Drone Flight Over Water Checklist?

[Meta4]

Even if flying beyond VLOS, there are stories like these (with help of experts like @sar104 ) that would give you some hope of recovery. Over water, I don't think you could ever recover your bird.

I am well aware of the potential to find lost drones using flight data.
I'm also quite aware how difficult (or impossible) it can be in rough terrain and forested areas.

 

[itsneedtokno]

Quite clearly you have no idea what mountainous or wooden terrain looks like. The drones are light. They do not normally fall through trees to get to the floor. Urban areas have gardens, roofs, roads.

If you fly in huge, flat, open areas lacking in vegetation then sure you might get it back. Its also the least interesting place to fly.

I literally (in the same post) mentioned getting a drone out of an 80 foot tall pine tree... I forgot that Florida has no trees, and if we do have any, they must be impossible to climb.

You clearly must have no idea what shoes look like, how to use the things attached to your shoes to get where the drone went down, or maybe you don't follow the rules and fly 4 miles away, over varying terrain, without VLOS or a spotter, running down your battery past half... For that, I can't help you

My favorite place to fly is for sure over water, that's not the issue though.

The issue here is getting the drone back.

So how bout this, you fly VLOS, if the bird gets stuck in a tree (no matter if it is on the side of a cliff and 80 foot tall) slap an arborist $50 to get it down for you... Oooorrrr, fly VLOS, splash down in 80 feet of water, and pay a diver hundreds of dollars to maybe recover your bird.
Hmmmmm, how again do they compare?

 

[itsneedtokno]

VLOS is irrelevant.
As long as you have signal, you also have GPS location data

If you fly in your backyard or an open field, it might be easy to find a crashed drone, but there are many situations on dry land where it is far from easy.

How is VLOS irrelevant?

Crash:

w/VLOS over land: oh there it is
w/VLOS over water: bye bye birdie

w/o VLOS land: let's take a walk, and use "find my drone"
w/o VLOS water: again, bye bye birdie

VLOS is the difference between knowing where it went down and coming on here asking people like you and sar where it is according to logs.

 

[jnnyr]

There's obviously an increased risk when flying your drone over water. I got my Mavic Mini mostly for recording my flatwater kayaking adventures, sunrises/sunsets by lakes, etc. so, I'm hoping I'll be flying near water a lot. I plan to almost exclusively fly on days with little to no wind as I really like the "glass-like surface" of lakes on flat calm days. I have a great solo canoe that I paddle, and for now I plan on hand launching and catching/landing.
I'd like to put together a "flight over the water safety checklist" that I can go through before each flight, and it'd be great if some of the more experienced drone pilots could give me some input on this.

Here's what I'm thinking so far:

1. Make sure all batteries, RC, and phone/tablet are fully charged.
2. Once onsite with all local maps loaded on phone/tablet, set phone/tablet to airplane mode.
3. Calibrate drone compass and IMU before each over water flight whether prompted to or not.
4. Check UAV app for optimal conditions.
5. Set RTH height high enough to clear any trees or other obstacles in my intended flight path.
6. Be sure to keep drone at least 10-20' above the surface of the water at all times.
7. If there's and wind, fly into the wind at the start of the flight so the wind can carry the drone back to the Home Port.

Ok, that's what I've got so far. I remember there being some settings in the RTH menu that needed to be adjusted so that the drone would not descend into the water if it lost connection with the RC/phone, etc, but right now I can't remember what those settings were/are.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Never give it much of a thought in terms of a different protocol for a land flight. I do all my summer flying over a lake and never had an issue (hundreds of flights logged). It's a big lake so I do take notice of wind direction and warnings and fly into the wind on the way out if possible. I am flying the M2P so there's a bit more weight to fight the wind. Not as good as the P3A but that thing is a fossil now. I have lost two drones in a dense forest before so flying over land is no guarantee of a retrieval. Both times each craft suffered massive hardware failures (one DJI one Autel) and was sent a new craft each time.

 

[jnnyr]

I literally (in the same post) mentioned getting a drone out of an 80 foot tall pine tree... I forgot that Florida has no trees, and if we do have any, they must be impossible to climb.

You clearly must have no idea what shoes look like, how to use the things attached to your shoes to get where the drone went down, or maybe you don't follow the rules and fly 4 miles away, over varying terrain, without VLOS or a spotter, running down your battery past half... For that, I can't help you

My favorite place to fly is for sure over water, that's not the issue though.

The issue here is getting the drone back.

So how bout this, you fly VLOS, if the bird gets stuck in a tree (no matter if it is on the side of a cliff and 80 foot tall) slap an arborist $50 to get it down for you... Oooorrrr, fly VLOS, splash down in 80 feet of water, and pay a diver hundreds of dollars to maybe recover your bird.
Hmmmmm, how again do they compare?

