Flying from a boat..........

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Guys, I posted this over on the DJI forum, and everyone said risky but might be worth it for the shots you can get, but any additional tips would be useful. Cheers.

I am headed off on a liveaboard diving around the Maldives for 8 days and I am pretty stoked to be taking along my P3. I am concerned about doing a compass calibration on a boat which is made almost exclusively of metal. We will also be travelling quite long distances each day/night as we dive without heading to land, so I am not sure how I can calibrate/fly safely.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
 
Hmm .. unfortunately the DJI forum isn't the best place to find good advice.
Welcome to a more reliable source.
Unless the boat is aluminium, don't attempt to calibrate the compass on the boat.
Even if it is aluminium, I wouldn't bother.
As long as you've got a good calibration on land within 100 miles (and probably more), you'll be fine.
Just make sure you have practised hand catching on land before you try it at sea.
You'll have a chance to get some really nice shots and there are very few trees to watch out for.
Sea%20selfie_2-XL.jpg
 
Hand catching is no problems but I just want to check on any risk mitigation I can do before hand. Was that photo launched from a boat? Looks awesome.
 
Just a few pointers.

Learn to cancel RTH and take over controls.
Learn more about reseting home points based on GPS device on DJI Pilot App (1.1.2 on IOS and 1.2 on Android).
Learn to Hand launch and hand catch, watch your footing and your surroundings. Maybe get an assistant.
Stop the boat and then trigger RTH - even though IOS and Android now have the ability to set new home points, RTH will land where it is triggered.
 
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Hey Meta, and you to Mako, can you disable the low battery landing feature, if in fact the P3 has it?
I'm thinking Krafty would rather ruin a battery while trying to get back to the boat, than loose the bird.

I've got to agree with the above posts. Learn, learn, learn before you get out there and wonder what the heck to do. Practice each scenario till it's second nature. Please don't put Carbon Fiber props on a Phantom which will be living on a boat... :eek:

The most important thing to remember, you have to share your awesome video with us. So do good. :D
 
did a run today, calibrated compass on a alloy boat, no dramas. as i was running in gps mode i just kept changing the home point to my location when we travelled just over a 1km away from the last home point.
 

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Awesome pic!
 
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I went on a carnival cruise ship. Calibrated on the boat and hand launched and caught it. Only time I had an issue when i tried taking off from the floor of the ship and got a compass error. Hand launched fixed the issue. Flew perfect just as it would on land. Gps locked the whole time, but with the ship cruising along the ocean, the home location was going away very fast lol

This was somewhere in the middle of South America and Cuba lol
ImageUploadedByPhantomPilots1434716739.207941.jpg
 
Well, there you go. Life is good.:D
 
Guys, I posted this over on the DJI forum, and everyone said risky but might be worth it for the shots you can get, but any additional tips would be useful. Cheers.

I am headed off on a liveaboard diving around the Maldives for 8 days and I am pretty stoked to be taking along my P3. I am concerned about doing a compass calibration on a boat which is made almost exclusively of metal. We will also be travelling quite long distances each day/night as we dive without heading to land, so I am not sure how I can calibrate/fly safely.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
Flying from a boat is the best. I love doing it at the lake. First time is did it with my p2 it took a while to get the copter to calibrate one startup bc it can't be moving around a ton, but it was a blast. Can't wait to do it with the p3, if it ever works, and shoot and edit a wake boarding video.

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Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
 
Even the pros get it wrong sometimes.
Mic Bergsma -
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I would suggest a full power take off next time!

Keep in mind that when you hand catch the sailboat will likely be moving, although the quad can keep up no problem it does pose a bit of a challenge, better one man fly and the other catch.
 
I'd seen the first part but not the signed GoFundMe. Really?
You're on a Sportfisherman in Cabo asking people for $$$?

GMAFB.
 
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Flying from a boat is the best. I love doing it at the lake. First time is did it with my p2 it took a while to get the copter to calibrate one startup bc it can't be moving around a ton, but it was a blast. Can't wait to do it with the p3, if it ever works, and shoot and edit a wake boarding video.

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It works great. Got to go easy on the sticks and it is so much better with the p3. This is some wake boarding event video I took last weekend, I'm getting better at it.
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It works great. Got to go easy on the sticks and it is so much better with the p3. This is some wake boarding event video I took last weekend, I'm getting better at it.
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I can see that getting tricky. Nice work.
 
im wondering if, with boat movement and wind, its best to take off ATTI or GPS.
On a regular quad i'd also fly full manual for this (including altitude control, the automated alt hold always scares me on the phantom!)
 

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