fears of flying over water

[OurAngryBadger]

Admittedly, I haven't flown my M2P over water yet. I've flown my cheaper drones over water before a few times without any issue. But flying a more expensive drone over water scares me.

At least if it crashes or flys away over land, I have a chance of recovering it. If it lands in a lake or river, I have almost no chance of recovering it.

I use my drone for commercial work. I can't really afford to be without it. As long as I don't lose it 2 or less days before a commercial shoot, I could always buy a replacement and have it overnighted, I guess. No drone rental places around here. I do eventually plan on getting a used m2p for a backup hull.

I guess my question here is, am I being overly paranoid? What are the chances my M2P would be lost in water as long as I check the home point before takeoff, fly safely, and not in strong wind?

I see most of the M2P crash and flyaway in the other sub forum do, unfortunately end up in the drink. Is there something about water that makes a drone want to misbehave?

I'm aware about the downward vision sensor thing and disabling it. From what I can gather, it only applies if you are flying about 7 ft or less over water. I would never do that anyway, I would always be at least 20-30 ft up.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

While you do have a better chance of recovering the carcass if you crash on land, the chances of you having the aircraft to do your job in two days time is about the same as a crash over water (whether you recover it or not), assuming the crash on land is from any significant height.

If you do this for your livelihood, you need a backup ASAP (not just a hull, but a working craft). All professional photographers have spare working camera bodies (and they generally cost as least as much as these M2Ps do).

Chris

 

[sar104]

The probability of it failing when flying over water is basically the same as when it is flying over land. There's no difference, from a flight perspective.

 

[old man mavic]

Admittedly, I haven't flown my M2P over water yet. I've flown my cheaper drones over water before a few times without any issue. But flying a more expensive drone over water scares me.

At least if it crashes or flys away over land, I have a chance of recovering it. If it lands in a lake or river, I have almost no chance of recovering it.

I use my drone for commercial work. I can't really afford to be without it. As long as I don't lose it 2 or less days before a commercial shoot, I could always buy a replacement and have it overnighted, I guess. No drone rental places around here. I do eventually plan on getting a used m2p for a backup hull.

I guess my question here is, am I being overly paranoid? What are the chances my M2P would be lost in water as long as I check the home point before takeoff, fly safely, and not in strong wind?

I see most of the M2P crash and flyaway in the other sub forum do, unfortunately end up in the drink. Is there something about water that makes a drone want to misbehave?

I'm aware about the downward vision sensor thing and disabling it. From what I can gather, it only applies if you are flying about 7 ft or less over water. I would never do that anyway, I would always be at least 20-30 ft up.

it is the very fact, that as you said recovery from a watery grave is nigh on impossible, there are devices that release a float to help recover the drone by marking its position,
not sure how good they are, took me a long time to even contemplate taking my MPP out over open water, but i have done so several times ,i guess it all depends if the risk is worth the reward of the great pics and video that you get

 

[OurAngryBadger]

While you do have a better chance of recovering the carcass if you crash on land, the chances of you having the aircraft to do your job in two days time is about the same as a crash over water (whether you recover it or not), assuming the crash on land is from any significant height.

If you do this for your livelihood, you need a backup ASAP (not just a hull, but a working craft). All professional photographers have spare working camera bodies (and they generally cost as least as much as these M2Ps do).

Chris

Good point about needing a new one anyway. I guess land crashes scare me less because at least I know it will be covered by DJI refresh. I would still need to order a temporary replacement but at least I know I'd get my money back.

Agreed about having a 2nd one for backup. I've been doing photography in general for 10 years professionally and have 3 camera bodies, 2 of them being backups. I do eventually need a 2nd mavic but it's hard to convince my wife, heh. She sees it as a toy even though I do use it at least 75% for business purposes. I'm kind of holding out for the Mavic 3, and seeing what happens for remote ID.

 

[OurAngryBadger]

The probability of it failing when flying over water is basically the same as when it is flying over land. There's no difference, from a flight perspective.

Have you ever lost a drone to water, or had any issues happen over water that were sketchy?

Anything else I can do to mitigate any issues besides flying in low wind, checking for home point set and no magnetic interference before takeoff?

 

[dirkclod]

I fly 90% of the time over water and think nothing of it.
Course I’m just a hobby flier but here where I fly over
land it’s usually more water than land. Used to use these
On the skids of my phantoms but when
i did crash it was on land and never used them on any of
my mavics.

 

[old man mavic]

only thing i can think of is what happens when a connection error happens, or a low battery RTH as you know ,you need to be a certain distance from the home point otherwise it will just land

 

[sar104]

Have you ever lost a drone to water, or had any issues happen over water that were sketchy?

Anything else I can do to mitigate any issues besides flying in low wind, checking for home point set and no magnetic interference before takeoff?

I'm fortunate never to have lost a drone anywhere. I have flown over water, but not low - no problems.

Your list of things to check is good. I'd include paying attention to the battery condition and that it is properly latched and check that the props are secure and undamaged.

 

[JeffCharger]

one nice thing about flying over water is that you're more likely to have a nice clear line of sight, and the signal does too.

