I live in Florida and have a bass boat. I was thinking about taking my p4p and flying it off the front of my boat. It has a pretty big area that's wide open. I also have two gps units on the boat for navigation. Would they affect the drone? I could always just turn them off. Does this sound like it could work and does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions about doing this? I would like to see if I could get some pictures and videos of some alligators. Just a thought thanks!
Flying off a boat
- Thread starter Graggy
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If the boat is aluminum, it could cause your compass to go bonkers. Certainly don't try a do a calibration on it.
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The stock p4p/p4 case is a legit platform to launch off of. You can just add something on the bottom to get a somewhat leveled surface. Once the drone is up in the air, just adjust the horizon by holding down the right trigger and scrolling the top right wheel. Oh yea, turn off VPS in the settings if you plan on flying on top of water.
Make sure your gps is on in your phone or tablet, you will have to reset often your present RTH location, this is done in GO. On take off home point is set at present location and as you move you will have to reset, do this at intervals as you move in the boat as your last home point set is a GPS location and as you move you have to change it. Have fun.
The boat is fiberglass and I was going to put my anchor down wasn't planning on moving around while flying
In that instance you should be fine. IMO do not re-calibrate the compass before flying unless you notice directional discrepancies. If that occurs, calibrate it on land, not on the boat.
I take off from the boat all the time. The deck is a bit slippery and has a slight slope so I try not to land on it.
Landed on a paddle board yesterday. Great practice. You don't want to mess up, lol.
Landed on a paddle board yesterday. Great practice. You don't want to mess up, lol.
Meta4
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You have that backwards.
Aluminium has absolutely no effect on any compass.
Steel or iron are what will affect a compass.
There's no need to calibrate anything.
Unnecessary recalibration of the compass is a bad idea. any time.
Meta4
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I just recently launched and followed a boat towing my girls. I was in Eastern Washington, 106 degree F temps, no problem. Boat was fairly small 17' boat too. Launched it off the bow even with waves bumping us around. hand caught it (because the bow had basically zero clearance for the props and landing on a pitching deck doesn't sound fun. I'm no naval aviator. 
Video below but unfortunately I cut out the take off and landing part as no one else cares about that stuff except us! GPS are passive receivers of signal so you'll have no issues. I was in a box canyon so I had a few GPS errors (had to launch only seeing 5-7 sats) but once I was up I had 12-17 Sats locked in.
Video below but unfortunately I cut out the take off and landing part as no one else cares about that stuff except us! GPS are passive receivers of signal so you'll have no issues. I was in a box canyon so I had a few GPS errors (had to launch only seeing 5-7 sats) but once I was up I had 12-17 Sats locked in.
