Tricks to takeoff from and land on a boat?

[brett8883]

So at least if on a boat and a low battery or loss of signal RTH is self-initiated by the drone, the pilot should have a better chance of recovery than if they were on the other end of the lake when they took off.

I would advise turning off smart RTH. That’s like the worst thing you could have happen in this situation.

 

[dwolfe002]

It’s really difficult. I’m an experienced pilot and just this week I took off and landed on a boat going 5mph in fairly calm waters and it was fairly difficult even for me. Taking off isn’t that big of a deal just do it from the stern.

To land I fly the drone out a good ways in front of the bow just at above my head height and positioned myself at the bow. As the boat approached the drone I started flying it slowly forward in the same direction as the boat but not as fast as the boat and when the boat caught up with the drone I grabbed it from underneath and held onto it for dear life while full left stick down. The drone will try to get away with all it has but you just gotta left stick straight down and hold onto it. Nothing graceful about this process

Glad to see someone do it. I've only had one chance to try it and didn't get it done. I took the boat in the sound while trying to catch it but I have a t-top on my boat and had to set the boat speed at around 10mph and then go to the front of the boat and try basically what you did. My biggest problem (besides not having a driver) was space away from other boats and the bouncing caused by the wakes. Couldn't get it done. Finally had to stop the boat and hand catch. I did get a lot of funny looks when people saw me on an unpiloted boat trying to grab a drone out of the air. At least the tourist had something to talk about over dinner that night. It was fun and I think very doable, although not easy, with someone else driving the boat but I can see better now the things that could go wrong quickly. Don't forget your lanyard. From my experience, I sure missed mine.

Good job!

 

[DagDerniT]

First time I hand caught my Mavic Zoom I got a small chunk of skin cut off of my knuckle. Be careful!!! Use the Left stick down on radio controller and grab Mavic from the belly. The Mavic will try to fly away increasing power, just hold on to it and it will turn off in a few seconds...

 

[Meta4]

So at least if on a boat and a low battery or loss of signal RTH is self-initiated by the drone, the pilot should have a better chance of recovery than if they were on the other end of the lake when they took off.

On a boat you don't want to let the drone land anywhere and you shouldn't be letting RTH do any landing.
Unless you are sailing the Queen Mary, hand catching is the only way to bring the drone back.
Normally, you would know where the drone is at all times and easily be able to bring it back yourself.
The reason you reset the home point is not to have a new landing spot, but to prevent the drone zipping away back to where you launched when it calculates it only has enough battery for that return flight.
It doesn't really matter whether you reset to the current location of the aircraft or the controller.
Either is just as useful at preventing a runaway RTH back to where you started.

 

[adsuresh]

On a boat you don't want to let the drone land anywhere and you shouldn't be letting RTH do any landing.
Unless you are sailing the Queen Mary, hand catching is the only way to bring the drone back.
Normally, you would know where the drone is at all times and easily be able to bring it back yourself.
The reason you reset the home point is not to have a new landing spot, but to prevent the drone zipping away back to where you launched when it calculates it only has enough battery for that return flight.
It doesn't really matter whether you reset to the current location of the aircraft or the controller.
Either is just as useful at preventing a runaway RTH back to where you started.

Makes sense. This really helps. I was about to try this weekend. Thank you !! thanks

 

[Meta4]

Makes sense. This really helps. I was about to try this weekend. Thank you !! thanks

Out on the boat it's a very unforgiving environment and not the best place to start learning new techniques.
Make sure you've worked out everything on dry land to become familiar with it on dry land where it's so much easier and one mistake isn't going likely to cause sadness.

 

[Joe4flight]

It’s really difficult. I’m an experienced pilot and just this week I took off and landed on a boat going 5mph in fairly calm waters and it was fairly difficult even for me. Taking off isn’t that big of a deal just do it from the stern.

To land I fly the drone out a good ways in front of the bow just at above my head height and positioned myself at the bow. As the boat approached the drone I started flying it slowly forward in the same direction as the boat but not as fast as the boat and when the boat caught up with the drone I grabbed it from underneath and held onto it for dear life while full left stick down. The drone will try to get away with all it has but you just gotta left stick straight down and hold onto it. Nothing graceful about this process

Thx for posting your experience taking off and landing on a moving boat. I have read information on this site about landing the drone using your extended arm and hand. I tried this the other day but the drone’s downward sensors automatically raised the drone out of reach every time I tried to gently grab it. How do you deactivate these bottom sensors? I’m guessing in the DJI GO 4 APP. I just purchased a boat and have plans to take my MPP drone out on the water later this summer. I’d like to do this right. Thank you!

