Landing on moving boat

[DavidGuidos]

Fellow droners: I plan on flying my M2P from a boat in open water in a very large lake ('sparsely populated area' per 14 CFR 107.25). Takeoff should be no problem, but I'm a little worried about landing on a moving boat. I'll be on upper deck, about 10' above the water.
Any advice?

You might want to practice in the back of a slow moving pickup truck while a friend drives. That might improve your chances when you get to the boat.

 

[kanaloa6779]

@dwolfe002 : I was referring to options need to hand catch the drone. If there are obstacles that make your life hard you have to disable all sensors.
The most important thing for me would be an assistant (and having tested this on land before)
The other question is if @DroneDragon has the chance to talk to the captain and ask him to stop for a short moment if necessary.
It probably is a higher risk flying over water - so the final question is if the taken footage is worth it.

 

[Meta4]

Hand catching while hovering within reach ...
No need to deal with RC after bringing to nearby hover.

That's fine on dry land or a stationary boat but when the vessel is moving, you can't bring it in to just hover.
You have to match the speed of the boat if you take your hand off the right stick, the boat moves forward and the drone is instantly out of reach behind the boat.
Retrieving from a moving boat adds an extra dimension to the difficulty of hand catching, that's difficult to imagine till you've tried it.

 

[dwolfe002]

You might want to practice in the back of a slow moving pickup truck while a friend drives. That might improve your chances when you get to the boat.

That would probably work. The only thing I would say is to strap in somehow to keep yourself from falling out when reaching for the drone. When I was much younger I did fall out of a moving car and the results weren't good. On second thought, have your mother drive the truck, sometimes young friends can be the most dangerous things you will face.

 

[dwolfe002]

@dwolfe002 : I was referring to options need to hand catch the drone. If there are obstacles that make your life hard you have to disable all sensors.
The most important thing for me would be an assistant (and having tested this on land before)
The other question is if @DroneDragon has the chance to talk to the captain and ask him to stop for a short moment if necessary.
It probably is a higher risk flying over water - so the final question is if the taken footage is worth it.

I understand but the OPs question was posed with the boat moving forward while trying to catch it. I just thought about it and I have seen a video of a guy on a sailboat trying to catch one. It was pretty rough seas and I don't think he caught it but it did end up in the boat. I'll try to find it later. I think it was on youtube.

 

[pat.jour]

That' s the way they do it during a race!!!

 

[dwolfe002]

That' s the way they do it during a race!!!

That's the one I had seen. Thanks for finding it. For some reason I thought it was a mavic. I just ran a quick search on youtube and only found a few successful catches but most boats were moving slow.

 

[Sitka78]

Fellow droners: I plan on flying my M2P from a boat in open water in a very large lake ('sparsely populated area' per 14 CFR 107.25). Takeoff should be no problem, but I'm a little worried about landing on a moving boat. I'll be on upper deck, about 10' above the water.
Any advice?

I might suggest that you turn off the proximity sensors so if you want to hand catch or come close enough to land, you would have a better chance. Also make sure that your home point is set on yourself rather than where you launched from. Practice whatever you plan to do ahead of time over land so you will be more familiar with all your moves. Last of all, have fun!!

 

[Mavicsailor]

I might suggest that you turn off the proximity sensors so if you want to hand catch or come close enough to land, you would have a better chance. Also make sure that your home point is set on yourself rather than where you launched from. Practice whatever you plan to do ahead of time over land so you will be more familiar with all your moves. Last of all, have fun!!

Lots of cool YouTube’s on this, but we don’t see the ones, and I’m sure there are many, that are not retrieved or where someone gets hurt. If you do this, think about all of variables and risks. Not a maneuver to be taken lightly. Appears much easier with the Phantom than the Mavic.

Interesting Youtube showing the challenges faced when attempting this.

 

[globetrotterdrone]

Oh, I forgot to ask how fast your boat was moving when you tried it?

No need to get grumpy here ... just wanted to get you a tip about the sensors.

 

[dwolfe002]

Wasn't grumpy and sorry if it sounded that way. The OP is going to be trying something that will be very difficult in my mind and I would really like to see him pull it off IF that is what he decides to do. I don't see what he wants to do as being a fairly simple catch of the drone. I didn't have a lot of time but went out and tried it just standing in my yard with the sensors on. Not a big problem. I messed up the first time but brought it down into my hand the second time, by slipping my hand under the M2P with all sensors on. It was reasonably easy. When I tried it again I tried moving my hand up and down maybe 4 or 5 inches just to simulate bouncing on a boat and the M2P would rise. If he is going to be moving at a speed on a boat he doesn't need those problems being on a basically unsteady platform to start with. In my mind, he needs to catch it without introducing the vertical component into the mix because that movement will take time, which he doesn't have being on a boat moving horizontally. I take it you didn't try this while moving but think about the time it took to bring the drone down to your hand. Now think about that same maneuver while running across the yard. I personally don't think I could do it 1 out of 100 tries. Now think about running and following yourself maybe head high with the M2P. Not a problem at all unless you are close enough for the front sensors to detect you and then it wants to hesitate or stop completely. You would never be able to catch it. So I think all sensors should be off and you need to have as little vertical movement as possible. If he tried three movements at once, controlling vertical, horizontal, and reaching to catch the Mavic I think he would run out of hands. Match the position of the Mavic with your position on the boat using horizontal speed being controlled by one hand and pull it out of the air with the other. That's my solution to the problem. It will be somewhat close to being like it was just sitting there hovering depending on wind, speed steadiness of the boat and mavic, any disturbances if the water, and probably a host of many other things. I'm not trying to be grumpy and don't have anywhere near all the answers but I am trying to tell him how to do it the safest possible way that I can think of. All I have seen from a lot of people is that hand catching is easy. I just want him to know for his question it is not as easy as it sounds and he will have to consider much more than just catching it. He won't be catching, he will be grabbing it out of the air while it is moving at the same speed as he is. Anyway, I'll back out of here because I have provided my solution and it is up to the OP as to what he wants to do. Sorry if I sound grumpy but I may change my avitar to warn people that I am.

