Having said a fond farewell to the legacy edition of Litchi’s Mission Hub to work exclusively with the new edition of this superb platform, I decided to write down a few key data points established during a 12-mile round-trip waypoint mission flown by my trusty old Mavic 1 Pro, fitted with a non-DJI long-range battery from Ali Express that is rated for 6830 mAh, as opposed to the stock DJI battery rating of 3830 mAh.
The drone lifted off as an early morning mist began to dissipate here at the Equator, under clear skies. The oversized battery was zip-tied snugly in place, as should be done for ALL batteries placed in the Mavic 1 Pro and Mavic 2 Pro drones. I started the waypoint flight with a full 100% charge on the battery.
The cruise speed for the entire mission was set at 27 mph. The estimated flight time that the new Litchi Mission Hub displayed on screen for this 12-mile round-trip sortie was 26 minutes. On the Litchi app, however, the estimated flight time displayed was 37 minutes.
The 12-mile round-trip flight did in fact last for 27 minutes, which is a perfect match for the projected flight time shown in the new Litchi Hub. This means that the flight time displayed on screen with the Litchi app of the iPad could be as much as 9 minutes longer than the actual flight time will turn out to be.
Later, I intend to fly a shorter Litchi waypoint mission to compare flight times indicated on the Mission Hub screen against flight times on the Litchi Mission app. Be that as it may, the most accurate flight time estimate is best noted on the Mission Hub screen, rather than the Litchi app screen on the smart device used for flying.
Now to the meat and potatoes of my informal experiment. The aftermarket 6830 mAh battery’s charge level dropped from 100% at lift-off, to 36% at the 25-minute mark. By the 30-minute mark, as timed between engine start and the moment of landing, the battery had discharged down to 25%. This suggests that I could probably have squeezed another mile or so out of the battery if I set the drone down with 20% of the.battery’s capacity remaining at the moment of landing.
Scanning the Ali Express website, I note that an even larger capacity aftermarket Mavic 1 Pro battery, rated for 8,000 mAh, is currently selling for $194, which ironically is almost equal in price to a replacement drone of this vintage model. Yet, my obsession with progressively longer drone forays will likely result in my coughing up more money to buy that bigger battery from Ali Express.
That’ll be enough rambling from me for now, and I hope these data points prove useful to any other owners of the venerable Mavic 1 Pro quadcopter out there, who might someday feel inclined to push the drone’s range and flight time envelope beyond the figures previously carved in stone by DJI.