I keep mentioning it, so let’s talk about why the actual flight times are (almost) always less than the advertised maximum flight time. Why Drone Flight Times are Less than Advertised And you can do a lot with an hour of in the air time. Add on to that a second battery, and you can be in the air for around an hour, almost uninterrupted. Not bad, considering how much ground you can cover in half an hour. Taking the average flight times of these popular higher-end consumer drones, you end up with around 28 minutes of expected flight time. Advertised Flight Times for High-End Prosumer Drones Keep in mind again, however, that the actual flight time will most likely be 2-5 minutes less than the advertised max. If we do the same as above, and take the average of these mid-level drones’ flight times, we can expect an average maximum flight time of around 22 minutes. Advertised Flight Times for Popular Mid-level Drones When it’s only a 10 minute flight to begin with, that doesn’t leave you with much continuous air time. But the frustrating bottom line is that they won’t go for very long without needing a recharge, and it’s usually even shorter than the published max flight time. You will of course find some with longer flight times, and many with shorter. Taking these models as a representative sample, the average advertised flight time for toy drones is about 10 minutes. Advertised Flight Times for Popular Toy Drones There are several different ways to think of drone types, but for our purposes we’ll break the standard off-the-shelf options into three basic categories: toy drones, mid-level, and high-end drones. The biggest factor influencing the overall flight time of a drone is the type of drone that it is. Other factors that contribute to actual flight times include external factors such as weather conditions and how you’re using the drone. Some of these factors are the drone itself, the batteries it uses, the type of motors it has, how much it weighs, etc. The reality is that actual flight times will usually be a bit less than claimed for a number of reasons.Ī lot of factors contribute to the flight time of any given drone on any given flight. With a high-quality consumer drone, you can expect to see a posted flight time of around 30 minutes, while lower quality toy drones will have published flight times of 5-15 minutes. The actual flight time is usually shorter than they claim it could be. You just got it up there, and barely had a chance to look around, so how could the battery already be running out? Is it just me, or does the battery always run low way before the manufacturer posted possible flight time? No, it’s not just me. John Cox is a retired airline captain with US Airways and runs his own aviation safety consulting company, Safety Operating Systems.There’s nothing more frustrating than spotting a perfect angle for a drone shot, getting it lined up just, almost, right… and the low battery light starts flashing. Q: Do the pilots get just as mad as passengers when left on tarmac for hours?Ī: Pilots can be just as frustrated as passengers during delays. Takeoffs are not calculated based on time, but on airspeed after calculating the performance variables. Some airplanes, such as a very heavily loaded four-engine model, may have a much longer ground run, around 50 seconds. Alan Taylor Chemainus, Vancouver IslandĪ: A normal takeoff run is around 35 seconds. Q: How long does it take a commercial jet to take off? In – When the airplane opens the door at the gate.įlight time is off to on. Out – When door is closed for departure and push back starts If an average flight time includes additional planning time and the flight does not experience the anticipated delays, you can arrive well ahead of schedule.Īirlines use four times for operational purposes: This added time is not needed for an 11 p.m. As an example, every airline flying into New York on a Friday afternoon knows that there will be delays, so additional time is added to the schedule. Submitted by reader Jim Pivirotto, Myrtle Beach, S.C.Īnswer: Airlines create flight times based on the previous history of the flight. Also, when does the clock start: boarding, push back or wheels up? Question: How are flight times established? I've noticed that the actual times are often much less than predicted, sometimes close to half as long as scheduled.
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