What is the furthest you've flown with your Yuneec (un-modified) ?

Scott99 · Mar 29, 2016

So, as the title implies, what is the furthest distance you've flown with your stock Yuneec Q500 (Q500+, Q500 4K, etc) ?

This weekend I think I hit 675 feet away and I was about 225 feet high. I'm pretty much a newbie (have 10+ flights under my belt so far), so I haven't gone the max just yet, I think it can go 600 meters I believe (which is over 1900+ feet !). It really is just a speck in the air after a while. And I found 675 feet to be pretty far away. I can't imagine going almost 3x that. People I was with, a few were saying, "where is it ?" Lol. I lost it once due to it being really sunny, but then spotted it.

Man it's an amazing thing, having so much fun going further and further. I'm totally addicted now. Though I can't imagine going 3 miles away, I believe the Phantom 3 Pro can do that.

Chewman · Mar 29, 2016

Scott99 said:
So, as the title implies, what is the furthest distance you've flown with your stock Yuneec Q500 (Q500+, Q500 4K, etc) ?

This weekend I think I hit 675 feet away and I was about 225 feet high. I'm pretty much a newbie (have 10+ flights under my belt so far), so I haven't gone the max just yet, I think it can go 600 meters I believe (which is over 1900+ feet !). It really is just a speck in the air after a while. And I found 675 feet to be pretty far away. I can't imagine going almost 3x that. People I was with, a few were saying, "where is it ?" Lol. I lost it once due to it being really sunny, but then spotted it.

Man it's an amazing thing, having so much fun going further and further. I'm totally addicted now. Though I can't imagine going 3 miles away, I believe the Phantom 3 Pro can do that.

When I was out on Sunday morning my controller was reading 2,396ft...that has been my max...I'm sure you will see numbers a whole lot larger

Sticks · Mar 30, 2016

1800' and lost video. Have not pushed the RC limits yet. Have not flown in a wide open remote area yet either.

h-elsner · Mar 31, 2016

Furthest was 720m (~2400ft) with video connection, telemetrie and RC fully working. fsk_rssi going down to -80dBm (max -86dBm).
But in this distance I found it hard to identify the heading of the bird and brought it back into better sight by RTH. In reality it is then only a point in the sky, not recommended.

br HE

Chewman · Mar 31, 2016

h-elsner said:
Furthest was 720m (~2400ft) with video connection, telemetrie and RC fully working. fsk_rssi going down to -80dBm (max -86dBm).
But in this distance I found it hard to identify the heading of the bird and brought it back into better sight by RTH. In reality it is then only a point in the sky, not recommended.

View attachment 378

br HE

I had to try it... the only one on a beach... still had everything...flew it there and back in Angle mode...a point in the sky, yes, a small one at that lol

R.Lee · Apr 2, 2016

Not even a football field yet. LOL. I feel for the money I paid for it and what I want to do with it, I'll keep it within eyesight.

OregonDrone · Apr 2, 2016

Let's see... How far can you fly your drone out until you either lose sight or signal. This is what I refer to as a, "bad idea". I can come up with at least a half a dozen reasons why you shouldn't do this. I don't worry about someone burying their quad. You have every right to crash your drone. What I worry about is someone smashing their drone into a freeway during rush hour traffic and then the FAA bans all flights.

flashcrash · Apr 2, 2016

If you lose sight of it and want to get it home - take it high up first - to the 200 or 300 or 400' legal limit if you have battery left. Then HOME function. Then when over head use HOME to get it down close to you then ANGLE mode to land it.

When you lose sight of it you need to raise the altitude to allow it to miss trees and power lines when it comes home.

jeep2liberty · Apr 2, 2016

OregonDrone said:
Let's see... How far can you fly your drone out until you either lose sight or signal. This is what I refer to as a, "bad idea". I can come up with at least a half a dozen reasons why you shouldn't do this. I don't worry about someone burying their quad. You have every right to crash your drone. What I worry about is someone smashing their drone into a freeway during rush hour traffic and then the FAA bans all flights.

Since the Q500s are strictly 'fly by wire' there is really no difference flying it out or in line of sight as it relates to a malfunction. Think about it, the GPS (unless disabled) controls the craft, the "pilot" only requests the craft to move. If your going to fly an aircraft past VLOS, this is a good one to choose. If it winds up on a free-way due to a malfunction, the choice to fly it in or out of VLOS matters not. Again all relating to an equipment malfunction. Another way of saying it... the pilot has not much chance to control the aircraft if it's automated system malfunctions.

flashcrash · Apr 2, 2016

Flying out of site gives a greater chance of the 2.4 GHZ radio signal getting obstructed and then you lose your control path to the Drone.

I would hope that if the 2.4 link is lost, the Typhoon G would first gain altitude to try to gain a better path to the ST10 controller and regain contact. Or gain altitude and fly home. I have never tried this.

