Disabling VPS when flying over water

Videoman · Apr 13, 2017

I've heard from many who fly over water that its best to turn off the Mavic's VPS so as not to confuse the drone. Is this really necessary if I fly over water at say 50 meters or so or is it just when you fly really low, at say 10 meters and lower. I'm interested to hear what others experiences and thoughts are regarding this ... thanks in advance.

mfarris2 · Apr 13, 2017

I always turn off VPS when flying over water. Had a situation where even though I was up at around 50 feet,....Every time I tried to bring down the Mavic slightly by pulling back slightly on the left stick, it would go into auto landing.
Since then I turn of VPS in mid flight when I am flying over water,....Then turn it back on after coming back over land. Easy enough to do and have had no issue since then. And I do not have to worry about height above water, other than not landing on water of course.

msinger · Apr 13, 2017

mfarris2 said:
I always turn off VPS when flying over water. Had a situation where even though I was up at around 50 feet,....Every time I tried to bring down the Mavic slightly by pulling back slightly on the left stick, it would go into auto landing.

In this situation, the Mavic will only go into forced landing mode if you move the left stick to the full down position. If you'd like to prevent that auto landing from occurring, you only need to disable the "Landing Protection" setting in DJI GO.

mfarris2 · Apr 13, 2017

I appreciate your input. But actually a while back I posted my TXT file for someone to check out the issue. I do not remember the members name. But he was one of the flight record guro's. He informed me I had done nothing wrong,...But is was a known issue when flying over water and I should disable the VPS over water. And I do recall that flight issue very well. I did pull the left stick all the way down and it did go into auto landing. I was able to abort the auto landing by pushing the stick up. But I did try several times to lower my drone and several times I lowered my left stick very,...very slightly. And each and every time it would go into auto landing. Since disabling the VPS over water,... I have not had that issue re-occur. I should also tell you I was running 4. something firmware and was able to abort the auto landing each time and continue with my flight unless I hit the down stick until I got back over dry land. Then she worked just fine. Also,...I am running the exact same firmware as I refuse to update and loose the ability to cancel auto landing with my stick. (Reading everything I can on here and am aware I can cancel by flipping the mode switch, but want to keep it with the stick)
I will also check the landing protection switch when I get home,...But I believe that is disabled as I had a situation where it did not like landing on concrete because although it was level there was a hairline crack in the slab.
Again,...thanks for your reply and input.

newnan3 · Apr 13, 2017

Turning off Landing Protection wont affect RTH will it?

msinger · Apr 13, 2017

mfarris2 said:
But actually a while back I posted my TXT file for someone to check out the issue. I do not remember the members name. But he was one of the flight record guro's. He informed me I had done nothing wrong

I agree that you had done nothing wrong. However, the logs you posted in this post do not show you pulling back slightly on the left stick. The stick is in the down position every time forced landing mode is initiated.

Balko · Jun 3, 2017

msinger said:
In this situation, the Mavic will only go into forced landing mode if you move the left stick to the full down position. If you'd like to prevent that auto landing from occurring, you only need to disable the "Landing Protection" setting in DJI GO.

View attachment 10549

How about the "Vision Positioning", shouldn't we also disable that when flying over water?
I remember that this feature is recommended to be turned off with the P3 Advanced.

GerdS · Jun 4, 2017

Balko said:
How about the "Vision Positioning", shouldn't we also disable that when flying over water?
I remember that this feature is recommended to be turned off with the P3 Advanced.

I had lots of low altitude flights (2-5m) recently over water, mostly using Follow Me mode from my kayak. The surface was quite calm, low waves only. In most situations the Mavic behaved as usually, same as following e.g. a bicycle. But sometimes, especially if ordered to circle around my kayak the Mavic changed distance to the kayak on its own and came quite near. The circle was not as straight and precise as I am used to from land usage. I am quite sure this happend from VPS getting irtitated by waves, which was all time active. Next time I will try again with VPS switched off.
I also did various very low-altitude flights including touchdowns and takeoffs from water surface, with ball floats attached.
With accelerating I have sometimes seen some loss of altitude while flying lower than about 1.5m, but there was no critical situation, all with VPS enabled. I have generally disabled Landing Protection as I am used to hand launching and landing.

