Compass interference & flying from a cruise ship

[slidewilson]

Hey everyone,

I'm going to be working as a photographer for a few weeks on a cruise ship, and I'm looking into flying my Mavic from the ship in a few spots. Note I will be working for the company and have permission, whereas drones are generally not permitted on ships for a variety of reasons (a whole different topic of conversation).

An acquaintance of mine just lost a Phantom 3 Advanced after flying it from the cruise ship - he was in Alaska near glaciers and cited "magnetic interference" as a cause of the lost drone. I'm definitely skeptical that he may have simply run the battery down irresponsibly, but I'm trying to assess just how to approach flying from a large metal object, and anticipating compass issues. My limited experience in these situations has been fine, though I've had "compass interference" warnings that went away after I cleared the ship area.

So - does anyone know what kind of risk you might assume flying from a ship, in regards to compass issues? Can a drone just drop out of the sky? Any advice?

Thanks!

 

[dewster]

Here's a video on YouTube where the pilot states that a radar dome on a cruise ship prevented him from landing back on the ship. It's a little long, but food for thought:

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I've tried launching my Mavic from the roof of my car and received compass errors because of the metal. I imagine you may get errors in close proximity to large metallic structures like bridges or ships.

 

[ric96]

You're cruisin' for a brusin'!

 

[gnirtS]

Magnetic interference as mentioned is a big issue but also beware interference from radar and other transmitters on board. This could easily block control signals, GPS or even induce enough power into the electronics to cause other random failures.

...and obviously dont do it while the ship is moving.

I would guess if its moored in a port the radar and main emitters will be turned off. One thing though - check local laws and regulations before flying even in a port. We get people flying drones all the time here from ships, less than 1 mile from the runway threshold on the extended centreline. In lots of port areas drone flying is banned due to airport proximity or security concerns.

 

[DrPeppar]

One risk you'll need to look out for is food poisoning. E. Coli is a ***** when you are trying to fly.
I suggest staying off the nasty cruise lines or floating prisons.

 

[Top Hat]

Kiss the MP goodbye before take off, cruise ship is a big giant interference.
I maybe wrong.....good luck anyway!

 

[GerdS]

If you are not a VERY EXPERIENCED pilot, just don't try it!
When looking at this video above, there are so many things that guy did not keep in mind. Many things can go wrong aboard and only an experienced pilot would be able to handle it. If you want to try out, then do it only while the ship is docked in a harbour with no movement. And I would take off out of my hand above my head insead from the deck for avoiding compass problems, as far as possible away from structures. Landing same way, catching by hand.
And be sure to perfectly calibrate your compass at an open wide field before going aboard, NEVER EVER anywhere on the ship!

 

[gnirtS]

"very experienced pilot". We're not talking of hand flying an SR71 here. A few common sense steps that take 5 mins are all it takes.

 

[dewster]

One risk you'll need to look out for is food poisoning. E. Coli is a ***** when you are trying to fly.
I suggest staying off the nasty cruise lines or floating prisons.

Lol. Impaired judgement due to illness.

 

[FlyGuy8675309]

One risk you'll need to look out for is food poisoning. E. Coli is a ***** when you are trying to fly.
I suggest staying off the nasty cruise lines or floating prisons.

I've been on over 20 cruises and never got sick. Not from the food at least. Booze is another story. ;-) And calling them floating prisons says more about you than it does a cruise ship.. just sayin. :-D

 

[GerdS]

"very experienced pilot". We're not talking of hand flying an SR71 here. A few common sense steps that take 5 mins are all it takes.

Ok, then try it after 5 minutes study of "common sense steps" and without very good flying skills. We'll see what will happen, if your drone will react in a different way as expected or fall into Atti mode. Guess that guy in the video was same as naive as you seem to be...

 

[gnirtS]

Guess that guy in the video was same as naive as you seem to be...

Hardly. I simply know how the drone works and realise it doesn't take any training, experience or skill to operate. Whereas you seem to think its on par with hand landing the space shuttle.

 

[Flycaster]

I've been on over 20 cruises and never got sick. Not from the food at least. Booze is another story. ;-) And calling them floating prisons says more about you than it does a cruise ship.. just sayin. :-D

He should have said "Floating Petri dish"......

