Mavic Sensors Saved My Bacon

Nosebump · Mar 17, 2019

The idea was to follow a motorcycle and rider as he cruised down the road, with the drone ultimately climbing while panning down, and the cycle riding away. -Great idea, but as with other great ideas, reality kicked its foot in that clear pool of creativity.

First, the cycle started before I was ready, and rode off at a greater speed than we'd agreed. -What to do? I tried to catch up while attempting to lock on to him as the subject. Then I worried about and focused my attention on a stop sign that I was flying over. The tree was totally missed by me....but not the sensors.

Thank you DJI!

Amazon Drive

Former Member · Mar 17, 2019

Prop guards would also help.

BD0G · Mar 18, 2019

After watching the video its clear that alot more pre planning needed to be done. Stop Sign, Tree's, low hanging power wires, and coordination and pacing with the rider. Really ballsy place to film an action shot that involves a motorcycle and rider.

Leave yourself more of a buffer zone when trying to accomplish these shots unless you are a very skilled manual Mavic flyer. Another thing that could be done is just to setup a waypoint at the beginning of the shot by flying to it and pressing the C1 button on the bottom of the controller. OK first spot is locked . Then fly to the next waypoint Click C1 again. Second point is locked.

Then fly back to where you want the Mavic to return to. Click C1 again. 3rd point locked.

Now choose the speed of the Mavic to travel between the waypoints.

Run the Waypoint mission and observe the flight path making sure it suits your needs. Alter as needed. The reason for the 3rd waypoint near you is so that the Mavic flys back to you without ascending into a Retrun to Home if signal is lost.
Now when you fly the waypoint mission you can just let the automation fly the route while you control just the gimbal to point the camera and follow the ride to keep them in frame.

Nosebump · Mar 18, 2019

"Ballsy" is an inaccurate descriptor. I would use "stupid" instead. I pontificated in a prior message (-and it is haunting me now) that your mind can conjure up dramatic shots that will quickly outpace one's abilities. -In a nutshell, that's what happened to me. Mr. Spur-of-the-moment was an eager accomplice. I learned/relearned a lesson. I've not crashed a drone in quite some time, and Mr. Ego was at the controls. Had it not been for my very attentive forward sensors, my drone and the pine tree would've become one. I am now more humble, but without an expensive repair bill. I love happy endings!

So ego, poor planning, and lack of common sense were the culprits, and they can influence us all. Like most of us, I've watched the YouTube drone crash videos, and thought to myself how foolish those crashes were, and how could a pilot be so stupid. The answer lies in the fact that we all are human beings who can be affected by poor decisions. I'm a fixed wing pilot with over 50 years of experience and should already know all of this, but still...

-And perhaps that's Mr. Ego sneaking back in there, stunting the growth of the lesson that I learned. Tsk tsk tsk.

Former Member · Mar 18, 2019

Nosebump said:
"Ballsy" is an inaccurate descriptor. I would use "stupid" instead. I pontificated in a prior message (-and it is haunting me now) that your mind can conjure up dramatic shots that will quickly outpace one's abilities. -In a nutshell, that's what happened to me. Mr. Spur-of-the-moment was an eager accomplice. I learned/relearned a lesson. I've not crashed a drone in quite some time, and Mr. Ego was at the controls. Had it not been for my very attentive forward sensors, my drone and the pine tree would've become one. I am now more humble, but without an expensive repair bill. I love happy endings!

So ego, poor planning, and lack of common sense were the culprits, and they can influence us all. Like most of us, I've watched the YouTube drone crash videos, and thought to myself how foolish those crashes were, and how could a pilot be so stupid. The answer lies in the fact that we all are human beings who can be affected by poor decisions. I'm a fixed wing pilot with over 50 years of experience and should already know all of this, but still...

-And perhaps that's Mr. Ego sneaking back in there, stunting the growth of the lesson that I learned. Tsk tsk tsk.

Overconfident is a more polite way to say it. We are all guilty at some point in our lives.