First flight over water

pete76uk · Sep 22, 2016

Bit the bullet and took my p3a a mile over the North Sea to a small island and I'm so pleased I did as the water looked so clean and blue around the island .

Heart was in my mouth the whole way and had sweaty hands lol

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Great_Lakes · Sep 22, 2016

Not the shoot you want to see...

royster · Sep 22, 2016

Nice flight,
You using DJI go, Litchi or manual for flight?

JohnnyB · Sep 22, 2016

Very nice! Wish I had nice places like that to fly!

pete76uk · Sep 22, 2016

Great_Lakes said:
Not the shoot you want to see...

Sorry to see that

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pete76uk · Sep 22, 2016

royster said:
Nice flight,
You using DJI go, Litchi or manual for flight?

Used litchi for some shots but flying manually over the sea

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pete76uk · Sep 22, 2016

Johnny Bellew said:
Very nice! Wish I had nice places like that to fly!

The Northumberland coast is beautiful,still can't believe 1 mile out and the sea is clear blue

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Kdogman · Sep 22, 2016

Great job, excellent video....very brave. I've heard flying over water can play havoc, is this true?

kennedye · Sep 23, 2016

Kdogman said:
Great job, excellent video....very brave. I've heard flying over water can play havoc, is this true?

If you're flying relatively low over water, it's generally recommended to turn off the Visual Positioning System since the uniform surface can be very confusing to it. Otherwise, it's pretty much the same as flying over land; if something happens, you're probably screwed either way.

If you can get on top of something like a hill or even a platform, you should be able to get pretty good range over the water given the lack of things to obstruct the signal. Just remember: when a jetski comes at you, duck!

Mikepoo · Sep 23, 2016

Lol, Try and do a 40,000ft over water my yesterday's flight.

Kdogman · Sep 23, 2016

kennedye said:
If you're flying relatively low over water, it's generally recommended to turn off the Visual Positioning System since the uniform surface can be very confusing to it. Otherwise, it's pretty much the same as flying over land; if something happens, you're probably screwed either way.

If you can get on top of something like a hill or even a platform, you should be able to get pretty good range over the water given the lack of things to obstruct the signal. Just remember: when a jetski comes at you, duck!

You lost me in the first sentence.

kennedye · Sep 23, 2016

Kdogman said:
You lost me in the first sentence.

Sorry about that - basically, the VPS likes to see things underneath it that are distinct, like a rug or a tile floor. On surfaces like water where everything looks the same*, it can get confused and could lead to an unforseen accident. There's a section on it in the VPS page in the manual.

* granted, water can look different when there are whitecaps, but at that point the wind is already 10-12 miles per hour and you should think about whether you really want to be flying in that kind of wind...

Clipper707 · Sep 24, 2016

Your drone doesn't know if it's flying over friendly, fluffy marshmallows or saltwater infested with sharks with frickin lasers attached to their heads; it just knows it's flying.

Some of the best views in the world involve water, plus I always seem to get way more range over San Francisco Bay than I do over San Francisco. (I'm sure there's a technical reason for that.)

I love flying "feet-wet."

I still get the shakes sometimes, too.

Kdogman · Sep 24, 2016

kennedye said:
Sorry about that - basically, the VPS likes to see things underneath it that are distinct, like a rug or a tile floor. On surfaces like water where everything looks the same*, it can get confused and could lead to an unforseen accident. There's a section on it in the VPS page in the manual.

* granted, water can look different when there are whitecaps, but at that point the wind is already 10-12 miles per hour and you should think about whether you really want to be flying in that kind of wind...

Thanks mate,I really need to study up a bit....some much to learn on the technical side of things.

Coleza · Feb 19, 2017

Yes, radio range can be much better over water because one of the issues especially in a crowded area is the Wifi polution. So one way to get maximum range is to avoid lots of communications signals.