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Flying over water

I purchased a set of water pontoons for my mini just in case it goes down in water but who is to say it would land right side up if it fell from the sky. If it were a controlled landing it might land right side up. One thing is for sure, you would at least have a chance to recover your mini. Also I intend on trying the pontoons in the bathtub or my friends swimming pool. Good luck.
I used pontoons on my soark and in calm water they were excellent. Not too good in a chop!
 
Hi all,
I have been asked to takes some photos of an old wreck which is partially beached but also partially still in the water. Is there a safe 'height' to do this? I am worried as I have read about people having sensors confused when over water. I DON'T want to lose my Mini and have it drop into water! Any advice/safeguard suggestions would be gratefully received.
Its such a good question. I was
Hi all,
I have been asked to takes some photos of an old wreck which is partially beached but also partially still in the water. Is there a safe 'height' to do this? I am worried as I have read about people having sensors confused when over water. I DON'T want to lose my Mini and have it drop into water! Any advice/safeguard suggestions would be gratefully received.
 
Try again! I was flying my MPP up and down a canal recently and it did not like it! The height reading was rubbish and it kept trying to land in the canal. Landed safely! Never had the problem over the sea.
 
Why do birds fly into windows.
They see a mirror image of the background behind them.
Water reflects the sky as a flat very shinny surface. The amount of sun reflecting off that surface is also a key factor.
The processor's gets confused by the information from the vision sensors and overwhelmed by this information and cannot figure out what to do.
If you are flying fast the issue may be reduced as the processor is processing other information but as soon as you slow down or stop then the lower vision system takes over and the processor may become confused.
Flying above 15 feet should resolve any issues but keep in mind that flat water and reflections is a mirror to a drone at low elevations.
Hope this helps
 
I purchased a set of water pontoons for my mini just in case it goes down in water but who is to say it would land right side up if it fell from the sky. If it were a controlled landing it might land right side up. One thing is for sure, you would at least have a chance to recover your mini. Also I intend on trying the pontoons in the bathtub or my friends swimming pool. Good luck.

I believe I'll always steer clear of those pontoons. I've seen them, but I'm afraid that it's going to get those electronics wet even from a momentary splash or spray from the rotor's downwash. Since the weight of the prop guards triggers the 'payload' mode restrictions, I suspect that the pontoons would also do the same. I'm of the opinion, and it's only just that mind you, that you could be fine if you figure out a "floor" that you feel comfortable with. Mine would be about 2m, which should give plenty of ability to adjust the flight path before any "splash".
 
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Hi all,
I have been asked to takes some photos of an old wreck which is partially beached but also partially still in the water. Is there a safe 'height' to do this? I am worried as I have read about people having sensors confused when over water. I DON'T want to lose my Mini and have it drop into water! Any advice/safeguard suggestions would be gratefully received.
 
I believe the downward sensors do not activate until 20 feet AGL or lower. Also, the issue about confused sensors is when they cannot determine a pattern of the surface. Still water does not have a pattern. Water with waves does. I have a MA2 and have hovered at about 15 feet above the water for more than 10 minutes without issue. This water had waves.

A grate Part 1 and 2 of this topic.
 
My approach with the MM would be to do a few test flights in the area not too far out over the sea, so you can get it back to land if it misbehaves. I fly all the time over water, one day it might get wet but not so far. Just common sense really.

edit: this is a pretty old thread. I wonder how it went...
 
I fly over the water about 70% of my overall flight time. I have a GetterBack attached and DJI Care just in case I have an issue and end up in the drink. GetterBack lasts 3-4 years and cost $40. DJI Care $79. So for about $90 per year I have an insurance policy
 
I've hovered and flown about 1.5m over rather calm water a few days ago, no issues (yet) as far as I could tell.
The water you show in your video has plenty of waves for a pattern for the sensors to read. I think some of the issues arise when the water is flat calm "like glass". It is a mirror. I have many flights over water. Actually, my favorite place to fly. Never had a sensor issue and I flew with the sensors on all the time. I would need to turn off obstacle avoidance if I was trying to land in the cockpit of the boat because the drone would sense the boat as an obstacle and just hover out of arms reach. After reading all of these posts and some videos about flying from a moving boat, I will set my drone to Hover if the signal disconnects. When anchored, I will leave it set to RTH. I do not expect the drone to actually land on the boat. I'll manually land or hand catch.

Enjoy flying.
 
The water you show in your video has plenty of waves for a pattern for the sensors to read.
A pattern that's constantly moving like waves, is no use to the sensors.
They can't lock onto anything
 
A pattern that's constantly moving like waves, is no use to the sensors.
They can't lock onto anything
I'm not an expert in this area. I had read about patterns versus glass/mirror smooth surfaces. I know I have not tried flying over glass/mirror like surfaces. I also have not had this type of issue in flying over water. Hope I did not just jinks myself. :)
 
I've never had altitude stability issues over water with my MM1 so far, including flying as close as 0.5m above the water surface.

Last week I was flying over a river (approx 5m above the surface) and noticed that the aircraft was slowly drifting downstream. I let it hover and drift for a bit and it moved about 6-8m off its original position without any input from me. Most likely the VPS was active and it was locking on to ripples and eddies in the flow of the river, and prioritizing this over GPS. It drifted further than I expected for it having a good GPS signal, but then consumer grade GPS is actually a lot less accurate than we tend to think (5-10m accuracy is quite typical).

I've had a Tello lock on to and "chase" leaves that were being blown across the ground, but then the Tello doesn't have GPS.
 
I've never had altitude stability issues over water with my MM1 so far, including flying as close as 0.5m above the water surface.

Last week I was flying over a river (approx 5m above the surface) and noticed that the aircraft was slowly drifting downstream. I let it hover and drift for a bit and it moved about 6-8m off its original position without any input from me. Most likely the VPS was active and it was locking on to ripples and eddies in the flow of the river, and prioritizing this over GPS. It drifted further than I expected for it having a good GPS signal, but then consumer grade GPS is actually a lot less accurate than we tend to think (5-10m accuracy is quite typical).

I've had a Tello lock on to and "chase" leaves that were being blown across the ground, but then the Tello doesn't have GPS.

Good info. Funny story about the Telo and the leaves. :) I agree. GPS consumer signal accuracy is about 22 feet (about 6 meters), may be less. The VPS accuracy is about 4-6 inches (10 to 15 cm). I've read that DJI does prioritize VPS over GPS under the altitude of 20 feet (~less than 6 meters). Moral of the story is be cautious and pay attention, fly manual.

Cheers and happy flying.
 

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