thinking of buying mavic air 2 but what kind of range?

DJI claims 5-6 miles. But thats in perfect conditions with no hills or electronic interference. Ive had one for a couple months. In urban/suburban areas at 1 mile it starts to lose connectivity. Flying from atop a cliff out on the ocean or open country it goes a lot further.

Since the antennae are horizontal in the controller it helps to hold the controller flat and point it right at the drone. And there is not the option to add antennae range extenders.

You can certainly go past 1 mile depending on your surroundings but it gets a little dicey and tough to get great video when it cuts in and out.

On the bright side, every time Ive flown it to the edge of its range it always reconnects or comes back home. Its pretty incredible.

I have been out to 18,500 feet in what I consider to be nearly ideal conditions, flying over farmland with very few houses nearby and no cell towers within a few miles. There is definitely room to push it further if I am ever inclined.

In populated areas with cell towers and wifi networks around, you will get significantly less range.

Edit: I'm flying an FCC model in the US.

The range entirely depends upon your elevation relative to the area you intend to fly over. The higher you can fly from, the better you can maintain LOS up to the maximum advertised range of 6 miles. There is also likely a hardcoded maximum range away of 11.25 miles, if you get really freaky with external antennas and battery mods!

Can't speak for the UK but in the USA I get around 1-2 miles out in urban areas. For rural it's easily twice that.

You can hack after downgrading the APP to Dji Fly 1.1.2 which can be downloaded from :
https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/dji-technology-co-ltd/dji-fly/dji-fly-1-1-2-release/dji-fly-1-1-2-android-apk-download/download/

The way to do it :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWyQHBApMig

If you are not going to hack, the range will be similar to that of M2 which also uses OcuSync 2.0 . The range of my M2P in CE mode in low-interference environment is :

5.8 GHz : the first weak signal warning came up at 2990 m, disconnection occurred at 5950 m






2.4 GHz : at 6745 m out, I still got 3 signal bars ( 5 is full ). had to return due to battery.



Air 1 is no comparison as it uses WiFi.

GadgetGuy said:

The range entirely depends upon your elevation relative to the area you intend to fly over. The higher you can fly from, the better you can maintain LOS up to the maximum advertised range of 6 miles. There is also a hardcoded maximum range of 11 miles, if you get really freaky!

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Why would you even try to fly it that far away? I'm only comfortable to about 1.5 miles away and that is in the US in a fairly rural area.

Scoobychief said:

thinking of buying mavic air 2, but just wondering if it would be a good move i live in the uk and so was just wondering what others who live in the uk are getting distance wise, being CE mode, i know all about line of sight etc so dont need answers on that, i did have a mavic air before that and out in the country comfortably got 1.5 miles with the FCC hack, so just asking really because having done some research it seems that FCC hack is not possible with an android phone which i would be using. and what sort of range in suburbia. i was getting around 1500 metres before in .8ghz before jerky video.

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On CE mode It does depend flight to flight but I managed to get 6.1 km on a steep large hill semi rural and up to 4 km in a town from a decent position on a hill. Much less though if line of site is particularly blocked though

Jordaneer said:

Why would you even try to fly it that far away? I'm only comfortable to about 1.5 miles away and that is in the US in a fairly rural area.

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Merely reporting what others have learned worldwide. Leaderboards exist for those that like to compete on distance. They gave up, once the hardcoded limit was discovered.

However, to answer your question as to why, to get to places you cannot reach otherwise, like remote islands and mountain tops. Anything beyond VLOS in the U.S. is currently prohibited, including 1.5 miles away, so once you are willing to go beyond VLOS, how much farther really doesn't really matter. It's still the same violation. MA2 is capable of up to 6 miles away, under ideal conditions, based upon DJI specs. YMMV.

Range? WAY farther than you can see it.

Lots of YouTube videos with range tests in various urban/rural environments

Is this question calculated to get someone in trouble? The range is to the very edge of your line of sight. What other answer would you expect?

hiflyer201 said:

Is this question calculated to get someone in trouble? The range is to the very edge of your line of sight. What other answer would you expect?

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As far away as you can travel with it, before launching it!

