Launch and return to boat

[DanMan32]

Most likely a throwback to P3 and before days. Downward facing sensors no longer control altitude unless in Terrain or Active Track mode.

It does provide height at least informationaly. But the real issue is that it may track moving water currents and interpret them as stationary.

 

[skamionek]

Raymarine Axiom GPS units now handle DJI drones

 

[tcope]

But the real issue is that it may track moving water currents and interpret them as stationary.

Not that this is a thing... but how would this affect anything?

 

[Meta4]

Third, Set your maximum distance to something like 5,000 meters. Here is why. You launch from point A and send your drone to point B. But your boat is probably drifting and the drone measures distance from the home spot--not where you are unless you have the "follow me" setting turned on and even then, the boat is always moving. The point is that one time when I was out and had my distance set for 500 meters I could not get the drone to come back to the boat even though it was less than 200 meters from me because I was 600 meters from the place where we launched. So be careful and practice a lot and you should be fine.

Or just turn off your Max Distance Limit altogether.
If you are flying from a moving boat you just have to be aware that if you get too far from the original home point, the drone will want to go back as the battery level gets close to only enough to make that distance.
The way to prevent that is to simply update the home point during the flight.
You can reset home to the current location of your controller (if you have GPS enabled on your tablet), but since the reset home point is out of data a few seconds later, you may as well just reset to the current location of the aircraft if it's somewhere in the vicinity of the boat.

 

[Meta4]

If you calibrate your compass on shore, you will be fine.

If you don't calibrate the compass at all, you'll also be fine.
Why the urge to calibrate compasses? It's completely unnecessary.

As to whether you should calibrate your compass from time to time, I would trust the engineer who designed your drone and ignore random advice that you get on this forum. The answer is yes if you move the drone a significant distance - think over 100 miles.

That's a bit more of that random advice that should be ignored.
Distance from anywhere makes no difference to the compass.

Your flight setup screen allows you to choose whether the drone should consider where it took off as home or whether it should use the location of the remote controller. If you choose the remote controller, it will automatically keep updating the location of home as the controller moves.

More of that random advice.
You can choose to reset home to the current location of the controller (or the aircraft).
Neither will update during the flight.

 

[Meta4]

It does provide height at least informationaly. But the real issue is that it may track moving water currents and interpret them as stationary.

The VPS sensors have a lot of trouble with ripples, reflections or clear water.
They would not be able to "track moving water currents" at all.
Even if they did, it's hard to see how that would have any effect on anything.

 

[Meta4]

Say goodbye to you investment. Not the best plan.... It's never a good plan to fly over water if you can avoid it.

Apart from the great photo opportunities, no obstacles and no interference, there's absolutely no reason to fly over water.
I can't imagine why anyone would ever want to.

 

[albatross911]

I'll post my story as I've lost my MP a month ago while flying from a boat. I did it for a charity as a lady was swimming around HK Island (in 15 hours straight) for donations. I have had experience flying from a boat before while scuba diving in the Maldives, so this was not my first time. The crash had nothing to do with the drone performance but only my situational awareness.

I did my first flight fine but here's something to remember. It was not a big boat just a small catamaran so I didn't have a lot of clear space to take off. I was just about a meter behind the drone as I started the the motors. I didn't intend to take off immediately and just wanted to check things are ready. However it was quite choppy that day and the boat bounced up and down quite a bit. Sensing the change in altitude the drone took off by itself and hovered. As the boat was moving so I was moving towards the drone. Only a quick ducking and pushing the sticks to go up and forward immediately avoided am accident to my face. So give more space and get prepared to ascend as soon as you have the props spinning if the water is choppy. That's my first bit of advice.

I dare not do hand catching (after watching some accident clips during my phantom 2 days) so landing was also tricky. There was a bit of netting in the front of the boat (for sun bathing but no sun that day) so I cleared out that space for landing. The boat was moving so I had to matched the speed but successfully landed it, although it took an intense minute to got it right.

I took some rest until upon a cape where the sea was really choppy with some rocks getting high waves, so thought I could get some epic footage of the lady swimming in front of those rocks. So I took off and this time ascended away. I took some good shots of her. The problem was we had a second sail boat which was her support ship that followed her for the whole swim. I already reminded myself during the first flight to be aware of the second boat and stayed away from it. But the second flight I was really focused on getting the good angle so lost track of it. The drone and the second boat crossed path and it hit the mast. As soon as a warning came up on the screen I looked up and saw it tangled with a rope and started dropping. I tried the CSC and hoped motors would stop and not hurt anyone on the boat and the drone would just fall onto the deck. It did but further rolled into the water. Watching the cached video is disheartening as I can get hear my "Uh Oh" and the swirling down. It didn't record getting into the water but probably connection was lost at that point already.

Well flying from a boat is definitely possible and can be a lot of fun too. But must be a lot more careful and more aware. I'd say normally we won't be flying that low but I had to film the swimming so must be close to water and therefore at the height of the mast.

I'll be going for a diving trip in the Maldives again in 2 weeks so I just got myself a MP2Z and had my first flight yesterday. With the zoom I don't need to get close to dangerous range again. So be careful, be safe and enjoy!

Here's the edited video from that swim:

 

[swooshdave]

The VPS sensors have a lot of trouble with ripples, reflections or clear water.
They would not be able to "track moving water currents" at all.
Even if they did, it's hard to see how that would have any effect on anything.

