Launch/recover from moving boat

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I am sure this has been beaten to death, but let me ask a slightly different question.
I am using a Phantom 3 Advanced.
1. I race and film sailboats so this is a must. I realize it would be better to do this from land and if from a boat then the boat should be stationary. That is not possible in many of the locations I shoot.
2. Having a boat stationary is not always possible. Especially during a race.
I have done this successfully by the hand launch and hand recover. All good with those proceedures.
I had a strange occurrence recently I am hoping the experts can help with.

I launched the drone while the boat was moving at around 4-7 mph. It wasn't a great takeoff, but it worked. I got it up and tried to get into the follow me mode, but pretty quickly the drone indicated it was at it's max distance.
It did not go into RTH home, and I did not lose visual on my screen/remote.
For a few minutes I was unable to control it even though it was clearly not 1500ft/500m away.
I was able to turn the boat around (not in a race luckily) and get close to the drone and retrieve it.
It never went RTH nor was it far enough way that it should have reached max distance (from me and the remote).
My thought was that it set the GPH home point as soon as I turned it on, and I waited a few minutes from that point to launch for good wind/waves so perhaps it was making the calculation from the home point when I turned it on. I do not believe I updated the home point.
My question is, should I have launched in ATTI mode to avoid GPS interfering? I do not use the RTH function in this scenario I hand launch and recover and have a spotter with eyes on the drone in case. But I am preparing for a shoot during a live race and I won't have the ability to turn around and follow the drone. I know it's high risk, I am just looking for advice on the best way to do a stupid thing.
Is there a way to launch in follow me mode so the drone knows that the control is also moving or do I have to launch in P and then quickly switch or wouldd ATTI be best?
Lots of questions, to be honest it was a terrifying moment, but as I said all ended well. I appreciate all of your advice. I can post the video if it helps, but I haven't worked with flight logs yet so if that's helpful I can try to figure out from one of the many forums how to do that.
Thanks,
 
I launched the drone while the boat was moving at around 4-7 mph. It wasn't a great takeoff, but it worked. I got it up and tried to get into the follow me mode, but pretty quickly the drone indicated it was at it's max distance.
It did not go into RTH home, and I did not lose visual on my screen/remote.
For a few minutes I was unable to control it even though it was clearly not 1500ft/500m away.
This to me sounds as if you have enabled the max distance setting. 500m is not even close to the distance capabilities, so if you'd like to disable the distance limitation then you should disable the "Enable Max Distance" setting in the app.

Also, it sounds as if you still had both the control signal and the video signal. In that case, no RTH would be the expected behavior.

My thought was that it set the GPH home point as soon as I turned it on, and I waited a few minutes from that point to launch for good wind/waves so perhaps it was making the calculation from the home point when I turned it on. I do not believe I updated the home point.
The HP is set at the start up of the motors, but you do have the ability to manually reset the home point to the current position of the AC. If you have a GPS enabled mobile device, you would then also have the ability to reset the HP to your current position. BTW - the folks who have posted about flying from a boat often note that they manually reset the home point to their current position as the boat moves.

My question is, should I have launched in ATTI mode to avoid GPS interfering?
I would not suggest launching from a boat in ATTI mode. For me, it sounds like too much chance for disaster. A moving and rocking boat with often windy conditions would make the control of GPS flight a must if it were mine.
 
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That is very helpful, thanks for sharing. I will be honest, I have practiced hand launch and recovery from a stationary boat and from land, but this was the first time to add moving into the mix and it was a whole different animal. Everything happened very quickly and it was difficult to determine what I had done and when. I use my phone and it does have GPS so that sounds like a good option, to continually update the home point. My hope is to use the follow me flight mode as it should then track on my motion.
Thanks,
 
This to me sounds as if you have enabled the max distance setting. 500m is not even close to the distance capabilities, so if you'd like to disable the distance limitation then you should disable the "Enable Max Distance" setting in the app.

Also, it sounds as if you still had both the control signal and the video signal. In that case, no RTH would be the expected behavior.


The HP is set at the start up of the motors, but you do have the ability to manually reset the home point to the current position of the AC. If you have a GPS enabled mobile device, you also would then also have the ability to reset the HP to your current position. BTW - the folks who have posted about flying from a boat often note that they manually reset the home point to their current position as the boat moves.


I would not suggest launching from a boat in ATTI mode. For me, it sounds like too much chance for disaster. A moving and rocking boat with often windy conditions would make the control of GPS flight a must if it were mine.

The one really strange thing was that it seemed I lost control of the AC. IT didn't RTH and I could still see the video feed, but for a few terrifying minutes I was unable to control it at all, that is when I turned the boat around and it started to work again. Just wondering if the distance from the initial home point (far away by the time I launched) could have caused the issue.
Thanks,
 
Its hard to say without seeing the flight logs. We can only guess at a few different potential scenarios.

First off, it would be unusual to have full video signal as you noted but not have a loss of control signal which would initiate a RTH. Do you recall if you saw the LED on your RC go from green to red?

I suppose that if you started the motors (which would set the HP at that spot) and then didn't hand launch for a very long time (allowing the boat to move multiple miles away from the set HP) you could have reached the actual max distance capability of your P3A. That to me sounds unlikely however. I also would expect that you'd lose the video signal first.

Assuming that you did lose the control signal, your RC's LED went to red, and RTH was indeed initiated, perhaps you had your RTH set to HOVER. Setting your RTH to HOVER by the way is another thing to think about doing in your case if you plan to be over water entirely during a flight.

