Using Active Track

[quister]

I've had my Mavic Pro almost two years and fly a couple of times a month. I have never used Active Track because we live in the woods in NC...too many trees, lol. I have a trip to the desert southwest planned soon and would like to experiment with Active Tack following a vehicle in the open desert. Any tips and lessons learned from you more experienced pilots? Is it finniky or pretty reliable?

 

[Sharky05]

I've had my Mavic Pro almost two years and fly a couple of times a month. I have never used Active Track because we live in the woods in NC...too many trees, lol. I have a trip to the desert southwest planned soon and would like to experiment with Active Tack following a vehicle in the open desert. Any tips and lessons learned from you more experienced pilots? Is it finniky or pretty reliable?

Active track is very reliable as long as you don't fly to high and to far away from your vehicle it will work fine. Most people make the mistake of being to high to follow them or to far back not allowing the drone to stay locked on the subject it has to follow. 1.5m to no more than 2.5m high and away from the object when moving, and when in a car remember the speed of the drone becomes a factor as well.

 

[quister]

Thanks for the info, Sharky05. My vision would be following the vehicle from 50 to 100 feet high to allow some surrounding vista/horizon/landscape to be visible as the vehicle cruises down the dusty desert road. From your advice that may not work. I'm not opposed to manually flying to get that scenario but it sounds like Active Track may not work for that. I'm just trying to learn it's limitations from you pilots that have experience with it. Thanks again for your input.

 

[Sharky05]

Thanks for the info, Sharky05. My vision would be following the vehicle from 50 to 100 feet high to allow some surrounding vista/horizon/landscape to be visible as the vehicle cruises down the dusty desert road. From your advice that may not work. I'm not opposed to manually flying to get that scenario but it sounds like Active Track may not work for that. I'm just trying to learn it's limitations from you pilots that have experience with it. Thanks again for your input.

You can give it a go at that height but remember to take wind and drone speed into consideration make use of either a co-pilot to keep an eye on the controller and phone or whatever you use for visual aid if you're the driver of the vehicle, I would suggest that you keep your speed relatively slow as the gimbal will have to face down onto the vehicle but following at a distance behind and at height you will get some but not a lot of the vistas unless you have someone to fly manually while you or the other person is driving.

 

[quister]

More to consider, thanks. It will definately be a two-person affair. I had always considered being out of the vehicle to watch everything in real time with FPV. It may take a few rehersals but at least you've confirmed it's doable.

 

[BossBob]

Make sure that the target vehicle is a good contrast to the background, don’t move it too fast. I’ve been able to do 2 circuits around a vintage sailing vessel giving a flight track that looked like a pair of spectacles as the vessel moved as the drone circled it.

 

[tony56shooter]

I'm not finding the icon for copter or remote on my phone screen. Any one that can help me? Also have done all updates as they come up.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

In the Intelligent Flight Modes menu . . .

If you have internet ( likely as you posted here ) check here . . .

DJI GO 4 Manual: The Pilot's Handbook - Page 9 of 10 - DJI Guides

Follow mode might be worth checking out too, will follow controller.
Test first somewhere first with controller in vehicle.