I flew once on Camera Only and it lost the 5 Ghz video link which froze. So I gained altitude and the link reestablished and I brought it back. The first signal to go is the 5 GHZ video link.

If you fly it out of sight in the middle of no-where you probably get more range due to the lack of competing 2.4 and 5 GHZ signals.

Of course larger antennas on the quad copter and on the ST10 might increase the range. The St10 looks to have a nice pair of Colinear antennas in the frame and in the landing strut of the Typhoon G.

Not sure what the gain of the 2.4 Ghz antennas are.
Or the small 5 Ghz ball antenna.

MikeK · Apr 2, 2016

The addictive nature of this hobby is seen in how quickly one becomes bored with limitation and longs to expand functional capability. One can start out with a $20 toy helicopter, step up to a $50 toy-grade quadcopter with a toy camera, move on to a $150 toy-quad with toy FPV, and the longing begins for an HD gimbal-controlled camera, HD FPV, GPS guidance, barometric altitude control, 30 minute flight-time, RTH, object-avoidance, and on and on.

You know you're hooked when you graduate from a casual interest in a $20 toy helicopter to giving lots of serious thought to how you can afford something like this:

jeep2liberty · Apr 3, 2016

flashcrash said:
Flying out of site gives a greater chance of the 2.4 GHZ radio signal getting obstructed and then you lose your control path to the Drone.

I would hope that if the 2.4 link is lost, the Typhoon G would first gain altitude to try to gain a better path to the ST10 controller and regain contact. Or gain altitude and fly home. I have never tried this.

I flew once on Camera Only and it lost the 5 Ghz video link which froze. So I gained altitude and the link reestablished and I brought it back. The first signal to go is the 5 GHZ video link.

If you fly it out of sight in the middle of no-where you probably get more range due to the lack of competing 2.4 and 5 GHZ signals.

Of course larger antennas on the quad copter and on the ST10 might increase the range. The St10 looks to have a nice pair of Colinear antennas in the frame and in the landing strut of the Typhoon G.

Not sure what the gain of the 2.4 Ghz antennas are.
Or the small 5 Ghz ball antenna.

The manual states that if the Q500 looses uplink for any reason, it will (if above 30 feet) return to the launching location descend and land . If not, it will increase to 30 feet then return. I sure wish this was settable in the software because trees in Ohio are typically 60+ feet high!

The 2.4 antennas in the stock ST10+ are dipoles so the gain is 0dBd (2.14 dBi). It did appear the 5.8 antenna was a strip-line style so I'm sure it has gain and directivity.

Scott99 · Apr 18, 2016

Went about 975 feet away using full Rabbit mode, my nephew was shocked at how much faster the drone goes. Even going straight up was way faster. It's such an amazing sight seeing the drone flying so far away, it looks like something running across the sky.

On a side note, used my Parrot Bebop 2 at the same park after my Typhoon's battery ran out. I bought the controller for it (called the skycontroller). You are supposed to get 2.0 km (1.3 miles) with it, because of the huge wifi antennae in the controller (the skycontroller is huge compared to the ST10+). So I must've been at least 1,000 feet away (I can tell from the video), when I lost latency on my tablet, it froze at that spot, though watching the video, I can tell I went further before I panicked. Hit the return home button and nothing seemed to happen, it kept saying it was coming closer, the distance kept getting less and less, but still couldn't spot it, then my nephew said, "holy cow, it's right above us" at about 75 meters. It was both scary and funny at the same time. Anyone ever have that happen to them with their Typhoons ? I would think not, because they are much larger than the Bebop 2.

I am still amazed by the technology in these drones (quadcopters, whatever you wanna call them), especially the ones with GPS. It's just fascinating to me, they are mini computers and cameras up in the sky, and they are such intelligent gadgets. I've seen videos where people think they've lost their drones, and like me, not only did it return home, it was literally right straight above me while I was looking for it in the distance. Awesome experience.

DroneDome · Apr 18, 2016

Scott99 said:
Went about 975 feet away using full Rabbit mode, my nephew was shocked at how much faster the drone goes. Even going straight up was way faster. It's such an amazing sight seeing the drone flying so far away, it looks like something running across the sky.

On a side note, used my Parrot Bebop 2 at the same park after my Typhoon's battery ran out. I bought the controller for it (called the skycontroller). You are supposed to get 2.0 km (1.3 miles) with it, because of the huge wifi antennae in the controller (the skycontroller is huge compared to the ST10+). So I must've been at least 1,000 feet away (I can tell from the video), when I lost latency on my tablet, it froze at that spot, though watching the video, I can tell I went further before I panicked. Hit the return home button and nothing seemed to happen, it kept saying it was coming closer, the distance kept getting less and less, but still couldn't spot it, then my nephew said, "holy cow, it's right above us" at about 75 meters. It was both scary and funny at the same time. Anyone ever have that happen to them with their Typhoons ? I would think not, because they are much larger than the Bebop 2.

