A general muse…
If I want to cover a larger distance, is it more battery efficient to use sport mode and fly flat out, or to use normal mode. You’ll get there faster in sport mode, but does it drain the battery faster, and therefore reduce your total range?
What do you think folks?
Personally I don’t worry about batteries because I have enough to fly about five hours which I do regularly as a hobbyist. Sport mode is fun just for flying or to get to a location faster but I rarely video in sport mode.
I was thinking more about the range of a single battery - can you get more range flying in sport, or is normal slower, but more efficient.(Like driving with a lead foot - you go faster but your MPG is massively reduced so have less range)
yes, never video in sport!
I don’t really find range is an issue when flying in line of sight.
Dont use range as if u keep to the rules and keep within vlos it wont matter I personally think slower and safer is the way to go and you will find that the battery will last equally if not longer staying out of sports mode
Well that makes perfect sense.
In mountainous terrain I’ve found my M3P can go out of battery range within VLOS. Assuming you factor in your retuen journey.
Tree cover becomes irrelevant but the wind can use up more battery as the motors do more work maintaining position.
I don’t know about DJI, but when FPV makers quote battery life it’s always based on gentle cruising and minimal headwind, so that would be one strategy to go further. Gentle takeoff, smooth throttle control, flying in straight lines, maintaining fixed attitude and avoiding hovering / excessive manoeuvring will also help.
On reflection, Cine mode is more likely to help with those.
But it could be the case that maintaining smooth and level flight uses more power.
You could start logging your battery life in the two modes, or just do a simple comparison test in easy terrain. That’s usually the best way.
I think battery flight time is measured by manufacturers hovering inside a warehouse with no external factors taken into account.
Could be worse: they could just use an equation!
Sometimes they tell you how they did the tests. With small fpv whoops, I think they have to be more realistic as it’s just a few minutes. Meanwhile DJI uses all it’s most impressive figures - like using transmission range based on FCC power output - often without caveats - in its marketing.