TheEMan199 · Jun 4, 2017

Here's how mine did flying over reflective water. It was pretty smooth for the most part. It had a slight problem with altitude and kept lowering, but not enough to show.

msinger · Jun 4, 2017

Balko said:
How about the "Vision Positioning", shouldn't we also disable that when flying over water?

The downward sensors will not be used unless you're flying within 42 feet (13 meters) of the surface of the water. If you're planning a low flight over water, then either disable the downward sensors beforehand or watch your Mavic closely to see if the downward sensors are causing any type of erratic flight (and turn them off mid-flight if so).

flightmike · Jun 4, 2017

I just hit the radar at the top of the app and turn off all obstacle avoidance. There is usually not to many obstacles over water anyway. Then when I am up high enough or coming back over land I turn back on. I have hovered as low as a couple feet over water and I just have to watch closely. It does tend to raise and lower a little.

Quick clip. No video edit, just music.

Balko · Jun 4, 2017

msinger said:
The downward sensors will not be used unless you're flying within 42 feet (13 meters) of the surface of the water. If you're planning a low flight over water, then either disable the downward sensors beforehand or watch your Mavic closely to see if the downward sensors are causing any type of erratic flight (and turn them off mid-flight if so).

Thank you msinger for taking the time to drop-off a reply. I've benefitted a lot from your advices from my queries in the past, including the one that concerned my P3A.

Just to make things clearer, would you suggest I disable the "Landing Protection" as well as the "Vision Positioning" when flying over water, or is it enough to just disable the LP? Sorry, not quite sure what exactly you were referring to as the "Downward Sensors".
I don't really feel the need for the Landing Position as much as the other Obstacle Avoidance feature of the Mavic.

Thanks again in advance.

Balko · Jun 4, 2017

flightmike said:
I just hit the radar at the top of the app and turn off all obstacle avoidance. There is usually not to many obstacles over water anyway. Then when I am up high enough or coming back over land I turn back on. I have hovered as low as a couple feet over water and I just have to watch closely. It does tend to raise and lower a little.

Quick clip. No video edit, just music.

Yes, that makes a lot of sense, unless the Mavic crosses the path of a flying duck midair as I've seen in a YouTube video. (Not sure though if it was an edited clip.)

msinger · Jun 5, 2017

Balko said:
not quite sure what exactly you were referring to as the "Downward Sensors"

I'm referring to the "Enable Vision Positioning" setting in DJI GO.

Balko said:
would you suggest I disable the "Landing Protection" as well as the "Vision Positioning" when flying over water, or is it enough to just disable the LP?

Landing Protection is not used when you turn off the "Enable Vision Positioning" setting in DJI GO. If you want to disable both, then just turn off the "Enable Vision Positioning" setting.

There's no need to turn off Vision Positioning unless you're flying within 42 feet (13 meters) of the surface of the water.

Balko · Jun 5, 2017

msinger said:
I'm referring to the "Enable Vision Positioning" setting in DJI GO.

Landing Protection is not used when you turn off the "Enable Vision Positioning" setting in DJI GO. If you want to disable both, then just turn off the "Enable Vision Positioning" setting.

There's no need to turn off Vision Positioning unless you're flying within 42 feet (13 meters) of the surface of the water.

Thank you again msinger. Will keep in mind to Turn-off "Enable VP" whenever flying over bodies of water, which I often do. Good day/evening ahead!

stratos · Jun 5, 2017

Videoman said:
I've heard from many who fly over water that its best to turn off the Mavic's VPS so as not to confuse the drone. Is this really necessary if I fly over water at say 50 meters or so or is it just when you fly really low, at say 10 meters and lower. I'm interested to hear what others experiences and thoughts are regarding this ... thanks in advance.

95% of my flights have been over water and I have never disabled VPS dont really seem to need it.

dewster · Jun 5, 2017

Water, and snow. There a video where the Mavic just rockets off almost hitting the pilot while flying over snow.

RC5728 · Jun 5, 2017

Is VPS really even necessary for anything?

Based on this thread it sounds like it just causes problems.

msinger · Jun 5, 2017

RC5728 said:
Is VPS really even necessary for anything?

When outdoors, not flying over reflective and/or constantly moving surfaces, and close to the ground, it does help the Mavic hold its position. It's also needed when using the precision landing feature.