I am going out to get some footage of my mate’s new (to him) boat on Sunday. I’ll be on the boat with him, and there is a large cockpit space so I’m pretty sure I’ll be fine launching and recovering the drone.
I do have a few questions though:
Is there a way to continually update the home point to match the controller location, so that in case of a RTH, it comes to where the boat is rather than where it was? Or is it just a case of manually updating the home point at intervals?
What is the best mode for tracking a moving boat? Is it Activetrack in Auto mode for example, or more likely to work better in POI mode? I’m just trying to guage what the people who have done it think really.
Regards,
Stefan
Yeah, I’ve looked at some of the videos posted and there seem to be some that have done it manually, and some that have used tracking, I just didn’t find any that did it from inside the boat, although I suppose, thinking about it, that shouldn’t really make any difference.
Yeah, hand launching should be fine, hand catching possibly a little less so, but I have been practicing that, so hopefully I should be ok. At least with it being a sport fisher, it should be possible to counteract the tide and keep it relatively stationary in the water for recovery. That’s my hope anyway…
Any ideas about automatically and regularly updating the home point?
I believe both Maven Evo and Litchi have a setting to automate rth. I’ve tried it on a bike but not on a boat. Can’t see why it wouldn’t work unless flying over water is an extra pain.
But you don’t HAVE to use the rc2. You can use the good old n1, which I think is a better all round controller precisely because you can sideload better apps.
Not sure why you find a hand over the eyes emoji rude?
I used it as you made a rather sweeping assumption that the solution could be found in those two apps, when the OP may not even be able to install those apps, much less use them
I am using the RC2 controller, so sideloading isn’t an option for me.
Was out on the boat today, in glorious weather, and had a blast. Got some decent footage to edit, didn’t land the drone in the water, and generally managed quite well. I must admit, I was a little trembly once the drone was squared away and stowed in the wheelhouse, but overall I was glad I’d done it and I’ll definitely do it again.
I’ll post a link to the finished video once it’s done, but just in case it might be useful for someone else, here are a few takeaways I’ll be storing in my memory banks.
If possible, fly around slack tide, or alternatively somewhere where you’re not in the main tidal stream. I flew my first open water flight at slack water at the top of the tide, and the boat drifted much less when it came time to recover it. This addressed one of the items I’d been worrying about.
I turned collision avoidance to “brake” mode so that when I did bring it down, it wasn’t actively trying to dodge me. This removed (in my mind at least) another piece of movement I had to try and figure out. I probably could have turned it off altogether, given there are few trees or other obstacles in open water, but I’m not that brave.
I also brought it in to land to my hand, so that when I could grasp it, I could turn it upside down to kill the motors quickly. This felt more controlled than trying to actually land the drone on a moving deck or on my moving hand.
Activetrack is awesome, much better at keeping the boat in frame than I could have done manually. Just be aware, if it is still engaged when you try to bring the drone in to land, when the boat fills the screen, it will refuse to move any closer or lower, until you disengage Activetrack. Slight panic for a moment when it refused to come any closer to me!
It’s definitely addictive, flying over water. I had a fair bit of experience flying fixed wing models over water, but having the TOAL point on the boat it self opens up a lot more possibilities. Definitely a skill to work on.
Glad you made it safely. I nearly lost my mini 4 pro in the Solent last month. Only travelling 5 knot with 3bof that tide. Sails up but doin little on a 34ft boat. I had cancelle rth twice and had minutes left of the battery and a forced landing in the sea.I crashed it onto the deck in the end just to get it back. No way could I catch it or land it safely. Thankfully only broken and bent props.
I said never again last summer on a boat in Greece but went back on that decision but never again.
Clear planning is key, which I confessI failed to do. Aiming for a small, moving landing place in wind, with masts, lines, cables and boons moving around is a gamble. Miss the mark and a watery grave awaits your pride and joy.
I won’t stop flying over the water but trying to land on a boat is bad for my heart.
