Flying over water

[RedCoatOne]

I'm heading on a road trip to the Canadian Rockies in a couple of days and have chalked up some spots to do some flying and filming. Some of these spots are over rivers and open water and I'm slightly nervous at the prospect of something going wrong and losing the drone. Whats everyone's experiences so far with open water and any tips they have?

Thanks in advance

 

[AnsibleMedia]

In the 11 days since I got my MA2, I'd say close to 80% of my flying has been over the Hudson river. I've experienced no issues at all. As a general rule when over water you don't want to be down too close to the surface, as reflections off the water may mess with the bottom sensors. This was an issue on my Mavic Mini, it would sometimes begin to descend over water. Not a huge issue, but something to watch for. I have not experienced this at all with my MA2, in fact my level of confidence flying over water is MUCH higher now.

Here are a couple vids over water I've taken in the last week or two:

 

[nencmeister]

Flying over the water is great. Enjoy, there’s really no special rules to it. Just make sure your drone is set to hover instead of land if the battery gets too low, there might be another option for hover somewhere else in there I forget

 

[boblui]

It has never been my experience nor there has been any substantiate reports that flying over water will create problems. The bottom sensors are not the only set of sensors that detect height. There are also the baronmeters and GPS receiver ( both unaffected by water ) and the drone will fuse the outputs of these sensors to get the height data. As long as you have sufficient margins to allow for sensor errors and corrective actions by the drone, it will be perfectly OK to fly over water.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

I'm heading on a road trip to the Canadian Rockies in a couple of days and have chalked up some spots to do some flying and filming. Some of these spots are over rivers and open water and I'm slightly nervous at the prospect of something going wrong and losing the drone. Whats everyone's experiences so far with open water and any tips they have?

Thanks in advance

Turn off all the sensors, and watch very carefully where you take off from, dont take off from a cool spot on the concrete or bridge or boat dock find some grass area to reduce you chance of magnetic Interference .

Pay Attention to Visual Line of Sight as birds can and will bring your drone down quickly.

Remember the Open wind is going to almost double as you loose any type of break wall , tress, ect.

Once that winds finds it peak , your battery usage is going to go down quickly.

Remember the best way to avoid the bird collision is to ramp straight up.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Mavic in the Rain.
Coal

 

[boblui]

Turn off all the sensors

Has there been any reports about bad things happen due to sensors not turned off when flying over water ?

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Has there been any reports about bad things happen due to sensors not turned off when flying over water ?

Yes ! However what you really want to do is minmize risk ! The best way to do that is turn the sensors off that way you dont have to worry about water reflections forcing a landing or the Sun Reflections that can challenge the sensors causing erratic moves..

As were were testing the Remote Landings we were not able to get a forced landing on the water with the sensor or without .

 

[boblui]

Yes ! However what you really want to do is minmize risk ! The best way to do that is turn the sensors off that way you dont have to worry about water reflections forcing a landing or the Sun Reflections that can challenge the sensors causing erratic moves..

I would like to hear about those incidents because I have never seen any such reports. So far it's just theory to me.

I beg to differ but I won't advise turning off the bottom sensors because if the pilot forgets to turn them back on again ( likely I would say ) before landing and the pilot applies full throttle down to land the craft as usual. The landing will be quite hard.

 

[InvisibleName]

Flying over the water is great. Enjoy, there’s really no special rules to it. Just make sure your drone is set to hover instead of land if the battery gets too low, there might be another option for hover somewhere else in there I forget

Why on earth would you set it to hover? Surely you’d want it to RTH if it’s in the middle of a river & there’s a signal loss issue? Set it to hover & it will eventually go for a swim! And as Meta4 says below, you can’t set it to hover on low battery, only for loss of signal

 

[InvisibleName]

I would like to hear about those incidents because I have never seen any such reports. So far it's just theory to me.

I beg to differ but I won't advise turning off the bottom sensors because if the pilot forgets to turn them back on again ( likely I would say ) before landing and the pilot applies full throttle down to land the craft as usual. The landing will be quite hard.

