I tend to drift slightly and of course need to correct which is apparent when recording a movie.
What am I missing here? Isn't a crosswind a possibility for the drifting?
When I first started flying drones, my first drone was non-GPS and I learned to fly just by trying to keep it in one place with the wind blowing… My neighbor who also flew my drone never got the hang of flying with the wind…
When I got my
Mini 2 and the wind did not blow it away, my neighbor said prove it. He had a large Shop Fan and he set it up, turned it on and my Mini could hold its own against all but the highest setting…
Then out of curiosity, we set the fan up on an extension cord mid-way down his driveway. I then flew the
Mini 2 back and forth down the middle of his driveway. He then turned on the fan and I flew the
Mini 2 down his driveway, it flew right down the middle of his driveway until it was hit by the breeze from the fan, the Mini drifted to the side of the driveway but continued on in the exact same direction, but down the side of the driveway. We did this several times and the video showed the drone is not deviate off its directional orientation. It apparently did not try to move back onto its original flight path.
We have all see the videos of manned aircraft, especially airliners trying to land with a strong crosswind. The pilot has to yaw the aircraft slightly into the wind, the aircraft is now flying "sideways" somewhat. It may be actually facing the control tower on the side of the runway, but it travels right down the middle of the runway.
My
Mini 2 is without any add-on software (ie: litchi, etc…) and if I want to fly a straight line without the fear of crosswind drift, I would try one of these two options. Now I know you will not be in Cine Mode, but somethings cannot be avoided… The first option depends on the fact that during a RTH flight, you the pilot, can control the Yaw (orientation of the Drone and therefore the cameras direction…).
First Off, set your RTH Option to Hover, you do not want it to land until you bring it home…
Option 1. I would set my home point to a location just beyond where I want the video to end. I would then set my RTH altitude to the height I want to video at (ensuring the path is clear…), and then I would fly the
Mini 2 to a position beyond where I wanted the video to start. Start the Video Recording and then I would hit RTH and immediately orientate (Yaw) the Drone so it is flying backwards. You would hopefully have enough time to adjust this Yaw since you started the flight prior to the desired scene sequence.
This option would mean your video is filmed backwards, but any reasonable editing software would easily reverse the video and since the drone was not flying as slow as you would like, you should have video'd at max fps. It also means that the Drone would return home to a location near you and you would have complete control at that point…
Option 2. Is pretty much the reverse of this but the drone would be flying forward and you would not have to orientate the Drone, as it would fly straight. However, it's a bit more dangerous (depending on your ending scene…). I would set the Home Point to a location beyond the ending sequence and again setting the RTH Height to the desired altitude, I would then fly the drone to a location just beyond the starting sequence, start the video, and hit RTH. Again, the flight is not in Cine Mode and the dangerous part of this is that if for any reason you lose control over your drone, it is going to return to the home point you previously set (where: over a lake, waterfall, highway, etc…) and when that battery runs out, it is going to land there…
Well, that's my suggestion. Personally, I would not set my Home Point somewhere I could not easily get access to it like over a water, ball park, waterfall, prohibited location to fly at all, etc…
I read various suggestions about way-points with add-on software and that is probably the best way to go… Or you can buy a More Expensive Drone ($$$$), one where you as the Pilot can control the direction of flight so it does not drift and have a Cinematographer control the independent camera so it stays on the subject…
Good Luck and do not do something that makes us look bad…
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