Disable auto land for flying over water?

[daneast]

I fly over creeks and the like, seemingly more often than I'd like. Sometimes I get very low on the water, and a couple times now this has triggered the auto land sequence. Fortunately I reacted fast enough and brought the drone back up. Can auto-landing be disabled, while keeping the ground sensor activated? So no matter how long you hold down on the control, the drone will not go any lower than the minimum ground sensor allowed height.

I see lots of posts for disabling ground sensors, but that is not what I'm wanting to do. I would land via grabbing the drone (my usual method) or perhaps using the land command in the fly app.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Can auto-landing be disabled, while keeping the ground sensor activated? So no matter how long you hold down on the control, the drone will not go any lower than the minimum ground sensor allowed height.

Not that I am aware of. Besides that might be dangerous, what would happen if the drone picked up something in mid air that is thought was ground, e.g. mist, as it speculated can happen? You could possibly end up with the drone stuck in mid air until the forced landing started ( I think forced landing overrides other consideration but I am not 100% certain)

I fly over creeks and the like, seemingly more often than I'd like. Sometimes I get very low on the water, and a couple times now this has triggered the auto land sequence. Fortunately I reacted fast enough and brought the drone back up. Can auto-landing be disabled, while keeping the ground sensor activated? So no matter how long you hold down on the control, the drone will not go any lower than the minimum ground sensor allowed height.

I see lots of posts for disabling ground sensors, but that is not what I'm wanting to do. I would land via grabbing the drone (my usual method) or perhaps using the land command in the fly app.

"Grabbing" is not a good idea for a routine method of landing, the drone will fight you. You'd do better to learn to land it in a shallowly cupped hand.

 

[daneast]

Not that I am aware of. Besides that might be dangerous, what would happen if the drone picked up something in mid air that is thought was ground, e.g. mist, as it speculated can happen? You could possibly end up with the drone stuck in mid air until the forced landing started ( I think forced landing overrides other consideration but I am not 100% certain)

I would only be disabling when needed, specifically to fly over water, which is going to be low-altitude to get that specific shot.

 

[zeusfl]

When I fly over water to get a very low altitude shot I like to disable APAS on my Mavic 3 because it gets very confused with the water reflection and even tends to "land" or fly very erratic. Normally what I do also is move to sports mode to disable all sensors and avoid any problem.

Like in this video at the minute 2:49 that I was flying very fast at a very low altitude.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Zeusfl, this is a Mini 2 we are talking about with ONLY bottom sensors.

 

[westwind77]

"Grabbing" is not a good idea for a routine method of landing, the drone will fight you. You'd do better to learn to land it in a shallowly cupped hand.

Those of us who fly over water, especially from boats, really only have the 'grabbing' option. The boat is typically drifting with the wind/tide so even the short landing sequence would have it out of the range of the hand.

 

[zeusfl]

Those of us who fly over water, especially from boats, really only have the 'grabbing' option. The boat is typically drifting with the wind/tide so even the short landing sequence would have it out of the range of the hand.

There are more options like changing the home point manually to a land site if you are in a lake or close to shore and you don't want to land in the boat. If you change to home point to land, once you finish the shooting just click RTH, the drone will land on your desired place.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Those of us who fly over water, especially from boats, really only have the 'grabbing' option. The boat is typically drifting with the wind/tide so even the short landing sequence would have it out of the range of the hand.

Whist I would agree that most folks landing on boats have very little option BUT to grab and twist, I disagree with "Those of us who fly over water" "really only have the 'grabbing' option".
Why? 99% of my 'proper' flights are over the sea with me on land and I 'descend' the drone into my hand most of the time or land it on the ground for the remainder. In fact I think I have only grabbed and twisted once, when an errant dog was trying to get my Mavic 2 P/Z and I'd run out of battery waiting, in vain, for its owners to get control of it.
Besides, is there any mention of the OP being on a boat?

 

[westwind77]

Whist I would agree that most folks landing on boats have very little option BUT to grab and twist, I disagree with "Those of us who fly over water" "really only have the 'grabbing' option".
Why? 99% of my 'proper' flights are over the sea with me on land and I 'descend' the drone into my hand most of the time or land it on the ground for the remainder. In fact I think I have only grabbed and twisted once, when an errant dog was trying to get my Mavic 2 P/Z and I'd run out of battery waiting, in vain, for its owners to get control of it.
Besides, is there any mention of the OP being on a boat?

I will agree, I used a poor choice of words. I meant that of us flying from the water. I personally fly over water a lot from land as well and I never grab, always land on the ground. Only when flying from the water do I grab.

 

[westwind77]

There are more options like changing the home point manually to a land site if you are in a lake or close to shore and you don't want to land in the boat. If you change to home point to land, once you finish the shooting just click RTH, the drone will land on your desired place.

