New "nervous" Mavic 2 zoom owner in Plymouth UK

[krodgerson]

Hi Gryphon962

Many thanks for your reply - it is very much appreciated!

As far as drone experience is concerned, I have an early Parrot AR drone in my loft & that's it!

This will be my first "professional" drone so naturally I'm cautious. I imagine controls being reversed when returning can be quite daunting.

Your advice is so simple & I like that. Thank you. You are right, just letting go of the controls gives you time to get your head into gear before moving on. I am planning to have a practice on the moors we have near us, no trees, just miles of shrub as far as the eyes can see. I'll pick a calm early evening (while it's still light) & update you all of my progress.

I did check here & there are some checklists but I need to dig deeper as it has to be completely idiot proof - so much though that I can laugh at it when I look back after being more experience!
As you know, it's a lot of money to lose in one go.

Thanks again!

Dont worry about controlls being reversed when returning home. Just face it away from you so that contols work in normal way. Ie. Look at the back of the drone whilst returning home. Keith

 

[Loftyflyer]

Hi and welcome. Also be aware that it’s likely you’ll get a magnetic interference warning if you attempt to take off from a narrow boat as you’ll have several tons of steel beneath you! This should clear once you are airborne but remember to calibrate the compass (if prompted) AWAY from the narrow boat.

 

[ChrisOutdoors]

OP, I say this bluntly and politely; you're not ready for a boat. Crawl before you sprint.

I'd say most UAS owners would have difficulty operating from any moving platform, a boat moves in 3 dimensions.

I do it a lot, I would have never tried as a newbie.

Here's an example of why you should practice and know your UAS. Boat Landings, you pretty much need to hand launch and catch, there's no good alternative. Vision sensors when landing on a boat, must be completely disabled; especially your down vision. RTH has already been discussed, good for bringing it back to a general area but you'll need to manually fly back. Hand catching from a moving platform is tricky, if you catch the UAS and try to shut it down (holding down on joystick) while moving it's going to fight you to maintain GPS position and sometimes refuses to shutdown (as you would want it to). You have to be able to hold onto the UAS while using the other hand to initiate the emergency shutdown by holding both joysticks inwards (or outwards if you set that). I practiced all of this in my drive way over and over until I was very comfortable. You'll see what I'm talking about if you keep your MP2 at hover at head level, hand catch it and start walking with it, it'll fight you. That's why you need to execute the emergency shutdown and practice it over and over, it's a little unnerving at first to feel the UAS pull away from you, motors winding up,all while being on a slippery boat that's moving up/down and drifting.

To execute all that you need a neck strap for the RC or have a friend who can help and is willing to practice with you.

Don't forget, disable vision sensors or the UAS will fly away from you!

Any questions let me know, I've hand launched hundreds of times in the Gulf stream in the Atlantic where we move at 4-5kts constantly.

 

[charlas]

You can also tip the bird 90deg sideways and it will emergency shutdown, but just be careful of the props. And like I mentioned, don't even try hand land, just find a nice soft spot on the bank and put down, then hop off and pick it up, not like your moving quickly anyhow in a canal.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

I take off and land from my boat. A few lessons learned doing it.

If the boat is at anchor I can catch it.
If the boat is not at anchor there better be no current moving the boat.

If the boat is rocking up and down from waves be careful, I tried and succeeded catching the Mavic, but I got hit with the blades about two weeks ago and held on tight until the Mavic turned off. I didn’t want the thing to try and flyaway not knowing if it could fly with a potentially damaged blade.

This is what it looks like today and it’s healed quite a bit. It looked like someone used a razor blade and slashed the same some over and over until mush. There was no blood dripping all over the drone, sorry.

View attachment 77021

You might want to consider the new Lunar Landing Pad by Phantom Rain.

New Product Launch - Phantom Rain ! Lunar Landing Pad System :]

Mavic Air is on the list, < email me : Thank you [email protected] e-mail request sent, thanks.

mavicpilots.com

 

[Thomas B]

Welcome to the forum from the deserts of Arizona. Enjoy the forum,

The single best thing you can do in learning your drone, after the RTH, pause, and Home buttons is to read and understand the full (68 page) online manual. Get it here:

https://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/Mavic_2/20190417/Mavic_2_Pro_Zoom_User_Manual_v2.0_en_.pdf

I carry it open on my phone all the time for easy reference.

 

[ChrisOutdoors]

When hand catching practice tilting the drone 90 degrees to the surface and it will quit immediately.

Good way to cut yourself.

 

[charlas]

Good way to cut yourself.

Never had issues myself, super simple on the air. But your right, be careful, as you should at any point around the bird when it's powered on and potentially spinning props.

 

[RickJH]

get yourself up on the hoe or central park or around Shaugh prior way how about practising around Burrator just keep a bit away from reservoir although i.d be inclined to practise around Dartmoor away from water Burrator ok just keep away from water and Princetown keep away from prison

I am thinking now about going up on the moors at the Ivybridge side. I have checked for no fly zones on my app & it appears fine apart from Princetown upwards covering the top northwest of the moors as this is a military training area. I thought the Hoe is a no go area??

 

[GGehret]

Hi Gryphon962

Many thanks for your reply - it is very much appreciated!

As far as drone experience is concerned, I have an early Parrot AR drone in my loft & that's it!

