Anyone had trouble with law at either pensacola beach or Navarre beach? As we all know its illegal from pensacola beach to okaloosa island due to the national seashore. Neither confirming nor denying that I fly on Navarre beach.
Looking for drone pilots in NWFL
- Thread starter jskipper73
- Start date
Sorry that I hadn't checked in recently and, BINGO, you win the Kewpie Doll. Honeycomb artificial reefs.
I haven't had issue yet. You mention that it's national seashore from okaloosa island to Pensacola beach but FYI, I googled and copied this photo outlines the national seashore boundaries:
Dropbox - File Aug 30, 10 31 12 AM.png
Hello, I just recently received a MP for my birthday/Christmas from family members. I am a total novice. Looking to meet up with others. I live Pace and work in Pensacola. Have yet to get it in the air as I am learning how to set up to fly (compass.......). If you would like to meet up and help a newbie I would appreciate it.
Congrats Carmine! You will love it and pick it up quickly. My 13 year old son was able to fly ours out of the box. I live in Spanish Fort, but would come to Pcola if a group gets together to fly. If you are ever over here, give me a yell and we can fly.
Greetings all,
I'm new to this forum and wanted to check in with the P-cola area MP pilots. I live on Perdido Bay (on the Alabama side) and do most
of my flying over and around the bay staying clear of the east side of the bay (away from Ferguson Field and NAS foot prints). As an
aside my MP went into Perdido Bay last Saturday and sat in 4 feet of salt water for about 10 minutes or so. I immediately pulled out the battery and flushed the drone with fresh water from a hose at our boat house. Took the drone up to the house disassembled it and sprayed the circuit boards and other components with CRS Electronics Cleaner to clean away any residual salt/minerals. If you haven't
taken your MP apart DJI has applied a clear protective coating on the CBs to provide some water proofing. The CRS Electronics Cleaner that I used not only cleans but is hydrophobic as well. I then used the wife's hair dryer (just air, no heat) to dry all of the components then
let them sit over night. The next day I re-inspected the CBs using a magnifying glass to look for traces of salt/mineral deposits. I found a few small areas of salt/mineral residue and used a soft bristle toothbrush and CRS Electronics Cleaner to carefully clean those areas.
I let the components air dry for a couple of hours then reassembled the drone. I put a freshly charged battery into the MP (the battery
that was in the drone at the time of the incident fried itself) turned it on and it powered up as if nothing had happened. By then it was late in the day so I just took off and hovered at about 6 ft to check the systems and flight characteristics - everything appeared to be normal.
I've flown the drone 5 or 6 times since then and the bird flies as if it had never taken the salt water bath.
Just my opinion but covering a MP that has been submerged in water (fresh or salt water) in rice for several days is not the way to go.
1) The rice doesn't come into direct contact with the water inside the tightly closed outer shell o the drone. Therefor there is very
little moisture "wicking" into the rice. The moisture mostly evaporates into the atmosphere leaving a salt/mineral residue on
the CBs and other components like scum on the inside walls in a bath tub when the dirty bath water is drained out.
2) Large bags of rice typically have small amounts of "rice dust" cause by the grains of rice rubbing against each other. Some of that
dust can make it's way into the inside of the drone and become part of the residue left behind after the moisture evaporates.
3) Even if the moisture inside the drone did wick into the rice the minerals suspended in that moisture would remain and form a residual
coating on the internal components of the drone.
4) The burying the drone is rice method takes days to dry out the drone. That means that the moisture and it's harmful contaminates
sit unopposed for days leaching corrosive substances into the innards of your drone.
Having your drone submersed in water (seawater or fresh water) requires aggressive intervention, it is imperative that the battery
be removed ASAP, and the drone be washed/flushed with clean water immediately. It is also imperative that the drone be quickly dismantled and the circuit boards and other components (including the motors) be thoroughly cleaned with 99.1% isopropyl alcohol (can be hard to find) or an electronics cleaner (specifically formulated for cleaning circuit boards, contactors, etc.) and only after the sensitive
electrical components have been cleaned should the drying process be attempted.
I'm new to this forum and wanted to check in with the P-cola area MP pilots. I live on Perdido Bay (on the Alabama side) and do most
of my flying over and around the bay staying clear of the east side of the bay (away from Ferguson Field and NAS foot prints). As an
aside my MP went into Perdido Bay last Saturday and sat in 4 feet of salt water for about 10 minutes or so. I immediately pulled out the battery and flushed the drone with fresh water from a hose at our boat house. Took the drone up to the house disassembled it and sprayed the circuit boards and other components with CRS Electronics Cleaner to clean away any residual salt/minerals. If you haven't
taken your MP apart DJI has applied a clear protective coating on the CBs to provide some water proofing. The CRS Electronics Cleaner that I used not only cleans but is hydrophobic as well. I then used the wife's hair dryer (just air, no heat) to dry all of the components then
let them sit over night. The next day I re-inspected the CBs using a magnifying glass to look for traces of salt/mineral deposits. I found a few small areas of salt/mineral residue and used a soft bristle toothbrush and CRS Electronics Cleaner to carefully clean those areas.
