How to fly and land the Mavic in a forested area?

[TestPilot]

I am not sure if this has been discussed, but how would you fly and land the Mavic in a forested area? Specifically, a tropical forest. All the threads I have seen is of the Mavic flying over open terrain with a few trees here and there....or over a coastline.

Assuming that you launch from a clearing, but beyond the clearing is the dense forest, with tall trees 50-65 meters tall. I would expect the GPS signal to be moderate at best, most likely weak.

Is it even possible to fly the Mavic like this? You can't even see the Mavic once it flies out of sight (and that will be very fast).

I bought some Range Extenders to hopefully increase the signal strength of the antennae, but I haven't had any chance to attempt this yet.

If anything goes wrong, the Mavic would probably end up in some tall tree branches and be stuck there forever....

Could this be the most challenging flight type for the Mavic (or any drone)?

 

[Former Member]

What's your mission?

 

[BadBob]

Bring a spinner cast pole with a rubber weight for recovery


Sent from my iPhone using MavicPilots

 

[TestPilot]

What's your mission?

Just photography and video...the usual.

 

[TestPilot]

Bring a spinner cast pole with a rubber weight for recovery


Sent from my iPhone using MavicPilots

The trees are all very tall, with dense crowns.

 

[Former Member]

I wouldnt do it with a Mav. You only have forward obstacle avoidance. P4P or P4P+ have better avoidance sensors in tripod mode and would be better suited if you're unfamiliar with the terrrain, and those might not even save you if you get disoriented.

It would be better if you could fly from a vantage point above where youre trying to shoot from, but if thats not possible, then just make sure you have good insurance like State Farm or other "total loss" coverage. All kidding aside.

BTW make sure to set your RTH to higher than any tree tops. That can be a buzz-kill if you get lost.

 

[bandroidx]

I find the range to get severely cut down when flying through trees. probably not a very good idea.

 

[CactusJackSlade]

If you have a clearing and do not get GPS lock, take off and get above the canopy. Hover long enough to get a home point... and if it does not get it automatically stay hovering until you gett full GPS then reset the dynamic home point manually on the app. This will at least get you back to your clearing.

Your bigger problem will be range - once you get very far at all your radio signal will die out quickly with dense trees and shrubbery...

 

[shevlin]

Remember that to fly legally you have to maintain line of sight. If you know that you will loose sight of it over the tree cover, then flight should be a no-go.

 

[JLane]

Just to clarify... Do you want to fly the Mavic through the forest, or above it?

 

[msinger]

Is it even possible to fly the Mavic like this? You can't even see the Mavic once it flies out of sight (and that will be very fast).

All will be fine as long as there is a clear path between the Mavic and the remote controller. If that path is blocked by trees, the remote controller signal will quickly be lost and the Mavic will attempt to return home.

I would expect the GPS signal to be moderate at best, most likely weak.

Unless you're in some kind of GPS dead zone, you should have a good GPS signal when above the trees.

 

[Former Member]

Where are you going to be doing this mission? USA? If your "tropical forest" is outside of the USA then FAA LIne-of-site requirement might not apply, but safety always applies. The higher the better in this type of situation.

 

[windblown]

Like any aircraft, you need a decent place to launch. As others have said, try to get an open vantage point for launch because it sounds like your chances of a loss of signal and automatic RTH is high and you''ll want the Mavic to have a nice large open area to come back to if RTH it triggered. (and make certain you're RTH is high enough).

With the Mavic I would not enable obstacle avoidance when you plan to be well above the treeline and in open skies. You're more likely to run into a problem with the avoidance sensor which might prevent a successful RTH than you are to run into anything. I wouldn't rely on the obstacle sensor too much in a forest situation anyway. It works fine for large solid objects, like buildings and cars, tree branches, not so much.

You might consider getting familiar with preplanning waypoint missions with Litchi or Autopilot since they will allow the Mavic to fly autonomously without a connection to the remote once launched, though that comes with it's own set of very real risks and may or may not be legal in your area.

 

[Bivalve]

I fly my mavic all the time from down in a valley, surrounded by trees. My range is clearly limited whenever the Mavic goes behind the trees. Really, really limited. Generally, through thick foliage, I have a thousand feet or less. If I climb the mavic to 400', the legal maximum here, then I get better range, but never more than a mile. Out in the open, over water, I consider the range to be unlimited. The trees just suck my signal.

