flying over water

theDRONEranger · Oct 24, 2018

The patterns all the water makes is absolutely wonderful. Don't know how high you can go but, if possible a high altitude photo without houses?

basophil · Oct 24, 2018

If you are relatively new to drone flying it’s a leap of faith, but flying over water is great because (1) there are generally no crash obstacles (2) it is usually well away from EM interference, and (3) you get some unique POV shots.
Bon voyage!

basophil · Oct 24, 2018

Oh, and I meant to add that a polarising filter might be a good idea to cut out some of the reflections and highlights.

theDRONEranger · Oct 24, 2018

basophil said:
If you are relatively new to drone flying it’s a leap of faith, but flying over water is great because (1) there are generally no crash obstacles (2) it is usually well away from EM interference, and (3) you get some unique POV shots.
Bon voyage!

Not new, but in this area, Colorado Springs, CO, the streams are muddy and few. What good streams we have and invaded by homeless persons using them for all their personal needs. Yes, there is snow melt from the mountains, and on a warmer day, the homeless are busy with personal hygiene in the streams. Not my idea of good video. This area is absolutely arid. In the winter, if we get 6 inches of snow in the morning, it's gone before noon (if we get snow). Most of our snow here is extremely dry (no moisture) powder. Have to travel several hours into the mountains for real snow. Often, we welcome what little drizzle we get. The public utilities loves it when there is no moisture, summer water rates go way up. The electrical rates peak out for all the air conditioners as well. If it were not for the 5 major military installations (USAF Academy, Peterson AFB, Schriever AFB, Ft Carson US Army Post, and Cheyenne Mountain NORAD Complex) (I am retired military) here (medical care, commissary, PX, I would be happy to live in a wetter climate area.

Take Care and Happy Flying.

Mossiback · Oct 24, 2018

OJsakila said:
I pretty much ONLY can fly over water...

Nice pics. You must have a special relationship with mosquitoes.

Bob in Savannah · Oct 24, 2018

Mossiback said:
Nice pics. You must have a special relationship with mosquitoes.

You have no idea...

Tom Tub · Oct 26, 2018

Tridiver said:
IF you fly over water which I do most all of the time, and you have care refresh, you may want to make one of these like I did. I lost one Mav over water, my fault. Never had any sensor issues and have done a lot of low flying and hovering. If you interested on how to make this let me know. Bolton

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

I am interested. Please...

Brice LeCarre · Oct 27, 2018

It seems that wherever I fly there is some kind of water. Be it an ocean, a lake or a river. LOL
You need to build your confidence up. Take baby steps. If you trust your drone the rest is mostly psychological. Flying over water gives you more creative tools to get cool shots.

BJR981S · Oct 27, 2018

Watch this video It explains the issue quite well.

Cheers

Fearless Flight · Oct 27, 2018

The below was posted about the Mavic Pro and I used mine this way and never had a problem (I live on a lake).
Over water=
You really only need to disable Landing Protection since that's what's causing these problems.

I now have a MP2 and haven’t looked into it yet to see if it has the same setting.

bartjes · Oct 27, 2018

I've been flying over water and glaciers in Iceland many times with no problems. My batteries are always full to start with and at around 20 degrees C. I never emptied them while over water or the glacier. Retrieving a drone on a glacier is also something you don't want t do.

DanMan32 · Oct 27, 2018

Fearless Flight said:
The below was posted about the Mavic Pro and I used mine this way and never had a problem (I live on a lake).
Over water=
You really only need to disable Landing Protection since that's what's causing these problems.

I now have a MP2 and haven’t looked into it yet to see if it has the same setting.

What would landing protection have to do with flying when not flying?

Dingo · Oct 27, 2018

Watch this video. both mavic and phantum descend towards water when hovering 3 feet , worse with sensors off.

Flynz · Oct 27, 2018

Hovered 3 m over water and took lots of shots. No problem. Mind you there was lots of weed to provide definition. Also trees around so I was 3 metres away.

ScubaBob · Oct 28, 2018

SonnyFino said:
Any Problems that i might have in flying over water with my mavic pro platinum. I have heard some horror stories.

I fly over the Caribbean Sea all the time but I am very careful. I hover about 10 meters over the wave crest for a few minutes to learn maximum height of the wave crest. I look at the elevation of the drone and never take it down any lower than 3 meters ABOVE the highest wave crest. I keep a careful eye on the winds because they can shift quickly and either move the drone or make it hard to come back. I rarely send my drone out more than 200 meters over the ocean and am always bringing it home when battery is at 30%. I have never had a problem. Downward sensors are OFF.

Mike_Flys · Oct 28, 2018

You tube discussion about flying over water.

Mike_Flys · Oct 28, 2018

Over water low altitude testing of a Mavic 2 with positioning sensors turned on shows that altitude and position can randomly change.
I never noticed this so much with my Mavic Pro, maybe the sonic sensors on the bottom of the Mavic pro work better over water than the IR sensor on the Mavic 2.

Kazo · Oct 30, 2018

This machines today similarly to big planes are fairly reliable, and it is usually human error - neglect of proper pre-flight check, not having the flight plan and pushing the limits. This get magnified when letting it go over the water by anxiety of possible loss. In two months I have managed fights over Adriatic Sea coast, Pacific coast and lakes here in BC Canada. As a relative newcomer to this sport-art-hobby I had my share of stressful situations when I forgot to kill aps. or cell connection on my controller losing DJI Go Screen entirely to unvelcomed phone call with drone 500m out over the water. This is when having enough "juice" with the "Pause" button is so important to give you time to resolve situation with worst case scenario being to just press home button.

dennyc39 · Oct 31, 2018

I did some brief experiments last summer hovering over water 1-3 feet deep. I found that altitude became more variable when less than 15 feet above the water, and unstable at about 10 feet. Possibly this is due to some confusion in the VPS system due to downwash effects on the water surface. I didn't have the nerve to see if the effect went away during forward flight, because that would have carried the drone out to unrecoverable depths.

Kazo · Oct 31, 2018

I gave second thought to the issue, trying to analyze system response, so we have GPS altitude measurement and the sensors facing down. I think we can safely assume that those measure actual distance from the water surface reflection as well as the bottom below and safety system get "confused". So if my theory is right this wavering is more pronounced lower the drone fly towards the surface and depends of actual depth and translucency of the water so is given by ratio of distances between drone to surface and drone to the bottom. So let say if i fly over very shallow spot let say 4" at 4ft drone might take average reading of difference of 4" resulting with fairly stable hovering , however going over deeper at the same altitude increases variance of input and hovering is less controlled so more violent until craft is unable to "see the bottom" at greater depth. Good test would be eliminating translucency flying over muddy water and see how drone react, I think it would be same like over the dry land.
From this comes idea of being able to set minimum altitude (automatic), so drone wouldn't cross this descending relying on good GPS signal for sort of vertical geofencing with down sensors disabled. The same could be done manually, reading altitude of the water surface adding margin of safety for waves or obstructions, but that requires careful watching over.