Advice please

[Mazdaman323lx]

Folks , have had this mad itch for a while now to attach led lamps to my mavic and fly it down a local disused railway tunnel.
I presume if I go ahead it will be it atti mode - as no gps obviously.
What I want to know is - what would happen the drone if it loses connection to the controller in the tunnel at any stage - say interference from the rock walls or something or i fly out of range.
Will it land , fly into the ceiling , will it retrace its flightpath. Is what i'm proposing even possible , I already know its not the smartest use of a 800 euro drone .
Anybody ever try something similar or have any tips or advice ?
Thanks in advance.

P.S Would this endeavor null and void my care and refresh policy ????

 

[lannes]

You could set the RTH option to land or hover

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Folks , have had this mad itch for a while now to attach led lamps to my mavic and fly it down a local disused railway tunnel.
I presume if I go ahead it will be it atti mode - as no gps obviously.
What I want to know is - what would happen the drone if it loses connection to the controller in the tunnel at any stage - say interference from the rock walls or something or i fly out of range.
Will it land , fly into the ceiling , will it retrace its flightpath. Is what i'm proposing even possible , I already know its not the smartest use of a 800 euro drone .
Anybody ever try something similar or have any tips or advice ?
Thanks in advance.

P.S Would this endeavor null and void my care and refresh policy ????

So to minimize the risk for you, I would attempt this flight with the prop protectors on.

I would also just try to fly the distance in Atti mode outside the tunnel for a distance as a practice run and I would turn off the controller so you know what happens and you dont panic. Just because the controller dis connects does not mean that you will auto RTH as you can set to hover.

As far as the Care and Refresh you should be fine as long as you recover the drone.
Wish i could do it with you, as it sounds like my kind of fun.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in and out of the Storm.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

That's the loss-of-signal/failsafe RTH that Iannes is talking about.
Given the likely rough nature of the floor of a tunnel I would suggest hover would be better than landing. This assumes there will be enough light for the VPS to hold the hover

 

[PhantomFandom]

This assumes there will be enough light for the VPS to hold the hover

Agreed.

Even without sufficient lighting for VPS to hold the hover, the barometer should be accurate enough to hold altitude so that's not an issue.

The issue is definitely that it likely won't have GPS signal and will be in ATTI mode. Thus it will drift easily inside that tunnel and likely into a wall. Not a problem if you are there with good visual line of sight and can control it manually. BIG problem though if you lose the link between drone and controller.

 

[Lionfish]

Just a thought “ it may well be a bad one” ,

Could you just walk just slowly behind or to the side of the drone just a few feet up ,and just do a walk through practice attempt, if it’s going well you could let it get further in front and go from there .

 

[Lionfish]

Oh and keep us posted how it goes and a few pictures would be good .

All the best for your adventure!!.

 

[Mossiback]

You do not mention which drone you are flying, but In ATTI mode it will not RTH because it will not know where home is. For the same reason it will not retrace its path. You can set to hover on signal loss but it will likely drift into a wall. VPS might hold position if you attach a LED pointing down and it is bright enough for VPS to work. In this case it may be safer to set RTH to land since a railway tunnel will have a fairly flat surface (especially if the rails have been removed).

In the worst case scenario, you will have to go in to retrieve it. If you can do that you can also walk behind the drone to control it for the flight. If you cannot go in then you need to weigh the benefit of the recordings vs the loss of your drone. After all, because it is a railway tunnel the scenery is not apt to change the further you go in; only your risk increases.

Care Refresh will not replace it if you cannot retrieve it.

 

[eaglesurfing]

Test it out. That is what most scientist do.
Stand the end and fly it in until you loss the signal.
Then measure how far when and if you lose connection.
Also walk in and see if you do connect again.
It would also help to know what kind material your flying into.
If there is iron in the soil or any other kind that would mess with the signal.
You see there is a lot to learn on this adventure and most of us would like to know.
Then you can be an expert and answer someone else when they ask the question you have asked.

 

[iaincaradoc]

Why would it lose signal to the controller in the tunnel if you're at the end of the tunnel? Does the tunnel curve? Rocks don't generate signal noise, so as long as you have line-of-sight to the drone, you'll have signal from the controller (I really doubt the tunnel is long enough and narrow enough to produce fresnel zone issues.)

 

[Meta4]

If there is iron in the soil or any other kind that would mess with the signal.

Ferro-magnetic materials may influence the compass if they are close enough, but they don't affect signal.

