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Can You Fly A DJI Mavic Mini At Night? (Does It Have Night Vision?)

The Mavic Mini drone is manufactured by DJI Technology. DJI is the trade name for Da-Jiang Innovations (Great Frontier Innovations). DJI manufactures non-commercial unmanned vehicles (drones) for aerial photography and videography. 

DJI also designs and manufactures action cameras, flight platforms, and flight control systems.

The Mavic Mini drone has many great features making it a popular choice amount drone users but can it fly at night? 

The Mavic Mini drone has the ability to fly at night, but this drone does not have a night vision feature. This makes it highly impractical to fly the Mavic Mini at night although you can. 

Night flight is incredibly difficult since hitting obstacles is much more likely. Flying your DJI Mini drone for recreational purposes is much easier (and a lot more fun) during the daytime.

Also, since it doesn’t have anti-collision lights attached to it, it can be difficult to see if it gets out of your visual line-of-sight. The size of the DJI Mavic Mini drone is another factor to consider at night. 

It’s small enough that you may lose it as you fly it away from you. It’s also hard in the dark to tell exactly where your drone is in reference to the ground. So if you happen to crash it during any of your drone flights it could be incredibly difficult to find it and your drone could be destroyed because of exposure to moisture overnight before you can find it the next day.

You are therefore much more likely to run the drone into trees, wires, or other objects that can’t be seen in the dark during night operations.

However, there is the option to attach a strobe light to the Mavic Mini drone, but if that is done it would be necessary to register your Mavic Mini with the Federal Aviation Administration because of the extra weight you’ll be adding to your drone ( a lightweight drone doesn’t have to be registered which means you avoid the paperwork and hassle of the knowledge test, exam, inspections, etc.)

Almost all hobby drones have lights to some degree. These lights can be seen at night as solid white, green, or red lights. Or they can be seen as blinking strobe, white, green, or red LEDs. 

They are hardly visible during the day, however, at night time, they can be seen from a mile away.

If you do decide to fly your Mavic Mini (or any drone) at night you should make sure to have some identification on the drone. So that way if you accidentally lose your unmanned aircraft someone can contact you with that information.

To see the most popular Mavic Mini models just click here. 

SIMREX X500 mini Drone Optical Flow Positioning RC Quadcopter with 720P HD Camera, Altitude Hold Headless Mode, Foldable FPV Drones WiFi Live Video 3D Flips Easy Fly Steady for Learning Gray

Figuring out how to fly a new drone can be difficult for beginners but not with this model.

I purchased this model for my 7-year-old son and he figured it out easily.

With auto hover, auto trim, and super simple controls you can’t go wrong. And it was pretty cheap too!

What Was The Mavic Mini Design Purpose?

This mini drone was designed specifically to have a takeoff weight of fewer than 250 grams. The Mavic Mini FlyCam weighs exactly 249 grams (8.78 ounces), which in many countries may exempt it from flight regulations.

For example, in the United States and Canada, hobby drone operators can fly the Mavic Mini without the need to register this drone with the government. You do still need to follow every FAA regulation such as staying away from airports, not flying over crowds, not flying over buildings, etc.

When flying a larger drone you will need to take new recurrent training as well as make sure you learn and follow the FAA’s guidelines

In Japan, the Mavic Mini weighs 199 grams (7.019 ounces). And, in Japan, Unmanned Aircraft or drone regulations for hobbyist starts with any airplane, rotorcraft, glider, or airship over 200 grams. In other countries, a drone this size may even be classified as a toy.

It is very important to know what the exact drone regulations for your country are. While you may not need a license to fly the drone, you do need to be familiar with your own country’s flight laws, including the areas where you are not allowed to fly.

Can A Mavic Mini Fly Without GPS?

The Mavic Mini warns you not to fly if there aren’t enough satellites visible and the Mavic Mini won’t take off, but you can use the Fly app to override the warning and fly without the GPS in ATTI mode with limitations on altitude.

In ATTI (Attitude mode), the drone is controllable but will not hover in place if you let go of the sticks. The Mavic Mini will keep moving, and drift with any breeze. The downward vision sensors help keep it stable if there is enough light for the Mavic Mini to perceive objects or textures under itself. 

In the dark, flying in ATTI mode is a challenge.

Racing drones fly without any stabilization other than a gyro, and experienced racers sometimes turn the gyro off and stabilize their drone with their eyes on the FPV screen and their fingers on the sticks.

Any lapse of attention is likely to crash the drone so flying it like this is very difficult, especially for beginners. 

Camera drones are stabilized, and can mostly fly themselves if they’ve got GPS, and leave the pilot free to work with the camera. The better camera drones have very sensitive IMU (Inertial Measurement Units), GPS, and vision systems. 

Camera drones are easy to fly if everything is working. However, it’s a good idea to practice flying in ATTI mode so it won’t be a surprise when GPS fails.

When you fly the Mavic Mini out away from a building it may pick up enough satellites and switch to GPS stabilization in a minute or two. At that point, it can climb above the trees. 

If you fly the Mavic Mini in a heavily wooded lot, the Mavic Mini may lose GPS when flying under trees, especially if the leaves are wet, and the Mavic Mini may drop back to ATTI mode.

A lot of recreational pilots who are flying close to their houses are at more risk of flying into a GPS shadow or flying the drone into a radio shadow past a roofline or the edge of a forest and out of control. 

This kind of pilot error leads to more crashes, flyaways, and RTH (Return To Home) crashes where the drone gets confused in the trees and cannot fly.

What Color is the Mavic Mini?

Light gray is the only color option for the Mavic Mini. However, a DIY creative kit is available for changing the look of your Mavic Mini. 

The kit provides blank shell stickers and colorful markers that can be used to personalize and decorate your drone. The DIY kits can be purchased online at the DJI online store.

Does Mavic Mini Include A Remote Control?

The package of the Mavic Mini includes the drone, a dedicated remote control, a set of batteries, extra propellers, and a remote control. The control sticks can even be detached for convenient transportation and storage. 

The remote control has two antennas that are used to communicate with the drone.

If you want to add a little extra to your Mavic Mini, you can purchase a larger pack which includes the drone, a remote control, three batteries, a battery charger, extra propellers, a propeller guard, and an 18-watt wall charger for faster charging.

Flight times are about 20-25 minutes, so it is best to carry extra batteries with you if you are not in a place where the charger can be plugged in for recharging.