Flying over Water

[WWMav]

I've flown over water with my Mavic Air. I left all sensors turned on and flew about 2-3ft above the water. I had VLOS all the time (I was only about 20-50ft away). The biggest problems are obstacles such as overhanging branches, ship masts, cables etc. I had a few close calls with overhanging branches.
Based on the video above, I would NOT turn any sensors off AND ensure I had close VLOS at all times if flying close to the surface.

I have a Mavic Air. I have been reading conflicting posts about flying the MA drone over water, everything from saying it will crash over water, to turn off various sensors IOT fly over water, to it’s fine to fly over water in the original configuration.

Like everyone else here, I don’t want to lose my Drone, what is the real story about over water flying? I keep my soft and firmware up to date.

I currently use a Mavic 2 and prior to that a Mavic Pro and have flown both over open water (waves, ocean, etc.), large lakes, ponds and slow moving rivers. In all situations I left all sensors on and the only time I experienced atypical aircraft behavior was over the slow moving river (it was a mountain stream/brook roughly 20 -30 ' wide and flowing at what I would estimate at around 2 mph) where the altitude tended to drift. At the time, the aircraft was estimated at about 10-15 feet off the surface of the water. However, the drift may have been attributable to poor satellite coverage as there were trees overhanging the banks of the river; I didn't observe any warnings about satellite reception or having switched to ATTI mode as my eyes were on the Mavic due to the proximity of the overhanging branches. I know in the future if flying in similar conditions, I plan to turn off the sensors.

 

[Bob Long]

Never had issues with my Air over water, whether that's sea or river.

Just don't get too close to waves [emoji4]

Well done .. like a travelogue of the area. Enjoyable.

 

[MEFfly]

my 2 cents on using the GetterBack float (GetterBack) with MPP ... i just flew over a river for the first time last week. not knowing any better, i attached the GetterBack float using the velcro strap in between the back two "legs" on the drone... i did not realize the little float then (partially) blocked the downward sensor... it took off and flew fne, but when trying to land it kept giving the obstacle warning and would not land and turn off... i had to do a hard stop as it was dragging along the ground... so, be sure to place the GetterBack or other safety device on the drone in a manner that does not block the sensors or turn the sensors off as others have suggested.

 

[Chas2379]

No water in AZ - not something to worry about...LOL!

Plenty of water in AZ.

 

[Shon]

I’ve flown over lakes, streams, rivers, waterfalls, etc. without issue. I do not turn off the sensors.

The sensors don’t work well in “monochrome” environments or in the dark. This means that if you fly very low over water or snow, you risk the drone drifting a bit and crashing. Just use good judgment, expect the unexpected, and you should be fine.

Fly a safe distance away from the water. Make sure you have good GPS coverage. Trees, bridges, narrow canyons, etc can pose potential hazards.

Birds can pose a problem too, especially around water.

 

[MarcPike]

Got my Mavic Air 3 weeks ago. Watched videos for several days before I flew. Especially how to avoid mistakes, like not managing battery life, wind, etc.

Spent about 2 hours flying it at home. Felt comfortable with my MA and got more confident.

Went to Maine and found some shoreline and made sure the drone had enough GPS's, no interference and was flying ok.

Eventually flew over the water, short distances, nervous as hell but gradually got more confident with each flight.

Never had a problem and made about 30 flights over water, eventually getting to 400 ft and about 2000 ft distance.

Aircraft performed flawlessly and I have yet to wreck it. Have not tried sport mode, but will do that overland before I am confident.

Maine

 

[FEMit]

Anyone taken off from a pontoon boat before? does the metal from the boat interfere with the RC signal or compass calibration?

 

[Shon]

Anyone taken off from a pontoon boat before? does the metal from the boat interfere with the RC signal or compass calibration?

Calibrate before you get on the boat. Hand launch, and keep the drone in VLOS avoiding situations where there is metal between you and your drone. Really shouldn’t be an issue launching or maintaining control.. biggest challenge would be landing. I would not recommend attempting to land on a moving object. Even a “stationary” boat may bob or drift... the more stationary, the easier it would be to land or hand catch.

 

[lookout]

Plenty of water in AZ.

Ocean front property?

 

[jduga]

I have a Mavic Air. I have been reading conflicting posts about flying the MA drone over water, everything from saying it will crash over water, to turn off various sensors IOT fly over water, to it’s fine to fly over water in the original configuration.

Like everyone else here, I don’t want to lose my Drone, what is the real story about over water flying? I keep my soft and firmware up to date.

I Fly my Mavic Air over a lake all the time - I keep my sensor on and watch that I don't go too low. I have made it 9272 feet in distance (1.75miles) while at about 290 feet of elevation. Most of it was over water - the last 2-300 feet were over land due to running out of lake. I could have gone further but the weather was turning and battery getting low. I did have the Cup directional antennae extenders on.

 

[bburnett15]

this is a great thread, thank you all for the great stories. I also now understand something that happened in my backyard that took me by surprise.
Flying my Mavic air in the backyard where we also happen to have an above ground pool. I was showing my brother-in-law the new drone and he asked me to fly it over the water. I didn’t know there was an issue with flying it over the water so out of curiosity I flew it over the pool- only to kind of lose control as it started to land into the pool and was slow to react to the controls. I saved it but had a good scare and now i know better and I also know i was lucky to Have saved it.

 

[NOLADG]

Once when flying low over a river my Mavic Air began to drift with a floating object on the river. I figure it thought it had a good lock visually on the "ground" and tried to stay still over the moving object. Several times, I have seen it lower itself toward the water slowly, but I was watching and corrected it.

 

[DanMan32]

I've suspected that the vision sensor could track water current ripples in the same way as if they were stationary ground and may even self correct when GPS soon shows a drift.