My gf caught Covid, then passed it to me, so I have had a lot more time in the past month or so to fly my drone consistently. My flight skills have gotten better and better as a result. By no stretch am I good, but I have gotten good enough that over the past bit, I am intentionally flying closer and closer to obstacles at higher speeds. When I first started, I had hoped that the tracking would be good enough to film a skier or mountain biker autonomously. I quickly realized there are some situations that it tracks an object pretty well but others where it loses the target quite quickly. As a result, I have been trying to improve my flying skills so that I can manually follow an athlete.
I originally posted as my new skills were, I now think, catching up to the limitations of what the drone was willing to do. I am now pretty convinced that the drone just doesn't want to crash and the algorithm to prevent Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT for the pilot geeks out there) is pretty conservative. When I first started flying, I realized the obstacle avoidance was pretty good and therefore flew the drone way past my abilities assuming it would bail me out if things got a little too hairball. It works great for learning. Unfortunately, once you become a better pilot and proximity flying near obstacles is required to get the shot, the drone steps in to reduce the speed and therefore increase the safety buffer.
I had no inconsistencies with acceleration / top speed at a high altitude, but as soon as I was lower, forward obstacle detection and avoidance seem to prevent fully autonomous pilot controls. A new area I began flying through is essentially a single lane road with approximately 4x4m opening through the foliage. There are times, when I am perfectly centered, with what I would consider a perfect trajectory down the road, where I can get about 15mph or 7m/s. But if I am off at all, the drone throttles back as slow as 5mph or 2m/s and even drifts against controller commands to get itself in a happy place. Once clear of the choke point, it will pick up to max speed pretty consistently. I have come to the realization that the drone just doesn't like looking ahead to see certain death in the forward cams....
After reading around, Drone DJ mentions, " When I need to fly in tight places or near obstacles, the Cinewhoop is the drone for the job."
You don't want a Mavic. You want a Cinewhoop - DroneDJ I'm guessing he had run into some of the same issues with obstacle avoidance. I've realized that in order to film like this,
I'll need something other than a Mavic! It has some nice riding and flying. So, while I think I can still use my M2 for "heli" shots of skiers and bikers, but I'll probably be looking into building a cinewhoop or laser for the tighter shots and hope I can avoid plowin' em into something at 40mph!
I really appreciate the time that a few of you took to look into my "problem" and hopefully my recent findings will help anyone that's having a similar issue.
