Flying Drone from USCG Cutter

sdempsey1985 · Oct 23, 2015

Hey everyone, so i'm in the Coast Guard. I purchased the drone because I thought it would be a unique way of getting some cool videos from the many port calls that I visit while attached to this Coast Guard Cutter. I had no idea the command would allow me, and even urge me to fly off the flight deck! I was able to get stunning footage while underway of the ship. The command loved it, and I I've been told by my CO that some of the footage is going to be seen from Washington. Cool stuff

JoeyJoe · Oct 23, 2015

sdempsey1985 said:
Hey everyone, so i'm in the Coast Guard. I purchased the drone because I thought it would be a unique way of getting some cool videos from the many port calls that I visit while attached to this Coast Guard Cutter. I had no idea the command would allow me, and even urge me to fly off the flight deck! I was able to get stunning footage while underway of the ship. The command loved it, and I I've been told by my CO that some of the footage is going to be seen from Washington. Cool stuff

Ummm, link or it didn't happen.

bbfpv · Oct 23, 2015

^^ uh oh.

mjw · Oct 23, 2015

sdempsey1985 said:
Hey everyone, so i'm in the Coast Guard. I purchased the drone because I thought it would be a unique way of getting some cool videos from the many port calls that I visit while attached to this Coast Guard Cutter. I had no idea the command would allow me, and even urge me to fly off the flight deck! I was able to get stunning footage while underway of the ship. The command loved it, and I I've been told by my CO that some of the footage is going to be seen from Washington. Cool stuff

can you share the videos???

sdempsey1985 · Oct 23, 2015

Here is a short clip that was posted to youtube.

FLOATFLYER · Oct 23, 2015

Nice !! well done

mjw · Oct 23, 2015

sdempsey1985 said:
Here is a short clip that was posted to youtube.

Great video - especially the sunset one - also, I was worried the other day about being in close proximity to a cell tower and interference - I will worry no more - it appears the P3 had no problems flying round the ship with all sorts of stuff putting out signals - what's in the white tunnel looking thing?

nickyb · Oct 23, 2015

Like it.

grrquadman · Oct 23, 2015

****, that was fantastic, "904" is look'n spectacular !!!
Good job. We need more good PR for our quads like this.
Thanks for your service.
-

stealthbomber · Oct 23, 2015

Imagine the US military using this advanced technology. Its nice that you made em aware whats "out there" and available! Maybe next time it wont take years to find Bin Laden. [emoji3][emoji3][emoji3][emoji16][emoji16]

timmer · Oct 23, 2015

sdempsey1985 said:
Hey everyone, so i'm in the Coast Guard. I purchased the drone because I thought it would be a unique way of getting some cool videos from the many port calls that I visit while attached to this Coast Guard Cutter. I had no idea the command would allow me, and even urge me to fly off the flight deck! I was able to get stunning footage while underway of the ship. The command loved it, and I I've been told by my CO that some of the footage is going to be seen from Washington. Cool stuff

Great job Coastie, it brought back memories of my Navy days!

mjw said:
...what's in the white tunnel looking thing?

That's where he keeps his Phantom, you can see the landing pad right in front of it.

dataway · Oct 23, 2015

Great job.....that Sunset shot was Epic...and great job flying...
One question - Did you have a problem calibrating the Compass on the Cutter?

Cactus · Oct 23, 2015

sdempsey1985 said:
Here is a short clip that was posted to youtube.

Cool! Brought back some memories for me. Deploying as HH-65 crew out to 370's for 20 days at a time.

sdempsey1985 · Oct 23, 2015

mjw said:
Great video - especially the sunset one - also, I was worried the other day about being in close proximity to a cell tower and interference - I will worry no more - it appears the P3 had no problems flying round the ship with all sorts of stuff putting out signals - what's in the white tunnel looking thing?

When I flew close to the bow of the ship, I did get some compass errors. Didn't really affect me though.

sdempsey1985 · Oct 23, 2015

Cactus said:
Cool! Brought back some memories for me. Deploying as HH-65 crew out to 370's for 20 days at a time.

Awesome!!

sdempsey1985 · Oct 23, 2015

dataway said:
Great job.....that Sunset shot was Epic...and great job flying...
One question - Did you have a problem calibrating the Compass on the Cutter?

I had a lot of issues with calibrating the compass. The entire ship is steel, so If I got it too close to the base of the flight deck, I would get compass errors like crazy. My solution to this was to find a tall person and have them hold it up above their head, and calibrate it from their hands, and then take off from their hands as well. Scary part is, once I took off my home point obviously changed on a moving ship, so the thought of me losing signal with the drone was scary... cause its gonna return home where i'm no longer at. Bye Bye Drone. But everything worked out well.

B- Scene Films · Oct 23, 2015

sdempsey1985 said:
I had a lot of issues with calibrating the compass. The entire ship is steel, so If I got it too close to the base of the flight deck, I would get compass errors like crazy. My solution to this was to find a tall person and have them hold it up above their head, and calibrate it from their hands, and then take off from their hands as well. Scary part is, once I took off my home point obviously changed on a moving ship, so the thought of me losing signal with the drone was scary... cause its gonna return home where i'm no longer at. Bye Bye Drone. But everything worked out well.

No dynamic home point possible?

TheWire · Oct 23, 2015

Awesome video. I have flown from boats and over large ships. If its windy, the drone can easily keep up when the vessel is sailing with the wind, but I have had situations where it couldn't keep up or get back to the vessel if the vessel was headed into the wind. The only way to get the Phantom back was to stop the vessel and let it catch up. So its always good to coordinate with the navigator of the vessel in case changes in vessel speed are needed. I did this video (below) from shore.

Once I posted this video, I contacted the shipping company, gave them the link, and asked them if there were issues flying over a ship like that. They said the Coast Guard may have rules when a UAV approaches a commercial ship. I tried to find references to these type of rules on-line but could not. Do you know if the Coast Guard has rules for UAV's flown from shore to near other commercial ships?