How bad idea is this mission...?

un hombre · Oct 13, 2014

Well, once I gain proper skills and confidence with my Phantom I wold like to run a quite risky Mission from the "hacked" DJI app found on this forum.

I am attaching a screen shot with an approximate flight plan and lading starting position.

There is a small island off shore, which has an old church ruins, an observetion tower and some abandoned buildigs, from what I know.
There is no one living there, but birds, wild goats (!) and seals.

Now, the total flight path is around 2 kilometers. Island is around 300 meters away from shore. The furthest distance between myself and Phantom in the straight line will be around 1 kilometer, so Vision most likely will loose FPV and transmitter range.

I know it is risky and for many reasons it can drop to salt water, crash on the island and this will be the end of it, but I am really tempted to run this mission.
I will be most likely scared of not seeing what is going on with the bird, when it is out of range.

Is this a bit too risky?

Meta4 · Oct 13, 2014

The expression "crawl before you can walk" comes to mind.
A Phantom pilot should learn to fly their machine and get practice handling it in a range of situations before attempting stuff like this. Getting too adventurous too early is a good way to lose your bird.

When you have enough experience, you will be able to answer your question yourself.

un hombre · Oct 13, 2014

Meta4 said:
The expression "crawl before you can walk" comes to mind.
A Phantom pilot should learn to fly their machine and get practice handling it in a range of situations before attempting stuff like this. Getting too adventurous too early is a good way to lose your bird.

WHen you have enough experience, you will be able to answer your question yourself.

Did you read my first sentence?...

Regardless of the experience I'd rather hear others' opinions, if they have run similar missions or they would not for those or other reasons.
Pilot's skills is one thing, but Mission idea/plan/execution is another.

paulajayne · Oct 13, 2014

Looking at in on google earth as long as you keep height up to maintain line of sight it looks fine.

Can you not borrow a boat to get out to the island?

un hombre · Oct 13, 2014

There is one boat that cruises to the Island and you can take it of course and I will probably take it at some point without risking it flying 300 meters above sea, but... just asking...

Oh don't you worry, I will not do anything stupid with it before I have enough skills. I take care of my toys.

sbarton · Oct 13, 2014

I would do a couple of things. Get yourself a Flytrex Live GPS Logger. This way you can watch your mission when you are out of range. Also if you lose it, you will have the last known co-ordinates and to find it. Get some antenna's to increase your range, that way if you see any issues, you can take control, give it some altitude and bring it back immediately.
As long as the batteries last and you don't hit anything, you should be ok. Make absolutely certain that you are higher than anything that could be in your flight path. Don't try it on a windy day. It'll use too much battery trying to fight the wind, and it also takes longer to get the exact GPS way point, burning up battery as it hunts for the exact GPS co-ordinates of each way point as the wind is moving it around.

Set the way points so that the furthest ones are at the beginning of your mission, instead of end. That way towards the end of the mission it will be closer to you, and you should be able to get FPV and control back sooner. This will allow you to see if you have enough battery to get back and if not, find a safe place to land so you can recover it.

Practice some long distance missions safely over land first so you know what to expect. Plan a similar mission with same total distance and way points to see how much battery it will use and make sure you have enough in reserve when it comes back. You then might want to do some reconnaissance runs out the closest parts of the island and back. Just to make sure no birds are going to attack it or anything.

-Scott

Petros5678 · Oct 13, 2014

Yes to range increase. Anything under 9k' is underwhelming

Cloud9 · Oct 15, 2014

Man..you should seriously do this. If I was in your place I would be on that..would make for a sweet video!

Suwaneeguy · Oct 15, 2014

My main question is not of distance, but of time. Will your flight last between 15 and 20 minutes?
Anything over that is a "don't do it".
I would have somebody with a boat take me out to the island and launch from near center.
If you can't get onto the island, at least use the boat.

shadowband · Oct 16, 2014

un hombre said:
Well, once I gain proper skills and confidence with my Phantom I wold like to run a quite risky Mission from the "hacked" DJI app found on this forum.
...
I will be most likely scared of not seeing what is going on with the bird, when it is out of range.

Is this a bit too risky?

Go for it! But have it be a future goal and plan ahead. Start off with a ground station mission over dry land to get comfortable with it, then maybe do a limited trial run using the triangle on your map from the mainland, to the island and back. If the winds are too strong, scrub the mission. I would also make sure that you have good satellite coverage during the mission since you want to avoid an auto-land over water (go to http://satpredictor.navcomtech.com). Extrapolate battery usage based on the limited trial run(s) to make sure that your mission will complete with at least 25% left. I have a tracker, but your main concern will be to stay out of the drink.

Ground station autonomous flights can be nerve wracking, but I've grown very confident of the system - even so, it's still the biggest relief when you hear your bird on the way back. I have a similar grand mission in mind using the limit free vision app ground station. I almost launched on Sunday because conditions were perfect - almost no wind, excellent satellite coverage, and sunny; however, due to battery calculations, I wasn't confident that I'd have enough juice to complete the mission. Instead, I scaled back the flight plan from a 3 mile round trip to a 2 mile round trip, and I successfully completed the mission with 45% battery left. I'll be ready for my full mission at the next opportunity.

To sum up, plan ahead and work your way up to your full mission. Mitigate risk using tips from above. Good luck and enjoy!

un hombre · Oct 16, 2014

Thanks for the input! I will probably wait with this one until Spring/Summer next year, getting too windy and unpredictable weather now.

The total estimated flight distance is 1.305 miles, so it should be piece of cake although wind can be a huge factor in the battery life!