Again, all guesses without seeing the flight info.

If you want the experts (which excludes me!) to review your log, please upload your TXT flight log here and post a link back to this thread.
 
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Its hard to say without seeing the flight logs. We can only guess at a few different potential scenarios.

First off, it would be unusual to have full video signal as you noted but not have a loss of control signal which would initiate a RTH. Do you recall if you saw the LED on your RC go from green to red?

I suppose that if you started the motors (which would set the HP at that spot) and then didn't hand launch for a very long time (allowing the boat to move multiple miles away from the set HP) you could have reached the actual max distance capability of your P3A. That to me sounds unlikely however. I also would expect that you'd lose the video signal first.

Assuming that you did lose the control signal, your RC's LED went to red, and RTH was indeed initiated, perhaps you had your RTH set to HOVER. Setting your RTH to HOVER by the way is another thing to think about doing in your case if you plan to be over water entirely during a flight.

Again, all guesses without seeing the flight info.

If you want the experts (which excludes me!) to review your log, please upload your TXT flight log here and post a link back to this thread.
I do have it set to hover. I will see if I can recover the flight logs, it sounds like that would be the most useful/helpful thing I can do.
As for a next time it sounds this is is probably the best plan.
1. Manually update home point right before takeoff
2. Take off in GPS mode
3. Have max distance enabled
4. Have RTH set to hover
5. Once in flight continually manually update home point
6. Consider Follow me flight mode as then the AC will track to the RC.

Anything I have missed?
Thanks,
 
I do have it set to hover. I will see if I can recover the flight logs, it sounds like that would be the most useful/helpful thing I can do.
As for a next time it sounds this is is probably the best plan.
1. Manually update home point right before takeoff
2. Take off in GPS mode
3. Have max distance enabled
4. Have RTH set to hover
5. Once in flight continually manually update home point
6. Consider Follow me flight mode as then the AC will track to the RC.

Anything I have missed?
Thanks,
Looks like a good list to me, but there are a couple of things I would change. That doesn't mean you should too.

I would disable the max distance setting so that I actually had the max distance. I don't like having my distance limited, so I never enable that setting in the app and artificially handicap myself.

Also, I would just start up the motors, let the home point set as normal, and then just launch. Unless you are waiting an unusually long amount of time to launch or your boat is moving at a very high rate of speed, you shouldn't be too far from the set HP anyway, right? Perhaps in your case however there is a reason you need to wait such as having everything ready at a moment's notice for something unexpected during a race.

An important thing to note - when using Follow Me, your AC will only reach a max of about 22mph / 35kph. If you're moving faster than that, your AC won't be able to keep up with you. Keep headwind in mind as well.

Lastly - I have never personally flown from a boat or while being entirely over water from start to finish of a flight. Please consider that fact before you decide how to best go forward based on anything I've said here.

Good luck and I'm sure I speak for others when I say I'd love to see the video from your races!
 
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Looks like a good list to me, but there are a couple of things I would change. That doesn't mean you should too.

I would disable the max distance setting so that I actually had the max distance. I don't like having my distance limited, so I never enable that setting in the app and artificially handicap myself.

Also, I would just start up the motors, let the home point set as normal, and then just launch. Unless you are waiting an unusually long amount of time to launch or your boat is moving at a very high rate of speed, you shouldn't be too far from the set HP anyway, right? Perhaps in your case however there is a reason you need to wait such as having everything ready at a moment's notice for something unexpected during a race.

An important thing to note - when using Follow Me, your AC will only reach a max of about 22mph / 35kph. If you're moving faster than that, your AC won't be able to keep up with you. Keep headwind in mind as well.

Lastly - I have never personally flown from a boat or while being entirely over water from start to finish of a flight. Please consider that fact before you decide how to best go forward based on anything I've said here.

Good luck and I'm sure I speak for others when I say I'd love to see the video from your races!

Sorry I meant have max distance unlimited or as you said not have max distance enabled. I looked at the flight log and it was close to 5 minutes from when I started the drone to when I took off, I was waiting to launch the drone until it seemed stable, but it kept wanting to fly at an angle I am guessing because it was trying to hover in place and the boat was moving. So by that point both the boat and drone were close to 600ft from the initially set home point when it actually took off.
After a few more minutes I got the first warning, "Warning Max Flight Distance Reached" The distance from the original home point was now at 1500 ft. I believe the enable max distance was turned on.
I still appear to have control as the Drone is only a few hundred feet from the boat.
The the second warning appears, "Warning Aircraft out of range" This Waring comes on and off and it was at this point I freak out and turn start to turn the boat around.
From the log it looks like I was concerned at the warnings and the distance and I then tried to reduce the distance, which was moving the drone back toward home point. With the boat now going back in that same direction the distance started to reduce and then I was able to hand catch it from the boat. At the time a lot of things seemed to happen fast.
I have synced my flight logs to the cloud is it worth having someone take a look at them?
 
Maybe your were you near an NFZ?
A lot of runways are built near waterways so they can ditch the plane if something were to go wrong..

Did you setup any artificial geofencing?
 
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Maybe your were you near an NFZ?
A lot of runways are built near waterways so they can ditch the plane if something were to go wrong..

Did you setup any artificial geofencing?
Unfortunately no we were not near an airport, a few miles offshore completely away from anything.
 

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