Agreed. I believe there may be issues if you fly to low to water when the sensors may get confused, but not if your flying at a reasonable altitude

 

[Meta4]

Just make sure your drone is set to hover instead of land if the battery gets too low, there might be another option for hover somewhere else in there I forget

There is no setting to cause your drone to hover when the battery gets too low.
And the only time your drone would land due to a low battery is if you are still flying when the battery gets to critical low voltage.
If you are still well out over water at critical low voltage level, you are asking for trouble and no setting is going to be much help.

 

[Mel 08]

Flying over the water is great. Enjoy, there’s really no special rules to it. Just make sure your drone is set to hover instead of land if the battery gets too low, there might be another option for hover somewhere else in there I forget

Mine returns to home automatically when battery gets to around 20 %

 

[aokusman]

I would like to hear about those incidents because I have never seen any such reports. So far it's just theory to me.

I beg to differ but I won't advise turning off the bottom sensors because if the pilot forgets to turn them back on again ( likely I would say ) before landing and the pilot applies full throttle down to land the craft as usual. The landing will be quite hard.

The manual explains the dangers of flying over water and other reflective surfaces.

 

[Greekislandlover]

I live on the coast, and my local testing ground is a park with a lake. I spend a LOT of time flying over water. The good thing about flying over water is there are no trees. Evil things, trees. Well, in a drone context

I have never had any doubt or worry about flying over water. The drone is always in line of sight, and the app will give you information about it's height above ground. I don't rely on the sensors and instruments, but what I can see by looking at the drone itself, and the footage coming back. I don't turn any of the sensors off when flying over water, and have never had any form of difficulty. If I'm going for a shot where the drone is low over the water (as I did in the week at an old watermill) I will always make sure I have a good view of the drone, and use my eyes to position it.

One thing you do have to understand is that the return to home point is set when you take off, and if you are on a moving boat, then it might decide to return (and land) on a part of the wet stuff where there is no longer a boat.

 

[boblui]

Agreed. I believe there may be issues if you fly to low to water when the sensors may get confused, but not if your flying at a reasonable altitude

As said before, the drone fuses all the sensor outputs before deciding whether any actions should be taken such as correcting it's position. Changes in the image seen by the bottom sensors alone will not make the drone do anything drastic.

You can do this simple experiment to appreciate this : hover the drone over a well-lit carpet with clearly discernible patterns. Do it indoor so it cannot rely on GPS to tell it's position. Now move the carpet. You think the drone will be fooled to think that it's drifting right ? See what will happen in reality.

 

[boblui]

The manual explains the dangers of flying over water and other reflective surfaces.

I am well aware of that but my experience says otherwise.

 

[mavicn00b]

Try stay around 10-15 min above water if you want to stay low. I find the ToF sensors start to act up <10m above water.

 

[boblui]

Try stay around 10-15 min above water if you want to stay low. I find the ToF sensors start to act up <10m above water.

in what way and to what extent ? that's the question. I have hovered my M2P 1 meter above water surface . It just stayed in place like it is over land.

 

[Mel 08]

I live on the coast, and my local testing ground is a park with a lake. I spend a LOT of time flying over water. The good thing about flying over water is there are no trees. Evil things, trees. Well, in a drone context

I have never had any doubt or worry about flying over water. The drone is always in line of sight, and the app will give you information about it's height above ground. I don't rely on the sensors and instruments, but what I can see by looking at the drone itself, and the footage coming back. I don't turn any of the sensors off when flying over water, and have never had any form of difficulty. If I'm going for a shot where the drone is low over the water (as I did in the week at an old watermill) I will always make sure I have a good view of the drone, and use my eyes to position it.

One thing you do have to understand is that the return to home point is set when you take off, and if you are on a moving boat, then it might decide to return (and land) on a part of the wet stuff where there is no longer a boat.

Can i ad something with out sounding like a no it all
When you take off the height on the screen is where you take off from.
If you take off say on a hill 50ft higher than the water your reading actually over the water isn't correct
Hope this makes sense

 

[InvisibleName]

Try stay around 10-15 min above water if you want to stay low. I find the ToF sensors start to act up <10m above water.

Sorry, don’t understand what you are advising