First Launch From A Boat

[Etopsflight]

Guys

At the end of my holiday and on the way to the airport there is a short ferry trip across a body of water.

Boat was a roll on roll off ferry and we were the last vehicle onboard before she set sail for the 15 minute trip.

Lots of space to launch and chose a location near the wheel house tower. After I got the MP set to fly; had to recalibrate the compass as usual before she got GPS signal. Green light to go.

Auto-take-off; 99% of mine are, and as soon as she left the ground for no more than 2 secs, the motors cut and she fell back down to the ground.

Tried 2nd and 3rd time but the same result. I guess at this point I should have got the message and quit.

Want to get some great footage of the ferry, the crossing and the amazing weather and scenery I went for a 4th try!

This time, up in the air and stable for a millisecond before she heels over backwards and flips 90 degrees and then over more before coming into contact with the base of the wheel house.

Damage looks cosmetics with a few minor scratches. Gimbal and lens look okay and had one prop that popped off. As soon as I saw it crashing down, I must have instinctively pushed sticks down and centred as the motors stopped as it hit the deck.

I've seen posts here about taking off from moving vessels but people have been more concerned with RTH point being dynamic.

Not seen anything else about this particular problem I am having on take-off and the stable hover.

Perhaps being near the wheel house and some machinery noise caused some interference?

Let me know your thoughts and comments.

Cheers
Etops

 

[JLeePhoto]

Surprised you got a good compass calibration surrounded by that much metal. No wireless interference warnings?

 

[Sal_recon26]

Dude it was the compass. You calibrated it on and surrounded by thousands of tons of metal. That would screw up any drone

 

[Etopsflight]

Guys

That's what I was thinking! Why on earth did I not get a warning not to fly?

That's one lesson learned!

Cheers
Etops

 

[Fredo]

Normally you don't have to calibrate your compass except if you fly from a continent to another between 2 drone takeoff.
I never calibrated mine. Traveled in all my country (France) and never did that.
Sometimes I had a message "please calibrate compass" I did not. I just moved my Mavic to another take off spot with less metal. And all was good.
Remember that if it ask you to calibrate your compass it's probably because there is something close to the mavic that jammed his sensors. Not really because the compass is uncalibrate.

On that case, you can try to take your Mavic in your hand high above your head and see if the calibrate message is gone.
If yes, you can try a hand launch.

 

[MavicAyr]

I work on a survey ship offshore. Only recently got my Mavic so first time I've taken it offshore. I calibrated the compass before leaving Port and have had no real issues flying inside the ship in several large open spaces we have. The App complains of Magnetic Interference and Check App warnings but by keeping it steady I've hovered and flown inside even with the vessel rolling.

Did you try and launch from the open deck while the vessel was moving?

My colleague also has a Mavic, and much braver than I. He tried taking off while the vessel was underway at approx 10 knots. The Mavic instantly tried to hover stationary so the vessel was then doing 10 knots under the drone. Even though he tried to go forward to catch up there must be a delay in the controls so he smashed into a bulkhead and luckily only broke four props.

I've launched successfully from the deck while in Port though, only occasionally getting error messages when on the deck. After taking off and hovering I've been okay.

I wouldn't calibrate onboard at all. Cal before you get on would be better.

Cheers
Richie

 

[limbows]

I too not calibrate my mavic everytime i fly. Sometime when i want to takeoff on bridge or a ship dock my mavic says need to calibrate compas, tried to calibrate but still eror, so i just move a little back to the land to takeoff and all good. Im guessing all the metal constructions causing it

 

[DeltaBravo79]

Hi,
I've read there is as well some interference with internal wiring possible on some devices. Which affects the internal magnetic compass close to those wiring and compact design.
The solution was that DJI somehow fixed insulated the wiring.

My device shows as well often mag interference, I suspect it it not normal. But so far, somewhen it disappeared all the time at a certain point of time.
Hopefully the device does use the mag only to calculate orientation. So a flip around based on the mag fail I can hardly imagine.

 

[DeltaBravo79]

Hi,
I've read there is as well some interference with internal wiring possible on some devices. Which affects the internal magnetic compass close to those wiring due to the compact design.
The solution was that DJI somehow fixed it by insulating the wiring properly.

My device shows as well often mag interference, I suspect it it not normal. But so far, it disappeared at a certain point of time after moving and/ or calibrating. Even took off w/ warning present.

Hopefully the device does use the mag only to calculate horizontal orientation although I know about declination in general. So a flip around based on the mag fail I can hardly imagine.