Just a quick update for folks that are looking into sailing with a drone which I just got back from a 6 day sailing trip in the British Virgin Islands. I want to give everyone some tips and advice if you stumble upon this post that may help some folks. I had a lot of questions before going on this trip myself and anyone can also provide more information if I miss anything.
For starters, what drone to bring with you if you have multiple drones? I have a spark and mavic pro and although the spark was more portable, I was going to bring that but I was convinced to bring the mavic due to several reasons.
1. It provides better wind stability. How much? Just much better than a spark. Now I can't speak for Phantom users but funny enough going through the security lines, I did see a couple folks who had to take out their Phantoms
2. Battery life in general is more helpful on the larger drones versus the Spark. Trust me on this, I went through the full 25 minutes before coming back home and or when I was completely satisfied with what I captured. I actually sometimes went on to continue with another set of battery. I brought 4 with me and I used at most 3 at a time but always charged in between so even if I didn't charge in between I went through at least 2 a day.
3. CRYSTAL SKY - I'm definitely going to be purchasing one of these. Now, for what's it worth. I did carry three devices. My samsung s7 (actual phone), my Huwei Wunderphone (dedicated to my drone) and my iPad mini 4. With the constant sun on the beach or on the boat, OMG, I couldn't see crap! Yes, I know I should have bought maybe a sunshade but I am not keen on carrying something like that with me. Never mind even owning one. Ideally I think the crystal sky would eliminate carrying the ipad mini 4 and Huwei in general and if the Crystal sky is what I have heard it is supposed to do, that is clear as day on sunny days, I'm there.
4. Hand catching. OH yeah, learn to do it. I did it successfully and it isn't all that hard. Releasing and catching. Now I did this all on a stationary still sailboat. I never tried while moving. Let me tell you, I was shaking. Luckly also the water was very calm so it was very minor drifts but overall was easy to do. I even sometimes even hand caught it while on land just so i don't have to land on the ground.
5. Compass calibration. OK so I did ask this question before I left. Some said calibrate before I ship off from the dock and some said just check to make sure it isn't going haywire and I shouldn't have to and when I got there my experience was I couldn't find a place on the dock that it told me there was no magnetic interference. I literally moved up and down the dock and move as far as I can but when I found a small spot, I didn't bother compass calibrate and took off. I know this was a risk but looking at the map and the orientation of the drone was right so I left it alone.
There was only one instance when I was docked at sea and when I flew the drone way up in the sky (around ~250 meters or so), I would hit some weird magnetic interference field. I would lower and it would disappear, I go back up and it would tell me there was magnetic interference. I don't know the science to this but it didn't really warrant any concern that I needed to calibrate, even then I was in the middle of the ocean so I wouldn't even be able to do it.
Aside from that, never needed to calibrate.
6. IMU calibration.
So when docked on an island, I did have to calibrate my IMU and Gimbal calibration. In one of my previous flights, I had a slight image blurriness on my video. Focused in the middle but all around it was blurry. Looking through Youtube videos this seems to be a fix. Don't ask me if it's just coincidence but it seemed to have corrected it. Maybe I wasn't just focusing properly but it is what it was.
7. Carrying case. So I used a Polar Pro carrying case for the Mavic Pro. Carried my mavic, filters, controller, usb cable, and the rest of the batteries in lipo bags and carried both in a drybag. I never actually used my iPad mini 4 but mostly used my Huwei Wunderphone. I did forget my Wunderphone on the sailboat one day when I was on land and I used my Samsung S7 and to say the least it worked well.
8. Filters
I did carry filters with me and used it every chance I got. I even attempted to use polarized, ND filters combo. Setup time took a bit longer but I think I may get good results. I haven't processed anything yet but it as so bright that I couldn't get the shutter speed down low enough as ND16 was the highest I have. I'm assuming it will be ok.
I think there are a few more things but overall I didn't take chances although I had everything insured. I was very cautious and there were times where I would go further than I should have and there was a scare that I thought I lost it. It said I lost connection but struggling between the sun and my screen I was so furious that I couldn't see what I was going (hence the crystal sky needs). I'm hoping this will help. At some point it did regain connection but I couldn't really see my screen then my wife spotted it and I flew it back home.
