How to fly inside tight and very tight gorge, canyon, etc.?

[lomposlapos]

Advices on flying in tight and very tight gorges, canyons? About, 5-30 m wide, 10-80 m high.

Settings, sensor reliability, flight techniques.... etc.?

 

[Meta4]

Advices on flying in tight and very tight gorges, canyons? About, 5-30 m wide, 10-80 m high.

Settings, sensor reliability, flight techniques.... etc.?

You won't have GPS because the GPS antenna wouldn't have a clear view of the sky.
Unless the canyon bottom is very well lit, your drone would be in atti mode with no horizontal position holding and no "brakes".
And you'd have a very limited height range above the canyon floor.

 

[Walleye Hunter]

I'd use prop guards if I was doing the flying Other than that, I have nothing.

 

[Sir Maxwell Greene]

Prop guards for sure. GPS will be limited and nerves on edge, take your time. *Spare props for good measure.

 

[Moving Zen]

Agree with the prop guards, the M3 ones are pretty stout. Slow flight obviously and the guards hopefully will keep a bump from becoming a crash.

 

[Walleye Hunter]

How bad will GPS be affected? I sit in my living room and pick up enough satellites to run everything I have. I know when GPS first became available to us minions, it wouldn't even pick up under a single tree but today, it's rare that I can't get enough satellites to show my location. With my RC Pro, it even accurately depicts my location inside the house. And I have roofed porch out front.

 

[Sir Maxwell Greene]

I fly between skyscrapers in the big city, Mavic 3. Over low rise buildings, roads and monorails in the city GPS signal is good.
However, if in front of a very tall building or between 2 tall skyscrapers, office block etc GPS is intermittent and sketchy. I'm guessing it has to do with the GPS not being able to keep a constant connection with the drone(switching between satellites sporadically).
I think you may experience the same, but depends on the depth of the gorge and how deep you will be flying...

 

[cinclodes]

Advices on flying in tight and very tight gorges, canyons? About, 5-30 m wide, 10-80 m high.

Settings, sensor reliability, flight techniques.... etc.?

My comment that follows is based on P4P experience. I have found that, when launching and recovering in tight quarters, the sensors can be more of a hinderance than a help. I once launched from a small opening in the jungle on a mountain in Peru. During the recovery, the drone kept hovering just out of arms reach over a steep drop-off. It was hard to finesse it into coming in close enough to grab.

 

[maggior]

My concern would be GPS going from non-existent to marginal and the drone switching between atti mode and gps mode. Unfortunately there isn't a way to force the drone into atti mode.

 

[Karlewski]

I've done stuff like this several times and my best advice is launch from a wide section with GPS or at least wait til you've got all the Sat signals you can then fly straight up to get more. Generally, there aren't that many great shots to be had low in a canyon with your drone that you can't get by hand/long selfie stick. Flying above and or along the rim makes nice shots though a "rocket or dronie can come out sweet but GPS required. . . Find a wide spot if possible and generally keep it high enough so the drone's sky view is "enough." That definitely doesn't mean you have to be above the rim, just not way in there at some constriction. . .
PS the RC/return to home is likely not going to work. . . the shadows can be rough, bright sunlight and dark canyons are the worst mix for cameras, best do this on a cloudy day with diffused light. . .

 

[MavicAir2Marc]

The danger is getting far enough down in the canyon to lose GPS and then an altitude limit for non-GPS flight kicks in not allowing you to reach the top edge of the canyon.

 

[anotherlab]

How bad will GPS be affected? I sit in my living room and pick up enough satellites to run everything I have. I know when GPS first became available to us minions, it wouldn't even pick up under a single tree but today, it's rare that I can't get enough satellites to show my location. With my RC Pro, it even accurately depicts my location inside the house. And I have roofed porch out front.

GPS signals are of sight. In a canyon, they can get blocked by the canyon walls.

The reason your devices can get a location from inside the house is due in part to how phones pick up location. Location services on Android (and off the top of my head, probably iOS) get your location from multiple sources. If it has a current GPS fix, it will use that. It will also check the last known location of the device. And it will also check via wi-fi.

 

[Dogpilot]

I have tried using my M2P in a slot canyon. It did not like it at all, even in the wider portions. GPS, the satellites are moving, so they only have a small window when they are actually able to be received. Orientation of the canyon does make a difference, more to the N-S the better, longer window of observability. It would climb up 10 M or so and then refuse to move in any direction. It just saw obstacles in all directions and made it only want to go up and down. So it was good for a snapshot, but little else.