I once had to get my M2P out of a very tall tree in a remote area. Way too high to be able to throw anything at it. I wish I documented the whole adventure. Too stressed out to consider. After much deliberation It involved me travelling back to my permanent residence 2 states away and returning 3 days later with my P3A. With a string attached to the landing gear and some very skilled flying to get the string up and over and down again without getting caught in the prop I looped the very thin branch and shook the bird loose and caught it. It was quite the adventure and was 100% unscathed.

 

[itsneedtokno]

I once had to get my M2P out of a very tall tree in a remote area. Way too high to be able to throw anything at it. I wish I documented the whole adventure. Too stressed out to consider. After much deliberation It involved me travelling back to my permanent residence 2 states away and returning 3 days later with my P3A. With a string attached to the landing gear and some very skilled flying to get the string up and over and down again without getting caught in the prop I looped the very thin branch and shook the bird loose and caught it. It was quite the adventure and was 100% unscathed.

My point exactly! Thank you.

If it was underwater for 3 days, it's done

 

[Chrislaf]

There's obviously an increased risk when flying your drone over water. I got my Mavic Mini mostly for recording my flatwater kayaking adventures, sunrises/sunsets by lakes, etc. so, I'm hoping I'll be flying near water a lot. I plan to almost exclusively fly on days with little to no wind as I really like the "glass-like surface" of lakes on flat calm days. I have a great solo canoe that I paddle, and for now I plan on hand launching and catching/landing.
I'd like to put together a "flight over the water safety checklist" that I can go through before each flight, and it'd be great if some of the more experienced drone pilots could give me some input on this.

Here's what I'm thinking so far:

1. Make sure all batteries, RC, and phone/tablet are fully charged.
2. Once onsite with all local maps loaded on phone/tablet, set phone/tablet to airplane mode.
3. Calibrate drone compass and IMU before each over water flight whether prompted to or not.
4. Check UAV app for optimal conditions.
5. Set RTH height high enough to clear any trees or other obstacles in my intended flight path.
6. Be sure to keep drone at least 10-20' above the surface of the water at all times.
7. If there's and wind, fly into the wind at the start of the flight so the wind can carry the drone back to the Home Port.

Ok, that's what I've got so far. I remember there being some settings in the RTH menu that needed to be adjusted so that the drone would not descend into the water if it lost connection with the RC/phone, etc, but right now I can't remember what those settings were/are.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

If you are going to be launching from a solo canoe/kayak then I would add that you should return with lots of reserve battery power (40-50%) to allow plenty of time to get the drone landed.

I did some testing with my Spark last summer - I hand launched from my recreational kayak in calm conditions. The first attempt to land back in my hand in my kayak went well. However, the second attempt minutes later in the same conditions almost resulted in disaster. This time the Spark did not want to land, it kept moving away and after repeated attempts it went into low battery RTH and started to land over the water. I was lucky I was in shallow water, near shore so I quickly got out and manoeuvred Spark to the shore where I hand landed.

Launching and landing from a canoe or kayak is much different than from a boat - you cannot stand up and have very limited space to manoeuvre yourself. It makes for a very difficult and tricky situation.

Like my Spark, the MM (which I don't have) has the additional problem of very little clearance between props and hand which make it difficult to grab from a moving canoe/kayak.

Personally, I would not add floats to a small light aircraft like the MM. The rig you have to attach to raise the drone and camera up high enough above the water seems like a recipe for disaster.

With that said, I am currently exploring the float concept with P3S (a much larger more powerful AC).

Good luck and keep us posted about how it goes.

Chris

 

[Meta4]

The issue here is getting the drone back.

My point exactly!

Your whole point is that a downed drone at sea is lost but sometimes a downed drone on land can be recovered.
That's not exactly an earth shattering revelation.
Most flyers over water already realise that and accept the extremely small risk.
I have a drone that has safely flown >3000 miles over the sea where recovery is not an option.
I fly there because it offers photographic opportunities unavailable elsewhere.
Like this:

When I do fly on land, I know a crash would wreck the drone.
It's >1 yr old so warranty replacement isn't an issue so it doesn't matter if the wreck is findable.
But most of the time it may as well be at sea anyway.
Do you fancy playing find-my-drone here:

 

[BushWacker]

Teasing? I showed you mine, now show me yours! ? couldn’t help it, wanna watch it. Be careful B-Wack, they can’t swim, but If you can, add a GetterBack. ?? Enjoy your Memorial Day!,

I have so many, I don't want to bomb this thread so here is a link to my video's page. Most of them are water flyovers... BushWacker's Video Page

 

[PhoebeSnow]

My first flight over a lake the Mavic Pro stopped mid-flight with a message "obstacle avoidance." Say what? Over a lake? Long story short - water reflection fooled the sensors. Beware. Being new to the drone at that time 3 years ago, uncertain what was going, really not sure how to correct it, I had to fly a mile to get home and landed with 7% power left. Much more but its already been posted.

 

[DavidT_ NZ]

Since you say that you got the MM primarily for filming your water adventures, maybe invest in some water floats for the MM (you should find something now on amazon, considering how long the drone has been in the market for)?

