Active Track to follow a boat

[adventurecampitelli]

I used active track on my Mavic Pro to follow a speed boat we were on. I don't know if you have ever done this, but it will make your heart skp a beat a few times.

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[LawFlyer]

Nice video, although I didn't see the boat tracking part? [correction -- just re-watched and found the tracking part...too bad it was just a few seconds!]

I am in Arizona and have flown my Mavic from a boat a few times....both using auto-following/active track and then just plain manual flight. I agree 100% that it can be stressful, but worth it.

My shots aren't that professional, but here's a quick video that I took from my boat (wife was driving the boat while I was flying the drone). If you haven't tried this, it's harder than it looks -- I am technically flying the drone backwards so it's facing the boat, and of course my wife didn't tell me which direction she was turning, so I had to guess.

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[droneworx]

Nice video, although I didn't see the boat tracking part?

I am in Arizona and have flown my Mavic from a boat a few times....both using auto-following/active track and then just plain manual flight. I agree 100% that it can be stressful, but worth it.

My shots aren't that professional, but here's a quick video that I took from my boat (wife was driving the boat while I was flying the drone). If you haven't tried this, it's harder than it looks -- I am technically flying the drone backwards so it's facing the boat, and of course my wife didn't tell me which direction she was turning, so I had to guess.

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what I love about boat tracking over cars, is that boats have such an illusion of speed that doesnt exist. I'll take people out on my boat and they are guessing we are going 65+ MPH, and in reality we are going maybe 30. So its easy for the Mavic to keep up, and have these great looking "speeding" type shots, that you cant get with cars becuase the car has to be going relatively slow for the mavic to keep up.

 

[LawFlyer]

... I'll take people out on my boat and they are guessing we are going 65+ MPH, and in reality we are going maybe 30.

This is so, so true -- people who don't regularly boat have no idea how fast (or slow) the boat is actually travelling.

New guests on my boat are always like WOW -- THAT FELT LIKE 100 MPH! But in fact my boat's top speed is only about 45 MPH and I usually cruise around 30 MPH since anything faster is just too bumpy and uncomfortable if the water isn't flat.

 

[Dobo]

I’ve just bought a drone for getting some aerial shots for Spearfishing videos I like to edit. I tried using follow mode last weekend but it stopped tracking the boat once speeds picked up. I’ve only flown the drone for 1.5hrs before taking it over water but found it super easy to fly with in excellent weather conditions and no hazards, I used sports mode and chased the boat whilst being on board, used the hand grab method to catch drone which was a little bit of a challenge due to obstacle avoidance, do you guys turn this off when hand catching off a moving target such as a boat?

Heres a really quick mash up of some of the footage taken from the Mavic Pro,can’t wait to get good at flying this thing and seeing what I can capture

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[LawFlyer]

I’ve just bought a drone for getting some aerial shots for Spearfishing videos I like to edit.

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EXCELLENT video...where is this? Looks like New Zealand (we went there a few years ago for a wedding).

NOTE -- you need to be VERY careful when flying over water, and not for the reasons that you might think. The Mavic is awesome, but it can get very confused when blinded by bright sunlight....either directly or when reflecting off water. One common issue is that the Mavic's forward-facing obstacle avoidance cameras will sometimes get blinded by bright sun (when the sun is low in the sky). This will cause the Mavic to stop and hover because it thinks the sun is an obstacle. Various solutions for this issue are: 1.) disable obstacle avoidance, 2.) fly backwards so the forward cameras are not facing the sun, or 3.) switch to Sport mode.

There is a similar issue with the downward-facing cameras. When the sun is reflecting off water, the downward cameras can mistakenly think the sun is actually the ground. If that happens, and if you use full down on the left stick for a few seconds, this can trigger an auto-landing (as would normally happen when you are just a few feet off the ground). Depending on your altitude at the time, this could be a big problem or a small one -- you obviously do NOT want the Mavic to auto-land over the water.

Anyway, none of these problems are major....you just need to be aware of them. So if you are new to the Mavic, be sure to take your time and learn the drone's quirks.

 

[Dobo]

EXCELLENT video...where is this? Looks like New Zealand (we went there a few years ago for a wedding).

NOTE -- you need to be VERY careful when flying over water, and not for the reasons that you might think. The Mavic is awesome, but it can get very confused when blinded by bright sunlight....either directly or when reflecting off water. One common issue is that the Mavic's forward-facing obstacle avoidance cameras will sometimes get blinded by bright sun (when the sun is low in the sky). This will cause the Mavic to stop and hover because it thinks the sun is an obstacle. Various solutions for this issue are: 1.) disable obstacle avoidance, 2.) fly backwards so the forward cameras are not facing the sun, or 3.) switch to Sport mode.

There is a similar issue with the downward-facing cameras. When the sun is reflecting off water, the downward cameras can mistakenly think the sun is actually the ground. If that happens, and if you use full down on the left stick for a few seconds, this can trigger an auto-landing (as would normally happen when you are just a few feet off the ground). Depending on your altitude at the time, this could be a big problem or a small one -- you obviously do NOT want the Mavic to auto-land over the water.

Anyway, none of these problems are major....you just need to be aware of them. So if you are new to the Mavic, be sure to take your time and learn the drone's quirks.

Awesome thanks lawflyer,very helpful. I have heaps to learn but I’ll have a good look through these forums and pick through the info.

You’re on the money with NZ filmed in the Marlborough sounds top of the South Island

 

[adventurecampitelli]

Nice video, although I didn't see the boat tracking part? [correction -- just re-watched and found the tracking part...too bad it was just a few seconds!]

I am in Arizona and have flown my Mavic from a boat a few times....both using auto-following/active track and then just plain manual flight. I agree 100% that it can be stressful, but worth it.

My shots aren't that professional, but here's a quick video that I took from my boat (wife was driving the boat while I was flying the drone). If you haven't tried this, it's harder than it looks -- I am technically flying the drone backwards so it's facing the boat, and of course my wife didn't tell me which direction she was turning, so I had to guess.

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Nice video. You didn't see the us in the tube getting pulled by the boat?

 

[adventurecampitelli]

I’ve just bought a drone for getting some aerial shots for Spearfishing videos I like to edit. I tried using follow mode last weekend but it stopped tracking the boat once speeds picked up. I’ve only flown the drone for 1.5hrs before taking it over water but found it super easy to fly with in excellent weather conditions and no hazards, I used sports mode and chased the boat whilst being on board, used the hand grab method to catch drone which was a little bit of a challenge due to obstacle avoidance, do you guys turn this off when hand catching off a moving target such as a boat?

Heres a really quick mash up of some of the footage taken from the Mavic Pro,can’t wait to get good at flying this thing and seeing what I can capture

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Nice drone shots

 

[adventurecampitelli]

I used active track on my Mavic Pro to follow a speed boat we were on. I don't know if you have ever done this, but it will make your heart skp a beat a few times.

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nice video