Flying above water

[rustydiver]

Now I understand it's wise to disable the vps? Sensors the downward pointing ones.
How high above water do you need to be above water when it is wise to disable them.
Might fly later if the wind dies down from the fields by the canal we are on.

 

[msinger]

When flying over water, the downward sensors sometimes detect the ground when light bounces off the surface of the water and hits the downward sensors. That can occur at any altitude. If you have the Landing Protection setting enabled, that could cause your Mavic to auto ascend (when it thinks it's below 0.5 meters) or descend if forced landing mode is auto enabled (when the throttle is in the full down position and the Mavic is at/below 0.5 meters). To prevent those issues from occurring, you only need to disable the Landing Protection setting.

 

[rustydiver]

Thank you.

 

[KiterTodd]

When flying over water, the downward sensors sometimes detect the ground when light bounces off the surface of the water and hits the downward sensors. That can occur at any altitude. If you have the Landing Protection setting enabled, that could cause your Mavic to auto ascend (when it thinks it's below 0.5 meters) or descend if forced landing mode is auto enabled (when the throttle is in the full down position and the Mavic is at/below 0.5 meters). To prevent those issues from occurring, you only need to disable the Landing Protection setting.

This makes good sense and I like it better than just turning off VPS.
In another post, a guy says his mavic flew into the lake when he was taking video a few feet off the water. It doesn't' sound like it was either of the situations you described above, though. Which confuses me a little, but it's tough to tell what happened in his situation.

 

[msinger]

In another post, a guy says his mavic flew into the lake when he was taking video a few feet off the water. It doesn't' sound like it was either of the situations you described above, though.

It's not. If you disable VPS, your Mavic won't be able to hover as well. If you keep it enabled and attempt to hover a few feet from the surface of water, the VPS might not be able to detect the surface and it might also have trouble hovering.

tl;dr: Hovering near the surface of water is risky.

 

[dekip]

So, I was near a large body of water and I could not bring myself to fly out more then a few feet due to all the bad outcomes I have seen here. I think I am close to conquering with this tip - Thanks. This gives me two recovery options as i see it. The second being flipping on Sport mode as I have tested and it does seem to be a great way to force manual control over any other issues that may arise. Can anybody help me with my confidence over water by confirming this or adding further insight?

 

[rustydiver]

I had a go but didn't get to close to the water.
Will try and get a better shot off the boat next time.

 

[Commo]

I am watching all the 'over water' threads carefully as just about the only place I want to fly is over moving (river) water, so please keep the threads coming with your experiences and thoughts.

I'm about to start shooting aerial video for my web site www.AuSableTrout.com, a labor-of-love set of videos about conservation and restoration projects along the famous AuSable River in northern Michigan USA, one of the country's premier trout streams...please take a look!

Here's a scenario -- I want a scene of the river as the Mavic skims along say 3-4 feet above the surface: what would you set the various sensors for? For this scene I would fly low then come up 10-15 feet to a hover (Cinematic mode)...

Let's see: first drone, no experience with gaming-style controllers, all flights over water...hmmm, what could possibly go wrong..???

Commo

 

[BorisTheSpider]

Haha, what could go wrong indeed.

VPS and landing protection off is my suggestion.

Sounds like a prime application for a getterback too as I'm presuming the river isn't super deep so a recovery device that could get the remains of the drone back should the worst happen seems sensible.

 

[naeemr86]

Thanks

 

[Commo]

My trout net is probably the best thing I can come up with there, and yes, much of the AuSable system is easily wadeable..though of course there are lots of spots where you can float your hat..I'm going to do some judicious testing over the water after I shoot a bunch of higher altitude stuff, and change SD cards often...and I do have the DJI Care policy..

