Recording from a boat

[rioplatense]

I was wanting to get footage of the kids tubing. Anyone done this or have any pointers? I feel like if the lake is busy I won’t be too bold. How should I take off? How high should I fly? Any help would be appreciated. The lake is in Idaho and I’ve tried to find restrictions but it seem pretty clear.

 

[Windy Heap]

I'm interested in tips too.............auto tracking in trace or parallel mode?

or manual flying.

Fly straight ahead but have the camera aimed off to the side?

 

[portermann]

Do you plan to take off from the boat? If so make sure that you set the drone to hover if you lose signal, otherwise it will return to the point where you took off where the boat most likely will not be. You may be hand launching and hand catching the drone so if you haven't done that - practice on land. It may not be easy to hold the drone in one hand, the controller in the other hand, while trying to balance on the back of a shifting boat. Having someone else auto launch and manually land while you focus on launching/catching the AC might be helpful but you'll have to coordinate, which means more practice.

While flying, make sure to stay safely above the water to avoid confusing the downward sensors. Reflections from the water and the water movement can erroneously cause the AC to think its at an incorrect height and may cause it descend into the water. I would say stay more than 10ft above the surface, other people suggest higher around 25ft. Even with this, I would make sure to keep vigilant VLOS that way you can correct immediately it if it does descend.

There are a lot of flight modes that will help. Take a look at the video which breaks down the different flight options that might help you. If you find a mode that might work, you can dive deeper into additional video reviews for those particular features. I would suggest going to a field and trying them before you film over water with fast moving subjects.

 

[ATP]

All excellent points, in addition, if you have DJI Care Refresh you must have a float system in case it goes down otherwise you will not have a Mini to send in for replacement.
I would also suggest you obtain a oyster chucking glove to do hand catching, those rotating knives have twice sliced me pretty good. I now Carry an empty pizza box for landing in unsuitable areas.
Unfortunately the Mini switches to “Payload mode” with the prop cage installed thus not allowing any range or altitude.
Yes I switched it off but it seems to turn it back on if you do anything other than hover.

 

[Gealousy]

I’ve become pretty proficient at hand launch and catch, that’s how I’d do it. As stated set to hover if you lose signal.

 

[Seagull01]

All excellent points, in addition, if you have DJI Care Refresh you must have a float system in case it goes down otherwise you will not have a Mini to send in for replacement.
I would also suggest you obtain a oyster chucking glove to do hand catching, those rotating knives have twice sliced me pretty good. I now Carry an empty pizza box for landing in unsuitable areas.
Unfortunately the Mini switches to “Payload mode” with the prop cage installed thus not allowing any range or altitude.
Yes I switched it off but it seems to turn it back on if you do anything other than hover.

A float system? What's that?

 

[rioplatense]

Taking off was a breeze, landing not so much!!! I spent 10 min trying to bring it back in. A big mistake was I kept the boat circling to not run in to anyone but I should’ve gone in a line. It was so difficult to land on a moving target. I also had a really hard time getting it close to the back of the boat because it was sending the canopy and would come closer. I put it up and got one video so I really didn’t have a checklist for landing, like turn off obstacle sensing.

 

[pelagic_one]

A big mistake was I kept the boat circling to not run in to anyone but I should’ve gone in a line.

Good observation. I made a similar mistake the first time landing on our sailboat, with it pivoting around the anchor line. I learned that keeping her on a constant bearing with autopilot at 1-2 knots was optimal. The Mavic can then glide next to the cockpit, and hand-catch with small sideways motions. If there’s >5 knots wind, I won’t even consider taking off.

For those who can’t or won’t hand-catch on land, I guess it’s pretty obvious that on-the-water flight ops is not recommended. I was stationed on aircraft carriers, but there are no arresting cables on runabouts and sailing sloops.