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Flying Inside a warehouse?

James33

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I do video for a car dealership and sometimes due to rain I have to do my work inside a very large warehouse - ceilings are 30 feet high and it's pretty open. I'm pretty new to the drone world and the Mavic Air is my first one. Is it possible to safely fly this thing in the warehouse? I never need to it to get above 12-15 feet and it would always be within 50 feet of me and in tripod mode 99% of the time. All this talk of GPS, ATTI mode, RTH nightmares, etc make me very hesitant to do this. If the drone will just stay in tripod mode and follow my inputs, I know I'd be fine. It's if it decides to freak out that scares me.

Appreciate any advice!
Thanks
James
 
I'm pretty new to the drone world and the Mavic Air is my first one.

Do you have DJI Refresh or other damage insurance? You being new to the drone world, I wouldn't even try it if I were you.

All this talk of GPS, ATTI mode, RTH nightmares, etc make me very hesitant to do this.

That's your gut talking. I try to listen to my gut as much as possible.
 
Do you have DJI Refresh or other damage insurance? You being new to the drone world, I wouldn't even try it if I were you.



That's your gut talking. I try to listen to my gut as much as possible.

I do have the Refresh from DJI. I'm just trying to understand how the drone behaves based on the environment it's in. I exclusively use tripod mode when filming or photographing and keep it less than 40-50 feet from the controller at all times, in perfect line of sight. As long as the drone doesn't decide to RTH and take over control from me, it seems it'd be pretty safe.

Appreciate the input - until I understand how this all works and I've got more time under my belt, I'll keep it outdoors.
 
I exclusively use tripod mode when filming or photographing and keep it less than 40-50 feet from the controller at all times, in perfect line of sight. As long as the drone doesn't decide to RTH and take over control from me, it seems it'd be pretty safe.

The issue is not that. You can disable the RTH (or make it 10 feet), making it hover, etc. (honestly the craft will simply land in place if less than 50 feet away if RTH is triggered).

The real issue is the ability of the craft to remain steady and in position. If you lose GPS and shift to ATTI mode (or worse, back and forth multiple times), due to being shielded in an enclosed warehouse and cut off from the GPS satellites, your efforts to control the craft will be very difficult. Line-of-sight and tripod mode won't make a bit of difference. If you're not well-experienced, the flying difficulty will exceed your expectations and you'll crash.

Buy a cheap indoor drone (without all the fancy GPS capabilities), or a racing drone meant to be directly controlled, and play with those in the warehouse. They'll operate better in those conditions and even if you crash, you're only risking $100, not $1,000.
 
The issue is not that. You can disable the RTH (or make it 10 feet), making it hover, etc. (honestly the craft will simply land in place if less than 50 feet away if RTH is triggered).

The real issue is the ability of the craft to remain steady and in position. If you lose GPS and shift to ATTI mode (or worse, back and forth multiple times), due to being shielded in an enclosed warehouse and cut off from the GPS satellites, your efforts to control the craft will be very difficult. Line-of-sight and tripod mode won't make a bit of difference. If you're not well-experienced, the flying difficulty will exceed your expectations and you'll crash.

Buy a cheap indoor drone (without all the fancy GPS capabilities), or a racing drone meant to be directly controlled, and play with those in the warehouse. They'll operate better in those conditions and even if you crash, you're only risking $100, not $1,000.


Thanks - that makes it clearer. I'll definitely avoid flying it inside.
 
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• Get a set of prop guards. $15 from DJI.
• Set RTH to hover.
• Run in tripod mode.
• Keep at least 12" from the ceiling to avoid getting sucked to it.
• Downward sensors may make it rise up if you fly over an object so you may need to turn them off.
• Keep away from plants, drapes, or anything loose. They could get sucked into the props and their movement could get in your shot.
• Try to fly in a clean area. The Mavic moves a lot of air and will blow up dust.
• If possible, try folding the arms and hand holding it. The gimbal will smooth out a lot of movement.
• Care Refresh will cover your Mavic but you also need insurance to cover damage to anything you hit.

I have flown indoors with my MP without issues. It will drift so I would not consider doing it without prop guards.
 
I'd practice with an inexpensive device that doesn't have all the computerized fancy bits. The Mavic really is a flying stabilized camera platform and it doesn't much like being used indoors. Get good at flying a dumb drone and you can have a lot of fun in the warehouse without risking the expensive one. IT's also a good way to get good at actually flying which can save your bacon if something goes wrong - and which is something a lot of owners don't bother to do.
 
• Get a set of prop guards. $15 from DJI.
• Set RTH to hover.
• Run in tripod mode.
• Keep at least 12" from the ceiling to avoid getting sucked to it.
• Downward sensors may make it rise up if you fly over an object so you may need to turn them off.
• Keep away from plants, drapes, or anything loose. They could get sucked into the props and their movement could get in your shot.
• Try to fly in a clean area. The Mavic moves a lot of air and will blow up dust.
• If possible, try folding the arms and hand holding it. The gimbal will smooth out a lot of movement.
• Care Refresh will cover your Mavic but you also need insurance to cover damage to anything you hit.

