors until my alarm alerts me that the drone is inbound with 5 minutes left to arrival, at which point I step outside and land the bird manually.
This time, however, I was determined to ensure that Air Data recorded and plotted the entire flight path, which meant that I had to scale a 60-foot water tower beside my home to ensure that connectivity between the drone and controller was not interrupted for the entirety of the flight, so that I could post the full flight path here as proof that this feat of distance flight actually did take place.
If anyone is on the fence about buying one of these extra-capacity batteries, I sayeth verily unto thee that you MUST buy one NOW before they are no longer available, since such oversized batteries are only ever going to be of interest to a very small niche audience of hard core drone operators who also happen to reside far beyond the jurisdiction of the FAA and CAA. In other words, from a marketing perspective, these batteries may not prove profitable enough to continue producing due to the small sales volume they will rack up. Get yourself a jumbo M1P battery on Ali Express TODAY and you won’t be sorry.
My concluding observation therefore is as follows " "Yeeeeeeeeehaaaaaw ! God bless Armenia!
For anyone thinking of boosting their Mavic 1 Pro’s flight time to above 30 minutes during which over 11 miles can be covered with ease, this is the battery that works the magic. I was amazed to see that the price of this battery has been SLASHED so that it costs the SAME as a stock M1P battery. This amazing giveaway price on such a range-boosting battery is analogous to paying Ford Pinto money for the acquisition of a Ferrari.
I must point out that both the drone and jumbo battery battery were merely warm to the touch after this epic record setting flight lasting 31 minutes in duration, signifying that the after market battey was manufactured to a very high degree of precision and compatibility with the Mavic 1 Pro’s power management circuitry.
I know you have no way of knowing this but the OP lives and flies in a country where they apparently do not have any rule regarding VLOS. Otherwise, you are correct. There are too many who flaunt drone regulations.
I’d like to thank Mr.Wes Barris for his kind mention of the important disclaimer I forgot to include in my write-up this time, as I usually do when posting updates relating to long-range waypoint missions.
I’d venture a guess that over 90% of hobby-grade drone owners enjoy this pastime in the USA, Canada, and EU, where FAA and CAA regulations loom large, so the premise upon which Jerry Magana’s comment was made is understandable.
Despite the complete absence of drone regulations in my Third World tropical backwater, I do observe prudent precautions during drone sorties by plotting most of my waypoint missions over farmland or forest, where the consequences or any departure from controlled flight will be limited to the loss of my drone and little more.
I would also like to express my appreciation to Mr. Barris for his methodical development of ingenious enhancements to Litchi’s already prolific capabilities as the world’s foremost flight management utility for DJI drones. I am closely watching the evolution of Wes Barris’ waypoint mission converter that enables waypoint missions for the Mavic 3 to be created with Litchi and then transposed into a form that is executable by DJI’s native waypoint facility for the Mavic 3.
As twilight set in here next to the Equator, I decided to better my previous Litchi waypoint record distance traveled in a single flight by increasing the cruise speed from 27 mph to 29 mph, and was thus able to squeeze another couple of miles out of the Ali Express jumbo battery that made these epic drone flights possible.
My new Litchi waypoint distance record now stands at a lucky 13 miles round trip, with the Mavic 1 Pro landing at 15% battery on a day with mild evening winds. Now that I know the absolute maximum distance this drone can cover when fitted with the extra capacity battery, my future flights will likely cover no more than 12.5 miles, to leave a more comforting margin of error in case the winds pick up in the wrong direction en route.
The all-seeing forum mods obviously know my geographical location to within a precision measured in feet, and I am ever grateful for their understanding that such trivia is best kept out of the limelight.
Laws do change on a whim in the world’s less organized backwaters, especially when the potential to generate revenue is spotted, so I prefer to be coy about my location in the open forum to ensure that the current laissez-faire climate here is left as it is until the cows come home. Suffice it to say, I reside in our planet’s tropical belt not far from the Equator.
Then, can you explain to me why you feel compelled to advertise this great feat? I don’t give a hoot that it may not be illegal in your country. First, these laws are established for a reason. I don’t care where you live, quite frankly. You can’t tell me that even small planes don’t fly in your area. And VLOS was established in other countries for that very reason. Now, thanks to you, there are people out there who will now feel motivated to beat your record. Exactly what was your point for doing this, and then posting/boasting about it?
You have asked a couple of valid questions for which I hope my replies will at least merit consideration. I relish the technical challenge of maximizing the distance my drones can travel on a single battery charge, and given my remote, sparsely inhabited rural location, the consequences of a drone crash anywhere in this neck of the woods would amount to no more than my loss of a replaceable toy.
As a comparatively new entrant into the world of drones, I spent a good deal of time watching YouTube videos posted by drone hobbyists located across the globe who like myself are fascinated by the notion of launching drones on really long flights that redefine the performance envelope of otherwise stock, off-the-shelf drone models.
The recent availability of direct plug-in extended-range batteries for the M1P for the first time enabled me to delve into the realm of long-range drone flying without resorting to the use of the potentially explosive DIY piggy-backed batteries featured in several of those YouTube videos, so I decided to chronicle my bumbling efforts in this and other forums.
Your opinion notwithstanding sir, I doubt very much that a drone operator resident in the USA, EU, or Canada, who is familiar with the weight of civil or criminal penalties that could be brought to bear by the FAA or CAA, would choose to break the law after reading about my experimentation several time zones distant from their country of residence.
Legal considerations aside, the subject of maximizing drone flight times is not of particular interest to most drone operators, but my updates on this subject are intended for those who do find the subject interesting, AND who reside in countries where this aspect of drone flight is permissible.
When I am in Southern California, I don’t fly drones at all because I’ve been spoiled by the freedoms I enjoy flying drones in the developing world, where regulations are far more accommodating. Conversely, when I depart from FAA and CAA-regulated jurisdictions, I enthusiastically fly my drone fleet in the manner I please, with no worries to speak of.
