What I was hoping the Air 3S would be

[Phantomrain.org]

Video

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I have yet to upgrade fully to the Air 3S but is this at all possible with the new upgrades , lol
I love this kind of creative flying and sneaking thu paths into the open air.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly Air 3S in the Rain, Land on the Water,

 

[GadgetGuy]

Wow! Great find!

I'd love to see a tutorial on exactly how this was created, and what if any features unique to the Air 3S are necessary. I presume it is some sort of Waypoint compilation, but the tolerances of Waypoints would still require a lot of luck to be able to pull this off successfully. Not much room for error. It's not reversed in post, as the cars are still driving forward, and does not appear to be sped up either, as everything is moving at normal speed.

My best guess is a manually created Waypoint mission, flown very slowly forwards away from the same location during creation, and then edited to reverse the camera direction, and speed it up, for the final flight, producing the "WOW!" factor.

We need more of these!

 

[Suren]

Wow! Great find!

I'd love to see a tutorial on exactly how this was created, and what if any features unique to the Air 3S are necessary. I presume it is some sort of Waypoint compilation, but the tolerances of Waypoints would still require a lot of luck to be able to pull this off successfully. Not much room for error. It's not reversed in post, as the cars are still driving forward, and does not appear to be sped up either, as everything is moving at normal speed.

My best guess is a manually created Waypoint mission, flown very slowly forwards away from the same location during creation, and then edited to reverse it and speed it up, for the final flight, producing the "WOW!" factor.

We need more of these!

I also thought this was done in reverse. I cannot believe how this was ever achievable but if it was in reverse then the cars would be going backwards and not forwards. Unless he has a dummy RC and someone else is at the other end flying backward - just guessing but anyways it's cool to watch.

 

[Rchawks]

Impressive to say the least. Is the reception really that good even with all those obstacles, man I'm lucky I bought one when I did.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I also thought this was done in reverse. I cannot believe how this was ever achievable but if it was in reverse then the cars would be going backwards and not forwards. Unless he has a dummy RC and someone else is at the other end flying backward - just guessing but anyways it's cool to watch.

Upon further rumination, he likely flew the initial manual Waypoint creation flight facing away, forward, very slowly, and then edited the saved Waypoint mission to face the camera at him throughout, instead of forwards, and then just sped it up.

Quite simple in principle, but very creative and impressive, with a bit of luck, hoping no one was on the final veranda he flew through, and that no tall truck intervened. Likely all done within minutes of each other, so everything would remain the same.

Can anyone confirm that the camera angle can be reversed from facing forwards to facing backwards in a saved Waypoint mission?

 

[BingBong]

May have been done viewing the rear facing sensor view. You can switch to see a B+W view bottom left of any of the wide angle sensors. It's not huge or hi-res though. Impressive but mad.

 

[GadgetGuy]

May have been done viewing the rear facing sensor view. You can switch to see a B+W view bottom left of any of the wide angle sensors. It's not huge or hi-res though. Impressive but mad.

No, I think you can just change the direction the camera is facing during the flight in the saved Waypoint Mission, so you can thereby force the drone to fly the mission, if you set the camera direction facing backwards from the direction of travel, after having initially flown it slowly forward, to create the manually flown Waypoint mission. Then just increase the speed, too.

 

[BingBong]

No, I think you can just change the direction the camera is facing during the flight in the saved Waypoint Mission, so you can thereby force the drone to fly the mission, if you set the camera direction facing backwards from the direction of travel, after having initially flown it slowly forward, to create the manually flown Waypoint mission. Then just increase the speed, too.

Not convinced. I've heard the waypoints aren't that accurate, and by default take a curved approach in and out of them. That balcony gets pretty close!

 

[GadgetGuy]

Not convinced. I've heard the waypoints aren't that accurate, and by default take a curved approach in and out of them. That balcony gets pretty close!

I agree about the tolerances, but if the original flight creating the Waypoint Mission manually was flown slowly enough, and then simply had the speed increased and the camera direction changed 180°, the clearances seem far closer when flying backwards to reveal them, than when flying forwards.

To your other point about curving around waypoints, he minimizes that issue by flying in a completely straight line, until the very end, with a very gradual increase in elevation. When he crosses the street, he is still at eye level.

No other way that I can conceive of how he pulled this off. He includes the telemetry display, so you can see the actual drone speed and changes in elevation, the reducing remaining flight time, and the increasing total distance away. Some luck was also required, on a windless day, with the initial flight likely immediately followed by the second flight, with a couple tweaks mentioned above: reverse camera direction and increase the speed.