 

[ff22]

I guess I will throw in this question: Would you be flying over water for commercial work or just for pleasure and the challenge? Since some of your livelihood is earned by the drone, why risk it for pleasure. Or purchase the new cheaper mini and risk that. Obviously, these things are pretty reliable but accidents happen, more likely because folks get a bit complacent. Good flying....

 

[sar104]

I guess I will throw in this question: Would you be flying over water for commercial work or just for pleasure and the challenge? Since some of your livelihood is earned by the drone, why risk it for pleasure. Or purchase the new cheaper mini and risk that. Obviously, these things are pretty reliable but accidents happen, more likely because folks get a bit complacent. Good flying....

I'm pretty sure that most people flying commercially have backup equipment - it would be unusual not to, especially in regard to the Mavic range which is not expensive.

 

[slup]

Have you ever lost a drone to water, or had any issues happen over water that were sketchy?

Anything else I can do to mitigate any issues besides flying in low wind, checking for home point set and no magnetic interference before takeoff?

Well ... now I don't know anything about how you usually stretch your battery time, thinking "if it's critical I do an emergency land some where flat & go pick it up" . You can't do that over water due to obvious reasons ... so return home with a greater then usual battery reserve.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Like others have mentioned we fly 95% of all our flights over the Lake or the River and the biggest threat is watching for magnetic Interference on take off.

The problem as you know with Magnetic Interference is the drone will still fly but has the potential to be compromised so here is an example of what happens at the lake side with new drone users.

People come to the Lake with there drones and they dont take off from the sand, or the grass nor the parking lot , what they do is they usually go right over the bridge , the Dock, or the Pier as it just seems a perfect place for a take off and viewing .

But all of these areas have at one time caused me Compass Errors, Magnetic Interference Warnings all of which can lead to disaster.

I have made videos showing how fast your drone is crippled when taking off from them , sometimes the drone can only fly up and down and cannot move forward after flying 20 ft out over the water when taking off of the Pier / bridge / or the Dock.

So Magnetic Interference. Battery , and reflection and Birds can all be a threat.

This is where Visual line of Sight can really pay off for the Pilot helping you avoid the Birds on the attack run .

I think its this combination of elements that is the result for so many posts of drones going down over the water.

This is one of the reasons why we created the Sea lander for the Mavics so we can test out new take off points in uncharted waters with a test run , and than take it off once declared a safe zone.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Mavic in the Rain.
Coal

 

[OurAngryBadger]

I'm pretty sure that most people flying commercially have backup equipment - it would be unusual not to, especially in regard to the Mavic range which is not expensive.

Yep definitely. Will be getting a backup as soon as I can. Just waiting to see what happens with Mavic3 or Remote ID.

 

[OurAngryBadger]

Like others have mentioned we fly 95% of all our flights over the Lake or the River and the biggest threat is watching for magnetic Interference on take off.

The problem as you know with Magnetic Interference is the drone will still fly but has the potential to be compromised so here is an example of what happens at the lake side with new drone users.

People come to the Lake with there drones and they dont take off from the sand, or the grass nor the parking lot , what they do is they usually go right over the bridge , the Dock, or the Pier as it just seems a perfect place for a take off and viewing .

But all of these areas have at one time caused me Compass Errors, Magnetic Interference Warnings all of which can lead to disaster.

I have made videos showing how fast your drone is crippled when taking off from them , sometimes the drone can only fly up and down and cannot move forward after flying 20 ft out over the water when taking off of the Pier / bridge / or the Dock.

So Magnetic Interference. Battery , and reflection and Birds can all be a threat.

This is where Visual line of Sight can really pay off for the Pilot helping you avoid the Birds on the attack run .

I think its this combination of elements that is the result for so many posts of drones going down over the water.

This is one of the reasons why we created the Sea lander for the Mavics so we can test out new take off points in uncharted waters with a test run , and than take it off once declared a safe zone.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Mavic in the Rain.
Coal

Maybe this is a dumb question but is there any chance over water itself there could be magnetic interference? Besides the obvious things like cell phone towers and other transmitter near the shoreline.

Like, could a sunken steel ship under the water be a thing? How close does the drone have to be to a large metallic object to experience interference?

 

[sar104]

Yep definitely. Will be getting a backup as soon as I can. Just waiting to see what happens with Mavic3 or Remote ID.

Mavic 3 - good call perhaps.

Remote ID - fuggedaboutit - it's years away.

 

[sar104]

Maybe this is a dumb question but is there any chance over water itself there could be magnetic interference? Besides the obvious things like cell phone towers and other transmitter near the shoreline.

Like, could a sunken steel ship under the water be a thing? How close does the drone have to be to a large metallic object to experience interference?

You would have to get really close. In general, bodies of water are going to be cleaner magnetic environments.

 

[old man mavic]

Maybe this is a dumb question but is there any chance over water itself there could be magnetic interference? Besides the obvious things like cell phone towers and other transmitter near the shoreline.

Like, could a sunken steel ship under the water be a thing? How close does the drone have to be to a large metallic object to experience interference?

if it was sticking out above the water line and you were a foot from it that would probably work

 

[slup]

Be aware ... of reinforced concrete docks (pretty obvious that one ...) & bridge decks looking to be made of wood ... but perhaps have a larger metal structure below.