Hope this helps people.
For starters, what drone to bring with you if you have multiple drones? I have a spark and mavic pro and although the spark was more portable, I was going to bring that but I was convinced to bring the mavic due to several reasons.
1. It provides better wind stability. How much? Just much better than a spark. Now I can't speak for Phantom users but funny enough going through the security lines, I did see a couple folks who had to take out their Phantoms
2. Battery life in general is more helpful on the larger drones versus the Spark. Trust me on this, I went through the full 25 minutes before coming back home and or when I was completely satisfied with what I captured. I actually sometimes went on to continue with another set of battery. I brought 4 with me and I used at most 3 at a time but always charged in between so even if I didn't charge in between I went through at least 2 a day.
3. CRYSTAL SKY - I'm definitely going to be purchasing one of these. Now, for what's it worth. I did carry three devices. My samsung s7 (actual phone), my Huwei Wunderphone (dedicated to my drone) and my iPad mini 4. With the constant sun on the beach or on the boat, OMG, I couldn't see crap! Yes, I know I should have bought maybe a sunshade but I am not keen on carrying something like that with me. Never mind even owning one. Ideally I think the crystal sky would eliminate carrying the ipad mini 4 and Huwei in general and if the Crystal sky is what I have heard it is supposed to do, that is clear as day on sunny days, I'm there.
4. Hand catching. OH yeah, learn to do it. I did it successfully and it isn't all that hard. Releasing and catching. Now I did this all on a stationary still sailboat. I never tried while moving. Let me tell you, I was shaking. Luckly also the water was very calm so it was very minor drifts but overall was easy to do. I even sometimes even hand caught it while on land just so i don't have to land on the ground.
5. Compass calibration. OK so I did ask this question before I left. Some said calibrate before I ship off from the dock and some said just check to make sure it isn't going haywire and I shouldn't have to and when I got there my experience was I couldn't find a place on the dock that it told me there was no magnetic interference. I literally moved up and down the dock and move as far as I can but when I found a small spot, I didn't bother compass calibrate and took off. I know this was a risk but looking at the map and the orientation of the drone was right so I left it alone.
There was only one instance when I was docked at sea and when I flew the drone way up in the sky (around ~250 meters or so), I would hit some weird magnetic interference field. I would lower and it would disappear, I go back up and it would tell me there was magnetic interference. I don't know the science to this but it didn't really warrant any concern that I needed to calibrate, even then I was in the middle of the ocean so I wouldn't even be able to do it.
Aside from that, never needed to calibrate.
6. IMU calibration.
So when docked on an island, I did have to calibrate my IMU and Gimbal calibration. In one of my previous flights, I had a slight image blurriness on my video. Focused in the middle but all around it was blurry. Looking through Youtube videos this seems to be a fix. Don't ask me if it's just coincidence but it seemed to have corrected it. Maybe I wasn't just focusing properly but it is what it was.
7. Carrying case. So I used a Polar Pro carrying case for the Mavic Pro. Carried my mavic, filters, controller, usb cable, and the rest of the batteries in lipo bags and carried both in a drybag. I never actually used my iPad mini 4 but mostly used my Huwei Wunderphone. I did forget my Wunderphone on the sailboat one day when I was on land and I used my Samsung S7 and to say the least it worked well.
8. Filters
I did carry filters with me and used it every chance I got. I even attempted to use polarized, ND filters combo. Setup time took a bit longer but I think I may get good results. I haven't processed anything yet but it as so bright that I couldn't get the shutter speed down low enough as ND16 was the highest I have. I'm assuming it will be ok.
I think there are a few more things but overall I didn't take chances although I had everything insured. I was very cautious and there were times where I would go further than I should have and there was a scare that I thought I lost it. It said I lost connection but struggling between the sun and my screen I was so furious that I couldn't see what I was going (hence the crystal sky needs). I'm hoping this will help. At some point it did regain connection but I couldn't really see my screen then my wife spotted it and I flew it back home.
Hope this helps people.
