Flying dead staight ?

[Mazdaman323lx]

I am planning to fly the length of this bridge , as far as is practicable anyways , but am wondering if anyone has any tips on how to fly as straight as possible without weaving , making those tiny corrections , which look awful when the video is sped up.
Is it possible to lock in a straight heading on either the Mavic air 2 / Air 2s . I will attempt this on a windless a day as is possible.
Couldn't finish the shoot as there was railway employees on site at the far end on this particular day . The rail line is disused as you can see from the rusty rails , but is maintained as a "just in case" fall back , so safety to trains isn't a issue in case your wondering.
Any tips or advice for my next visit appreciated

 

[crazeuk]

Can you not just fly really slowly that will allow you to tweak without noticing, then speed it up?

Alternatively use waypoints?

 

[Repaid1]

I am planning to fly the length of this bridge , as far as is practicable anyways , but am wondering if anyone has any tips on how to fly as straight as possible without weaving , making those tiny corrections , which look awful when the video is sped up.
Is it possible to lock in a straight heading on either the Mavic air 2 / Air 2s . I will attempt this on a windless a day as is possible.
Couldn't finish the shoot as there was railway employees on site at the far end on this particular day . The rail line is disused as you can see from the rusty rails , but is maintained as a "just in case" fall back , so safety to trains isn't a issue in case your wondering.
Any tips or advice for my next visit appreciated

I think your sample was pretty good BTW. But in reality that bridge should be arrow straight (IF built correctly ) So you should be able to take a couple of test runs to get the yaw angle set and just zoom that thing (Even in slight wind) light on the roll stick to correct. HOWEVER! I would caution and actually advise against it. That is far too much metal at far too much distance. The chances for either magnetic interference let alone a signal disconnect perhaps and your RTH is going to engage and say bye-bye to your drone!

 

[Meta4]

Alternatively use waypoints?

GPS accuracy is only around +/- 2.5 metres and sometimes more.
The barometric sensor used for altitude control commonly will show a couple of metres drift.
You need a comfortable safety margin for waypoint flying to allow for these.
Attempting a waypoint flight in such a tightly constrained site would be asking for trouble.

 

[old man mavic]

@Mazdaman323lx ,please dont laugh at my suggestion for your bridge film ,apart from using a go pro type camera mounted on a gimbal, you could achieve a similar effect, if you were able to either have some sort of small inspection truck that would run on the track ,or even walk slowly down the side of the track ,with the drone turned on without props so that the gimbal was working ,but with regards to actually flying the drone in such a metal rich environment with the associated risks that would have, plus the fact that the flight area is quite small side to side ,then maybe as others have mentioned,it would not be worth the risk to your drone

 

[Mazdaman323lx]

I think your sample was pretty good BTW. But in reality that bridge should be arrow straight (IF built correctly ) So you should be able to take a couple of test runs to get the yaw angle set and just zoom that thing (Even in slight wind) light on the roll stick to correct. HOWEVER! I would caution and actually advise against it. That is far too much metal at far too much distance. The chances for either magnetic interference let alone a signal disconnect perhaps and your RTH is going to engage and say bye-bye to your drone!

I complete understand and agree with you, I was hoping to do it in sections , maybe 3 or 4 spans at a time , with a couple of clean transitions
on the final video to make it look like a single take. The "prevent sideways" flight feature wouldn't be of use here would it ?

 

[Dave Maine]

Consider the problems you will have with GPS and control signals inside that steel cage. That is an ideal environment for interference from the grounded steel bridge on both.

 

[Meta4]

Consider the problems you will have with GPS and control signals inside that steel cage. That is an ideal environment for interference from the grounded steel bridge on both.

Did you look at his video in post #1?
It's pretty clear that control signal and GPS weren't affected.

 

[Mazdaman323lx]

Did you look at his video in post #1?
It's pretty clear that control signal and GPS weren't affected.

