Downward connection

[Dronage]

I would like to stand on a cliff and film over the edge and downwards, at quite a sharp angle, ie close to the actual cliff face. Would this cause a sooner rather than later connection loss.? Would it be a case of pointing the antenna at the cliff edge and hoping for the best.?
Thanks for any suggestions..

 

[Doecliff]

Yes and no. You want line of sight at all times. I should point the antennas straight out as the signal is transmitted/received broadside to the antenna. That means they would be in the best possible position to work. Next keep a close eye on your signal strength indicators on your display. Maybe start out away from you and then work your way inward.

 

[brett8883]

Yes and no. You want line of sight at all times. I should point the antennas straight out as the signal is transmitted/received broadside to the antenna. That means they would be in the best possible position to work. Next keep a close eye on your signal strength indicators on your display. Maybe start out away from you and then work your way inward.

I agree. To answer your question Gav, yes it will cause you to lose connection sooner than later because you have the ground between you and the bird so make sure you have RTH set properly and start out away from the edge and work in testing the connection

 

[Doecliff]

Oh and I might add, if your standing at the edge of the cliff be super careful. LOL I know its obvious but....

 

[old man mavic]

your idea is not without some danger both to you and your drone,the main problem is as you rightly surmised loss of signal because the UAV would be under the cliff edge,a way around this if it is not possible to fly from a point below the cliff, would be to use some sort of climbing gear with a harness, so you could be safely suspended just below the edge that way you would have a good line of site to the UAV and also a good signal as well.one other thing to remember is the height of the cliff as once you take off the 400ft rule would apply,and it really depends if the reward is worth the risk to such flight good luck

 

[Dronage]

Thanks ..
All excellent answers which have confirmed what i suspected..RTH setting and not falling off seem to be key aspects..!
I put my back out yesterday wrestling 2x goats, so it will be a while yet before i try, but will post results as and when..!!

 

[Bobvt]

your idea is not without some danger both to you and your drone,the main problem is as you rightly surmised loss of signal because the UAV would be under the cliff edge,a way around this if it is not possible to fly from a point below the cliff, would be to use some sort of climbing gear with a harness, so you could be safely suspended just below the edge that way you would have a good line of site to the UAV and also a good signal as well.one other thing to remember is the height of the cliff as once you take off the 400ft rule would apply,and it really depends if the reward is worth the risk to such flight good luck

Don't mean to argue,but I had that question about altitude over a Hill or cliff and someone more experienced than me said no worry because it's based on your take off point.

 

[Dronage]

Don't mean to argue,but I had that question about altitude over a Hill or cliff and someone more experienced than me said no worry because it's based on your take off point.

Yes, i wondered about that ...

 

[Brockrock]

The take off point will always be 'zero', and during any flying you then do, the altitude that is shown on your flight monitor will be relative to this point. That means that as you descend along the cliff edge - below the takeoff point - the altitude readout will be negative. There is no issue with this at all.

What there could be an issue with - as mentioned above - is signal loss between the remote and copter as the copter descends out of 'view' of the remote. Also, the copter's sky-view could become restricted as it descends along the cliff face, and it could lose satellites that it had acquired in order to establish and maintain GPS positioning, and things could get very interesting then, especially if you could not see the copter.

I'm not suggesting that you don't try what you have in mind, but as Doecliff mentioned above, attempting a flight like this requires a both frequent and close watch on RC connection and satellite count.

 

[Dronage]

The take off point will always be 'zero', and during any flying you then do, the altitude that is shown on your flight monitor will be relative to this point. That means that as you descend along the cliff edge - below the takeoff point - the altitude readout will be negative. There is no issue with this at all.

What there could be an issue with - as mentioned above - is signal loss between the remote and copter as the copter descends out of 'view' of the remote. Also, the copter's sky-view could become restricted as it descends along the cliff face, and it could lose satellites that it had acquired in order to establish and maintain GPS positioning, and things could get very interesting then, especially if you could not see the copter.

I'm not suggesting that you don't try what you have in mind, but as Doecliff mentioned above, attempting a flight like this requires a both frequent and close watch on RC connection and satellite count.

Yes, that all sounds sensible.. I'm gonna start with a local, small one, in preparation for a larger one (Fair Head in Co. Antrim if anyone's bored). Many thanks, as always, for all knowledge..

 

[old man mavic]

the height is 400ft AGL and yes you could go up 400ft from the top of the cliff the problem arises when you the fly out over the cliff because you are no longer 400ft AGL so you would have to descend to stay within the rules,by the same token if you took off from the base of the cliff you could go up 400ft and if the cliff was say 300ft high once you reached the top and were at 400ft you could in theory fly over the top of the cliff and then go up a further 300ft and still be only 400ft AGL, and the same thing would apply in reverse ie cliff 300ft high go up 100ft from top fly out over the edge and still be only 400ft AGL the 400ft rule is not just from where you take of from it is the height of the drone at any given moment during the flight

 

[Dronage]

Thanks old man mavic, but does that not contadict brocky above.?