Makes me want to create my first Waypoint Mission to see if I can replicate the effect. No Air 3S necessary. Any drone with Waypoints should be able to do the same. I'm going to try it with my Mavic 3.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Can anyone confirm that the camera angle can be reversed from facing forwards to facing backwards in a saved Waypoint mission?

 

[Mrprop365]

Can anyone confirm that the camera angle can be reversed from facing forwards to facing backwards in a saved Waypoint mission?

Not sure, but on my mavic 2 the way to do that would be via a POI and then setting some/all of the waypoints on that POI

 

[GadgetGuy]

Not sure, but on my mavic 2 the way to do that would be via a POI and then setting some/all of the waypoints on that POI

…and that could include yourself as the POI, and creating a reverse flying dronie, like in the post?

 

[Mrprop365]

I think it could be a separate backwards facing camera mounted on the drone that has a following feature. (An osmo pocket for eg.)

 

[GadgetGuy]

I think it could be a separate backwards facing camera mounted on the drone that has a following feature. (An osmo pocket for eg.)

No, the video shown is a screen recording of his RC-2 screen, complete with all the flight telemetry. Can't do that with any separate camera. The drone is simply flying a dronie Waypoint Mission while facing backwards.

 

[mavic3usa]

Finally DJI has almost caught up to Skydio which has been doing this for years, it's not new and it's not unique and it's done with sensors and cameras and OA only; no need for waypoints or any fancy tricks in post.

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and with cable cam, you set point A and point B and then just push on the sticks to go back and forth:

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[Phantomrain.org]

Upon further rumination, he likely flew the initial manual Waypoint creation flight facing away, forward, very slowly, and then edited the saved Waypoint mission to face the camera at him throughout, instead of forwards, and then just sped it up.

Quite simple in principle, but very creative and impressive, with a bit of luck, hoping no one was on the final veranda he flew through, and that no tall truck intervened. Likely all done within minutes of each other, so everything would remain the same.

Can anyone confirm that the camera angle can be reversed from facing forwards to facing backwards in a saved Waypoint mission?

Upon further investigation , and watching many of his videos, these are all done with a good eye and hand coordination. No sensors or waypoints but I did learn from his videos that He Flys Backwards right from the go.


Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain, Land on the Water and

 

[GadgetGuy]

Upon further investigation , and watching many of his videos, these are all done with a good eye and hand coordination. No sensors or waypoints but I did learn from his videos that He Flys Backwards right from the go.

View attachment 179336
Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain, Land on the Water and

Found a link to his newest tutorial video from today.
He is flying a Mini 4 Pro with the RC-2 controller
He flies backwards through a crane from 750m away in Sport Mode at 40km/hr!

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He is a magician!

I have no doubt he is truly flying backwards in the original video, which, if he didn’t use Waypoints from a previous flight, begs the question of how he can see any of the obstacles he is passing by closely and flying through, while flying blind on FPV backwards, since he clearly still can't maintain VLOS in that environment beyond a few hundred yards, at best, against an urban rooftop background. No matter how great his hand-eye coordination, once he has passed over the second street in the original video you linked, no matter how good his eyesight, he can't possibly still be able to see the drone at 300m away where he still flies backwards through the concrete balcony frame at 31km/ hr.

I'm still convinced it could easily be legitimately replicated with Waypoints, as I have previously described. So, what's his real secret, if not using Waypoints?

Hmmm…

It appears he is carefully making stick adjustments as he is flying backwards on the RC-2 screen to get lined up for his fly through to get to specific telemetry numbers, or aligning up parts of the background from prior flight experience.The visible Home Point on the RC-2 screen may also be a useful reference point that he is aligning.

Hats off to him!

 

[GadgetGuy]

A couple more tidbits, in answer to the OP's question:


Apparently, also not without risks!

 

[GadgetGuy]

Finally DJI has almost caught up to Skydio which has been doing this for years, it's not new and it's not unique and it's done with sensors and cameras and OA only; no need for waypoints or any fancy tricks in post.

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and with cable cam, you set point A and point B and then just push on the sticks to go back and forth:

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No OA in his videos, as there is no avoidance of any obstacles taking place on a straight through or adjacent flight. However, OA might save him from a few crashes during his practice runs, but he is flying in Sport mode in many, if not all of his flights, where OA isn't even available.

 

[Rchawks]

Wow!