I live outside the US, but my MA2 defaults to FCC mode. Around me are condos, high tension lines, cell and radio towers and thousands of wifi routers and cell phones. I also stand on flat ground so am right in all the interference. I can usually get about one mile with the drone at 400' before the signal starts having trouble. I could probably get about 1.5 miles if I keep pushing. I've lost the signal twice and the drone simply goes into RTH as expected.

The farthest I've seen for a stock MA2 is 8.5km in a low interference area in still air at 1600'. DJI specs are 9.25km max each way for a total of 18.5km. 11km is the hardwired limit, but you can only reach that with perfect conditions and a battery mod. There are a couple videos of that, too.

Remember also that the farther away your drone if you lose it, the harder it will be to recover.

Ben Anderson said:

Remember also that the farther away your drone if you lose it, the harder it will be to recover.

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Other than the additional time needed to get to the location of the loss, why is it any harder to recover it from farther away than closer?

GadgetGuy said:

Other than the additional time needed to get to the location of the loss, why is it any harder to recover it from farther away than closer?

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It depends a lot on the location, but here are issues that would give me problems.
1. Terrain: I fly in a green area in a city and usually fly toward a lake. There is a roadless swamp between me and the lake.
2. Theft: I live in an area where a drone would be taken quickly if certain people were to see it go down. The more minutes it takes for me to get to the drone the more likely it will be gone.
3.Situational awareness: I know all the roads and terrain within a mile of my flying area.
4. Connectivity: If the drone connection is lost and then it goes down, there will be no GPS data.

Up to now my MA2 has functioned according to the owner's manual, so I haven't had to face these problems.

Ben Anderson said:

It depends a lot on the location, but here are issues that would give me problems.
1. Terrain: I fly in a green area in a city and usually fly toward a lake. There is a roadless swamp between me and the lake.
2. Theft: I live in an area where a drone would be taken quickly if certain people were to see it go down. The more minutes it takes for me to get to the drone the more likely it will be gone.
3.Situational awareness: I know all the roads and terrain within a mile of my flying area.
4. Connectivity: If the drone connection is lost and then it goes down, there will be no GPS data.

Up to now my MA2 has functioned according to the owner's manual, so I haven't had to face these problems.

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Agreed. It depends more on location than distance.
1. Terrain is a function of location, rather than distance per se
2. Theft is also a function of location rather than distance per se, although I concede that any additional time to get there moderately affects stealability if it was seen going down or discovered. Even a good Samaritan might walk off with it, if you can't get there first, or before they decide what to do with it.
3. Knowing the roads and terrain helps with access, but not necessarily findability
4. Connectivity is generally lost in most crashes, as the battery gets ejected upon impact. However, the last recorded GPS location is still preserved in the app and is really all that is necessary for recovery. Years ago, in one case, 3 miles away, it was still connected, suspended in a bush over a cliff, but impossible to get to in the dark, when I drove there, and the battery was dead by morning. Found it at day break, by hovering another drone directly over the last known battery signal, and having the wife crawl under the low bushes to find and retrieve it. Good wife. Happy hubby! No drone damage either!

I've recovered aircraft faster that were farther away, but easier to find, than those lost closer to home, where they were difficult to find, because of all the different neighboring properties requiring separate access. In most cases, recovery, if possible, really depends more upon the location than the actual distance away.

I got out 5211m but turned back due to battery. That’s up a hill with perfect line of sight and with potential interference from broadcasting tower near me.

SharkWatch said:

DJI claims 5-6 miles. But thats in perfect conditions with no hills or electronic interference. Ive had one for a couple months. In urban/suburban areas at 1 mile it starts to lose connectivity. Flying from atop a cliff out on the ocean or open country it goes a lot further.

Since the antennae are horizontal in the controller it helps to hold the controller flat and point it right at the drone. And there is not the option to add antennae range extenders.

You can certainly go past 1 mile depending on your surroundings but it gets a little dicey and tough to get great video when it cuts in and out.

On the bright side, every time Ive flown it to the edge of its range it always reconnects or comes back home. Its pretty incredible.

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As has been noted elsewhere, the DJI “range” is a “proxy” (their term) for the stability and reliability of the control link. It is not intended as a specification of the actual range that can (or should) be flown.
Check the Notes on their own webpage.