Obstacle Avoidance -- Newby Question

[Dockhead]

I've made maybe 20 flights with my Mavic 2 Pro, my first drone, so I'm still getting the hang of it.

I almost crashed it today, however! I like to make kind of dolly shots, flying sideways, and missed crashing into something by inches. There's no way to see where you're going, when you do this!

The drone does have side obstacle sensors, but they are disabled in normal flight mode. Why is this?

I see that they are active in Tripod Flight Mode. Maybe I should be using that mode, while flying sideways for this kind of shot?

Anybody have any tips?

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Tips:

1. The side sensors are known to be the least sensitive (which is possibly why DJI doesn't even use them in normal P mode, figuring they are only really effective at Tripod speeds). So even when they're on, you shouldn't trust them as well as the others.
2. You CAN see where you're going when you do side/dolly type shots.
   1. You're supposed to be flying LOS, so with your eyeballs not on the screen, you should see when you are approaching an obstacle. Every time I hit something going sideways, I was not doing this.
   2. See #1 (least sensitive sensors). For this reason, fall back on the old method (that we used before we had any kind of obstacle sensors), which is a) turn the craft to the side (the direction you will be flying) and look where you're going, then b) turn back to the direction you will be shooting and fly sideways, as far as I believe you are clear from having looked to the side. But still use VLOS in such cases.
3. The above is similar to course lock, where you point your craft the direction you will be flying to indicate the course to lock into, then fly while orienting the craft any other direction to shoot. The point here is that at first, you pointed your craft forward and looked where you will be going before setting the course lock

Chris

 

[Dockhead]

Thanks for the great reply. I see now how common this kind of crash is. I guess I will just need to make this kind of shot much more sparingly and much more carefully. Maybe tripod mode should be used. Also, I'm incredibly lucky I didn't crash the drone.

 

[ShadowCat]

Its a bit like looking at your sat nav in your car to drive rather than looking out of the window to see where you are going.