Flying in Palawan, Philippines

[scroxford]

Hi everyone,

I have just bought a mavic air and I am taking it to El Nido, in Palawan in the Philippines. I wondered what experiences people have had with flying it in this area and what GPS signal was like? I am comfortable flying and landing it myself with GPS but worried about it going into ATTI mode.

I am very new to drone flying. I have been to a beach in Singapore (Lazarus Island) to test it out. Only thing that concerned me was that I couldn’t select RTH to controller as apparently my phone GPS was not strong enough. I am worried about this when I’m on holiday. Any advice?

 

[OhioJoe]

I'm flying my MA here in the Philippines. The drone has no problem getting a GPS signal. But it may take a few minutes. I'm in Luzon, Tarlac province.

 

[RCdancer]

I'm flying my MA here in the Philippines. The drone has no problem getting a GPS signal. But it may take a few minutes. I'm in Luzon, Tarlac province.

I grew up in Manila in the 60s as an American expat. Left for college in the U.S. in 71. Fond memories of the Philippines. Wonderful country and people.

 

[Anterialis]

Hi!
I'm on vacation here now, visited El Nido for a week and now a week in Borocay. I brought my Mavic Pro Platinum and there has not been any scary issues so far. A few things to remember, though:

1. Rules are mostly like the rest of the world. Max 400 ft / 122m AGL. Only fly in daylight. 10 km away from airports. 30m away from people and not over crowds. VLOS.
   
   
2. The winds are fairly strong. Mostly the winds this time of year is coming from northeast. In El Nido last week it was pretty stable winds at 60 dgrs and 10 m/s, gusting at 13-15 m/s. The max cruising speed of the Mavic Pro is about 12 m/s and in sport mode, approx. 18 m/s. In other words, since winds from 60 dgrs means your drone might be lost at see (going west off of Palawan mainland) if you are not comfortable with sports mode. Several times I tried coming back in normal mode (p-mode), and the drone would keep getting further and further away from me. If this happens to you, 1) descend towards the water, e.g. 10m above water. Friction closer to water makes the wind slow down. 2) enter sport mode. 3) calculate more than enough battery to come home. Also remember that hitting RTH will make the drone come back in cruise speed, this might be too slow and thus you might have to enter sport mode and fly yourself not using RTH.
   
   
3. I recommend everybody new to drones to learn how to fly a drone "manually". By manually I mean ATTI in the Mavic world. Unfortunately you cannot enter ATTI mode on Mavics (well you can, but that entails using DJI Assistant and a developer menu, look it up should be on this forum), so I suggest getting a cheap drone just to get familiar with the basics of flying "manually". It will probably save you one day =)
   
   
4. Lots of beaches = not good for landing/taking off. Learn how to hand launch and hand land your drone. Launching is fairly straight forward. Hold the drone from underneath (avoiding propellers!!! I tell myself to never leave my fingers above the battery detach button area) up in the air, away from your head/eyes, and use your left hand to swipe the auto takeoff slider. A bit of finger magic, but no problem after some practice. Landing: I prefer to put the Mavic approx 30-60 cm (1-2 ft) above me on my right hand side. I put my hand directly underneath it (palm streched out) as to trick the drone's downward facing sensors into thinking my hand is ground. Slowly descend, and the drone will suddenly stop descent and enter landing mode. The drone will then continue descent and land (you keep holding the left stick down to land), and hold it for three seconds.
   
   
5. Get ND filters and shorts Its sunny every day =)

 

[Clipper707]

I've flown in Palawan on 3 occasions. Coron in May 2018 and December 2018, and Puerto Princesa last month, January 2019. Never been to or flew at El Nido.

Not much more to add to Anterialis' excellent post. No problems with GPS or satellite acquisition. Plenty of wind, so be ready to throw it into Sport mode and drop altitude. My Platinum never went into ATTI mode.

Hand launching and catching is a required skill, especially if you're doing boat and beach launches.

Early mornings were key for flying in no or less wind. Sometimes sunset, too.

Hope you have calm breezes and blue skies!

 

[Anterialis]

6. Download an app that will show you wind conditions etc. when you are thinking about flying. I use Windy (I use this when I go sailing) and lately I am checking out Kittyhawk. Very good for checking predicted weather and wind speeds etc.