Commo

 

[Saylor101]

I have yet to fly my Mavic over the water after all the horror stories on here. Yet, some people fly all the time over the water with no problems. Some turn off the VPS, some do not. One question I have, and apologize if answered earlier in this thread or else where, is the downward sensors are only active below 13m and that there is no way to turn them OFF except by turning ON Sport mode? And you only turn off the forward sensors with the "vision symbol" on the RC? <br /> So I've read...turn off the VPS, turn off Landing Protection, try not to go full left stick down, stay above 13m...and if it does start to "auto land" go to sport mode asap? Yet some pilots do not do some, or all of that. Yes, the manual has the warnings about flying over water....but we all want to do it. A lot of conflicting information and opinions.

 

[msinger]

is the downward sensors are only active below 13m and that there is no way to turn them OFF except by turning ON Sport mode? And you only turn off the forward sensors with the "vision symbol" on the RC? <br /> So I've read...turn off the VPS, turn off Landing Protection, try not to go full left stick down, stay above 13m

If you're going to be flying close to the surface of the water, then turning off Landing Protection will be sufficient. That will prevent your Mavic from auto ascending/descending when it incorrectly detects the ground is near.

and if it does start to "auto land" go to sport mode asap?

In firmware 01.03.06, pressing the throttle to the full up position will cancel forced landing mode. You could also toggle the sport mode switch too.

 

[ThisIsCusel]

One question I have, and apologize if answered earlier in this thread or else where, is the downward sensors are only active below 13m and that there is no way to turn them OFF except by turning ON Sport mode?

Sport Mode disables Obstacle Avoidance (front cameras)

You can disable Downward Vision Sensors by going to advanced settings in the sub-menu by tapping on the vision sensor status indicator. (Common practice for hand-catchers)

As far as flying out over water...might as well go for it. At anything over 20 ft. I don't figure it makes much difference what you're flying over. Anyone care to do a YouTube "drop test?"

 

[Dragonfly]

Solves alot of problems when flying close to rivers or lakes.

 

[Saylor101]

Thank you all. I appreciate the info!

 

[Andrew F]

I fly over water (ocean) all the time and have never had a forced landing issue. I leave VPS and Landing Protection on. I need and want VPS as it keeps the Mavic rock steady for filming. Either use FW .04 (what I'm sticking with) or the latest .06 so that you can instantly get out of autolanding if that erroneously kicks in. I'm sure your video will be great! Oh, and of course, I'm sure you know the river drops downstream and rises upstream so if you start at 4 feet and are flying upstream you will get closer and closer to the water as a function of the stream gradient. )

 

[decio95]

I'm very confused about this.
Two recent diferentes threads about this subjects.

One thread started at march 25, advised to turn off the downward sensors: Flying over Water at Low Altitude

This tread (april 10) advised to turn off just the Landing Protection.

It seens to be a dilema betwenn safty and stability once the downeard sensors can improve the hovering but can send the Mavic to some kind of forced landing (which we must be able to cancel).
I'm trying my second fly today and look's better to wait for another day to fly over water.

 

[Andrew F]

I'm very confused about this.
Two recent diferentes threads about this subjects.

One thread started at march 25, advised to turn off the downward sensors: Flying over Water at Low Altitude

This tread (april 10) advised to turn off just the Landing Protection.

It seens to be a dilema betwenn safty and stability once the downeard sensors can improve the hovering but can send the Mavic to some kind of forced landing (which we must be able to cancel).
I'm trying my second fly today and look's better to wait for another day to fly over water.

It is confusing because it is confusing. The ever changing firmwares have contributed to the problem. Two firmwares introduced a bug that didn't allow for users to easily abort an autolanding. If you are not using firmware 5, you are probably good to go. Turning off autolanding while over water is a good bet as you don't want to land on water anyway. It's an easy "solution" to a difficult problem. I personally fly over water and leave all of the tech running. But I'm keenly aware of the potential for water induced confusion.

 

[garysmacman]

Solves alot of problems when flying close to rivers or lakes.

Awesome Dragonfly! The wife has two of those floats in the bedroom!