You can fly a drone without cellular service or wifi signal and do not need an internet connection. In fact, if you are flying your drone with a phone or tablet, you will likely want to place your phone in do not disturb mode in order to make sure you aren’t interrupted with notifications or phone calls while flying.
While flying a drone without cellular service or wifi signal is possible partly because of your drone’s GPS signal, there are a few things you should know before heading out to fly your drone in an area where you know you’ll be lacking some kind of internet connection. You may not even need a smart phone or tablet to fly your drone, but it is probably a good idea to use one.
Drones Do Not Need Cellular Service or Wifi to Fly
Drones can be flown easily without cellular service or wifi, and can also be flown manually without even a GPS signal. While flying this way would leave you without a lot of features and information about your flight, it is possible to do it.
Luckily though, your typical consumer level drone (think DJI Mavic, Autel Evo, and Parrot Anafi) has the ability to fly and determine its location generally using a GPS signal. This means that it is not necessary for you to have an internet connection in order for your drone to know where it is located. This also means that you do not have to manually fly your drone, as the GPS signal can help your drone hover in place.
To be clear,GPS is not included on many early drones and most drones that are just considered toys. These drones generally do not have GPS capabilities either because they were made before GPS was common on a drone or they are just meant to be toys and including this capability would be too expensive.
A GPS signal is not the same thing as an internet connection because a GPS signal will only provide your drone with location information unlike an internet connection, which can provide all types of information.
But drones with GPS modules also help drone pilots to maintain steady flight, hold a consistent hover and even navigate the drone between waypoints. The GPS on your drone can also help ensure that you don’t fly higher than you intend (including accidentally breaking your 400 foot ceiling). This means that even in windy conditions, if your drone is using a GPS signal for location information, it will still hover in the right place.
Finally, your GPS signal can be used to create a digital flight log. This is useful for record keeping (check out our article on Keeping a Drone Logbook) as well as finding your drone in the event that you crash.
Drones Can Also Use Cellular Service or Wifi Signal to Enable Additional Features
While you can definitely fly your drone without cellular service or a wifi signal, having an internet connection will provide you with a number of features that aren’t available without it. Importantly, without an internet connection you can’t update maps, your location data will be less accurate and you won’t be able to live stream your videos to sites like Facebook or YouTube.
Drones Need an Internet Connection to Update Maps
When your drone has an internet connection, it will pull updated maps from whatever location you choose to fly. This is what allows you to see the most updated maps possible. The view I always choose is the satellite image overlay. But this is just not possible without an internet connection. This is a lot like using Google Maps on a long car trip. The map images are pulled from a server and displayed on your screen and probably cached if it is a map you use often.
Your drone likely has a similar setting, allowing you to cache your maps. In the DJO GO app, under the General Settings tab, you are able to choose the option to “Cache Map in the Background.” Some versions of the app even allow you to permanently cache maps offline. It’s important to remember though that if you are going to a place where you won’t have service, you will need to tell the app to cache the maps where you will be flying. Remember to do this before you leave for your flight! Once you’ve changed the settings to cache maps, you will need to navigate to the area of the map where you will be flying when you do not have an internet connection. Tap and drag around this area slowly, which will allow your device to download and save these portions of the map.
Drones Have More Accurate Location Information With an Internet Connection
Have you ever been using an app that needs your location and you get a popup notification telling you that you should enable wifi? This is because using a wifi signal helps your device triangulate your location more accurately. While really expensive GPS modules can track location with incredible precision, the consumer level GPS modules in consumer drones aren’t nearly to this level. Instead, the drone will attempt to use your cellular signal and wifi (if available) to hone in on an even more accurate location.
That’s not to say that the GPS alone won’t typically do the trick, but if you have a return to home feature on your drone, you may see that the “home” spot it recorded before your flight isn’t quite the place it lands. It will generally be close, but a cellular or wifi signal will really tighten this up.
You Need Internet to Live Stream Your Drone Video
When I say live stream, I don’t mean the feed that is being sent between your drone and your contoller (which probably has a smart phone tethered to it). The feed between the drone and controller uses radio waves (typically on the 2.4 gigahertz spectrum) and is something that will always be used in flying drones with a remote control.
Honestly though, actual live-streaming to a third-party site isn’t a feature I’ve used much (it’s possible that I’ve never used it). The way it stands, I’m usually just shooting video for editing later. But if you want to stream your footage live, you definitely have the capability to do that. Obviously though, you will need an internet connection to do this.
Not only that, but before you start the live stream, you will want to make sure that you have an unlimited data plan, or at least one with a lot of data. Live-streaming 1080p or even 720p through your phone or tablet will eat through your data limits pretty quickly.
Do You Even Need a Smart Phone to Fly Your Drone?
While you don’t need a smartphone to fly your drone, it is probably a good idea to use one because of the many features that require it.
While some drones (typically toy drones) don’t even have the capability of tethering a smart phone to them, it’s pretty obvious even to a novice drone flyer that the most common feature on a camera drone is the use of a smart device (generally a smart phone or a tablet) that allows you to see first hand exactly what the drone camera sees. Without a smart device tethered to your drone, you will not be able to see the feed from the camera.
Additionally though, the app you use to control your drone provides a ton of other features. Not only are you getting the live video feed, most drone apps allow you to:
- Control all aspects of the camera (shutter, aperture, etc.)
- Switch between camera and video modes
- Set and navigate between waypoints
- Set max altitude limits
- Use pre-programmed flight maneuvers
- See altitude, distance, signal and orientation information
- Review pictures and videos already taken during the flight
- Takeoff and initiate the return to home sequence
- See an updated flight map with any airspace warnings
- Review battery, controller, video feed, and GPS signals
- Reset and calibrate obstacle avoidance, controller settings, gimbal modes and return to home settings.
Needless to say, the use of a smartphone, while not necessary, seriously limits the capability of your drone. For anyone looking to use their drone in any commercial application, the use of a smart device with your drone is basically a requirement. Even if you are just using your drone for fun, the use of a smart phone is going to provide you with a lot of tools to make your time flying a lot more fun.