 

[GerdS]

Hardly. I simply know how the drone works and realise it doesn't take any training, experience or skill to operate. Whereas you seem to think its on par with hand landing the space shuttle.

Try it from a cruise ship and don't complain afterwards if you have lost your Mavic. It's a VERY big difference between flying at land and flying over sea with takeoff and landing on a ship which may move quite as fast as your Mavic's top speed and in addition creates magnetic interference...

 

[Flycaster]

Hardly. I simply know how the drone works and realise it doesn't take any training, experience or skill to operate. Whereas you seem to think its on par with hand landing the space shuttle.

This is what can happen with little/no training, experience, or skill......

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Snot the Shuttle, but it does have a lot of switches and settings to FULLY understand and verify....

 

[Mavicsailor]

Hey everyone,

I'm going to be working as a photographer for a few weeks on a cruise ship, and I'm looking into flying my Mavic from the ship in a few spots. Note I will be working for the company and have permission, whereas drones are generally not permitted on ships for a variety of reasons (a whole different topic of conversation).

An acquaintance of mine just lost a Phantom 3 Advanced after flying it from the cruise ship - he was in Alaska near glaciers and cited "magnetic interference" as a cause of the lost drone. I'm definitely skeptical that he may have simply run the battery down irresponsibly, but I'm trying to assess just how to approach flying from a large metal object, and anticipating compass issues. My limited experience in these situations has been fine, though I've had "compass interference" warnings that went away after I cleared the ship area.

So - does anyone know what kind of risk you might assume flying from a ship, in regards to compass issues? Can a drone just drop out of the sky? Any advice?

Thanks!

My understanding is the Mavic takes a compass reading once powered on. Once airborne if the magnetic environment differs, which it will once a distance away from the ship, the outcome can be distasterous. The AC can become confused on direction, which can result in TBE where it uncontrollably spirals out of control. This would be similar to taking off from any area where there is a strong magnetic influence.....a sidewalk with rebar, parking garage, etc. There have have been multiple post on the problems with this. Just do a search for TBE or toilet bowl effect. This doesn't even get into the problems on ships with radio interference that can sever your connection.

 

[Dan]

Change sport mode switch to an ATTI switch. But any high winds and it will be like trying to land a Marlin

 

[GerdS]

Good example what can happen if landing on a moving cruise ship.

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[Ceejay]

Unless you are. a extremely good pilot and you know how to set the drone up properly within its settings, then you are likely to lose it!.
I have flown near cruise ships in the past when they are in port.
Even then i have encountered problems with radar domes making the Mavic do unpredictable flight paths.
Luckily I have lowered my altitude to get away from the radar sweep, and after regaining control, have landed on the quayside safely.
The obvious thing is not to fly in GPS mode, ATTI is the way to go, with no camera sensors enable, forward or down.
GPS is about as much good as a chocolate fire guard!. As soon as you get GPS lock the ship will be half a mile away from your take off point !
If you are going to try your luck, put as much of the ships metal obsticales between you and its radar dome.
Or get El Captain to turn it of ( highly unlikely)
Good Luck, let us know how it goes

 

[AlexeyD]

I made this video from cruise ship near Greenland in past year.

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Magnetic interference and radars are real problem. I saw how (not mine) Phantom had disarmed and dropped to the water when pilot tried to circle around bridge.

For this flight ship was stopped and radars were temporarily disabled.

Before take-off I had to restart my Phantom 4 couple of times because it displayed compass and sensors errors.

Very important. Before this you have to recalibrate compass on the shore in approximatelly in same area.

In this year I tried to fly from same ship using another drone - Phantom 3. But I hadn't possibility to recalibrate compass on the shore. Flight was horrible - when drone was approximately in 200m from the ship DJI GO displayed message that because of compass errors drone switched to ATTI mode. It was quite hard to return drone to the ship - because on such long distance his position and course in the air was impossible to determine. I started rotate drone until I spotted my ship through drone's camera and almost in FPV mode returned it on the ship's deck. It was rare case when I used my piloting skills