Finally got enough nerve for an extended flight over water..

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It was dead calm on the lake I live on and I've been itching to get some aerials of some canoeing on the water, so I got my daughter and her friend to go for a paddle while I did some video. I thought they'd stay close to shore but by the time I got set up and the P4 had warmed up they were well on their way to the island about 1.6 km's out. I took a deep breath and sent it out after them, keeping the P4 about 6' off the water till I got to them. I was expecting the VPS to give me errors as it had once before when I was over water, but it was fine this time.

The adrenaline was pumping the whole time but spent the entire battery time out there and got some great shots. I'm still thinking about fashioning some floats for it somehow, but in any case the lake will be frozen in a couple of weeks and I won't have to worry about it till April or May.

Anyway, here is the video, it's a little longish but I wanted to keep the long approach & depart shots in, so grab a beverage and enjoy the ride.

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Very nice, thank you. I also fly over water many times, and I slowly pushed my distance out to about 1.5 miles. I still get scared, which is a good thing. I am still too scared to fly too low over water, I have had one occasion when the height dropped a few feet without input from me and I got the warning. I am now at the point where although I would hate to lose my P4, I have had my moneys worth, and could accept the loss as part of the hobby, but not if I just got a Mavic!!
As you say winter is coming, but flying over the ice would be good.
 
I've been debating flying out to the island from my deck and doing a nose in fly around of it, according to google earth distance calculator I'd be out right around 2 km's, or 1.25 miles
 
I've been debating flying out to the island from my deck and doing a nose in fly around of it, according to google earth distance calculator I'd be out right around 2 km's, or 1.25 miles
If you have a windsurfer or DBS2 you should be OK, but don't go to the other side of the island without LOS connection.

Was your POI around the canoe using the Active Track function in GO, or was that a manual go-around? That water only looks about 15' deep. I was looking for large fish during the overhead shots, but saw none.
 
I'd keep it above the highest point on the island to maintain LOS for sure, not that I'd be able to see it from that far out, but the radio link would be LOS.

That was a manual pan when I did the fly around, I was pretty pleased how well it turned out, usually I'll use the POI feature for shots like that but since the POI was moving in this case I had to do it manual.

If I get another calm day I'm going to do some straight down shots over the water looking for fish. You're right, the lake is a pretty shallow lake and 15' sounds about right. That's not the bottom you are seeing in the overhead shots though, it's the reflection of the sky.

This time of year and right after ice off the water is real clear, can often see large Pike & Walleye swimming when I'm in the canoe. I should get a polarized filter for the phantom and see what I can see.
 
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Nice video. On a sunny day in the fall, I bet the trees look awesome on that island.

Check out the Active Track function in GO. For slow moving objects it will track the object quite good. Just move the right stick left or right and the craft circles and focuses on the POI while it moves. With slow moving objects that offer good contrast to the background color, it works well.
 
Nice video.!
 
Very nice video. You may have noticed the most eye catching shots are when there us a point of reference, such as shoreline. I learned that shooting while flying over incoming waves is a pretty unexciting shot. I have not done much over water shooting, it's a bit scary.



Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots
 
Great video! My wife and I love the water. I was thinking about how nice it would be to live there until you mentioned the lake freezing over. I am a wimp when it comes to cold weather! :)
 

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