Yes, increases weight by a small amount, but would atleast give you a physical artifact for a Refresh claim should there be an incident (god forbid).

Perhaps try using duct tape to attach a couple of smaller plastic drink bottles to the bottom of the drone legs on a wire frame - like float planes use. If your drone comes down in an emergency at least it might float! Test it first in a tub, for balance. Weight should not be an issue, but wind resistance may be affected, at speed. And stay over fresh water. Salt would kill it, most likely. Interesting posting. Good luck and safe flying.

 

[Clipper707]

There's obviously an increased risk when flying your drone over water...

The risk of flying over water is only increased at extremely low altitudes where the sensors have trouble "seeing" the water.

There are numerous ways flying "feet-wet" reduces risks. There are usually fewer obstacles, like hills, trees, power lines. Signal transmission is often improved.

If you have a fear of flying over water, it's irrational. Whether you fly your drone over a tank of man-eating, Great White sharks, a children's wading pool, or a bowl of soup, your drone doesn't know the difference.

 

[Nonprophet]

OP Update: I decided to upgrade to the MA2, and I've purchased a Getterback unit and a personal articles policy with State Farm--so I'm feeling better about flying over water! There are a few mountain lakes I'd like to fly around that are deeper than 100' (the max range for the Getterback float) does anyone have experience with the Drone Retriever device?

 

[Big Nate]

I have DJI care On my Mavic Pro so as long as I can recover it from the water it’s covered under warranty. So when I fly over water I use ”Getterback” . a little device made to recover a fishing rod. It Velcros to to the rear drone arm and once it gets submerged CO2 deploys a little yellow float on 100’ft of 10lbs test fishing line and you can pull it out of the drink. Here’s a video of it in action

. I’ve used it for over 2yrs now and haven’t hit the drink yet!

 

[HWCM]

There's obviously an increased risk when flying your drone over water. I got my Mavic Mini mostly for recording my flatwater kayaking adventures, sunrises/sunsets by lakes, etc. so, I'm hoping I'll be flying near water a lot. I plan to almost exclusively fly on days with little to no wind as I really like the "glass-like surface" of lakes on flat calm days. I have a great solo canoe that I paddle, and for now I plan on hand launching and catching/landing.
I'd like to put together a "flight over the water safety checklist" that I can go through before each flight, and it'd be great if some of the more experienced drone pilots could give me some input on this.

Here's what I'm thinking so far:

1. Make sure all batteries, RC, and phone/tablet are fully charged.
2. Once onsite with all local maps loaded on phone/tablet, set phone/tablet to airplane mode.
3. Calibrate drone compass and IMU before each over water flight whether prompted to or not.
4. Check UAV app for optimal conditions.
5. Set RTH height high enough to clear any trees or other obstacles in my intended flight path.
6. Be sure to keep drone at least 10-20' above the surface of the water at all times.
7. If there's and wind, fly into the wind at the start of the flight so the wind can carry the drone back to the Home Port.

Ok, that's what I've got so far. I remember there being some settings in the RTH menu that needed to be adjusted so that the drone would not descend into the water if it lost connection with the RC/phone, etc, but right now I can't remember what those settings were/are.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Completely unnecessary. Just fly it like you normally would.?

 

[Nonprophet]

Completely unnecessary. Just fly it like you normally would.?

Well, it seems like at least some settings changes (i.e. loss of signal settings) are CRUCIAL to change when flying over water.....

 

[Meta4]

My first flight over a lake the Mavic Pro stopped mid-flight with a message "obstacle avoidance." Say what? Over a lake? Long story short - water reflection fooled the sensors.

The obstacle avoidance message was almost certainly because you were flying towards a low, bright sun rather than reflection from the water.
It's a fairly common thing.
You could have flown home by changing direction slightly, turning off the obstacle avoidance, or flying backwards.

 

[Meta4]

Well, it seems like at least some settings changes (i.e. loss of signal settings) are CRUCIAL to change when flying over water.....

Most people flying over water still have their feet on the ground.
For them, there would be no reason to change the loss of signal option from the default (RTH).
Indeed it would be a big mistake to do that.

 

[Alex 007]

As a fellow Kayaker, I have a fishing kayak) the most risky part of your plan is hand catching it. If you have to lunge or even stretch far to catch it, you might both land up in the water.

 

[instructor]

Checklist for flying from a MOVING VESSEL(!) over water (General DJI):

1. Disable Vision Positioning
2. Disable Landing Protection
3. Set RC Signal Lost action to Hover
4. Set Dynamic Home Point if able
5. Disable Smart RTH
6. Disable Max distance
7. Set your first battery warning higher, if you are not able to land on your first try (normal is 30 percent, pick 35 or 40)

Most important:
8. Take off and land in Atti mode

Mavic Pro and Mavic 2 can be hacked to have Atti mode on the flight mode switch, which is very important.
If you don't want to do this or if you are not comfortable flying in Atti mode, then don't fly from a MOVING VESSEL.