 

[brettbrandon]

I saw this discussed elsewhere and one of the solutions was to fly the quad into a soft net mounted on deck to catch it. Dosen't sound very gimbal friendly though unless you fly in front of the net, let it hover and drift backwards into it.

 

[dwolfe002]

I saw this discussed elsewhere and one of the solutions was to fly the quad into a soft net mounted on deck to catch it. Dosen't sound very gimbal friendly though unless you fly in front of the net, let it hover and drift backwards into it.

Yea, that would probably work but with some type of probable damage. Of course with this stunt the net could be the answer to the least probable damage.

 

[GB1Yorkshire1]

You didn’t mention the size of the boat, assuming that 10ft up is the launch site, is this area wind protected as once you clear the wind shadow then life could get interesting.
Do you have control over the boat speed and direction?
If you have control of the boat and space to land, then I would land on the boat. Get the boat to stop or slow down and simply land....... hopefully no waves.
I have done this repeatedly with a phantom 4 and had absolutely no problems (25ft boat)

 

[rustysteel]

Having done this a couple of weeks ago I can speak from personal 1st hand experience.
I was on a pontoon boat and thought it would be a cool opportunity. Launching was no problem. I had a buddy driving the boat and after flying for a few minutes and getting the shots I needed i had him idle the motor. Simple, I thought... problem is, we were still drifting. I tried for several very intense minutes to land and thought it was not going to end well. I could line up but was not able to keep lateral movement with the boat and touch down was next to impossible. Because you have to maintain lateral and vertical controls while landing on a moving object, you are not going to be able to hand-catch. After several missed landings no one else in my boat was willing to put their hand out to catch a moving blender.
My savior was that i had several minutes of battery left when i decided to land. Eventually I was able to match drift with the boat and made a hard landing between the seats to "catch" it. I don't think i will ever be doing that again.
DO NOT use return to home as 99.9% chance you and the boat are no longer at that location.
If you do decide to fly from a boat i recommend landing on a nearby dock then motoring over to retrieve it.

 

[dwolfe002]

Having done this a couple of weeks ago I can speak from personal 1st hand experience.
I was on a pontoon boat and thought it would be a cool opportunity. Launching was no problem. I had a buddy driving the boat and after flying for a few minutes and getting the shots I needed i had him idle the motor. Simple, I thought... problem is, we were still drifting. I tried for several very intense minutes to land and thought it was not going to end well. I could line up but was not able to keep lateral movement with the boat and touch down was next to impossible. Because you have to maintain lateral and vertical controls while landing on a moving object, you are not going to be able to hand-catch. After several missed landings no one else in my boat was willing to put their hand out to catch a moving blender.
My savior was that i had several minutes of battery left when i decided to land. Eventually I was able to match drift with the boat and made a hard landing between the seats to "catch" it. I don't think i will ever be doing that again.
DO NOT use return to home as 99.9% chance you and the boat are no longer at that location.
If you do decide to fly from a boat i recommend landing on a nearby dock then motoring over to retrieve it.

rustysteel, you have made my day. I can see the panic in your words. I haven't laughed this hard in a while! There are a lot of things to consider when the boat is moving even at a drift speed. Sounds like you have come to your correct conclusion "

I don't think i will ever be doing that again." but I did notice "I don't think" instead of "I won't". Is there any hope you'll post another goodie later. ​

 

[rustysteel]

LOL! I was crapping my pants. I can look back now and laugh but i seriously thought I was screwed.
Other than not taking off at all, the only other thing i wished i would have done differently was hit the record button. THAT would have been a very funny video...
And thank you for catching my wording error. I need to modify my statement from " I dont think" to "there's no way in hell ill do that again and if i try please slap me silly and throw my a$$ off the boat".

 

[dwolfe002]

LOL! I was crapping my pants. I can look back now and laugh but i seriously thought I was screwed.
Other than not taking off at all, the only other thing i wished i would have done differently was hit the record button. THAT would have been a very funny video...
And thank you for catching my wording error. I need to modify my statement from " I dont think" to "there's no way in hell ill do that again and if i try please slap me silly and throw my a$$ off the boat".

Yes, I would have loved to see the video. I didn't think it was a wording error. I was more looking forward to more rustysteel exploits with video of course. I couldn't slap you silly, you're already too funny as it is. My sides would never recover.

Take care and happy flying!

 

[GH02050]

I believe you definitely want to disable all sensors before you flying back the boat. Obstacle avoidance and landing protection are nothing but trouble on the water. Also I wouldn't land land the drone in your hand, instead grasp the drone firmly by the body while hovering, or slowly flying, just above your head (then throttle down). I also would be very careful with flipping the drone upside down to bring the props to a stop. I'd would be concerned about damaging the gimbal.

 

[dwolfe002]

I believe you definitely want to disable all sensors before you flying back the boat. Obstacle avoidance and landing protection are nothing but trouble on the water. Also I wouldn't land land the drone in your hand, instead grasp the drone firmly by the body while hovering, or slowly flying, just above your head (then throttle down). I also would be very careful with flipping the drone upside down to bring the props to a stop. I'd would be concerned about damaging the gimbal.

The only other thing I can think of is to change his right stick (forward speed) exp settings since he is going to be on an unstable platform. Possibly change the right stick so that more input will result in smaller speed changes. That way it would be easier to control forward speed with one hand.