Thanks Meta 4 , dunno why I come here sometimes , I get answers to questions I did'nt ask LOL

 

[Mazdaman323lx]

@Mazdaman323lx ,please dont laugh at my suggestion for your bridge film ,apart from using a go pro type camera mounted on a gimbal, you could achieve a similar effect, if you were able to either have some sort of small inspection truck that would run on the track ,or even walk slowly down the side of the track ,with the drone turned on without props so that the gimbal was working ,but with regards to actually flying the drone in such a metal rich environment with the associated risks that would have, plus the fact that the flight area is quite small side to side ,then maybe as others have mentioned,it would not be worth the risk to your drone

I went 4 spans in and had full signal strength , and full control . I'd reckon I could have went another 4 spans easy before interference became a issue . Two 8 span flights would give me the length of the bridge . I'll turn RTH to land , and use propguards case of unintended contact with the structure

 

[Meta4]

The "prevent sideways" flight feature wouldn't be of use here would it ?

Only if you don't want to be able to make any corrections.

 

[dozzn]

That seems like a long bridge, if it is absolutely safe to do so, you could walk out there and get several videos that you’re satisfied with and piece it together.
I think the footage you posted is a great start.

 

[hiflyer201]

HOWEVER! I would caution and actually advise against it.

agreed! I know it's an accomplishment to fly the length perfectly but does it make a better video? I don't think so..I would edit the jiggles. Shorter is better!

 

[jimlips]

I really like your video, and did notice the slight deviation to the left and right. However, if you really make the video as long as it takes to cover the whole bridge (even sped up), it is going to get boring after about 10 seconds. People's attention spans today are pretty short.

Maybe you could contact one of those little trolley RR cars, and have them drive you across the bridge, while you held the camera on a tripod.

 

[dronerdave]

Have you used the cross hair center point feature to help guide you?

 

[EyesWideShut]

There's a 3rd party app called Maven. In addition to waypoints it has a great "Co-Pilot" feature that has a CableCam Mode that would be worth checking out. Maven works with the Mavic Air/Air 2/Mini plus others but not the Air 2s or Mini2 yet. With CableCam you set both ends of the cable, either by GPS as waypoints on the map or in your case to be more accurate, you set your start position in front of you and then fly to the far end and set that position. If needed you can fine tune the positions on the map.

When you start, the AC will fly directly "along the cable" while you can adjust speed/altitude and orientation, so you can speed up as you go. The AC will slow down and stop when you get to either end of the "cable". You can reverse direction at anytime.

Also with the option to adjust the AC orientation, you can set a camera POI like the end of the bridge while you speed up/slow down and change altitude. Check Maven out HERE.

 

[Tiger64]

Would it work to fly to the other end and record while on rth?

 

[dronerdave]

Would it work to fly to the other end and record while on rth?

At least with my quad, I want to avoid RTH inside a lattice caged bridge. I've shot a few videos similar to the OP's and on one occasion my battery dropped to 30 % and I had to quickly fly back through. The other end had a canopy of trees and if a RTH was triggered, it would have flown up into the trees. So I had to fly back through the bridge as fast as I could to clear the bridge's lattice before my battery got low enough where it automatically did a RTH.

 

[RadioFlyerMan]

I am planning to fly the length of this bridge , as far as is practicable anyways , but am wondering if anyone has any tips on how to fly as straight as possible without weaving , making those tiny corrections , which look awful when the video is sped up.
Is it possible to lock in a straight heading on either the Mavic air 2 / Air 2s . I will attempt this on a windless a day as is possible.
Couldn't finish the shoot as there was railway employees on site at the far end on this particular day . The rail line is disused as you can see from the rusty rails , but is maintained as a "just in case" fall back , so safety to trains isn't a issue in case your wondering.
Any tips or advice for my next visit appreciated

Fly above the bridge to the far end. Point the camera down to align as best you can to the center of the track. Set that location as your home point. Return to the end you are at. Turn on Homelock. Pull back on the stick and make sideways corrections as needed. The logic is that the drone will have a definite end point and will always head to that point, regardless of the yaw angle of the drone. Problem is that cross winds will have to be corrected. The other risk is that you have a distant home point. I'd set my RTH to hover.

OR… set Home exactly over your end of the bridge, fly over to the other end, enter the bridge, initiate Homelock, and film the return.

You could first test this approach by flying outside, parallel to the bridge to see what happens. Less risk.

I don't know if it will work, just thinking out loud.

 

[Tiger64]

Not sure what the lowest altitude is you can set for rth.