 

[manos]

 

[Thomas B]

Interesting transitions. Was this made as a promo? Noticed the URL in the lower left?

 

[Phlyer]

Tried my first hand catch the other day. Was not prepared for the strength of a Mavic 2 trying to stay upright and in position. Had read that you should bring it down sideways at full arms length.

However the drone won the struggle, badly sliced my thumb and crashed. No harm done (except to my thumb and my pride)

 

[Mike Hood]

Remember guys - when attempting to land on a boat ALWAYS ensure that the drone is facing away from you - that way left is left and right is right on the controller. It is easy to get confused if the incoming drone is facing you in what is an out of the ordinary stressful situation and end up putting your drone in the drink.

 

[paulatkin73]

Seriously? I thought it would head back to the controller if it moves as if I was walking around.

it is an absolute stupidity - but - yes, it does not do a dynamic update of home point from the remote controler when the controller moves. why it is not done - i think because dji hired developers to write this autopilot code who never ever had any experience with any RC models and had no idea how to do simplest obvious things that were done by countless people many times before. that is why all we can do is to wonder looking at various things like that and keep asking the same pointless question - "WTF?!?!??"

PS. as an another sample of a same indecent question - the very first thing you do on a racer model - or any custom drone - is a kill switch. or, somebody call it an arming switch. something you can flip to kill motors immediately. so, how do i would land any of my models on anything that moves - i simply fly it close enough to the floor, moving or not, and as it barely touches it - hit a kill switch. and dji also has somewhat like a kill switch - both sticks together action, but, because it is done by the dji - it takes just enough time delay to be triggered for that kill action to be pointless. why did they put such a delay there - no one knows.

or it does not die at all, go figure why, i tried to test it on the zoom and could not figure out frankly when it kills motors in the air and when it does not. once it did it, other time it did not and i stopped dropping it down into the net after 2-3 tries, so it remains one of the things i have not got figured out yet.

 

[paulatkin73]

Tried my first hand catch the other day. Was not prepared for the strength of a Mavic 2 trying to stay upright and in position. Had read that you should bring it down sideways at full arms length.

However the drone won the struggle, badly sliced my thumb and crashed. No harm done (except to my thumb and my pride)

really sorry to hear this. what did you try to do, how did it not stop the props?
did you try to pull it or tilt it? did it not react to throttle stick down?

so, i dunno how to state it for other folks - when you get drone low, get it to the level of your shoulder, step toward drone and slide hand under the belly and grab it firmly around the body. whant is expected to happen - drone at loiter should lower props spin speed a bit, it is visible and audible.
as you grabbed it - same moment start pulling the throttle stick down, keep it down - and as drone slows down props it will kill them in 1-2 sec.

if it is tries to pull up hard from you - DO NOT FIGHT IT! it means you did something wrong and most often it happens if your hand was too far from the belly - it thinks it is an obstacle. grabbing drone as it pulls up is the bad thing - that way it will give max current to props as it thinks it is not getting up. so, 'slide' hand part is indeed a slide - almost touching the belly, and needs be done reasonably fast. the sensor in front/rear will not let it go into your face - so it is reasonably safe also.

it is regretful so many folks get injured while doing it, dunno, may be somebody else here can offer a better write-up on how to do this. as i got used to it, i do it without thinking now, so it is difficult to put into words.

i would also add here, may be - it may help to learn to hand start it first, before catching. you will feel how hand movement during start makes it go up. overall - it is useful to have this skill, but, as anything else - it is not potentially the safest thing to do.

 

[fastracer]

On mavic pro you can turn off the sensors on the bottom so it don’t try to escape

 

[DJI DelBoy]

Seriously... YouTube full of fails who thought the point was mobile in real-time.

That’s a bit lame. Not much difference then between the 2 RTH options.

 

[rji2goleez]

I have aa 26' deck boat. When I fly my Mavic 2 Pro, I use the fill cushion in the bow which makes a nice platform for take off and landing. On landing, I have boat in neutral and just slowly maneuver the drone over the bow. It's definitely harder in rougher waters and windy days but I like it better than hand catching.

