Hand recovery is an almost must on a boat. Launches can do either way you're comfortable with. If you deck launch, turn off the CA sensors, don't do you any good over water anyway. Launch on the further most point of the boat into the wind. Be prepared to immediately give forward pitch after liftoff to get away from the boat. One reason you don't want CA sensors on and on recovery you don't want it to stop on approach. Or if you forget to or don't want to disable the CA's back it in(if you don't have rear CA's. If you are moving fast recording, don't forget to turn off smart RTH or be ready to cancel it when it wants to go into that with a lot of bat left to get back to take off point. One other way to avoid that is to periodically reset home point during flight. If you have
care refresh and are planning on doing a lot of over water flights, check out my Mav water recovery system on you tube I made, not the 'getter back' system. Bolton
Thanks Bolton
The sensor system on the Mavic has always been a bit of a mystery and I always fly with precision landing turned off as I don't want it to climb to 30' on launch and I hate it taking control of the last 4' on landing. I thought that this turned off the downward cameras but now I am not sure.
When you say CA above I assume you mean Collision Avoidance ? I am also not sure how that works and it is a bit difficult to find out. It also takes time to discover exactly what sensors the Pro has. It seems that there are 4 cameras in addition to the main one and also 2 ultrasonic rangefinders on the bottom. DJI also says it has redundant sensors but I have no idea what or where they are. I am not sure how you do it but it sounds sensible to turn all off.
I am confident I can get into hand launching/landing as there are a couple of ways I have seen on youtube so it is just a question of choosing one and practising in ideal conditions. The one big question mark I have about launching from the boat is the time it takes to get control of the aircraft. A couple of months ago I tried my Tello from the boat. It was a gorgeous morning and I thought there was not a breath of wind. If you do not know, the Tello is a new DJI mini drone that actually flies quite well but is easily blown around as it is so light. In the garden at home I can fly it easily in a light breeze but any gusts overpower it.
So I was confident when I set it up in our cockpit after moving the boom to one side. There was then nothing overhead for 20 feet or so until the back stay crossed over. I took off and a second or so later when it was 6' up a tiny gust of wind came and just took it and by an incredible bit of luck it hit the boom and then dropped at my feet. The boom just happened to be at exactly the right height and position - if the Tello had gone in any other direction it would have been over the side and over water. The lesson I learned is that it takes a second or two for you to take control with the sticks and be able to respond to the movements of the drone. As soon as you take control then it is easy but I would be worried if I tried the Mavic that I would be able to react fast enough in those critical seconds after launch to any problem. Again, after getting control I am confident I could fly around and then land again without issue.
I would only ever attempt any flying from the boat when we were at anchor so at least if it did crash into the water I could recover it and claim under the
DJI care refresh cover. I will have a look at your water recovery system which might come in useful when flying over water after launching from the land as I do now. The issue then if I crashed is actually knowing where it was on the seabed. I have bought one of those new very strong neodymium magnets so as long as I know the location I can drop that down from our dinghy and should be able to get it.
I have just watched your video. Have you made one before because I recall seeing another one which used the Water Buoy ? I said at the time that I have one of them but it is old now and I think yours must be a more recent model as I can't remember anything about a light. I don't want to worry you but the old version I have was withdrawn as so many failed to inflate. Maybe things are better now. I have to say the lifting capacity of that little balloon is very impressive as is the speed it went off. The only demo I have seen was submerged for a minute or two before it bobbed to the surface (or maybe that was the Getterback).
Thanks again. I wish I had the ability to do field testing in a swimming pool in the garden. Unfortunately the weather here is just not good enough to make having one worthwhile.
Paul