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

sdharris · Mar 6, 2017

Glad it went well, looking forward to seeing the results once edited.

stratos · Mar 6, 2017

you could auto takeoff and then do an horizontal takeoff.
Not so hard and actually the footage look amazing.

pogopilot · Mar 6, 2017

TestPilot said:
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)?

I think this sounds like an opportunity you cannot miss. I suggest you bring a bright yellow or white landing "marker" to help you land exactly where you left from with your camera pointing directly downward. Once you have taken off, proceed slowly. At some point you may loose VIDEO connection. This means that you will soon loose RC connection at it is a warning that it is time to head back. You will simply use the map on your tablet to bring you back to your landing zone, point the camera 90 degrees downward and then slowly land on your target. Is there a risk? of course but you did not buy your Mavic to fly in your back yard. Have fun and post the video

TestPilot · Jan 12, 2018

Guys, just to update. I have posted the video here and have flown my drone over the forest, but I was pretty nervous about it all throughout, and only flew a little bit "in" over the trees.. Here's my video. Flying over the Rainforest of Taman Negara National Park, Malaysia

Fast forward today, and I'd like to try flying a longer distance over the tree tops, but always have this fear that the video or transmission will be lost with all the trees jamming the signal out.

And yet, here is a video made way back in 2012, of a custom drone (not even a Mavic) that does just that, and it flew and landed all the way!

And here is a video of a Phantom 3 which also accomplishes this.

Amazing stuff. How much is the risk exactly?

Lake_Flyer · Jan 12, 2018

TestPilot said:
How much is the risk exactly?

The answer is 43.

Lake_Flyer · Jan 12, 2018

Lake_Flyer said:
The answer is 43.

Drone flying is all about knowing the risks and mitigating them. Since you obviously have no clue about the risk, since you ask, it is definitely a no go. Beyond VLOS, which is after only a few hundred meters, even over a winter forrest without leaves, you have no idea what the risks are. It could be low flying helicopters, bird attacks, and loss of control signal.

I flew a couple of inspections right after christmas for the provincial environmental services, over the forest. I didn't take my Inspire further than 300m. I will never fly beyond VLOS for any customer. Unless waypoint flying is permitted for commercial use, which still isn't in my country.

For hobby use, it will never be permitted at all.