Drone from and to a sailboat

[MC-B]

Not a flyer yet, but want to know if these drones can be flown and retrieved to a sailboat with its attendant rigging.

 

[Thomas B]

Welcome to the forum from the deserts of Arizona! Enjoy.
try a search of the forum. There are some important points to remember and you should be familiar with hand catching.

 

[dirkclod]

Welcome to the forum.
We have a member that is about all he does @Fat Bastard .
He has several videos on what he does here in photo section
but here’s a thread you might find helpful.

Flying your Drone from a boat.

So full disclosure. I am sailing on a boat across the Pacific in 2 months. I own a Mavic Air. I will likely want to get some shots of us sailing on the boat mid Pacific at some point. I will mainly use the drone on land.....if it makes it to land. I have read all the articles and seen all the...

mavicpilots.com

 

[NAVMAV]

Hoo Boy, talk about 'Challenges'!~

At first blush, you are probably MONTHS away from being comfy enough with ANY Drone to even think about trying it.

Best Drone (IOHO) to do this is probably the Mavic Air, for several reasons: SIZE, handling ease, Tech Options, and so on...

However, FIRST get your Drone. Then do TONS of PRACTICE, before you even THINK about trying this.

Man, gotta Headache merely thinking about this. It would NOT be easy, Peasy!~

Rgds, NAVMAV

 

[bumper]

As Thomas B suggests, it's been done a fair amount, judging from the videos online. I sure wouldn't try that on the boat until you feel very comfortable doing it on dry land.

Might help (a lot) to put a bit of 3M Grip tape on it in strategic locations. Won't take a lot, just some thin strips. The only time I goofed on a hand retrieve was when it slipped from my grip (no damage save for a lens hood - but it'da been a deep six on the water) . . . I'm 75, though in good shape for age - a stronger grip, reflexes, reasonable conditions, etc. will all help.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Welcome to the forum.

Yep, lots do this, try it only on still water to start, work your way up.

Might pay to try and find some sort of very thin tight fitting leather gloves, like driving gloves.
They'd stop the worst of cuts if you did get a little mishap.

If searching the forum, search for land hand catch ship boat, vary the terms a bit, there must be 20+ good threads here form over the years.

 

[old man mavic]

welcome to the forum,what you are proposing to do ,is probably one of the hardest things to achieve,even for those with a lot of experience ,and if the drone goes down in the water ,thats usually the end of the story, on a dead calm day with very little wind and hardly any swell ,you would have a chance of success but in any other conditions well nuff said

 

[Thomas B]

Welcome to the forum.

Yep, lots do this, try it only on still water to start, work your way up.

Might pay to try and find some sort of very thin tight fitting leather gloves, like driving gloves.
They'd stop the worst of cuts if you did get a little mishap.

If searching the forum, search for land hand catch ship boat, vary the terms a bit, there must be 20+ good threads here form over the years.

Gloves are good idea... I’d recommend Kevlar filetting gloves.... my first prop cut from this went deep.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Gloves are good idea... I’d recommend Kevlar filetting gloves.... my first prop cut from this went deep.

Good thought, I was originally thinking butchers chainmail gloves, but they'd be too loose fitting for a good safe grip.

 

[pelagic_one]

Not a flyer yet, but want to know if these drones can be flown and retrieved to a sailboat with its attendant rigging.

Welcome to the forum! I’ve flown from our sailboat’s cockpit with boom fixed amidship, but it has been under very ideal conditions. While fishing around sunrise in the San Francisco Bay, the water was mirror-like and US pennant was perfectly still (no wind). In other words, you won’t want to fly when you want to sail.

If your serious about doing it, you will want to practice on dry land for weeks:

• Most start off having the Mavic land on their flattened palm facing up.
• Eventually one gets agile enough to actually curl one’s fingers and catch the Mavic, keeping fingertips at the lower half of the fuselage.
• When it no longer scares the out of you, you’ll be ready to practice hand-catching from a boat dock...again no wind nor waves.
• But once you’re catching it on a pitching marina dock, you’ll be ready for the open water.
• Sailing gloves without fingertips are not ideal for this endeavor.

Personal property insurance and a strong stomach is also a good thing here.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

This has been posted here before, but always good to watch . . . get good at it, and you can do this . . .