I have flown indoors with my MP without issues. It will drift so I would not consider doing it without prop guards.
Was going to mention make sure that setting in the go4 app is changed to hover or land when drone disconnects and makr sure its not set to rth
 
I do video for a car dealership and sometimes due to rain I have to do my work inside a very large warehouse - ceilings are 30 feet high and it's pretty open. I'm pretty new to the drone world and the Mavic Air is my first one. Is it possible to safely fly this thing in the warehouse? I never need to it to get above 12-15 feet and it would always be within 50 feet of me and in tripod mode 99% of the time. All this talk of GPS, ATTI mode, RTH nightmares, etc make me very hesitant to do this. If the drone will just stay in tripod mode and follow my inputs, I know I'd be fine. It's if it decides to freak out that scares me.

Appreciate any advice!
Thanks
James
Or you will likely have it shooting up in the warehouse if you go past a certain distance away from yourself I think 20 meters and it will just land after that it will use your rth hight so that's why it shoots up. It's happened to me under a canopy some trees absolutely crapped myself but learnt from it.
 
Or you will likely have it shooting up in the warehouse if you go past a certain distance away from yourself I think 20 meters and it will just land after that it will use your rth hight so that's why it shoots up. It's happened to me under a canopy some trees absolutely crapped myself but learnt from it.
That's why you set RTH to hover if indoors or under trees. It happened to me too.
 
Mine is always telling me to eat doughnuts, should I listen to it?:)
Yep. Every time you eat a doughnut you don't have a chance to wreck your mavic....L.O.L.

edit: sorry couldn't resist ;)
 
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Unless you are eating a doughnut while flying your Mavic.
True! What a world we live in. First people start flying far beyond VLOS, way too high, too close to airports, and now...eating doughnuts while flying! Where is the FAA when you need them?
 
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The issue is not that. You can disable the RTH (or make it 10 feet), making it hover, etc. (honestly the craft will simply land in place if less than 50 feet away if RTH is triggered).

The real issue is the ability of the craft to remain steady and in position. If you lose GPS and shift to ATTI mode (or worse, back and forth multiple times), due to being shielded in an enclosed warehouse and cut off from the GPS satellites, your efforts to control the craft will be very difficult. Line-of-sight and tripod mode won't make a bit of difference. If you're not well-experienced, the flying difficulty will exceed your expectations and you'll crash.

Buy a cheap indoor drone (without all the fancy GPS capabilities), or a racing drone meant to be directly controlled, and play with those in the warehouse. They'll operate better in those conditions and even if you crash, you're only risking $100, not $1,000.

I just spent the weekend rock climbing and had an issue with GPS connection. Had to fly it in ATTI mode and it worked really well. I did have to switch to sport mode if I wanted to get above the set altitude height but then just flew it back down to me and switched back before landing. If it would have picked up enough satellite reception would it have switched modes causing a loss of control?
 
Newbie here, so excuse my ignorance. But the advert I saw for Mavic Air, and the tutorial video from DJI specifically references flying indoors (at about 50 seconds in video below), and doesn't suggest it will be a problem. I had no idea you shouldn't fly a Mavic Air indoors, or that it was not advised?

(
)
 
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I just spent the weekend rock climbing and had an issue with GPS connection. Had to fly it in ATTI mode and it worked really well. I did have to switch to sport mode if I wanted to get above the set altitude height but then just flew it back down to me and switched back before landing. If it would have picked up enough satellite reception would it have switched modes causing a loss of control?

It doesn't suddenly lose control switching modes, but what happens is when GPS goes in and out is that a stable aircraft with GPS signal suddenly loses signal and starts drifting. For an unaware pilot thinking it will just hover nicely, and it suddenly starts moving towards a wall, object, etc, bad things could happen.


Newbie here, so excuse my ignorance. But the advert I saw for Mavic pro, and the tutorial video from DJI specifically references flying indoors (at about 50 seconds in video below), and doesn't suggest it will be a problem. I had no idea you shouldn't fly a Mavic Pro indoors, or that it was not advised?

(
)

You can fly them indoors just fine. There is rightful caution though, because pilots that have only ever flown with GPS expect the drone to just hover where they want it to, come back with a push of a button, etc. Then they go to a place where they have no (or worse lose) GPS signal, and they aren't used to flying with a drone that drifts, suddenly moves when the AC kicks on, needs more stick input to go where they want it to etc. Add to that -- there will be more obstacles to hit indoors and you have a recipe for an inexperienced person to crash an expensive drone.

I think that is why many say you should practice indoors with a cheapo one first so you can experience what it is like to fly without GPS, in a closed environment with less room for error. It doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, or that it isn't capable of doing it, it's just harder to do.

The Phantom had a switch for ATTI mode, so you could practice flying without GPS, but outside in an open area if you wanted (and I did). Unfortunately, getting the Mavic into ATTI mode will take some rigging to block GPS sensors, or the debug hack, so less ways to practice.

EDIT: Should add that people have reported the vision system in the Air to be pretty good, so if you have good light and some contrast on the floor or other objects for the bird to see, you'll get some good stability inside as well.
 
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