Update: successfully hand launched one of the drones off the stern of a monohull yesterday 3 times and retrieved, just motoring slowly for practice. Did get the compass calibration warning but was able to move to a slightly different position on the boat, further aft.
When we sped up to increase the challenge, started getting a "downward visual position calibration error" that I solved once by restarting the controller and drone, but didn't get sorted the next time. (Could have nothing to do with the speed?)
I did find that I had to turn off the forward and backwards obstacle avoidance to bring the drone backwards into the stern for retrieval, first time it kept flying away from us and I had to bring in sideways off the starboard quarter. Fine when motoring but could be more challenging once sails are up.
I am finding that the Phantom is much more sensitive than the Mavic on a moving boat but is much easier to grab out of the sky. I have a 3rd party handle that I attach to the Mavic for retrieval but have to turn off all sensors to fly, else it just thinks its near the ground and slowly rises.
When we sped up to increase the challenge, started getting a "downward visual position calibration error" that I solved once by restarting the controller and drone, but didn't get sorted the next time. (Could have nothing to do with the speed?)
I did find that I had to turn off the forward and backwards obstacle avoidance to bring the drone backwards into the stern for retrieval, first time it kept flying away from us and I had to bring in sideways off the starboard quarter. Fine when motoring but could be more challenging once sails are up.
I am finding that the Phantom is much more sensitive than the Mavic on a moving boat but is much easier to grab out of the sky. I have a 3rd party handle that I attach to the Mavic for retrieval but have to turn off all sensors to fly, else it just thinks its near the ground and slowly rises.