 

[Mazdaman323lx]

Apologies folks , I neglected to mention its a mavic air 2 .Thanks for all your comments and suggestions thus far. The actual shot I am hoping to achieve is to ascend straight up the ventilation shaft . Its a distance from the floor of the tunnel to the opening above of about 50 meters. Once I clear the wall of portal on the surface , pan 360 then lower the gimbal downwards and redescend. The shaft is about 3 meters in diameter . I am hoping that the led lights I attach to the drone will provide sufficient light to illuminate the shaft walls on the ascent .The rise from darkness into the green countryside above is the shot I'm after.

 

[Mazdaman323lx]

You do not mention which drone you are flying, but In ATTI mode it will not RTH because it will not know where home is. For the same reason it will not retrace its path. You can set to hover on signal loss but it will likely drift into a wall. VPS might hold position if you attach a LED pointing down and it is bright enough for VPS to work. In this case it may be safer to set RTH to land since a railway tunnel will have a fairly flat surface (especially if the rails have been removed).

In the worst case scenario, you will have to go in to retrieve it. If you can do that you can also walk behind the drone to control it for the flight. If you cannot go in then you need to weigh the benefit of the recordings vs the loss of your drone. After all, because it is a railway tunnel the scenery is not apt to change the further you go in; only your risk increases.

Care Refresh will not replace it if you cannot retrieve it.

Thanks , I was concerned that if the drone gets damaged they would analyse the flight log and somehow claim that what I was doing - flying in atti mode etc was not covered . As its a tunnel there is no chance of me physically losing the drone should the worst happen. I will turn on the auxilary led beneath the drone so this should hepl the vps as you suggest.

 

[Mazdaman323lx]

You do not mention which drone you are flying, but In ATTI mode it will not RTH because it will not know where home is. For the same reason it will not retrace its path. You can set to hover on signal loss but it will likely drift into a wall. VPS might hold position if you attach a LED pointing down and it is bright enough for VPS to work. In this case it may be safer to set RTH to land since a railway tunnel will have a fairly flat surface (especially if the rails have been removed).

In the worst case scenario, you will have to go in to retrieve it. If you can do that you can also walk behind the drone to control it for the flight. If you cannot go in then you need to weigh the benefit of the recordings vs the loss of your drone. After all, because it is a railway tunnel the scenery is not apt to change the further you go in; only your risk increases.

Care Refresh will not replace it if you cannot retrieve it.

Do they analyse the flight logs to see what you were doing at the time ? Could they say , as you were flying in atti mode with the sensors off (due to lack of light) to you are somehow operating outside the scope of the policy? My experience with any type of insurance policy is they try to avoid paying out at all costs.

 

[Mazdaman323lx]

Oh and keep us posted how it goes and a few pictures would be good .

All the best for your adventure!!.

Will do.

 

[Meta4]

Do they analyse the flight logs to see what you were doing at the time ?

If you tried to make a warranty claim, yes they do and they can.

But the whole scheme isn't going to work anyway.
No-one has pointed out this rather relevant section of the manual:

Height is restricted to 16 ft (5 m) when the GPS signal is weak and Downward Vision System is activated. ​

Height is restricted to 98 ft (30 m) when the GPS signal is weak and Downward Vision System is inactivated.​

 

[Duds]

Well if you are trying to get rid of your drone, I'm a willing taker. No way it is going to retain controller connection especially when you start flying it up a shaft. Crash is immeninent in my opinion.

 

[Geekser]

Glad to see it is a disused train tunnel - I would hate to try to retrieve a drone from a tunnel that might also end up introducing me to the front end of a train. LOL -

 

[CareyL]

Apologies folks , I neglected to mention its a mavic air 2 .Thanks for all your comments and suggestions thus far. The actual shot I am hoping to achieve is to ascend straight up the ventilation shaft . Its a distance from the floor of the tunnel to the opening above of about 50 meters. Once I clear the wall of portal on the surface , pan 360 then lower the gimbal downwards and redescend. The shaft is about 3 meters in diameter . I am hoping that the led lights I attach to the drone will provide sufficient light to illuminate the shaft walls on the ascent .The rise from darkness into the green countryside above is the shot I'm after.

Perhaps do it in reverse and also entering the tunnel as a separate clip. Use the entering clip, slow mo in the tunnel for effect then reverse the decent. Hollywood is not about real it is about perception.

 

[gajman]

Thanks , I was concerned that if the drone gets damaged they would analyse the flight log and somehow claim that what I was doing - flying in atti mode etc was not covered . As its a tunnel there is no chance of me physically losing the drone should the worst happen. I will turn on the auxilary led beneath the drone so this should hepl the vps as you suggest.