Flying in heavy forest or jungle

[RStarowski]

I am a new Mavic Pro Platinum and DJI goggles owner and have not yet flown.

Next July I hope to take my drone with me to Africa and see if I can film some mountain gorillas. However, I am not sure what kind of terrain or vegetation conditions I will encounter. Does anyone have any experience flying in a jungle or heavy forest environment? If I clear the tree tops, can I hope to control the drone without actually being able to see it through the tree leaves? Or will the leaves block my signal, which makes this all a pipe dream. Or will I absolutely have to find a place above any possible canopy that allows me to keep my drone in sight at all times? I would be planning to control the video shots by means of the DJI goggles.

Not losing the drone would be a whole other concern, which I would try and deal with if there is any chance of making this flying plan work. .

 

[Bunny Too]

I am a new Mavic Pro Platinum and DJI goggles owner and have not yet flown.

Next July I hope to take my drone with me to Africa and see if I can film some mountain gorillas. However, I am not sure what kind of terrain or vegetation conditions I will encounter. Does anyone have any experience flying in a jungle or heavy forest environment? If I clear the tree tops, can I hope to control the drone without actually being able to see it through the tree leaves? Or will the leaves block my signal, which makes this all a pipe dream. Or will I absolutely have to find a place above any possible canopy that allows me to keep my drone in sight at all times? I would be planning to control the video shots by means of the DJI goggles.

Not losing the drone would be a whole other concern, which I would try and deal with if there is any chance of making this flying plan work. .

Howdy from Wyoming RStarowsky, welcome to the community, plenty of fine folk and excellent information here.
You have raised many interesting questions. I am sure you will receive numerous responses shortly. I know water absorbs RF transmission so the multiple canopies may pose an issue. As for controlling the drone with the goggles, make sure you get a lot of practice in.

 

[mavicdriver]

In my experience there are many variables you will be dealing to give immediate answers to your questions, every flight location is different. Hopefully you have had previous drone flying experience. If the Mavic Pro is your first drone, you need to get busy learning the basics and gaining solid experience so that when you go to Africa you should be ready for the challenges and have a very good idea about possible signal issues and effective flight ranges in the environment you will be flying in. For sure also check carefully on the local laws etc that might factor in. In any case there is no substitute for experience and it seems you have ample time to rack up some real flight time before you go. You'll figure things out no doubt. Good Luck!

 

[sir_ian]

ive flown in some jungles in Thailand and i will tell you its very very difficult the plants/trees destroy your signal your field view is totally thrown off and there were MANY MANY unforeseen things such is these weird little flying insects that got caught up in y propellers and all over my mavic and then this other weird vine type thing that was very very thin so the fwd sensors didnt pick it up.

also take off and landing was almost hellish. due to the way the trees grew.

also i had some bids that seemed to be quite curious all though they didnt do anything it was weird because i could tell they were looking at it wondering wtf it was and where it was going.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

You will have to wait and see, but I imagine you will have wireless problems when soon out of sight over / through thick canopy.
Ensure RTH is set high enough and the take off zone is suitable, has ample area and good satellite etc.
A better option is probably flying below, line of sight, set loss of signal to hover, so if you lose signal you can just move a little closer to re-establish and recover.

I'm wondering if gorillas would be spooked by the Mavic (or any other drone), as you'd likely have to get reasonably close to get any decent footage.
Over a canopy isn't going to get it.
Local guides / guiding companies etc may have rules for this sort of thing.

I would have thought using a stabilisation type of control (dji osmo or similar) with mobile or their camera would be best.

 

[dport177]

I'm in Thailand at the moment. Lots of jungle here. Make sure to find a large open space for take off. Don't just look for a spot with an opening straight up to the sky, get open areas in at least a couple directions around you...front/back, etc. Constantly watch the remote signal strength when you're flying. I can't stress this enough. You don't want to lose signal. Yes, RTH works, but it's so easy to get directionally disoriented in a new environment. Also, I've had some weird signal interference issues which is odd given I'm in relatively remote areas.

Spend time scouting where you want to fly before you do. Understand the local geography and plan your flight route proactively. This will save you plenty of trouble.

Know the local rules around drones. Country policies and hotel/resort policies. Many of the resorts here in Thailand have banned the flying of drones over the resorts. I've been taking off at the edge of resorts and making sure not to fly directly over villas/rooms, etc. Make an effort and people/staff will be cool with you.

Most of all, have fun. Mavic is such a great tool when traveling.

 

[fileophile]

I'm new to the Mavic so can't really comment on flying one in a jungle. But, I have tracked mountain gorillas in the Virunga mountains, back before drones existed. Unless the place has been completely deforested since the mid-80's I think you have no chance of successfully getting pictures of gorillas with a drone. Here are some of the reasons why:

1) The jungle there is INCREDIBLY dense. You will be very hard-pressed to just take off and try to get above the canopy, and then even if hypothetically you found the gorillas with the drone you'd never get back down through the canopy to get pictures.

2) You have very little chance of finding the gorillas unless you sign up with the local guides. I assume you were planning to do this. The guides take small parties (up to about 25 people) up into the mountains and they start at yesterday's gorilla camp location to figure out where they went from there that day. Usually these groups are composed of several different groups of tourists. The guides and the other tourists will not want you buzzing a drone around. The other tourists will think you are reducing their chances of seeing the gorillas and you will not be a welcome addition to the group.

3) The gorillas stay away from people generally, but have become used to seeing humans due to these guided tours. I think a drone would spook them and they would keep moving away from the noise. The guides also will probably not agree to let you fly while in the group.

4) Even if you booked a private tour with no other tourists (very expensive) you will need all your wits about you trying to cut a path through the jungle, avoiding logs, holes, etc. Trying to walk through this jungle with flight goggles on is too laughable to even contemplate.

5) These tours are a full-day activity. 98% of the time you are trying to be quiet, following single file in a line behind the guides who are tracking from the last known location (yesterday's gorilla camp). Once they actually spot a gorilla, you usually have less than five minutes before the gorillas decide to move away from you -- and they can move through this jungle about 40 times faster than humans can. Even if this first sighting miraculously happened in a slight clearing, and you discovered that gorillas don't care about the drone noise, I don't think you'd have time to get the bird up and in a position to get pictures within that 5 minutes.

6) The odds are super high (virtually certain) that you'd crash the drone. Just too many leaves, twigs, branches, moss hanging down, and trees. You can barely see 5 yards ahead. And if you crash in that jungle, kiss the drone goodbye -- you will likely never find it. But the next day's guided tour may be very impressed with seeing some gorillas taking apart a drone.