Flying over water

[mavicn00b]

Sorry, don’t understand what you are advising

Dont fly too low above the water. The drone will get confused and may attempt to autoland.

 

[InvisibleName]

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

Correct. The height that the MA2 reports back is alway based on the height at which it took off. Fly up 50ft from take off point and it will report +50ft. Fly 20ft down a hill, cliff, sea wall etc and it will report -20ft. Consequently, it could be telling you a negative height when in fact you know you are higher than the ground or water below

 

[InvisibleName]

Dont fly too low above the water. The drone will get confused and may attempt to autoland.

Got you

 

[Meta4]

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

Actually the manual says nothing of any danger flying over water or reflective surfaces.
It just advises that the VPS sensors may not work properly in those situations.

The Vision Systems cannot work properly over surfaces that do not have clear pattern variations.
The Vision Systems cannot work properly in any of the following situations.
Operate the aircraft cautiously:
a. Flying over monochrome surfaces (e.g., pure black, pure white, pure green).
b. Flying over highly reflective surfaces.
c. Flying over water or transparent surfaces.
d. Flying over moving surfaces or objects.
e. Flying in an area where the lighting changes frequently or drastically.
f. Flying over extremely dark (< 10 lux) or bright (> 40,000 lux) surfaces.
g. Flying over surfaces that strongly reflect or absorb infrared waves (e.g., mirrors).h. Flying over surfaces without clear patterns or texture
i. Flying over surfaces with repeating identical patterns or textures (e.g., tiles with the same design).
J. Flying over obstacles with small surface areas (e.g., tree branches).

 

[Greekislandlover]

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

You make a valid point! I have flown over a cliff edge, but I can't honestly say what the sensors were saying at the time as I was observing the drone and the video. My guess is that as it knows where it is by GPS, if it has any mapping data access, or cached then it might know you have moved from an area at 25M high, to one at 0M high and read accordingly. I stand ready to be corrected of course.

 

[Greekislandlover]

This all reminds me of another post some time ago. Somebody was asking if there was an app to tell them how windy it was near them. The smart-Alec reply was "Yes - trees".

By relating this, the point I'm making is that there are other sensors than the ones on the drone. Called eyes and ears, connected to this thought process module called a brain Knowing how the drone reacts to various eventualities is essential of course, but at the same time DJI say "Fly with caution" so that's where these old-school sensors come in.

 

[Meta4]

My guess is that as it knows where it is by GPS, if it has any mapping data access, or cached then it might know you have moved from an area at 25M high, to one at 0M high and read accordingly. I stand ready to be corrected of course.

Guess again.
Your drone has no way of knowing if the ground below it is 10 metres or 1000 metres down.
The height displayed on your screen will always be the height above (or below) the launch point.

 

[johnmoxl]

I love the look of low shots at speed over water. Also stay 10 feet above water. To get the look I want I bought a Mavic 2 Zoom. I zoom the camera lens in when flying over water so I don’t have to fly so low.

 

[Halcyon]

Dont fly too low above the water. The drone will get confused and may attempt to autoland.

Where did you get information that the drone would autoland above water if it's confused? Wouldn't it just hover?

 

[molson]

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.

Dont fly too low above the water. The drone will get confused and may attempt to autoland.

This one i can confirm - I lost a brand new M2P when it autolanded into water - my mistake was trying to get to close. as long as you maintain a minimum of 10' you should be fine, but of course that is hard to judge from a distance. if you are at altititude, no problem - i do that all the time and feel confident in the reliability of the drone. have yet to have a bird interaction but have seen plenty of them on youtube.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

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.

So we should be past theory by now as you can see how the sensors can get miss led by both water and sun reflections.
When I think of flying over the water , I think of something like this . I have flown in snow so thick that the drone tried to land do to the sensors.

Skip the first 5 minutes ,

 

[Nostris]

Most important…Make absolutely sure that your drone has updated its HomePoint, BEFORE you fly out over the water. If it takes of in ATI mode and then gets it’s GPS lock when it is over the water, it will remember the first point at which it got GPS lock as it’s home point…..And you really don’t want it to think it’s home point is in the middle of a river!

