Flying Inside A Cinema?

[maverickau]

Hey everyone,

I’ve had the local cinemas enlist me to film a promotional video for them, showcasing the brand new cinema they have just had installed.

It’s really huge, coming at almost 30m wide, and I was wondering if I could use my Mavic Pro inside of the cinema as a dolly camera or whatnot. I feel like I’d be able to get some great shots with it.

I do have a fair bit of knowledge surrounding signal interference and whatnot but I’m also concerned about GPS and auto RTH. After all I don’t want it slamming into the roof of its own accord. I wish it had a manual ATTI mode as I’m pretty confident flying by hand.

If you have got any tips or advice please do let me know! Thank you in advance!

 

[Lake_Flyer]

Check the GPS reception first with a phone with both wifi and mobile data off, in the whole cinema. If you can't get any sats anywhere, the mavic will probably remain in Atti all the time. But I would use prop guards and do some hover checks on various spots as preparation. Make sure VPS is working all right and don't go to high to keep reliable VPS functionality. When coming close to a wall or ceiling the lower air pressure the props induce between drone and wall makes the drone gets sucked into it, causing a crash, so stay at least a couple of meters away from them. Make sure no doors or windows, curtains etc, are opened during the flight, causing turbulences of air flow changes.

Set RTH to hover (in case of RC malfunction) and land well before any battery warning.

Tripod mode is your friend while doing these kind of flights.

 

[waylander]

Hi
Agree with everything Lake_Flyer said, I have flown indoors without GPS, as long as you have VPS fully enabled you should have no problems, but here Tripod mode is defo your friend.
I would also add, if the cinema is showing a movie during the shoot, make sure you keep a good distance from the cinemas speakers, Cinema speakers are big and generate lots of magnetic fields, I would steer well clear of them, or have the cinema sound off.

PS Please...post a video if you get the job done, so other can learn.
Good Luck
Waylander

 

[rktekt]

I agree with both posts above. You probably won't have GPS signal, so you'll be flying ATTI mode. Whenever I've flown indoors, I've had to rely heavily on my line of sight. Because you'll be in a smaller space (than flying outside), your movements will seem exagerated. So, be very gentle on your sticks. Another thought is to have them shut off the HVAC system to the cinema you're in, while your'e flying. The moving air from the HVAC system can cause your drone to drift. With all that said, drones make for awesome dollies.

 

[tictag]

Is it possible to just disable the downward ultrasonic sensors without also disabling the vision sensors? I'm just thinking that going over chairs, stages etc, your drone will be going up and down trying to maintain 0.5m above the sensed ground.