Chicago

Hoovy said:
I just got back from a short trip to Chicago. I thought it was difficult flying the drone due to the number of people around. Also the wind, in fact I almost lost my phantom into the lake due to the wind. I did manage to get a few good videos, here are two. If anyone is interested I identified some good isolated spots to film navy pier and the buckingham fountain.
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Hey thank you for your reply and the videos. I can see from the flags that the wind was strong.

You mentioned you almost lost your Phantom. Since I never take off in such conditions I have no experience with this. Did it just drop from the sky or it started moving in the direction of the wind?

I would only fly at the sunrise at the areas where I'd expect people.
 
What happened was I had planned a fairly elaborate litchi mission starting at the Adler planetarium going around to northerly island then to millennium park. I went early morning at sunrise, it was kind of windy but I didn't think it was too bad. Right after starting the mission instead of rising to the first waypoint height the phantom immediately started to fly out over the lake at a very low height probably 10 ft or so. I waited thinking it would eventually start the mission but it didn't. It started to fly away further and further I thought for sure that was it. I was hesitant to flip from F back to GPS mode because I thought maybe it would start to hover and I wouldn't have the range to fly it back so I toggled the left switch and thankfully RTH activated.
 
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Hoovy said:
What happened was I had planned a fairly elaborate litchi mission starting at the Adler planetarium going around to northerly island then to millennium park. I went early morning at sunrise, it was kind of windy but I didn't think it was too bad. Right after starting the mission instead of rising to the first waypoint height the phantom immediately started to fly out over the lake at a very low height probably 10 ft or so. I waited thinking it would eventually start the mission but it didn't. It started to fly away further and further I thought for sure that was it. I was hesitant to flip from F back to GPS mode because I thought maybe it would start to hover and I wouldn't have the range to fly it back so I toggled the left switch and thankfully RTH activated.
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Thank you. I actually only fly with DJI GO and only fly it manually. I bought myself an anemometer to measure the wind speed before I take off. But yes. I'm aware the wind can change by the elevation.
 
Montrose harbor and Buckingham fountain are definitely great spots. I went and flew and was not bothered at all.
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SteveN76 said:
Montrose harbor and Buckingham fountain are definitely great spots. I went and flew and was not bothered at all.
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Great. Thank you.

Does anyone know where this lighthouse is?
https://youtu.be/FP2Yz6B7Mq0?t=34s

I also noticed a few people were flying over Chicago River. Do you think I could get into trouble for this?
https://youtu.be/n4A9o2iQubs?t=2m59s

And what about the Baha'I temple in Chicago. Somebody was flying there but unfortunately I can’t find the video right now.
 
I got some limited footage over the river. I had an issue where the drone didn't fly the litchi mission over the river that I planned, I believe it was because the phantom had intermittent gps coverage. The main issue I had was finding places where I could fly inconspicuously

 
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Hoovy said:
I got some limited footage over the river. I had an issue where the drone didn't fly the litchi mission over the river that I planned, I believe it was because the phantom had intermittent gps coverage. The main issue I had was finding places where I could fly inconspicuously

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You're right about GPS. And there could be some interference because of all these skyscrapers. It happened to me in the mountains that I completely lost the communication for about a minute or more. I suppose it was because of the interference.
 
Hoovy said:
What happened was I had planned a fairly elaborate litchi mission starting at the Adler planetarium going around to northerly island then to millennium park. I went early morning at sunrise, it was kind of windy but I didn't think it was too bad. Right after starting the mission instead of rising to the first waypoint height the phantom immediately started to fly out over the lake at a very low height probably 10 ft or so. I waited thinking it would eventually start the mission but it didn't. It started to fly away further and further I thought for sure that was it. I was hesitant to flip from F back to GPS mode because I thought maybe it would start to hover and I wouldn't have the range to fly it back so I toggled the left switch and thankfully RTH activated.
Click to expand...

I had quite a hard time with the wind. My first take off the phantom was being blown backwards and almost hit the ledge I was on. I had to hand catch because I would never have been able to land it without crashing. Unfortunately I don't have the luxury of going whenever the winds play nice. So I had to deal with it best I can. I never pushed the battery too far I landed at at least 50 percent. I wanted to fly over navy pier but I was afraid it would've never made it back fighting the wind.


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SteveN76 said:
No I'm not up on all that. What are the benefits?


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Click to expand...
Using RAW you get more information.
In your case you would have more information in the clouds so you could fix the blown out sky. On the other hand you would also get more info in the shadows.

This guy is really great to learn from. He explains exactly what I'm talking about.

But I'm in Chicago from November 18th to November 30th except I'll be in Kentucky for the thanksgiving. I can show you what I'm talking about on some real samples.
 
Did any of you guys have any problems with police around the Navy Pier?
I was there the previous week and since it was very windy I didn't bring my P3P with. I was just taking photos.

So I noticed a police officer there and took an opportunity and asked him about flying. I asked that very politely so we had a quite nice discussion. I even showed him some of the videos I did in my home country.

So the thing was that this police officer said flying around the Navy Pier is prohibited. No matter it's over the water where no people are. He was scared of a terrorist attack. I mentioned that my P3P could not carry any bomb or something but he still insisted that someone could use it as an attack at the water coverage or something. Well I didn't argue with him I was very polite all the time but I think this guy was real dumb.

I also checked the AirMap app and I didn't notice any restriction. There are just advisories.

Oh btw since I mentioned wind. I was flying at the Bahai temple one week earlier. It didn't look that windy at first. I measured the wind speed with my anemometer. But it was much more windy at a higher elevation. HealthyDrones showed me 22 mph when I later checked logs on my computer. And I think the wind was the reason for getting a crack on my drone shell. I had to replace the shell with a new one.
 
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