 

[Halcyon]

So we should be past theory by now as you can see how the sensors can get miss led by both water and sun reflections.
When I think of flying over the water , I think of something like this . I have flown in snow so thick that the drone tried to land do to the sensors.

Skip the first 5 minutes ,

At what point in the video does the drone land itself?

 

[Halcyon]

This one i can confirm - I lost a brand new M2P when it autolanded into water - my mistake was trying to get to close. as long as you maintain a minimum of 10' you should be fine, but of course that is hard to judge from a distance. if you are at altititude, no problem - i do that all the time and feel confident in the reliability of the drone. have yet to have a bird interaction but have seen plenty of them on youtube.

Can you share more detail, like what did the flight logs indicate? I have flown over the water extensively, but at considerable height.

 

[Max L]

QUOTE="boblui, post: 1011210, member: 124913"]
Has there been any reports about bad things happen due to sensors not turned off when flying over water ?
[/QUOTE]
I had an issue going under a low bridge with the sensors on. When it sensed the bridge above is lowered itself dangerously close to the water.. less than 1' ?. After passing through i quickly gained altitude and made dam sure the automatic obstacle avoidance and hover when obstacles detected were turned OFF.

 

[InvisibleName]

Most important…Make absolutely sure that your drone has updated its HomePoint, BEFORE you fly out over the water. If it takes of in ATI mode and then gets it’s GPS lock when it is over the water, it will remember the first point at which it got GPS lock as it’s home point…..And you really don’t want it to think it’s home point is in the middle of a river!

But that applies to every time you fly!

 

[aokusman]

But that applies to every time you fly!

It’ should. Nobody should be taking off without 12 sats.

 

[jamesj]

I have unfortunately had my M2 pro go for a swim. I had been flying for about 15 minutes still had battery in the 25 % range and was hovering about 40 ft from the beach perhaps 20 ft in the air. The drone announced landing and headed and started to descend. I applied full throttle and ending up biting it about 5 ft from shore in 3 ft of water . We all know they sink right . I had my hands on it before it touched bottom. DJI care has me back in the air. Because if something goes wrong drones sink I am now particular about flying with floats. I have an inflatable pair, but they are pretty flimsy. Iris Raptor makes a “scooocum “set that I am waiting to arrive. AND, the legs they attach to re create the same landing pedestal as the phantom series, which is the one thing I miss about my phantom 3 since I upgraded. Looking forward to be able to catch my Mavic as we used to catch the phantom from the boat deck. Certainly having to land in rough water isn’t going to be a happy ending, as the drone will certainly flip over with floats on, BUT IT WILL NOT SINK.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

I have unfortunately had my M2 pro go for a swim. I had been flying for about 15 minutes still had battery in the 25 % range and was hovering about 40 ft from the beach perhaps 20 ft in the air. The drone announced landing and headed and started to descend. I applied full throttle and ending up biting it about 5 ft from shore in 3 ft of water . We all know they sink right . I had my hands on it before it touched bottom. DJI care has me back in the air. Because if something goes wrong drones sink I am now particular about flying with floats. I have an inflatable pair, but they are pretty flimsy. Iris Raptor makes a “scooocum “set that I am waiting to arrive. AND, the legs they attach to re create the same landing pedestal as the phantom series, which is the one thing I miss about my phantom 3 since I upgraded. Looking forward to be able to catch my Mavic as we used to catch the phantom from the boat deck. Certainly having to land in rough water isn’t going to be a happy ending, as the drone will certainly flip over with floats on, BUT IT WILL NOT SINK.

Hey James if you find that the Iris Product does not for you, Check out the Sea Lander as it allows for some Remote Landing in some choppy waters.

New Product Release : Rescue Jackets / Float your Mavic in the Sea.

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[Greekislandlover]

Guess again.
Your drone has no way of knowing if the ground below it is 10 metres or 1000 metres down.
The height displayed on your screen will always be the height above (or below) the launch point.

I did say I was happy to be corrected, so thanks for that! Honestly, I don't tend to look at the height information when flying, so really didn't know