Any suggestions re "tunnel" flights

[Ken K]

I live in a rural area with narrow roads and lanes that are essentially in tunnels under the roadside tree canopy.
I would like to fly my Mavic along these roads, under the canopy.
Any suggestions on how to do this safely would be appreciated. I'm particularly worried about loss of GPS and RTH height.

 

[kndll]

I live in a rural area with narrow roads and lanes that are essentially in tunnels under the roadside tree canopy.
I would like to fly my Mavic along these roads, under the canopy.
Any suggestions on how to do this safely would be appreciated. I'm particularly worried about loss of GPS and RTH height.

Set RTH to hover

 

[FormerMember07122019_2]

I live in a heavily forested area and have these same issues. I fly VLOS so I walk behind as I go through these areas and get the enjoyment of flying and a good walk at the same time. If you fly beyond VLOS, which I wouldn’t recommend, be careful because trees and foliage absorb radio signals fairly well due to the water content. The more leaves and the heavier denser foliage is worse.

You could do an experiment by setting the aircraft at a low hover height, or even better on a stump turned on but not flying, and walk away through the foliage and monitor the signal strength to get a feel for how far you can go before you might have a problem.

 

[Air_Joe]

Set RTH to hover

I guess u meant set ‘loss of signal’ to hover instead of rth ?

 

[tleedom]

Get comfortable flying in ATTI mode first.

 

[Ken K]

Thanks to all for your suggestions. Much appreciated.

 

[SpitFire]

Well, just to check out the screen for GPS Etc. Drive your car with the bird extended thru your car window
on a pole attached to it. You should be getting readings on your tablet or phone, everything is working
except the propellers. That's how I decide if to fly in the area or not.

 

[BD0G]

Just learn to switch to the Mavic 2 into ATTI mode and fly the entire flight through the tunnel that way. You wont have to worry as much about regaining GPS signal in the middle of the flight and having your Mavic exhibit strange and erratic flight paths.

How to Get Atti Mode on Your Mavic Pro - Drone U™

 

[Aussie Oldtimer]

I did a similar thing here in a small avenue of trees about 150m long. It was on a dirt road so little traffic to worry about. I did a very slow run first, then built up speed. There was one low hanging branch that stopped the drone at full noise so I had to drop under it.

I just used normal settings, and had no problems
like everything, plan the flight and then work to the plan building up speed as you go
and enjoy the experience

 

[Hauptmann]

The biggest risk I've seen in "tunnel" flying is that if your craft climbs thru an opening and gets ABOVE the canopy, you may lose your craft. RTH will only result in your craft hovering over your home point but ABOVE the canopy until it runs out of battery and crashes in the trees. If you keep your craft inside the "tunnel", you should be OK.

 

[Meta4]

The biggest risk I've seen in "tunnel" flying is that if your craft climbs thru an opening and gets ABOVE the canopy, you may lose your craft. RTH will only result in your craft hovering over your home point but ABOVE the canopy until it runs out of battery and crashes in the trees.

Presumably you are thinking of the obstacle avoidance sensors preventing landing through the tree canopy?
If that was to happen, it should be quite simple to cancel the RTH and land manually through the trees or outside of them.

 

[CanadaDrone]

Really the only thing to do is make sure it's set to hover if you lose the signal. There is not a lot that can go wrong other than that. Get ready to use the Pause button too if needed. You will know beforehand if you can maintain a good GPS signal, which you probably will be able to unless there is a solid barrier (like an actual concrete tunnel). Leaves and branches should not block it.

I am an overly cautious flyer but I have never been worried about flying through bridges or tree-tunnels or things like that. Just make sure you have GPS and the signal-loss action is not set to RTH. If anything goes wrong, pause the drone and retrieve it. Use tripod mode if you want to be extra safe, as it will limit speed and enable the side obstacle sensors.