 

[old man mavic]

Thanks old man mavic, but does that not contadict brocky above.?

no he is right when he says that as you descend over the cliff edge then the height reading on the app would show a negative figure,if you only went up say 20ft after you took off then flew out as you descended down once you were level with the take off point, you would then as you go down start to get a negative figure on the app, that is one of the issues with the height readout it is not your AGL height but the height above the take off point, i think a lot of people think that if they see a height of say 200ft that that is what the drone is where it is flying at the time, but unfortunately that is not the case ,unless the ground is almost completely flat then it would be pretty accurate

 

[Dronage]

no he is right when he says that as you descend over the cliff edge then the height reading on the app would show a negative figure,if you only went up say 20ft after you took off then flew out as you descended down once you were level with the take off point, you would then as you go down start to get a negative figure on the app, that is one of the issues with the height readout it is not your AGL height but the height above the take off point, i think a lot of people think that if they see a height of say 200ft that that is what the drone is where it is flying at the time, but unfortunately that is not the case ,unless the ground is almost completely flat then it would be pretty accurate

OK... I'm gonna have to ponder this one lol.. I think I might have broken the law a couple of times already..!!
Soo.. I could stand 6 feet from the edge of a 400 feet high cliff and ascend 400 feet legally... But when I then fly, say, 7 feet away from me, over the cliff line, I then essentially have a height of 800 feet..?

 

[Haygenda]

What there could be an issue with - as mentioned above - is signal loss between the remote and copter as the copter descends out of 'view' of the remote. Also, the copter's sky-view could become restricted as it descends along the cliff face, and it could lose satellites that it had acquired in order to establish and maintain GPS positioning, and things could get very interesting then, especially if you could not see the copter.

I'm not suggesting that you don't try what you have in mind, but as Doecliff mentioned above, attempting a flight like this requires a both frequent and close watch on RC connection and satellite count.

This is exactly what happened to me. I was taking pictures of a cliff from above. The cliff was 25 feet of sand/dirt and 75 feet of rock face. The rock face was u-shaped. I could see something down on the beach cove below. I was about 20 feet off the cliff face. I moved to an adjacent ridge line so I could have a visual line of sight. When I started dropping to the beach cove below, I lost satelites because I was close to the cliff face. Still wanting to figure out what was on the beach I dropped just below the visual line of sight, I figure maybe 10 feet below and got the warning that I lost GPS and controller signal and was landing in place. The drone landed on the beach below. The problem was this beach was inaccessible at the current tide and the tide was still coming in. At low tide I waded through some tide pools and retreived the drone. But by that time the tide and waves had gotten to it soaking it in salt water and slamming it against the rock face. The drone was destroyed but the microSD card still worked. Turned out the items on the beach were old, rusted car parts, engine blocks, axels, springs...

So keep an eye on the GPS and controller signals.

 

[Dronage]

This is exactly what happened to me. I was taking pictures of a cliff from above. The cliff was 25 feet of sand/dirt and 75 feet of rock face. The rock face was u-shaped. I could see something down on the beach cove below. I was about 20 feet off the cliff face. I moved to an adjacent ridge line so I could have a visual line of sight. When I started dropping to the beach cove below, I lost satelites because I was close to the cliff face. Still wanting to figure out what was on the beach I dropped just below the visual line of sight, I figure maybe 10 feet below and got the warning that I lost GPS and controller signal and was landing in place. The drone landed on the beach below. The problem was this beach was inaccessible at the current tide and the tide was still coming in. At low tide I waded through some tide pools and retreived the drone. But by that time the tide and waves had gotten to it soaking it in salt water and slamming it against the rock face. The drone was destroyed but the microSD card still worked. Turned out the items on the beach were old, rusted car parts, engine blocks, axels, springs...

So keep an eye on the GPS and controller signals.

I'm listening... I'm definitely listening lol...
I might have nightmares about that tonight....!

 

[ToddCarey]

It is my opinion to stay away from these situations (where you loose VLOS) for more than the basic rule. The rocks will affect our signals and can affect the GPS. If you have a vantage point where you can keep VLOS, you can be assured a strong chance to be able to get your drone out away from the rocks if it happens to loose GPS. I have personally found watching the signal does not always give you much warning if something comes between you and the drone. The signal can be strong to gone very quickly depending on the range and what you may inadvertently get between you and the drone. Use an RTH appropriate setting and unless the drone also lost GPS, it should get you home.

 

[Dronage]

It is my opinion to stay away from these situations (where you loose VLOS) for more than the basic rule. The rocks will affect our signals and can affect the GPS. If you have a vantage point where you can keep VLOS, you can be assured a strong chance to be able to get your drone out away from the rocks if it happens to loose GPS. I have personally found watching the signal does not always give you much warning if something comes between you and the drone. The signal can be strong to gone very quickly depending on the range and what you may inadvertently get between you and the drone. Use an RTH appropriate setting and unless the drone also lost GPS, it should get you home.

Thanks TC....'strong to gone' has struck a chord...