This will be my first "professional" drone so naturally I'm cautious. I imagine controls being reversed when returning can be quite daunting.

Your advice is so simple & I like that. Thank you. You are right, just letting go of the controls gives you time to get your head into gear before moving on. I am planning to have a practice on the moors we have near us, no trees, just miles of shrub as far as the eyes can see. I'll pick a calm early evening (while it's still light) & update you all of my progress.

I did check here & there are some checklists but I need to dig deeper as it has to be completely idiot proof - so much though that I can laugh at it when I look back after being more experience!
As you know, it's a lot of money to lose in one go.

Thanks again!

I am a newbie also, with about 4 hours flight time so far, and one of the most helpful functions I find--especially if I lose sight of my drone because I looked down to the SC screen for a couple of seconds, is the RETURN TO HOME feature! If, after a bit I still can't see it--even though I can hear it--I hit the RTH button and let it come back to me until I see it again, and then cancel the rest of the return and go back to my flying. It helps with "nervousness" A LOT! Welcome and enjoy your new "baby."

 

[Liambasset]

I am thinking now about going up on the moors at the Ivybridge side. I have checked for no fly zones on my app & it appears fine apart from Princetown upwards covering the top northwest of the moors as this is a military training area. I thought the Hoe is a no go area??

actually in all honesty i have no idea about the Hoe being no fly zone i am born and bred in Plymouth now in Montreal Canada a swilly boy was i

 

[RickJH]

actually in all honesty i have no idea about the Hoe being no fly zone i am born and bred in Plymouth now in Montreal Canada a swilly boy was i

What a silly swilly! Actually I'm a Northerner but have lived down here for 10 years! (me luvver!)

Actually, you made me check again about no fly zones on the interweb again & it seems my idea of practising on the moors has been scuppered, see the attached!! This wasn't shown on my phone app!
Hmm, any local guys or anyone for that matter have any suggestions for a practice area around here without travelling for miles?? (Red dot is where we live - Plympton).

Cheers
Rick

 

[3Thumbflyer]

Is there a soccer field close? They don’t play round the clock, do they?

 

[3Thumbflyer]

Good way to cut yourself.

Are you just guessing or do you know first hand? It’s a factory feature to get the motors shut down quickly when your other hand is on the controller.

 

[Sleepy]

Searched for Ikopa & couldn't find anything??

Just double checked, ikopta search in utube came up fine. Used lower case and it is an ( i ) for the first letter.

 

[RickJH]

Is there a soccer field close? They don’t play round the clock, do they?

Yes there is a large field down the road in Ivybridge where we have taken the dogs - football pitches etc. & quite open, just wanted somewhere quiet & large enough - I was thinking about this place after I looked at the map.

I only thought of the moors as it is a large quiet area with stunning scenery, I only assume its restricted because it's a national park & has many variants of wildlife including free roaming sheep & horses.

 

[old man mavic]

as long as you fly within the drone safe guidelines for distance and VLOS and as long as you take off outside the boundry of the national park ,if it is not a geofenced area you should be able to fly there the airspace above the park is controlled by the CAA ,the only issue you may have is if your drone came down on national park ground you could be in trouble if seen by a ranger or even prevented from entering the park to retrieve it,the same thing applies to the national trust who say you cant fly over their land,because of the apparent hostility towards drone flyers on these sites it is a judgement call whether you take the chance or not

 

[charlas]

The Moors may be a bit of a challenge in places as they are military zones/national park land, but from looking at the FlySafe (DJI - The World Leader in Camera Drones/Quadcopters for Aerial Photography) and Drone Safety Maps (Drone Safety Map | Altitude Angel) they look OK around you?

 

[Bruce Lythe]

I am going to later today publish on this forum my experience of trying to land a mavic air single handed on a 1.5m beam boat in the Solent with boat engine off in near ideal conditions. The short answer is don't - it's not possible! The drift of 0.5 to 1 knots makes it impossible to do safely and I crashed. I know I am an idiot and ignored advice of others. Don't even try it! Hand catching is what I have to learn to do - land first then in a few days I hope to pluck up my courage and try again. I need a 5 metre diameter circle around my takeoff point of safe landing area not to be stressed. I can do it in less and sometimes the air lands back on the launch pad. But sometimes not after a 1km flight. With 5m diameter circle I have plenty of space to let it land if it is on RTH and Go4 crashes or I lose comms. I have time to cancel RTH and orientate it away from me and land logically on the pad to avoid "drifting to the right a little, picking up some dust". And I don't have to panic if the wind suddenly gusts....

 

[charlas]

If you want to use precision landing, use the launch button/slide on your screen, then slowly climb straight upto about 12ft, after there wait for a few moment (count 30 or so) and go fly, when you do a return to home you should get the precision landing where it uses the stored downward facing images to try orient itself as close as possible, and not just the GPS 4m area landing.

Landing on moving things IS difficult, done it a few times now on boats, at sea drifting. and your best bet is to try flat land it on your hand, not moving the drone but using the open flat part of your hand, and rather than adjust the drone, move your hand with your arm/feet so it's directly underneath, the downward sensors detect your hand as a flat area and it drops on and winds down it's props. Just remember to not put any stick input besides the down stick though, else wont spin down.

And BE CAREFUL props hurt!