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[FLPilotshark]

Not a flyer yet, but want to know if these drones can be flown and retrieved to a sailboat with its attendant rigging.

Welcome aboard mate first !! What kind of drone are you going to be launching from this boat? Also, I would probably recommend getting some stick time before you attempt to land by catching it w/ your hand or even landing on this sailboat that you're referring to! You need to get some more experience landing on hard and flat surfaces like [B]pelagic_one[/B] refers too in his post! I have owned a Dji Spark / Dji Mavic Air and now I have the Dji Mavic Pro and I never NOT ones tried to hand catch my drones when coming in for a landing, its just not safe and I have over 80 missions and over 15 hrs behind the sticks. It's just not safe in my personal opinion especially if your flying any of the Mavic series drones from DJI!!! You have to remember, these are toys these are machines and they can take your fingers right off! Also, you have to take in consideration that these Mavic Pros just hovering the propellers spin the motors at about 5500 RPM which is enough to send you to the hospital if you're not super careful so thats why I never hand launch or catch them when landing its to dangerous especially for a newbie! Get some stick time first and then maybe try landing your drone on the boat first but I would stay away from hand catching your landings! Who ever made that video on the Volvo race teams is a complete Moran and has to respect for the drone and his crew! If that guy did not have his rain coat on they most likely would be calling the coast Guard since his arms would been sliced up pretty badly! What a great video of what not to do [B]MAvic_South_Oz[/B]! That Phantom should have never been launched in the first place due to how bad of conditions out at sea were!! Just a dumb rookie mistake that does not respect his crew or the drone! and common sense!

Safe Flying from FL,
FLPilotshark

 

[Dave Maine]

Sailing and flying drones safely at the same time cannot be done. Either drone safety or boat safety is compromised. In addition any hope of good video or photo results suffers greatly from the split attention required to sail and fly simultaneously. What has worked very well for me is to have someone else sail the boat close to the tip of an island while I shoot from shore. If I can fully trust the sailor, I can concentrate on imaging the boat and crews activity. Tracking shots low near water level are both safe and visually impressive. A dolly shot over water is almost impossible to get without a drone.

 

[KB4MTO]

Welcome from sunny Florida ?

 

[freefaller500]

Welcome to the forum.

Yep, lots do this, try it only on still water to start, work your way up.

Might pay to try and find some sort of very thin tight fitting leather gloves, like driving gloves.
They'd stop the worst of cuts if you did get a little mishap.

If searching the forum, search for land hand catch ship boat, vary the terms a bit, there must be 20+ good threads here form over the years.

Or try some TIG welding gloves, they are thin kid leather.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

I have owned a Dji Spark / Dji Mavic Air and now I have the Dji Mavic Pro and [/B]I never NOT ones tried to hand catch my drones when coming in for a landing, its just not safe and I have over 80 missions and over 15 hrs behind the sticks. It's just not safe in my personal opinion

Who ever made that video on the Volvo race teams is a complete Moran and has to [/B]respect for the drone and his crew! If that guy did not have his rain coat on they most likely would be calling the coast Guard since his arms would been sliced up pretty badly! What a great video of what not to do [B]MAvic_South_Oz[/B]! That Phantom should have never been launched in the first place due to how bad of conditions out at sea were!! Just a dumb rookie mistake that does not respect his crew or the drone! and common sense!

Safe Flying from FL,

FLPilotshark

Hi FLPilotshark . . .I'm certainly not advocating the OP try this first (or 20th) trip on on the boat, in any sort of weather not perfect for their capabilities.
Did you read my post 6 urging caution ?

Just because you don't feel you want / need to learn a skill that is VERY handy sometimes doesn’t mean it’s something others shouldn’t.
Hand launching and catching is done by many, I do it maybe 30% of my flights with (land) terrain considerations etc, it's a very handy skill to learn, and to be honest quite safe unless someone is really that much of a clutz, they have poor hand / eye coordination etc.
Confidence is another thing, you have to be confident when doing it.

The Volvo racing team video.
Umm, his JOB on the boat (among other sailing duties most likely) was to get high quality drone footage in all types of weather, as as a following post by @Dave Maine alluded to with that important point, there must be safety of concentrating on one task, that at the time was his one job.
The Volvo crew would have a fairly extensive team available.

