Landing on ship

[aryabehkam]

Is there someone who land on and takeoff from a deck of a ship?

I am having a "compass error" problem even when the P3 is near a steel bolt and nut.

What about to land and takeoff from a steel plate? How will be the reaction of P3?

 

[carlsagan]

I'd like to know as well. Gonna be doing a sailing trip in Greece and would love to do a flyover when we're out at sea

 

[Marlin009]

Short answer - taking off from a steel plate will screw up the compass.
Tons of steel....well, you get the idea.

 

[carlsagan]

OK, but what is the big deal if the compass is screwed up? Can't the phantom use it's other tools to fly?

 

[richardseguro]

I think the problem of screwed up compass would have to do more with the direction the bird's front is pointing, right?

If I have vlos (linesight) with bird...should'nt or could'nt I be able to control and land it?

 

[aryabehkam]

I am flying over tons and tons and tons of steel every day in shipyard.

Near tower cranes, gantry cranes, high frequancy radio antennas of ships, steel construction buildings, etc.

Even i flied under 200 ton lifting capacity gantry crane and i had no problem.

Do you think i was lucky not to had any issue? May there be a problem for future flights?

P.S: One time i had any issue of transmission. That time I took of from the field and after some mimutes later, workers got the big gantry crane over me. After that second my vision partly lost. I can see where the drone is but i cannot follow from the screen. That was my last field experiment but i want to try again.

 

[Meta4]

I am flying over tons and tons and tons of steel every day in shipyard. Near tower cranes, gantry cranes, high frequency radio antennas of ships, steel construction buildings, etc..
Even i flied under 200 ton lifting capacity gantry crane and i had no problem.

Do you think i was lucky not to had any issue? May there be a problem for future flights?

It's OK to fly in the vicinity of large steel objects (as long as you aren't very close) but launching from on top of steel objects is different and will give you compass errors.

 

[acherman]

I launched from the middle of a bridge the other day. Had a compass error while sitting on the deck (wood), but once it was up 5' the effect was small enough that the error went away. I flew around getting video and photos of that bridge, even flying underneath, and landed on the deck with no problems.

 

[JDJ]

I took off from a fishing boat, which is definitely not a ship, but I didn't have any issues other than a challenging landing due to the turbulence coming off the back of a moving boat:

 

[Meta4]

I took off from a fishing boat, which is definitely not a ship

That one's fibreglass so of course it's not going to have the issues a steel ship would.

 

[BenDronePilot]

Is there someone who land on and takeoff from a deck of a ship?

I am having a "compass error" problem even when the P3 is near a steel bolt and nut.

What about to land and takeoff from a steel plate? How will be the reaction of P3?

Some so called "Fly aways" have occurred from people taking off from those kinds of structures. Compass problems and errors on take off can be fatal. You need Manual mode to recover so it uses no automated corrections. The P3 does not have a full manual mode though unlike the P1 and P2.

Just be cautious where you take off and mindful of any obvious compass anomalies. Hand launching can sometimes also help somewhat reduce problems.

 

[TonG]

I have landed several times successfully and controlled on the roof of my car.

 

[domdoha]

I believe compass issues can be avoid by hand launch and hand catch.

 

[Willie Swyer]

After 83 flights, yesterday I had what looked like a compass error anomaly. I was in the back yard of a friend with fairly tall grass and decided to launch off the top of his parked car sitting there. Since I was more than 20 mi from my last launch site I did a routine successful calibration about 10 ft from the car.
Stepping back I did an auto launch where the P3 started up and lifted off to its normal take off height. Without touching the controls the P3 started gyrating and moving randomly around. I immediately attempted to maneuver away from the car and set her down into the grass without incurring any damage except for the now green tinged hull. Since reading on this forum about this behavior it was immediately recognizable as a compass malfunction. I put the quad back on the rooftop and after starting the props was greeted with a red flashing compass error warning. I'm thinking that the message wasn't available at first on auto launch. Maybe it showed up but I was too busy getting her safely down to notice.
It's clear the the metal roof caused this error so I moved further into the field and after recalibration had a successful flight.

 

[JDJ]

That one's fibreglass so of course it's not going to have the issues a steel ship would.

Most boats of that size will still have steel and other metals under the deck, including the engines, so it's still relavant.

 

[Meta4]

Most boats of that size will still have steel and other metals under the deck, including the engines, so it's still relavant.

As you've demonstrated, taking off from a fibreglass boat with an engine a long way below is completely different from taking off from a steel ship, a manhole cover or the roof of your car.
One way you get a big fat compass error because your compass is centimetres away from a big limp of iron and the other way you don't .. because there may be a some steel but it's metres away.

 

[acherman]

After 83 flights, yesterday I had what looked like a compass error anomaly. I was in the back yard of a friend with fairly tall grass and decided to launch off the top of his parked car sitting there. Since I was more than 20 mi from my last launch site I did a routine successful calibration about 10 ft from the car.

I don't think you should have calibrated the compass. A location change of 20 miles isn't significant enough to warrant one.

But, when in doubt, hand launch. There are a couple who have launched from cruise ships without issue - plenty of steel under them in that scenario.

 

[Willie Swyer]

I agree however I don't think it had an effect on the launch. I have seen where the P3 red arrow icon was not properly aligned with the live map view and the dji app did not request a calibration. I will calibrate if I'm moving around a lot. Do you know if this can specially cause harm? Thanks.

 

[acherman]

I doubt calibrating too much would cause harm, other than if you got a bad calibration once in a while, plus being a pain in the ***. Haha

Usually I will do a compass calibration when I'm launching in a known good location (ie. wide open field), and then not do one again unless I travel more than 100-200 kms away.

 

[Phantom19]

Where take off and landing vid?