I should have pointed out this might only be an issue if you fly too low when the VPS kick in.

 

[NAUIDIVER]

I fly from my boat all the time. Folks on thread are giving you valuable advice.

1) disable sensors
2) either set RTH to hover or set to update to controller. Just depends on you and your ability to follow the flight or expecting to drift away or swing at anchor. I always set mine to update based on controller location.
3) if you’re a fiberglass boat, feel free to calibrate the campus if prompted. In my experience, never had an issue with mag interference.
4) Hand launch. Hand catch. Do so from wherever you have clear line of sight to an open sky.

That’s pretty much it. Some of the best stuff I’ve ever done has been from my boat. Have fun and enjoy. Here’s a stupid little vid I did at the start of the season. Totally dumb but it was fun.

 

[Flynz]

Lol. Great vid legend! And advice sounds good.

 

[Beejoo]

My pennyworth. I've been with a chum who flew his Mavic Pro extensively from a large but static steel boat with no problems. I've also been with a chum who successfully flew a Phantom 3 Pro from a small moving fibreglass motorboat several times. Only issue was I had to hand launch and catch it for him.

 

[tcfishing]

I don't know if this will help, but I live in Honduras right now. The house we live in has a big concrete deck. I fly from there all the time and some times I get the error and all I do is put my drone elevated on the handles of a plastic chair to launch. Error goes away. Never had any problems landing on the deck. Don't know if it helpd but works for me.

 

[Meta4]

I don't know if this will help, but I live in Honduras right now. The house we live in has a big concrete deck. I fly from there all the time and some times I get the error and all I do is put my drone elevated on the handles of a plastic chair to launch. Error goes away. Never had any problems landing on the deck. Don't know if it helpd but works for me.

Reinforced concrete is full of steel reinforcing.
Never launch or land on reinforced concrete.
It's just asking for trouble.

 

[NAUIDIVER]

Reinforced concrete is full of steel reinforcing.
Never launch or land on reinforced concrete.
It's just asking for trouble.

True ...but you don’t need to be far above it to clear errors. I hand launch if I get errors when my only viable launch site is concrete.

 

[msenjur]

i did a bit flying from sailboat. hand catch and release is the answer, but you have to be very carefull. Sail boat is even trickier becouse it has ropes all over the place.

so, i did hand release, flying around when we were sailing, and when i was finished i try to hand land it. but with no success. i was at the back of sailboat, and flying drone towards me, but when i stop manovering it and trying to recach it, sail boat moved for about 1m forward (it was still sailing), so i could reach it.

i asked the skipper, to make it stop for a few seconds, so i could catch it. i manage to catch it, but i had a heart in my pants.

so, next advise would be, to mount some kind of action camera holder on drone, because i think it would be much easier to catch it while boat is sailing.

 

[Maxheadspace]

Hi I'm planning an outing on a friend's 50 foot aluminium boat - plenty of steel as well no doubt. I expect I'll be able to lock into ~10 - 15 satellites but not sure about compass calibration. If I have clear viability; no wind etc am I going to be able to operate without risk of rogue flyaway etc - I'm not for example wether the controller will allow me to fly if steel upsets the compass? Thanks

I think you’re really just going to have to test it out and see for yourself. I’ve flown with no issues at times when I thought it would never go considering the surrounding metal. Then other times I’ve had compass issues when there seems to be no metal in sight.

 

[DrRobin]

Hi,

If the compass complains, just do a compass cal first and you should be fine. If you get it powered up in your hand with the compass working OK, then just put it on the [metal] deck, you might get a warning, but once in the air it will be fine.

I have flown my Air several times with a compass warning, it seems fine once in flight and seems to know which way it is going. Also if you have good visual you don't need the compass, you can steer by watching where it is going.

I took off from a small fibre glass boat in the summer, not quite the same as you but got some nice video, see link.

I wouldn't worry too much about return to home, unless like me you were at anchor.

Hope that helps.

 

[Meta4]

If the compass complains, just do a compass cal first and you should be fine. If you get it powered up in your hand with the compass working OK, then just put it on the [metal] deck, you might get a warning, but once in the air it will be fine.

The only thing that would make the compass complain is putting the drone down on top if steel.
If you do that, calibrating isn't going to fix the problem that the compass is warning you about.

I have flown my Air several times with a compass warning, it seems fine once in flight and seems to know which way it is going. Also if you have good visual you don't need the compass, you can steer by watching where it is going.

This is very dubious advice.
Ignoring a compass warning could be a good way to go home with one drone less than you arrived with.
And contrary to the advice above, you do need your compass every time you fly.

 

[Sportking]

Hi I'm planning an outing on a friend's 50 foot aluminium boat - plenty of steel as well no doubt. I expect I'll be able to lock into ~10 - 15 satellites but not sure about compass calibration. If I have clear viability; no wind etc am I going to be able to operate without risk of rogue flyaway etc - I'm not for example wether the controller will allow me to fly if steel upsets the compass? Thanks

I say, enjoy the boat outing but leave the drone at home. Don't fly from a boat. I have read too many horror stories on this forum and other media about drones being lost from a boat, either flyaway or just landing or crashing into the water. The boat flights are further complicated by potential IMU error problems related to various metal components or accessories on the boat. Too many variables and potential hazards are associated with flying from a boat.