 

[Montana John]

Some people might laugh, but I'd wear safety goggles. You can't really see the props, and if you hand catch near shoulder height, you risk your eyes. I haven't heard of it happening, but you don't want to be the first.

I always hand catch. It's as safe as taking a hot dish out of the oven. All you need is adult common sense.
And you can see the props very clearly from three feet away.

 

[LapetusOne]

You’ll have to hand launch and catch. Turn off the landing protection or whatever it’s called. It’ll screw with you trying to hand catch it. I highly recommend an assistant to help catch the drone, even in relatively calm conditions, it helps a ton. Buy some leather gloves if you’re worried about props cutting your fingers. Feels much safer catching when you aren’t worried about cutting your fingers badly. I like putting the drone into tripod mode when trying to hand catch it. It slows down the movements of the drone making it easier to get it into position without erratic movements.

Feel free to ask more questions if you want. I’ve done this in all types of weather conditions on all sizes of boats with almost every drone DJI sells except the Spark.

 

[Parkerjh]

I consider myself a good drone pilot. Have 1000's of flights and have flown for 6 years. Phantom 2, Phantom 2 Vision+, P3, P4, P4PV2, Inspire, Mavic, Mavic 2 Pro. Anyway, I took a job photographing a sailboat. Figured it would be routine. It wasn't. While a large sailboat, there really wasn't a lot of open deck space without rails, cords, wires, obstructions. Made finding a launching a landing point tricky. I attempted to take off in a spot I figured was best in seemingly very calm breeze like I have done 100's of times. Well the breeze became a gust on the open ocean right as I was taking off and blew the Phantom across the deck and if it wasn't for a railing that caught it, would have blown right into the ocean. Second launch went better. Got my photos and video of the boat and came in for landing. And another disaster stuck. This time it was an unbelievable fog. We had gone off in the morning and waited for the fog to lift which it did. Somehow, it came back with vengeance and made it impossible to see the bow of the boat from the stern. While frantically positioning myself based only on sound, and GoApp positioning, brought it down while the boat was still sailing so I had to blindly guess on landing. While the landing was happening, heard my first MAYDAY call ever while on a boat. Another vessel near us lost all power including emergency lights and was in an active channel as was afraid of being rammed. We could hear their canned air horn blowing in the distance but impossible to tell where it was coming from really. It was a harrowing 20 minutes. Moral of the story I guess is that operation from moving boat can present all sorts of challenges. Be careful and well practiced on land before attempting.

 

[Gringorio]

I’ve flown hundreds of time from ships and each ship has it’s challenges. No matter your experience there will be a learning curve. As others have mentioned, the first step is to turn off all sensors. This will enable you to approach the boat without the drone being stopped by the sensors. Also, always manually launch and land (hand catch) your drone so you have complete control. If the ship/boat is not moving I often catch my drone, but if the conditions warrant it’s best to have someone else launch and catch the drone while you pilot, especially if the ship is moving. Those cotton gloves with rubberized fingers work great for this. If the ship is moving, it’s best to launch and recover from the aft end, that way it’s easy to abort or miss rigging. If that location is not available then launch from the ‘downwind’ side of the ship. This allows you to move the drone away from the ship more quickly to avoid rigging or other obstacles. Since the Mavic 2 Pro does not have ATTI mode it will hold position upon initialization and appear to move backwards relative to the ship. For this reason we always hold the drone out away from the ship and give full forward and up upon launch to move out and away from the ship. Likewise, for landing (hand catching) land into the wind just like you would an RC glider. This will allow you to back off faster in case you decide to abort the attempt and try again. My technique is to fly back to the ship and approach from the stern when landing on port or starboard, paralleling the ship. Then I match the ships’ speed and slowly bring in the drone, trying to account for any pitch and roll of the ship. On this last trip we had a couple mishaps resulting in broken props, but luckily no lost drones.

As Meta4 mentioned RTH can be an issue if you’ve traveled far from your launch point. The last clip in the video shows a near disaster. Because of the wind and engine noise I did not hear the RTH warning and since I was landing my eyes were on the drone and I did not see the warning. I was quite surprised when the drone suddenly lifted off right over the rail of the ship and point of catching and was lucky in that it missed the shroud line by inches as it rose to the preset 30 meters.

So I say go for it and practice as much as you can, and while it may be hair raising at times, you’ll get better while opening up a whole new realm to explore with your drone.