Is it safe to take off from a condo balcony?

[30secs]

I live in a condo by the beach. I was wondering if there are any issues or concerns taking off from my balcony to the outside. I pre compass-calibrated the phantom. I usually get GPS on the balcony but I don't see and issue starting in atti and flying it out and up to get the sat lock.

Thoughts?

 

[happydays]

Hand launch and catch, maybe?

 

[ctp]

I would get some practice taking off in wide open spaces. It really depends more on the wind and how much you are willing to risk.

Hand catch landing should be easy from a balcony.

 

[ianwood]

I would avoid any challenging take off / landing points until you are proficient at flying, take off, and landing.

 

[30secs]

This is not my first time flying. And hand catch is how I land every time. I'm more concerned with compass issues flying from/near the building with cars underneath. Also taking off from a high altitude such as the 18th floor.

My balcony has a rail that I can manually take off from.. Dint think I'll be doing the auto take off from there.

 

[N017RW]

Sounds like you already know the answer.
I'd yield to the concerns you mentioned.

 

[Vtecturtle]

I've done it. Just be careful since there is no room for error. It's harder to land than to take off and depending how high you are its a long drop lol

 

[Meta4]

Biggest concerns would be watch out for:
Buildings blocking out a lot of the sky and so cutting GPS (if you're OK with atti, this isn't a biggie)
Effect of steel reinforcing if you launched from directly on a concrete surface.
Possible wind gusts close to buildings

But apart from things like that, there's no worry with launching from a high point.

 

[yblaser]

RTH would sure be interesting

 

[mmjax]

Make sure you have someone take a video when you try it.

 

[tcope]

If the controller loses contact and a RTH is initiated, the drone will smack in the building and fall to the ground.

If everything goes right it's safe. If anything goes wrong it's not. Question is, what are the chances something will go wrong.

 

[30secs]

Thanks for the replies. I did launch from the balcony before. What is interesting and hopefully helpful is that even though I had GPS.. The home point was established in air after I took off. So it was in a safe place in a back road between trees. You can also always reset that point to something better.

The scary part is I only have about a 60° view... So it definitely gets your adrenaline pumping hard. But it was incredible to fly it to the beach from my balcony!

 

[acherman]

I have done it from it a hotel balcony earlier this month, it went pretty well. We had a pretty big balcony though. Once it's in the air, move out a few feet from the building, then set the home point, then if it ever uses RTH it won't land on the building,and MAYBE it will be close enough to catch on it's way down. haha

 

[gjoseph]

I live in a condo and fly off the roof of it there are many ac units ect on the roof and I have not had a problem rth works fine. I do not hand catch but have gotten pretty good with landing in a small area. I then fly right out into the city with many highbuildings ect

 

[o1biggen]

I have done it once from my friends 22 floor condo in downtown Orlando. It was windy and very scary. I was receiving GPS and got the green light safe to fly on the pilot app. I lifted off and when I flew away from balcony my Phantom 3 advanced did something it never had. It started drifting to the right with no input from the remote. Luckily It didn't go towards the building. I was able the regain control and all was fine. Landing was really scary, but I made it with no damage. Don't think I will do that again. Here is the video..