Mini 2 How To Drone In The Desert!

[DSRT_VLTR]

Location is Lower Salt River Canyon in Tonto National Forest,, AZ USA. Taken with Galaxy S10.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Im a huge fan of flying from inside the car , so this is pretty close to that.
Is it possible to fly from the Car in the Dessert or do they not allow cars out there .

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain or the Desert

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Do/would cars not become oven in such a place or do you run its engine and air conditioning?

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Do/would cars not become oven in such a place or do you run its engine and air conditioning?

Im always running the Car with the AC or Heat whatever be the case when flying now but have never seen a desert and wonder how the logistic are if you have to park and than walk miles out , no clue ?

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain.

 

[DSRT_VLTR]

Im a huge fan of flying from inside the car , so this is pretty close to that.
Is it possible to fly from the Car in the Dessert or do they not allow cars out there .

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain or the Desert

I am next to a large parking lot. This point on the Salt River in Mesa. AZ is managed by the National Forest Service & is used year-round as a launching point for kayaks, stand-up paddle boards, inner tubes, etc... The Salt & the nearby Gila, are the only rivers in the Phoenix area that flow year-round and are quite popular. The Salt is a natural 'lazy river' that you can float down effortlessly for 4-hours if you want to & is chest-deep at it's deepest. It's a cheap way to relax & pass a lazy afternoon. EVERYBODY is in a good mood there!

I should mention that mine wasn't the only drone up there when I was flying!

Im always running the Car with the AC or Heat whatever be the case when flying now but have never seen a desert and wonder how the logistic are if you have to park and than walk miles out , no clue ?

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain.

I should mention that I am lazy & launch from trail head parking lots. I fly exclusively in the Sonoran Desert & have never had a negative encounter with anyone. My funniest encounter was with a woman watching me land my Mini 2. When I successfully landed my drone on the launching pad in the parking lot, she gave a loud cheer & applauded. I need to have her accompany me on all my drone flights!

 

[DSRT_VLTR]

Here is a selfie at the Salt River taken with my Mini 2 showing my typical drone launch set-up. My wife is patiently waiting at the picnic table behind me & a random child is approaching me to ask if he can look over my shoulder at my display. You can see the parking lot & pit toilet at the rear of the picture. The trick is to make your drone video's/photos look like you're in the middle of nowhere.

 

[DSRT_VLTR]

Here is a selfie at the Salt River taken with my Mini 2 showing my typical drone launch set-up. My wife is patiently waiting at the picnic table behind me & a random child is approaching me to ask if he can look over my shoulder at my display. You can see the parking lot & pit toilet at the rear of the picture. The trick is to make your drone video's/photos look like you're in the middle of nowhere.

Oh... and the trees are desert-loving mesquite.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Here is a selfie at the Salt River taken with my Mini 2 showing my typical drone launch set-up. My wife is patiently waiting at the picnic table behind me & a random child is approaching me to ask if he can look over my shoulder at my display. You can see the parking lot & pit toilet at the rear of the picture. The trick is to make your drone video's/photos look like you're in the middle of nowhere.

That is a great trick, worked on me like a charm. Thanks for sharing that .

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain. Land on the water.

 

[Starz]

Do/would cars not become oven in such a place or do you run its engine and air conditioning?

The southern end of Arizona can be brutal during the summer season.
Too often I see a newscast regarding a child or pet left in a vehicle that did not survive. The other unfortunate mistake that’s made is the out of town visitors that want to hike up some trail without the appropriate water supply. Typically airlifted to the neighboring hospital or transported to the morgue.
My flying during the summer is at night. It’s just too hot during the day.

 

[Capt KO]

Use a landing pad, sand can be deadly.

 

[YVRGUY]

I am next to a large parking lot. This point on the Salt River in Mesa. AZ is managed by the National Forest Service & is used year-round as a launching point for kayaks, stand-up paddle boards, inner tubes, etc... The Salt & the nearby Gila, are the only rivers in the Phoenix area that flow year-round and are quite popular. The Salt is a natural 'lazy river' that you can float down effortlessly for 4-hours if you want to & is chest-deep at it's deepest. It's a cheap way to relax & pass a lazy afternoon. EVERYBODY is in a good mood there!

I should mention that mine wasn't the only drone up there when I was flying!

I should mention that I am lazy & launch from trail head parking lots. I fly exclusively in the Sonoran Desert & have never had a negative encounter with anyone. My funniest encounter was with a woman watching me land my Mini 2. When I successfully landed my drone on the launching pad in the parking lot, she gave a loud cheer & applauded. I need to have her accompany me on all my drone flights!

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

When I successfully landed my drone on the launching pad in the parking lot, she gave a loud cheer & applauded. I need to have her accompany me on all my drone flights!

Try hand launching & catching if you ever see her again, it looks cool ..........but more importantly keeps the drone out of the dust.
It might also be an effective demonstration of how much control we normally have over these drones.

 

[maggior]

Try hand launching & catching if you ever see her again, it looks cool ..........but more importantly keeps the drone out of the dust.
It might also be an effective demonstration of how much control we normally have over these drones.

Better yet, hand catch at night. When the landing light come on it looks like you are being abducted by an alien spacecraft .

I had a group of 10 people applaud when I hand caught one day. This time it was light out. Took me totally by surprise.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

I know what you mean, a P3 at night looks spooky, the M2P landing light is "Beam me up Scotty" like. The FPV and Mini2 with those moving vari colour 'bands' of light is even better than the P3.
However (thinking primarily of USA flights), a strobe, as required by USA law, would really 'zap' your eyes ay night
I have had a strobe-on and a firehouse arc 5 on the back of a drone in daylight and have to land /launch the drone down nose-towards-me even in daylight.
Mounted on top of the drone, to give aircraft a better view, I think you'd be in diffs at night unless you hand catch launch /catch above eye level.

I have a reflector for the M2P/Z auxiliary/landing light and once, and once only, made the mistake of looking into the reflected beam at night, even at distance it was 'bright'.

 

[akdrone]

Use a landing pad, sand can be deadly.

thanks for the tip! I'm leaving in the morning for a week of flying around Phoenix and didn't consider bringing my landing pad but I guess it makes sense. much appreciated.

 

[Looking Down On You]

A little bit of sand, some water and a drone.
Little rough but smoothing out my flight a lot more then when I did this one.

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[TonyPHX]

Lovely footage!

 

[edfrombama]

Good morning to all-

Lower Salt River is one of my favorite places- really nice. You Arizona droners are doing some very good work- most enjoyable. And I don't think the folks drifting down the Salt river would complain about anything- they're having too much fun.

thanks for the post- Ed