I am still amazed by the technology in these drones (quadcopters, whatever you wanna call them), especially the ones with GPS. It's just fascinating to me, they are mini computers and cameras up in the sky, and they are such intelligent gadgets. I've seen videos where people think they've lost their drones, and like me, not only did it return home, it was literally right straight above me while I was looking for it in the distance. Awesome experience.

This morning I did a test flight of my Q500+ with the extended range antenna That I purchased from Carolina Dronz. The installation to the ST10+ was easy and I flew out over 1600 feet with full scale video signal strength. I could have gone much farther but I lost sight of the Q500. I just hit the Home switch and it flew right back to me. I have made about 80 flights so far and have not had any major crashes. I did break a few blades though. What a great Yuneec product.

Scott99 · Apr 20, 2016

DroneDome said:
This morning I did a test flight of my Q500+ with the extended range antenna That I purchased from Carolina Dronz. The installation to the ST10+ was easy and I flew out over 1600 feet with full scale video signal strength. I could have gone much farther but I lost sight of the Q500. I just hit the Home switch and it flew right back to me. I have made about 80 flights so far and have not had any major crashes. I did break a few blades though. What a great Yuneec product.

Man, I am SO tempted to get that extended range antenna from Carolina Dronz. But man, when I say I am inept when it comes to installing things like that, I am not kidding. I am horrible at it. I've seen videos where people say it's so easy, and show step by step, I know if I did it I'd screw it up.

I'm very tempted to just send my controller to Frank at Carolina Dronz and just have them do it, but man, they charge $125 for installation. They also do 3 test flights afterwards, and make sure everything is working properly. But that makes the cost $235 dollars, I'm not THAT dissatisfied with my distance on the Q500+, ****, I've taken it out 975 feet and that seemed incredibly far. It's capable of 600 meters, which is 1968 feet, that's plenty far for me. More than double my furthest distance I've gone so far.

DroneDome · Apr 20, 2016

The modification was not bad but I am a ham radio operator and I have a good electrical background and also the proper equipment for repairs. i did break a couple of wires when I did the mod but I was able to solder them back in place with out a problem. The rest of the mod is pretty simple IF you follow the instructions. I would not modify the ST10+ unless your warranty is up or close to it. Doing the modification voids the warranty.
I have only made two flights since the modification and I have flow out to 1750 feet with maximum signal strength indicated on the wifi indicator. I only fly over unpopulated area and places where I can see it most of the time. Have a great time flying! Karl

Scott99 · Apr 20, 2016

DroneDome said:
The modification was not bad but I am a ham radio operator and I have a good electrical background and also the proper equipment for repairs. i did break a couple of wires when I did the mod but I was able to solder them back in place with out a problem. The rest of the mod is pretty simple IF you follow the instructions. I would not modify the ST10+ unless your warranty is up or close to it. Doing the modification voids the warranty.
I have only made two flights since the modification and I have flow out to 1750 feet with maximum signal strength indicated on the wifi indicator. I only fly over unpopulated area and places where I can see it most of the time. Have a great time flying! Karl

That's awesome, I'm gonna do that in the next year, but I wanna get some hours under my belt, have only been flying since March.

ProDrone2020 · Apr 10, 2019

Scott99 said:
So, as the title implies, what is the furthest distance you've flown with your stock Yuneec Q500 (Q500+, Q500 4K, etc) ?

This weekend I think I hit 675 feet away and I was about 225 feet high. I'm pretty much a newbie (have 10+ flights under my belt so far), so I haven't gone the max just yet, I think it can go 600 meters I believe (which is over 1900+ feet !). It really is just a speck in the air after a while. And I found 675 feet to be pretty far away. I can't imagine going almost 3x that. People I was with, a few were saying, "where is it ?" Lol. I lost it once due to it being really sunny, but then spotted it.

Man it's an amazing thing, having so much fun going further and further. I'm totally addicted now. Though I can't imagine going 3 miles away, I believe the Phantomm 3 Pro can do that.

my phantom 4 with antenna mods on controller got 7klm over ocean and had 15% battery spare . they are the long run birds ...

ProDrone2020 · Apr 10, 2019

DroneDome said:
The modification was not bad but I am a ham radio operator and I have a good electrical background and also the proper equipment for repairs. i did break a couple of wires when I did the mod but I was able to solder them back in place with out a problem. The rest of the mod is pretty simple IF you follow the instructions. I would not modify the ST10+ unless your warranty is up or close to it. Doing the modification voids the warranty.
I have only made two flights since the modification and I have flow out to 1750 feet with maximum signal strength indicated on the wifi indicator. I only fly over unpopulated area and places where I can see it most of the time. Have a great time flying! Karl

Did you use the ITve Board to mod ? I had exp dji only got yuneec now am bit down such nice gear can't get 4klm safe without risk of fly always . not a true pro set up .