Over water flight

[Chris_GREECE]

Hello Pilots. I have many times in the past fly over sea but at least 8 meters high. So the question is what can happen if i fly stable on 3 or 2 meters above sea? Do i have to worrie about botom sensors or not? Is it ok or the drone maybe become unstable due sensors reading?

 

[Mossiback]

It will not become "unstable" but the downward sensors can be inaccurate over water. If your camera has zoom capability you can get the same effect without risk by zooming in a bit.

 

[DanMan32]

There are two concerns with VPS and open water. M2 uses IR as well as optical, so it may detect the basin bottom as ground rather than water surface.
Also VPS supplements GPS foe lateral stability. Water currents could be inaccurately tracked as stationary positions, much like tracking a treadmill.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Hello Pilots. I have many times in the past fly over sea but at least 8 meters high. So the question is what can happen if i fly stable on 3 or 2 meters above sea? Do i have to worrie about botom sensors or not? Is it ok or the drone maybe become unstable due sensors reading?

We fly over the water almost every day, it is best to turn off all sensors when flying low to the water,
including the auto landing feature.

The Auto landing feature only takes about 2 seconds to recognize that you are low and trying to land , thus its best to turn that off as well.
If you have low wind , your good for the skim across the water.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Mavic in the rain.

 

[Chris_GREECE]

Thank you all. Its clear now. Maybe the zoom can do the job safe.

 

[macfawlty]

Thanks for the explanation of the sensors. I've also realized that the ocean swells quite a bit. I typically fly over rivers that have rock islands and sapling trees so disabling all sensors might result in flying into them. 4-5 meters seems to be plenty low enough for that speedy motion blur look. There has to be a horizon line or distant object as a focal point. Can't be all blur.

The zoom wouldnt be that useful depending on the shot. A cinematic shot low over water is more of a horizontal straight out move along the ground (water) plane toward the horizon. You get a nice motion blur vignette (assuming a 1/50, 1/60 shutter) with a fairly tight area of focus. The beauty of the blur is framing a tight focus in space and time. Flying low with the gimbal down it's all just a blur even at higher altitudes. Works if accompanied by a tilt up as a transition, otherwise no. Any yaw in the shot kills it. A 30 degree gimbal tilt is about the most you'd use unless you're pretty high, in which case you're just happy to be flying.

I find that every time I tilt gimbal down, I accompany it with an increase in elevation which maintains the axis between cameras and focal point. The inverse is also true, decrease elevation, tilting gimbal up. Maintaining a focal point on the horizon or starting point of rotation cinematically looks the most natural, the most dramatically correct.

 

[Chris_GREECE]

Hello Macfawlty,
Thank you about all of these very usefull informations. Actually i had in mind shooting video the water from low height but also to shoot video my kids during play in the sea. 3 years now i fly over sea and shooting video, boats or tankers etc but the low height is something i consider always for some reason.
Thanks for your answer.

 

[macfawlty]

Hello Macfawlty,
Thank you about all of these very usefull informations. Actually i had in mind shooting video the water from low height but also to shoot video my kids during play in the sea. 3 years now i fly over sea and shooting video, boats or tankers etc but the low height is something i consider always for some reason.
Thanks for your answer.

I’ve found that you don’t need to fly that close to the water surface because the camera always looks closer to the water than it is particularly when you’re moving. I’m reluctant to disable obstacle avoidance because I’m often flying close to objects worried less about the water surface than obstacles in my flight path.

 

[jackmaetal]

Hi, I use our drones for our farm's activities. One of our farms is a Seaweed Farm, so I fly over water. I get some footage below 8m. I do notice it dipping and rising at times but, generally stable. Unless the conditions get a tad bit worse, that's were I notice a bit more movement but all good. Here's a recent video I shot using our farm's "new" Mavic Pro:

 

[Wipster]

Hi, I use our drones for our farm's activities. One of our farms is a Seaweed Farm, so I fly over water. I get some footage below 8m. I do notice it dipping and rising at times but, generally stable. Unless the conditions get a tad bit worse, that's were I notice a bit more movement but all good. Here's a recent video I shot using our farm's "new" Mavic Pro:

Would it help if your Mavic 2 could video underwater?

 

[Chris_GREECE]

Thank you guys! Yesterday night i purchased the fly more pack finally. Bag is tooooo small but its ok for now. Lets enjoy summer.

 

[jackmaetal]

Would it help if your Mavic 2 could video underwater?

I wish hehe, while I was in Australia for more than a week, we were considering the Swellpro Splash Drone but due to availability of parts here in the Philippines we chose the Mavic instead...

 

[jackmaetal]

Thank you guys! Yesterday night i purchased the fly more pack finally. Bag is tooooo small but its ok for now. Lets enjoy summer.

Coming from a Phantom, having the Mavic around tight spots is a huge relief. I'd lug around the Phantom's backpack, another camera bag containing my slr, and sometimes a tripod. The handy size of the Mavic is a huge help!