 

[TestPilot]

I thank you guys for all your comments so far. Looks like the trees do suck the signal...

It would be so awesome to get footage and photos of the forest canopy with a drone -- safely. And probably with our current technological limitations, it is not safe. Someone mentioned Litchi and Autopilot?

I already bought a Range Extender Booster, those things where you attach them over the antennae...but I doubt it will help much.

Maybe the practical difficulties of doing this is why there are very few such videos in YouTube of hovering footage of the forest canopy...particularly of tropical forest with the dense canopies and tall trees. The risk is undoubtedly very high.

I will try to launch the Mavic from a higher vantage point to keep it in view, preferably a hilltop with a large clearing, but such a luxury probably is not possible most of the time.

 

[sdharris]

Given all the good advice from people already I think you may be overthinking this, if you find a clearing and get a home point slap bang in the middle of the clearing, make sure your RTH is set properly and then go try it. I doubt you will have to go far from the clearing to get nice shots over the canopy.

Litchi might work on a waypoint mission as I think it uploads the points and will fly even if out of signal, but the last time I looked Autopilot needed signal at all times as it uses its own software flight controller in the app. But have to admit I am not a fan of waypoint missions so have not checked recently for Autopilot.

I reckon it'll look amazing so looking forward to seeing the results.

 

[TestPilot]

Something else that came to mind, wonder what ya'll say...

I have been testing my Mavic in the field near my house, where it has many trees ranging from 20-30 meters in height. Of course, tropical forest are much taller.

If I flew the Mavic out from a clearing, straight up and then proceed to fly it past the clearing and over the forest, let's say a 100 meters out when it will be directly over the dense forest....probably out of visual sight....

Now if I bring it back using Return to Home, and my RTH is set at 70 meters high (because I need to avoid some rainforest trees that typically grow 60+ meters tall), will the Mavic automatically ascend to that height and then fly until it is right back over my clearing, and then only proceed to descend and land? I have no idea how it will behave, but I hope it is like this.

Ever since a bad experience during my second test flight where I nearly lost the drone after setting RTH while it was at a height of 3 meters above ground, and it swerved straight up and hit some branches and twigs of a tree behind me before assuming the RTH of 30 meters that was set in the controller....I have since been manually landing the Mavic during my practice sessions.....

So kind of like having a phobia of using the RTH now.....

 

[sdharris]

If its lower than the RTH height it will climb to the RTH altitude fly back directly over the home point and then descend to land. If it is higher than the RTH height it will stay at the higher altitude, fly back over the home point then descend to land.

Its pretty fool proof.

Your issue with it hitting the tree was by design if using RTH as it was lower than the set altitude so climbed first. If you wanted it to land where it was hovering in that instance you could have used the land option rather than the RTH but it would have landed where it was.

 

[msinger]

Now if I bring it back using Return to Home, and my RTH is set at 70 meters high (because I need to avoid some rainforest trees that typically grow 60+ meters tall)

That's cutting it pretty close. If you know for sure the tallest tree is 60 meters above the takeoff point, I'd recommend you set the RTH altitude to at least 75 meters. You need to allow for a buffer since the altitude is estimated.

 

[TestPilot]

I just got back from my trip without incident although there was one occasion when the camera feed went grey just as I was taking off and the app showed "Disconnected".

Luckily, the Mavic was still responsive to the RC, and I landed it again, and exited and reentered the DJI Go4 app and then flew without any further hitch.

I never once risked flying it away from sight and not further than 200 meters away from where I was standing (I set the home point as the RC). As I was limited by the distance and what I can do, I only took a couple of limited videos.... which will need to be edited.

Overall, I still feel that flying a drone in a densely forested area with very tall trees is the ultimate challenge for any drone pilot. The risks of losing your drone are very real, and once lost, there is next to zero chance of recovery (it could be stuck up in a tall tree somewhere in the dense forest....and that means the monkeys will have a new toy to play with).

Also, eagles are pretty common in tropical forest, and there is a very real risk that some individuals may attack your drone, especially if you inadvertently fly it near their nests (which are in the treetops). At best, you have to abort your flight, and at worst, you could lose and crash the drone...