Potensic Atom SE Range (Explained for Beginners)

The Potensic Atom SE can achieve crisp footage of vast landscapes, so flying over a beach and filming the sunset is possible.

What is the drone’s range?

The Potensic Atom SE has an incredible max flying range of 4,000 meters or 13,213 feet without losing live-view transmission.

However, that transmission range depends on some factors. If you want to learn more, keep reading.

» MORE: Potensic Atom SE Drone Review

We’ll explain the Atom SE’s range in detail and what you can expect from that flying range with its Smart Flight modes.

What affects the range of my Atom SE? #

First, it’s critical to understand what a drone’s flying range is all about. You can think of it as the maximum distance your drone can fly from its remote controller without losing its signal.

Bearing that in mind, here are the factors that directly affect Atom SE’s range.

Remote controller: Antenna angle and live view transmission #

The drone must stay connected to a transmitting device to fly.

Once your Atom SE loses its remote controller signal, it stops until it recovers it.

The further you fly, the easier it becomes to lose the signal. That’s why Potensic equipped this drone and RC with foldable antennas.

With the DSRC02A RC, you can reach the max transmission range when both antennas face the drone. This means that the prolonged antenna surface must point to the Atom SE.

If your antennas face up or to the front, your drone will lose the RC signal within a short distance. This situation causes the drone to start RTH if it can’t recover the signal quickly.

When antennas face the drone, the RC allows you to have a steady live transmission in 720p at a max range of 4,000 meters or 13,213 feet.

The transmission range also affects the max altitude, which is 120 meters or 394 feet.

Flying time #

No drone can reach 4,000 meters without a reliable battery.

The Atom SE has a flight time of 31 minutes with one battery at 18 kph in breezeless conditions.

In approximately 13 minutes, this drone reaches 4,000 meters. Then you have more than enough time for a safe flight.

However, considering breezeless conditions are unusual, the actual flight time reduces to approximately 20 to 25 minutes in windy conditions.

The reason is that the drone must constantly self-stabilize to continue its flight path. This feature requires a lot of GPS resources, so it drains the battery faster.

Still, it’s enough time to cover a vast distance, returning your drone safely to the landing place.

Signal interferences #

Another thing to consider is interferences in the flying path.

These interferences can be buildings, metallic surfaces, or signals near 2.4GHz.

The more crowded with obstacles, wiring, and people using electrical devices the place is, the less range the Atom SE can achieve.

As a rule of thumb, you can expect the max range only in open, obstacle-free areas such as beaches, deserts, or rural areas.

In unpopulated towns with short buildings and little wiring, your SE can still reach 2,000 to 3,000 meters or 6,561 to 9,842 feet.

In crowded cities with tall buildings and massive wiring or telecommunication towers, you can barely expect 1,000 meters.

Regulations #

All drones must comply with VLOS rules, which require pilots to always have their drones in their visual line of sight.

This regulation is very limiting as it depends on non-technical factors such as the visibility of the drone in the environment.

The Atom SE comes in off-white or light blue colors, so you can easily spot it on sunny days. It’s almost invisible in foggy conditions, so you won’t spot it further than 500 meters.

This drone lacks collision avoidance lights, so flying at night is significantly limiting and dangerous.

Limitations per local authorities #

On top of VLOS, each country has regulations requiring drones not to exceed specific flying ranges.

The good news is that the Atom SE complies with all the strictest range restrictions. Asian countries like Japan and China only allow you to fly up to 6,000 meters.

As this drone can achieve 4,000 meters max, the Atom SE has no issues with this limiting factor.

Potensic Atom SE Smart Flight modes range #

One of the selling points of this drone is the Smart Flight modes. Being so cheap and packed with so many functionalities make the Atom SE a no-brainer for beginner and intermediate pilots.

But how does the Atom SE perform with these features? What’s the maximum range you can use them?

Circle me and Follow me #

When you activate these features, your Atom SE fixes a target, staying centered on it.

The max flying range depends more on the camera than the drone flying range. On a clear or sunny day, your Atom SE can follow you as far as 50 meters.

Waypoints #

Where this drone shines is in the waypoints section. The Atom SE can fly full-range in this mode, as it only depends on the connection with its remote controller.

However, this mode increases battery consumption, reducing flight time.

We advise you to use it in a perimeter of 1,000 meters.

RTH range #

Finally, we have the return to home max range.

By default, this feature will return your drone to the takeoff point when it reaches 30 meters in altitude or a distance from the RC of 20 meters.

This doesn’t mean this is the max RTH range, as it can use the Atom SE’s max range of 4,000 meters or 13,213 feet.

However, some tests have shown that the live transmission gets glitchy between 2,500 and 3,000 meters in the suburbs.

In scenarios where the drone is far from the controller, the RTH starts instantly, as the drone easily loses signal.

That’s another reason to only fly in open areas, so the Atom SE to reach its full flying range potential!