A person sailing a boat for recreation can fly from their boat when anchored, the OP only asked if drones "can be flown and retrieved to a sailboat with its attendant rigging".
Of course if sailing they should have someone else on the tiller that can handle that while they fly, one long tack, get the flight / video / photos done and back landed.

The Volvo video is simply what can be achieved and that particular clip shows their probable worst experience on the boat, if you care to look at some of their other clips on YouTube.

The landing was obviously a tough task, and higher risk, how was all that bow wash coming through the cockpit area ?
I was waiting for that when the drone started its landing run, they probably changed tack to prevent this (planning).
No doubt the risk aspects were part of crew pre flight assessment.

That was no "rookie mistake" though, far from it.

The jacket / gloves that were worn was ample protection from the props.
Take fingers off ? No. (What are they, carrots ???)
Cut badly ? Yes.

Note how it shut down, not sure what Phantom this is (probably P4P), and some models are different to each other in how they shut down, but he either is very experienced and did a perfect CSC, or it may be a model that shuts down when it gets some sideways movement.

I hope the OP doesn't try a Volvo team flight like this first (or 10th) trip out, they probably won't ever be in that type of competitive environment and use of a drone in that commercial sense.
But take in the spirit it was posted (an example of what can be done), and takes on all the good advice offered to learn to skill on land, then on still water, then to sea conditions they feel competent and at ease with.

 

[Nonprophet]

Full Disclosure: I am a total newbie, just got my Mavic Mini today and I've never, ever flown a drone before!

That said, I am a licensed captain and an avid flatwater kayaker, and indeed using a drone while on paddling trips is one of the main reasons that I want a drone. Being fully aware of the risks of a loss in the water, the need for TONS of on land flying first, good insurance rider with my insurance (Statefarm) etc.

While I'm not even close to being ready to use my MM while paddling on the water, I have done quite a bit of research as to who is already doing this, how, with which drones, etc. I chose the MM for it's ease of use, small size, and low cost.

I have seen several tutorials on how to "hand catch" a MM, and that will probably be my preferred method as opposed to setting up some kind of landing deck. This video gives a pretty good description of how to hand catch a Mavic Mini--again--I'm only sharing this as I've never done it myself!

Hand-catchin Mavic Mini

 

[Jeff A]

This has been posted here before, but always good to watch . . . get good at it, and you can do this . . .

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I'm trying to figure out if that takes immense skill or massive stupidity?? Not with my Drone, that's for sure.

 

[Meta4]

Not a flyer yet, but want to know if these drones can be flown and retrieved to a sailboat with its attendant rigging.

Yes .. it can be done.
But you have to be very experienced and know what you are doing.
Before trying to fly from a boat you have to master any technique you use on solid ground.
On the water is not the place to learn new drone skills and just one mistake probably means that you go home with one less drone.
If the boat is moving there are additional complications that land flyers cannot imagine.
And despite what some landlubbers might suggest, don't even think about launching or landing on the deck of the boat (unless it's a very, very big boat).

 

[pelagic_one]

Hand launching and catching is done by many, I do it maybe 30% of my flights with (land) terrain considerations etc, it's a very handy skill to learn, and to be honest quite safe unless someone is really that much of a clutz, they have poor hand / eye coordination etc.
Confidence is another thing, you have to be confident when doing it.

I am in absolute agreement with your statement @MAvic_South_Oz, in that it’s really quite safe for some people. I’m reading other posts describing this task/skill like we’re juggling ‘live‘ chainsaws.

On land or on my sailboat, it’s a well-calculated flight with a planned launch and landing. I will never be able to get a Helix shot of my boat in full sail in 15 knot winds, but at a standstill (hove to) with no more than 5 knots of breeze, I can take a great, cheesy video of my wife and kids waving...moments we’ll never forget.

And when it’s time to land and I’ve got everyone down below, I get my Mavic Pro (my designated water drone) to a hover alongside the cockpit, where there are fewer protruding lines (rope). If you can hand-catch your Mavic on dry land, this part is no different on a steady boat. If it’s not steady, with pitching waves, I wouldn’t have launched in the first place. My contingency in case the good weather degrades during the course of a battery: I will crash land into the inboard side of the safety netting, under the railing.

I don’t comment in the Mavic Air, Smart Controller or Phantom sections, because I don’t have one. But I relish a good hand-catch thread any day.