Operating Drone from Boat

[jslipher]

Any of you have experience operating the drone from the boat? Few questions for you:

1. What do you do to get some good footage without having to manually fly it the whole time?
2. How do you take off and land from the boat (Sport 200)?
3. Do you use automated software such as Autopilot app or DJI Go?
4. Add any flotation protection?

I have a Phantom 4.

Thanks for any advise.

[RDT-G23]

I want to hear about this as well. I'm going to by the Phantom 4

[cbeitel123]

I have a Phantom 4. Active Track works well for footage of surfing. You can simply control the right stick to circle the boat while moving which is super cool. Unfortunately for wakeboard and up you need to fly manual. And it takes a lot of practice to not move the left/right and camera angle to much to produce smooth footage. As for taking off make sure you have the return to home setting to GPS or essentially wherever your controller is. I typically have an assistant hold the phantom above their heads for takeoffs and then do the same for landings from the back of the boat. I'll post a video I'm editing of my trip to Shasta last week when finished. I still need a lot of practice to be a good pilot of footage above 20mph (essentially Sport Mode flying)

P.S. DJI app, no flotation, think the unit will be destroyed if it hits the water anyway.



Sent from my iPad using PLT Nautique

[tachudda]

I have a 3 standard. It was a gift, so I just chance it. Take off from boat is no problem, can set home point to land. We had a person in the boat just catch the drone for landing. I take off from the back of the boat and don't fly in any wind at all. The standard is a pain to fly, no lightbridge means you can't use the screen so you have to fly it based on sight. Footage definitely suffers.
I think I'm going to try Vertical Studio since its supposed to be able to track from the camera on a standard. We'll see.

Probably wanna turn down the speakers some.
https://youtu.be/KxLVNnPDMFc

Still even janky footage of your boat is kind of a hype. Really hard to control without alot of practice so I guess I'm just gonna have terrible footage.

[Beg4wake]

Yeah, floatation will only hinder the craft from flying the way it needs to. Flying over water is just a risk you have to take. Be VERY careful when trying to land on a boat. Make sure there's nothing else going on in the boat when trying to land it if somebody else is grabbing the drone as it lands as these things will take a finger off, or worse yet...cut up a seat!!! Hover the craft just out of reach, have the person extend their hands up to it, then lower the drones legs into their hands. You will need to manually fly the drone for wakeboarding footage most likely. I'd recommend getting in quite a bit of practice before hand though. Try manually flying it during surf sessions to get the hang of it. I've seen even great pilots catch unseen tree limbs and such while following a boat and lose the drone. It's just a risk you take! PS...on the Phantom 4's, obstacle avoidance is disabled in sport mode! (that's how a friend of mine lost his, hit an overhanging tree limb while following a boat while flying from a stationary dock)

[MLars]

I also have a 3 Standard and this is my second year using it. Last year I hit a tree 30' up close to shore. It fell, hit a rock, broke the camera off, and landed in the lake. I fished it out and fixed it with replacement parts on eBay. Still works just fine.

Not sure what tachudda is talking about by not being able to see the screen when flying it, but I hook my phone up with the DJI app and that works as a live feed from the camera. Distance is ok without lightbridge, but if I were to buy one again I would definitely pay extra to get a model with it. Mine also has modes that you can set it to so it follows wherever the remote goes. Just set the remote somewhere in the boat and the drone does all the flying autonomously.

[surroundsound64]

DJI Mavic Pro here... I've taken a lot of videos from a few boats. Some from a boat of things on the shore, some from the shore of boats, and some from boats of people behind boats. Active track works pretty well for me.

The biggest issue I've had retrieving the drone is getting it to land on a moving surface (can't park a boat) and the obstacle avoidance features fighting you. I have found it works best to back the drone to the boat so the forward sensors don't pick up the boat or the people in the boat. If the boat is drifting slow enough, I can land it on the sun pad. If it's too fast I pretty much have to snatch it out of the air from below. It identifies my hand as an obstacle and tries to fly away so when I grab it, it will go full throttle climb. It usually takes a second person to shut it off or set the remote down and turn it off with my other hand.

I guess all of this to say, bring it back to the boat works best in reverse, if no one has figured that out yet.

[wakerider107]

DJI Mavic Pro here... I've taken a lot of videos from a few boats. Some from a boat of things on the shore, some from the shore of boats, and some from boats of people behind boats. Active track works pretty well for me.

The biggest issue I've had retrieving the drone is getting it to land on a moving surface (can't park a boat) and the obstacle avoidance features fighting you. I have found it works best to back the drone to the boat so the forward sensors don't pick up the boat or the people in the boat. If the boat is drifting slow enough, I can land it on the sun pad. If it's too fast I pretty much have to snatch it out of the air from below. It identifies my hand as an obstacle and tries to fly away so when I grab it, it will go full throttle climb. It usually takes a second person to shut it off or set the remote down and turn it off with my other hand.

I guess all of this to say, bring it back to the boat works best in reverse, if no one has figured that out yet.

Had the same issue with landing. Even in mostly calm water, the boat drifts slightly. I had to turn obstacle avoidance off and changed flight modes mid flight to beginner mode to land smoother.
For the most part I land on a friends dock or at a dock where the house looks vacant.

Phantom 4

[trip33]

There are waterproof options out there. I have an aquacopter. It can land and takeoff and definitely crash on the water. It floats and can be built with the "follow me" feature. The trade off is that the camera features are not there. I have to attach a gopro and there is no gimbal that you can control or adjust/rotate/tilt the camera with. I was willing to give that up for the ability to fly over the water without fear of crashing. In fact I feel more confident over the water because there are typically no other obstacles.