I can confirm "flying from a boat" is crazy

bucefalo · Jun 16, 2017

hello guys,
just a short note to those willing to have (an heart attack) when flying mavic from a boat..
I've read here and there and so I've got conscious about risks..
what I did was to take off from land side, once mavic on air I jumped on boat and we started to move

it was nice until... yes until I didn't move the mavic and the boat would "slowly" move!
there you realize that even slow speed means your mavic goes far and when you push the wrong side it goes crazy far [emoji14]
then we stop the boat and yes.. is not like a car [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]
so boat moves that little bit that makes landing basically impossible (for mavic..)
now i had plenty of juice and I didn't want to try a hand catch.. so after 5-6minutes of being still trying to understand how to land it we decided to go on a side of the river where I could safely land the mavic!
guys unless you have a LAND spot to land your mavic.. avoid avoid avoid this risky task!

Cyberpower678 · Jun 16, 2017

bucefalo said:
hello guys,
just a short note to those willing to have (an heart attack) when flying mavic from a boat..
I've read here and there and so I've got conscious about risks..
what I did was to take off from land side, once mavic on air I jumped on boat and we started to move
it was nice until... yes until I didn't move the mavic and the boat would "slowly" move!
there you realize that even slow speed means your mavic goes far and when you push the wrong side it goes crazy far [emoji14]
then we stop the boat and yes.. is not like a car [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]
so boat moves that little bit that makes landing basically impossible (for mavic..)
now i had plenty of juice and I didn't want to try a hand catch.. so after 5-6minutes of being still trying to understand how to land it we decided to go on a side of the river where I could safely land the mavic!
guys unless you have a LAND spot to land your mavic.. avoid avoid avoid this risky task!

Too late. Did plenty of boat launches in Thailand. None of them were hand launch and landings, and it was a privately booked speed boat. So much landing area. I had no issues. You just adjust to the boat's movements while descending.

bucefalo · Jun 16, 2017

Cyberpower678 said:
Too late. Did plenty of boat launches in Thailand. None of them were hand launch and landings, and it was a privately booked speed boat. So much landing area. I had no issues. You just adjust to the boat's movements while descending.

well my friend giving this note to people might show this as an easy task..
you did well and you are good at it (and speedboat is big enough)
mine is just a warning to those not experienced.. it's HIGH RISK to don't land or lose mavic while controlling it!
my friend any video to show about this landing (yours)!?

vertigo235 · Jun 16, 2017

So landing on a moving boat is harder than landing on a stationary landing pad?

Good to know.

diego · Jun 16, 2017

I recently learnt this lesson too. Hand launched the Mavic and for a few seconds was wondering why it wasn’t holding until I realized that the Mavic was holding position and I wasn’t. Landing was much harder and I barely managed to catch it. Very nerve wrecking!

JHSlayer · Jun 16, 2017

vertigo235 said:
So landing on a moving boat is harder than landing on a stationary landing pad?

Good to know.

Yep. Thank God they posted this. Other wise you may have been all "Willy nilly " on the water. Who'd have thunk??
[emoji12]

Plawa · Jun 16, 2017

Funny, just did that this week.. it's scary at first but take your time and it's not too bad. One thing to remember is to disable smart RTH, the last thing you want is the Mavic to decide it needs to go home because it only has enough battery to go to a spot that's now 2 miles away from you in the middle of a lake.. that's a no-no...

All the boat chase shots were shot in ActiveTrack mode.

JHSlayer · Jun 16, 2017

Cool. Only thing better would be if I got to enjoy the lake...

BossBob · Jun 17, 2017

Why do you think that the coastguard helicopters prefer transferring between moving boats. Much easier to match a planned course and speed if you are both doing the same thing than both trying to stay in the same spot countering the random movements induced by wind and currents.

Robbyg · Jun 17, 2017

BossBob said:
Why do you think that the coastguard helicopters prefer transferring between moving boats. Much easier to match a planned course and speed if you are both doing the same thing than both trying to stay in the same spot countering the random movements induced by wind and currents.

Yes but you can land a helicopter while maintaining forward velocity. A Mavic stops moving forward and hovers just before it lands.

Rob

Lake_Flyer · Jun 17, 2017

We fly our Inspires from our small console boat, taking off from the bow deck and catching when landing. Crew of three. A skipper, an observer/catcher and a pilot (me). I recon with my new Mavic it's a lot easier. It catches really simple compared to a big Inspire 1, which you have to catch by grabbing two legs diagonal. (and keeping your head down

)

Lake_Flyer · Jun 17, 2017

Robbyg said:
Yes but you can land a helicopter while maintaining forward velocity. A Mavic stops moving forward and hovers just before it lands.

Rob

Not when you disable VPS, I hope and expect? Haven't played with that since I only have it for a few days.

idiogenic · Jun 17, 2017

vertigo235 said:
So landing on a moving boat is harder than landing on a stationary landing pad?

Good to know.

Yeah, I'm astounded that this even needs to be said!

Good argument for learning to fly a cheap drone first, rather than "operate" a Mavic that actually flies itself, IMO.

GerdS · Jun 17, 2017

It's almost impossible to safely land a Mavic on a moving boat the normal way, except for hand-catching. But for that you will need a second person, as you have to permanently keep forward speed same as that of the boat.
VPS on or off makes no big difference here. The Mavic tries to keep its position until the motors are shut down, therefore it will drift or slip over the boats deck and maybe crash into obstacles in the last second.

JoKhool · Jun 17, 2017

Robbyg said:
Yes but you can land a helicopter while maintaining forward velocity. A Mavic stops moving forward and hovers just before it lands.

Rob

You can still control the mavic even when it is in the process of landing. Forward/reverse and yaw left and right.

bucefalo · Jun 17, 2017

guys.. those who are just guessing didn't even try it!
but I warned you be careful

GerdS · Jun 17, 2017

There are a few nice examples available already...

And it's not just the Mavic...

BossBob · Jun 17, 2017

Robbyg said:
Yes but you can land a helicopter while maintaining forward velocity. A Mavic stops moving forward and hovers just before it lands.

Rob

Only if you use the auto land or landing protection. Stopped doing that many flights ago. If both vehicles are moving in the same direction at the same speed they are not moving relative to each other, therefore the Mavic will appear to be hovering to occupants of the boat. Yes, it's difficult but who needs easy!