I let the components air dry for a couple of hours then reassembled the drone. I put a freshly charged battery into the MP (the battery
that was in the drone at the time of the incident fried itself) turned it on and it powered up as if nothing had happened. By then it was late in the day so I just took off and hovered at about 6 ft to check the systems and flight characteristics - everything appeared to be normal.
I've flown the drone 5 or 6 times since then and the bird flies as if it had never taken the salt water bath.
Just my opinion but covering a MP that has been submerged in water (fresh or salt water) in rice for several days is not the way to go.
1) The rice doesn't come into direct contact with the water inside the tightly closed outer shell o the drone. Therefor there is very
little moisture "wicking" into the rice. The moisture mostly evaporates into the atmosphere leaving a salt/mineral residue on
the CBs and other components like scum on the inside walls in a bath tub when the dirty bath water is drained out.
2) Large bags of rice typically have small amounts of "rice dust" cause by the grains of rice rubbing against each other. Some of that
dust can make it's way into the inside of the drone and become part of the residue left behind after the moisture evaporates.
3) Even if the moisture inside the drone did wick into the rice the minerals suspended in that moisture would remain and form a residual
coating on the internal components of the drone.
4) The burying the drone is rice method takes days to dry out the drone. That means that the moisture and it's harmful contaminates
sit unopposed for days leaching corrosive substances into the innards of your drone.
Having your drone submersed in water (seawater or fresh water) requires aggressive intervention, it is imperative that the battery
be removed ASAP, and the drone be washed/flushed with clean water immediately. It is also imperative that the drone be quickly dismantled and the circuit boards and other components (including the motors) be thoroughly cleaned with 99.1% isopropyl alcohol (can be hard to find) or an electronics cleaner (specifically formulated for cleaning circuit boards, contactors, etc.) and only after the sensitive
electrical components have been cleaned should the drying process be attempted.
Sorry for your crash but nice to see you were able to salvage the aircraft. And, thanks for taking the time to post such detailed instructions. I fly over the Santa Rosa Sound often so I probably need to purchase the supplies you mention to have them on-hand.
Sorry I havent been on for a while. The last time I had my drone in the air was during the eclipse back in the summer. I would love to get out and fly with a group but finding time is challenging esp around the holidays. I will keep my eye on this thread and see what anyone comes up with.
Whiskyradio
Member
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Seems to be quite a few folks here in the northwest Florida area. I'm in pensacola, and glad to see more people around here getting into the hobby.
I moved to Okaloosa Island from Long Beach, CA. I've got a Mavic Pro and the dji goggles. I'm new at flying drones and would love to meet up with people; learn from you guys to accelerate my learning curve. Please let me know if anyone is interested in dropping by to fly around the area. I'm in a part of the island that isn't a part of any no fly zones and we have a 140" 4k screen to play videos back on.
Are you sure about that? I don’t see any non-controlled airspace between the Destin bridge and Orange beach, AL. Much of it is National Seashore.
So we're not allowed to fly at the seashore? I know I'm not in military airspace or in airport space. I'm on Santa Rosa Blvd, my understanding is that you can't take off or land in a national park but if your drone is in the air that's FAA and as long as I'm low enough to be legal and have line of sight from the house to the drone...
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Update, my drone is registered with the FAA, I bought stickers, I passed the online test.
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Not sure what the online Test is...
Be careful. There is a lot of Class D airspace around there. I’ve tried to fly my Mavic around there and it gave me a bunch of warnings. I know a Mavic will stop before flying into an NFZ so maybe you’ll find a seam. And don’t forget you can’t call the tower anymore and LAANC isn’t available to get authorization.
Be careful. There is a lot of Class D airspace around there. I’ve tried to fly my Mavic around there and it gave me a bunch of warnings. I know a Mavic will stop before flying into an NFZ so maybe you’ll find a seam. And don’t forget you can’t call the tower anymore and LAANC isn’t available to get authorization.
I happen to live right at the seam and there is a public access area by the house. Hence the invite for anyone to come up, do a little flying and enjoy beers and a bite afterwards. Hey F22loader, come on over.
HawkDriver
Active Member
I just came back from a Pcola Beach vacation. I made the drive out to Perdido Key where there was an open 'hole' in the controlled airspace and park areas. Got some decent sunrise shots and beach footage. Learn from my mistakes though: Sand goes everywhere when taking off and landing. Put down a wide blanket and close your travel case/bag. I think my vacuum got more minutes of usage than my drone did. 
Learn from my mistakes though: Sand goes everywhere when taking off and landing. Put down a wide blanket and close your travel case/bag. I think my vacuum got more minutes of usage than my drone did.
This is why I highly recommend hand launching and hand catching if you are at the beach. There are a number of YouTube videos demonstrating the technique so you can do it safely.
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