It would probably be classed as a flyaway i.e. you don’t have the drone. Under Refresh, the replacement cost for a flyaway is a lot more (£209?) than if you have the drone to send to them.
I couldn’t find insurance which would cover the loss of the drone in water where it was not recoverable. Who do you use?
Hi. Coverdrone. I have just been through my policy documents and cannot find any reference to water loss…
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Yes, it does get easier with time…though still a bit nerve wracking when 2 miles from shore and this is the only solid thing around !
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When I had my Mavic Pro I flew out to try and find that, found the sandbank but couldn’t locate the lighthouse remains.
Personally I don’t mind flying over water, I know if the drone goes down it is highly unlikely to cause harm to anything or anyone other than my pride.
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Fortunately on both occasions I’ve flown out to it the visibility was good enough for it to be visible from the shore, so I knew which way to fly 
3.6km over the sea with an Air 2
Screenshot from DJI Fly. Will have to work out how to fill in 5 missing logs that didn’t make it automatically in to AirData.
Absolutely no qualms about flying over water. Stretching the bounds of acceptable VLOS though.
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Interesting, though I’ve never experienced it myself even though I’ve flown quite a few models over water, even taking off and landing on water, with both analog and digital control systems. That’s not to say it doesn’t happen, studies have been carried out to show it does happen when no provisions have been taken to mitigate the phenomenon. But the average frame length used in digital radio control links is so short that any error is very quickly corrected just by the rate of repetition.
There are quite a few methods that can greatly reduce the unwanted interaction of reflected waves, a few that are used in DJI craft.
Spatial Diversity. Two antennas separated by a fixed distance, the two signals are compared by the receiver and the stronger of the two, which will most likely be the direct wave is the one processed, as the reflected wave has lost a lot of its energy through absorption by the reflective medium.
Modulation Method. DJI’s Ocusync uses a modulation method called Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). As well as being capable of transmitting multiple signals on a single carrier, another property of this modulation method is its very high resilience to the effects of multipath. It’s common place to use this modulation technique for many terrestrial VHF/UHF/EHF comms links where the integraty of digital data is paramount.
When a radiowave is reflected the polarisation can be altered. This is most noticeable with circular polarisation where the reflected/incident wave will be the opposite polarity to the direct wave. It’s for this reason that circular polarised antennas are preferred by the FPV community over a linear polarised dipole, even though the latter is a more efficient antenna.
As has been mentioned one of the primary causes of drones going into the drink, other than operator error, is the infrared distance measuring of the vertical positioning system misreading the apparent height above the water. This is because fresh still water appears invisible to infrared as infrared is not reflected off the water’s surface.
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I also use coverdrone as they don’t state anything about water or having to recover the drone like the DJI cover states.
Further to DJI-Soarin, I’ve just been through my policy docs again. Total loss covered. I can find no reference to flying over water. They reserve the right to get your flight data which is fair enough. They seem to say as long as you are not breaching Article 241, flying safely etc they will be fine. I have never made a claim but found them responsive to queries etc. I insured my 2 Pro and then when I got a Mini 2 as well I added it to the policy with no extra charge.
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Often fly over water, get some great shots looking back at you that you can’t get any other way. Personally don’t fly toooooo far tho’, I can’t swim. Though in emergencies who knows what I’m capable of 
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I haven’t flown 2 miles out into Morecambe bay, as that would be very beyond VLOS and would be highly irresponsible. 
I think once you have a few flights under your belt you don’t even think about it.
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Hi all living as i do in cornwall i often fly my drones over the sea in order to get coastal shots ,am wondering how many of you do the same and what tips tricks you yourselves use as its only one way down into a murkey grave which is the only drawback i myself feel.
Just make sure you have enough battery to get back to land … and even more so when there’s an offshore wind!
The Visual Positioning Sytem - VPS - that is more accurate than barometric pressure for altitudes below about 10 metres isn’t too clever when it comes to plain surfaces, regular patterns or water.
So flying below 10 metres over the sea 0r a lake or a river - is best done without reliance on the aircraft systems keeping you out of trouble and use your own skill and judgement. Or keep well above 10 metres
As someone who has lost an Inspire and an X5 camera to the sea (through a bad battery) I DO follow my own advice and have had no problems.
Drone sensors when low over water shouldnt be relied on ,i usualy fly at cliff level or just below only other thing is seagulls ha ha had few arial combats with them but in the whole i get eome great video and pictures from out at sea
It does get easier,I went for the make or brake option when I dared to send a mini 2 with absolutely no obstacle avoidance all the way from the shore to the Herne Bay Pier that its about 1154 metres away, got there and did a bit of a recon flight and then safely land it back to me on the shore.
see here:
My what good eyesight you have grandma
Hi @Badly_Drone_Boy I’ve edited your post to include the OneBox preview.
To do this just paste the YouTube link into a new line of its own with no spaces etc.
No need to use the insert hyperlink button in the message composer or any embed code, its all done automatically for you if you follow the above.
www.youtube.com/justlikethis
Thank you Sparkyws, didn’t know that now I do