is it ok to fly anafi with the gps not indicating green on cell phone

[Raju B]

since i live in a very crowded city (Mumbai) with tall buildings, its not possible to get gps signal in the
open spaces/parks nearby. Is it safe to practice flying say 10 m height and with a range of 50 m without
gps signal without losing the machine. Also i would not be using RTH to be on the safe side.
I have bought the Anafi few months back but flown it 2 or 3 times because i am scared that
i would loose the drone flying without gps. the few times i have flown is in the suburbs where the GPS signal was available.
Would appreciate if someone would let me know. Thanks. It would be a great help

 

[djookenfold]

since i live in a very crowded city (Mumbai) with tall buildings, its not possible to get gps signal in the
open spaces/parks nearby. Is it safe to practice flying say 10 m height and with a range of 50 m without
gps signal without losing the machine. Also i would not be using RTH to be on the safe side.
I have bought the Anafi few months back but flown it 2 or 3 times because i am scared that
i would loose the drone flying without gps. the few times i have flown is in the suburbs where the GPS signal was available.
Would appreciate if someone would let me know. Thanks. It would be a great help

Not advisable to fly without GPS lock, however when ever I have experienced issue gaining GPS, flying up a few meters can sometimes then find a GPS signal. May not be appropriate in your case but worth a try?

 

[Rocky the FS]

....I have bought the Anafi few months back but flown it 2 or 3 times because i am scared that
i would lose the drone flying without gps.....

You should be! Flying without gps is similar to flying indoors. It can be done but only within very close distances and careful control. If you lose the WiFi link because of interference the drone will just hover, and may drift or go into RTH, with disastrous consequences. Imagine flying inside a large auditorium. i would use 5 meters height and 25 meters distance, and bring the drone closer at the first indication of poor WiFi.
Actually, this is very good practice, since it is much harder to precisely control the drone at slow speeds. Think up an imaginary obstacle course and use paper cups or flags like this:

Drone training series part 3 – Flying and training exercises | Propwashed

www.propwashed.com

 

[DanLins]

I've taken off a few times with mine in that state, but I never let it get very far away, say 5 meters or less. Usually it only takes less than 30 seconds to acquire sufficient satellites to lock on.

 

[pmh1nic]

For me the reward of doing it (flying without green gps icon) isn't worth the risk. I've never had to wait more than a minute or two to get enough satellites to get the green lights and since I don't make $600/per minute I wait.

 

[Raju B]

Thanks

 

[MustangPhil]

Just to mention your phrase ‘Also i would not be using RTH to be on the safe side’
Be aware that a drone (and the Anafi), will often start the RTH procedure automatically.
For example : a WiFi or connection problem, a battery problem, an app restart, a press on the home button of the SK3 instead of the land button...

So to be on the safe side, you should think : ‘what will happen if a RTH procedure occurs ?’ (For example when flying indoors, should I change the RTH travel heigth to 2m instead of the default 30m ?)

 

[Kilrah]

The anafi cannot RTH without GPS.
If you take off without GPS and it never gets reception, if you lose control it'll just drift away.
If you takeoff without GPS and it gains it later during flight, the place it got reception will be stored as "home point" so if RTH engages that's where it will go, not your location.

 

[Rocky the FS]

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for the clarification. At least I got the drift part right.

 

[DanLins]

Also, think about the possibility that ALL communication between the controller and the Anafi fails catastrophically. All you have then is the last known position indicated for the Anafi, and that is where all your attention should focus on. Many times a .json file will not be generated in these cases, and there will be no record of that flight anywhere. This is the voice of experience.

Another possibly important thing to have running is a cell phone video recorder, which can help is some cases like this.

Dan

 

[Rocky the FS]

What other communication between controller and drone is there besides WiFi? You lose the WiFi link you lose all communication. I think we are saying the same thing. This is the big risk in flying without GPS lock.....no backup for lost comm.

 

[DanLins]

Maybe we are saying the same thing, but my point was that even WITH a gps lock on both the controller and the Anafi, the RTH is not guaranteed to work if wifi goes gunnybag. On my last flight, the last message I saw on my screen was, "Very Poor WIFI connection will return home if connection is lost". When I saw that, I suspected the worst and hit RTH within a couple of milliseconds. It did no good. Does this infer something wrong with my Anafi before the flight?

Green on both gps locks, 45% battery on the drone, 74% on the controller. (it's being repaired right now)

Dan

 

[Rocky the FS]

There have been a number of instances where this exact same thing happened. This is NOT the behavior we have been led to expect from the manual....if WiFi is lost the drone should RTH but it does not always do that, apparently. I've had that message, as well as the "Poor WiFi message" (Orange) and both times the Anafi did RTH as soon as I hit the button. Whew! I think there is a bug causing this....I just hope my Anafi doesn't catch it.

The more I read about these problems the more conservative I become in my flying, especially in congested environments. I've been out 1.5 miles without WiFi degradation out here in the boonies but I doubt if I will push it beyond that. I would almost certainly never find it if this happened in the rough country here. I bought insurance for that reason.

 

[Raju B]

Thanks again.i never expected so many responses.

 

[Rocky the FS]

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