Compass interference & flying from a cruise ship

[GFCutler]

I've heard that a country in Central Europe is releasing a clockwork version of the Mavic for the very job you'll be doing! It is totally unaffected by magnetism and comes complete with a cuckoo to warn penguins of it's presence!

 

[Dahveed]

I wish DJI would have a mode that "returns to controller" instead of a "home" location. This would be very handy for flying from moving platforms.

Additionally having a manual or software method to remain in ATTI mode might make it easier to fly near ships.

 

[GFCutler]

I wish DJI would have a mode that "returns to controller" instead of a "home" location. This would be very handy for flying from moving platforms.

Additionally having a manual or software method to remain in ATTI mode might make it easier to fly near ships.

Dahveed, click on this link and both listen and watch. It tells you everything you want to know!

Graham

 

[Dahveed]

I'm almost sure the DJI go 4 app does have that option - honestly!

It very well may. I've had my MP for less than a month and it is my first real drone. So, I'm not up on every feature available on the software.

 

[Franks my Dog]

You'll have two major hurdles; the compass interference from thousands of tons of metal the ships nade from, and the emissions from onboard electronics, both radio transmitters and Radar. The Radar especially is problematic;;;it will not only scramble your Transmitters signal, if close enough to the antenna, the RF radiation will fry the electonics
it may be better to wait until in port, then launch and do your fly arounds of the ship when most everything is shut down

 

[cderoche]

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.

Even if the ship turned off its big radar just for you (they won't), and you took off from the best spot on board with the least magnetic interference (wherever that is), it would make me very worried that for any reason at all you lose connection even momentarily, the ship is still moving away from your drone, and the chances of reconnecting get smaller by the second. And the you'd better have RTH on signal lost set, and hope your home point is you and not take off point. Lots of pre-flight checks for sure with this. I've flown over water several times but from a stationary point on land. Water meaning a large river, not the middle of the ocean. Just be careful if you choose to do it.

 

[cderoche]

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

Takes a lotta Moxie for sure to try it.

 

[cderoche]

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

How do you make it fly in ATTI mode? Mavic has no setting to change to this mode. Only when you can't get GPS lock. Right?

 

[Top Hat]

There's a video in YouTube on how to do it.

 

[Top Hat]

I think you have to cover it with foil.

 

[Dahveed]

I think you have to cover it with foil.

Like this???

Sorry, couldn't resist...

 

[Top Hat]

Like this???

Sorry, couldn't resist...

The other head,dummy.

 

[GFCutler]

Dahveed, click on this link and both listen and watch. It tells you everything you want to know!

Graham

 

[GerdS]

Again, some guys here think it's possible to reliably set the remote's location as homepoint.

This is wrong!!!

If you select your location to be used as homepoint within the GO4 app, it will just read your actual location once and store it as homepoint. The homepoint will not get updated automatically if you are moving away from it, e.g. aboard of a moving ship!
Again, there is no automatic funtion which will ensure that your homepoint will stay same as your current location!

 

[Realist123456]

I was shooting stills on the back of a tv commercial a couple of weeks ago and the 1st AD brought along a mavic in the hope of getting some aerial shots of the ship at sea. I was interested to see if it would work.
Speculating that once it took off and hovered, with no control inputs it would hover in place and the ship would travel out from under it. You'd probably have to give it some good stick just to keep up, let alone arc around the ship. Or if it was launched from the front of the ship and held position, the superstructure of the ship would slam into it.
Anyway, moot point as I heard it wouldn't even take off due to compass interference form the metal surrounding it.

 

[Reed]

DId you ever tried to use a dynamic home point? This feature is provided by some controlling apps like the Lichi app, but not by DJI GO app.

 

[Realist123456]

I wan't there for the actual test but I heard they didn't even get off the ground. I was talking to them the night before about dynamic home point but I don't think they got a chance to test it.

 

[geigy]

A lot of conflicting information here, for sure! I flew around my cruise ship while it was docked with no problems, but did not attempt to take off from the ship itself, and came only within 100 ft or so of the ship while circling it. It should be treated like a big building, IMHO. Keep line of sight at all times, and do not calibrate the compass while on board (on shore if app asks for it) and you should be fine. I would feel a bit slightly more confident with a P4P because of the manual ATTI mode gives you a bail out in case GPS goes south, but the compass is still needed for ATTI mode. Good luck - I hope some of the info you get here is helpful.

Let us know how it works out!

 

[Dahveed]

This guy apparently has no problems flying near the ships, but he takes off and lands on land. His channel has several videos about chasing cruise ships, but I've only seen this one.

 

[neggy]

It is risky at best, and there is a high probability you may lose the aircraft due to one or more issues discussed above.

Make sure you are getting paid enough to replace the aircraft if it goes wrong.

I've had magnetic warnings from placing it on a small surround speaker, a metal park bench, and the roof of my car.... I can only imagine trying to get it to be happy on a 300 ton hunk of metal with lots of marine radios, radar, etc.,