Flying Over Water First Time - Speedboat Video

[Greig]

Hi there, here's a short video of flying over water for the first time with the DJI Phantom 2.
Took off from the boat and flew around for a while, didn't want to get too close to the water the first time I tried it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_zrVPJ0kbI

 

[Boozshey]

Good stuff!! I bet you were nervous!

FPV or LOS? I could see you in the back of the boat but couldn't see goggles or not.

 

[poostik]

nice.

bet you were crappin your pants the whole time
i know i do, when i'm over water.

haha

 

[Greig]

Thank you!
Ye you've always got to keep in the back of your mind how much money you're flying about!
I was using a monitor, not bought goggles... yet.
Ye that's me in the back of the boat, with a cast on due to a broken ankle haha!

 

[Jebus]

Any issues or tips that you want to share regarding launching from a boat? I'm sure I'll be doing that a few times this summer...

 

[Greig]

I just got one person to hold it by the legs for take off, put the throttle to full then let go. I've got taller and wider legs on it than the stock ones so that helps.
For landing, I ensured that I had plenty of battery left and brought it down very slowly. Didn't want to mess it up!

 

[Jebus]

Thanks. Obviously you didn't have any issues initializing it on the water? Was it pretty calm? I would think waves would mess with the compass during initialization - which wouldn't be good when your buddy lets go of the Phantom!

 

[Greig]

No issues at all. Although it was slightly choppy water with a lightish wind. That may explain what happened today although the water was calmer!

I had it out again over the same lake (loch) and went through the same process of calibrating it then taking off from someone's hands.
Everything seemed fine but I noticed a few hundred feet up it was drifting significantly. Admittedly I always fly it in atti mode so I thought it might just be some wind higher up.
While trying to get some video lower down near the boat, it suddenly went off on its own, veering steeply to the side with very limited control. It then started flying even more erratically so I attempted to fly it back with its limited control. Thankfully as I got close to the boat it went back to full normal control.
I'll post a video of it tomorrow, not a nice experience at all! :shock:
Thought I was going to have to crash land it fast into the boat or as close as I could get!
Flew it again later over land and it was absolutely fine.

 

[Garysam]

I would have crapped my pants, Gawd lol

 

[Jebus]

Wow. Glad to hear that it didn't go for a swim! I wonder if it wasn't an issue with the initialization on the boat - not having it level (not sure if that matters) or moving might affect the compass during initialization and you might not notice any problems with flight until after awhile as the compass issues compound and exponentially get worse as the Phantom tries to fix it.

I don't really know, but I thought I remember reading something about this - hence my original questions.

 

[kyle925]

Wow, the phantom can keep up w/ the speed of the speed boat. Was it on GPS or ATTI? Good job.

 

[Meluk]

Wow, the phantom can keep up w/ the speed of the speed boat. Was it on GPS or ATTI? Good job.

Had my phantom at 76mph with the help of a tail wind so they can definitely keep up.


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