Poor choice of words on my part prior, I mean if you are flying from the water (on a boat). It is virtually impossible to land in/on a boat in the ocean. At times we have a good 4 kt current we are drifting with, and that might be more if the wind is going with the current. As soon as you hover the drone it will hold GPS position and the boat will quickly drift under it before it can be landed safely. Not to mention there are times there will be swells and waves with the boat going up and down which will throw off the landing.

Even when bringing the drone close to grab you have to anticipate the movement of the boat when you release the sticks you have time to reach it before you drift and have to lunge a bit for it.

That said, if the day is very calm and I have a good '1st mate' I have them navigate into the current and keep the boat still for a deck landing, but 9 times out of 10 it is an air grab as most are skilled doing so.

I'm not saying it is impossible, it can be done with the right boat, the right conditions, the right captain, the right pilot.

Grabbing just takes the risk out of it all.

If you want to see some absolutely wild mid-air boating drone catches what this video from The Ocean Race:

I can't I've been that extreme before though!

 

[RC_Adik]

More on topic, does the Mini 2 disable landing sensors when in Sport mode? If it does, maybe with the new EXPO settings this could work for the OP.

 

[zeusfl]

More on topic, does the Mini 2 disable landing sensors when in Sport mode? If it does, maybe with the new EXPO settings this could work for the OP.

Page 12 from the DJI Mini 2 Manual. DJI Mini 2 - Downloads - DJI

 

[RC_Adik]

Implication was downward sensors are in-op on Mavic 3 in sport mode, (your post).

 

[Meta4]

Sometimes I get very low on the water, and a couple times now this has triggered the auto land sequence.

What autoland feature are you wanting to disable?

It helps to understand how your drone works
Being low and close to water does not trigger autolanding.
Being low and close to anything, and also pulling the left stick downwards will force the drone to land.

Fortunately I reacted fast enough and brought the drone back up.

If you post the flight data from this flight, it should clearly show what actually happened and what started the landing.

Can auto-landing be disabled, while keeping the ground sensor activated?

You cannot disable the downward facing sensors on the Mini 2.

So no matter how long you hold down on the control, the drone will not go any lower than the minimum ground sensor allowed height.

The downward facing sensors you want to disable are the only way the drone can sense the ground below it.
If you could disable the downward facing sensors, the drone could not detect whatever was below it and you'd have no protection from accidental landing.
Even just a foot above water or solid ground, if you pulled the left stick down, the drone would descend just as it does 50 feet up in the air.

If you are flying close to the water surface, you have to be vigilant and not pull the left stick down because that's what causes the landing that you want to avoid.

 

[Skwirl]

I'd be interested in reading an analysis of the flight log on this. Just for my own education about the mini 2.

 

[Giovanni]

Not that I am aware of. Besides that might be dangerous, what would happen if the drone picked up something in mid air that is thought was ground, e.g. mist, as it speculated can happen? You could possibly end up with the drone stuck in mid air until the forced landing started ( I think forced landing overrides other consideration but I am not 100% certain)



"Grabbing" is not a good idea for a routine method of landing, the drone will fight you. You'd do better to learn to land it in a shallowly cupped hand.

I grabbed once bc it would not land no matter what I tried and I didn't feel like waiting 20 min to autoland. Grabbed it with no problem except the fact that it suddenly fought like a bucking bronco. I have 3 lines 4 inches long that will never go away on my hand...

 

[Speedster 1966]

There are more options like changing the home point manually to a land site if you are in a lake or close to shore and you don't want to land in the boat. If you change to home point to land, once you finish the shooting just click RTH, the drone will land on your desired place.

Not that easy if your far out on the water. Hand catching is a great tool when needed.

 

[kshaw]

We were considering using drones for water sampling and had the same concerns of an inadvertent landing in water. We are leaning toward installing floats on the bottom as a precaution. Should it land, we can send someone out on the kayak to retrieve it or maybe try to take off again from the water. Rescue Jackets | Phantom Rain

 

[Bsnyder]

When I fly over water to get a very low altitude shot I like to disable APAS on my Mavic 3 because it gets very confused with the water reflection and even tends to "land" or fly very erratic. Normally what I do also is move to sports mode to disable all sensors and avoid any problem.

Like in this video at the minute 2:49 that I was flying very fast at a very low altitude.

Thanks for sharing what a great video!

 

[Crouching Leopard]

When I fly over water to get a very low altitude shot I like to disable APAS on my Mavic 3 because it gets very confused with the water reflection and even tends to "land" or fly very erratic. Normally what I do also is move to sports mode to disable all sensors and avoid any problem.

Like in this video at the minute 2:49 that I was flying very fast at a very low altitude.

Stunning video. Wish I had your skill. Flying over water, near trees and fast all at the same time is much more than my sphincter muscles could handle.

May I ask how you shot this ie was it tap and fly with apas, manual with apas. I dont use apas very often but your video may change my mind.