New to Drones, some noob questions

[Zaiforce]

Hi all,

I recently started flying a Phantom 4 Pro for work purposes (I have only flown twice so far for a combined 40 ish minutes experience) and have a couple of very noob questions I'd like to ask that I haven't been able to find answers for if that's ok.

1) I have a job coming up which would require me to fly along a road underneath a tree canopy that overhangs the road on each side, which concerns me for a couple of reasons...

Would this be safe to do considering vehicles may be driving a couple of metres underneath my drone as I am flying? I am concerned that the vehicles may create a down-draft behind them which could destabilise the drone. If it is genuinely not safe to do then I won't be doing it, I just don't know how a drone handles in that scenario.

Also, is there any way to disable the return to home function whilst flying in "P" mode? I would like to keep the drone's sensors operating however I will be flying in approx. 1km sections and if the drone loses signal I don't want it to fly up into the tree canopy due to the return home function being triggered.

Lastly on this, if the return to home function isn't able to be turned off and is triggered whilst flying along a road under a tree canopy, will the drone's sensors detect the tree canopy above it and stop it from hitting them, allowing me to get closer and land it manually?

2) To help me keep the drone steadier when flying above roads and in windy conditions I have been considering utilizing the "draw fly" function. I read that this function keeps the drone's altitude stable as you fly, but I am not sure if it adjusts the altitude when you fly over a hill etc.

Will the drone climb or descend in altitude based on the terrain below it when in draw-fly, or will it just fly in a straight line from the height it started at when you activated draw-fly?


Thanks everyone for any help Apologies if the questions are dumb!


Cheers.

 

[Fly Dawg]

1) I have a job coming up which would require me to fly along a road underneath a tree canopy that overhangs the road on each side, which concerns me for a couple of reasons...

1) First you may will most likely lose GPS positioning. Practice in ATTI mode first.

Lastly on this, if the return to home function isn't able to be turned off and is triggered whilst flying along a road under a tree canopy, will the drone's sensors detect the tree canopy above it and stop it from hitting them, allowing me to get closer and land it manually?

2) No,the sensors are only on the front, bottom and sides...not the top. And you can set your failsafe to hover, land, or RTH.

 

[JarrodF]

I wouldn't be as concerned with the vehicle airwash as much as flying for long stretches beneath the canopy. The chances are great (as Fly Dawg said) of loosing signal under there and if you don't have VLOS you are in for a collision (hopefully just with trees). If you hit a vehicle and cause an accident it'll cost more than just replacing your bird. Can you give an idea of how high up the canopy is from the road? It sounds super sketchy to me and I doubt I'd try it for 1km sections. Maybe for shorter bits.

 

[Zaiforce]

1) First you may will most likely lose GPS positioning. Practice in ATTI mode first.



2) No,the sensors are only on the front, bottom and sides...not the top. And you can set your failsafe to hover, land, or RTH.

Thank you for the response

 

[Zaiforce]

I wouldn't be as concerned with the vehicle airwash as much as flying for long stretches beneath the canopy. The chances are great (as Fly Dawg said) of loosing signal under there and if you don't have VLOS you are in for a collision (hopefully just with trees). If you hit a vehicle and cause an accident it'll cost more than just replacing your bird. Can you give an idea of how high up the canopy is from the road? It sounds super sketchy to me and I doubt I'd try it for 1km sections. Maybe for shorter bits.

Thanks for the reply!

I haven't been to the site yet to see how high the trees are, but I am thinking around 5 to 8 metres above the ground, if there were no vehicles I wouldn't be as concerned as I could keep really low, but I'm going to have to fly high enough to let a vehicle pass underneath and still have clearance from the tree branches, thankfully though the road has a fairly low traffic volume, so there won't be too many vehicles.

I think you are right about the 1km distance, I think I will try it in shorter sections, say 400m or less and land if there are no vehicles coming so that I could move up closer, I could have somebody waiting up ahead to pick up the drone off the road for me.

Fly Dawg mentioned that I can set my fail safe to hover or land, so is that something I do in the DJI Go app? And if I lose signal to my controller I can make the drone hover instead of returning home and flying up into the trees?

Thanks again.

 

[Waylander]

Err Dude, how is it that you have obtained your 107 if you are so sketchy on the control functions of your Drone...?

 

[With The Birds]

Err Dude, how is it that you have obtained your 107 if you are so sketchy on the control functions of your Drone...?

Where did he say he had a 107?

 

[happydays]

Given that the OP is talking metric, I'd say he's not US based. Why do lots of posters on here assume that everyone is the the US?

 

[Technical Bob]

Where did he say he had a 107?

He does say Job, which suggests he is making a income from it,
Then in the title he does say Newbie and noob questions, so it is confusing,

Once on site you do the checks, a quick flight will give you the RTH under the tree`s rather than trying to go above them, due to the canopy overhang mentioned,

Regards flying it, fly it as many times as you can.

 

[With The Birds]

He does say Job, which suggests he is making a income from it,
Then in the title he does say Newbie and noob questions, so it is confusing,

Once on site you do the checks, a quick flight will give you the RTH under the tree`s rather than trying to go above them, due to the canopy overhang mentioned,

Regards flying it, fly it as many times as you can.

What’s not confusing is 107 wasn’t mentioned.

 

[Waylander]

OK with the birds

As you have included your location, I know that under 2Kg you we need to fly commercially in the CASA "Excluded" category
If you were in the UK you would need to fly with PfCO (Permissions for Commercial Operations) permissions.

But as the OP failed to give his location I did assume he was State Side, as the majority of posts in this forum originate in the USA, oops my BAD....

But as Technical Bob points out he did say " I have a job coming up which would..etc etc " and mentioned that it was for work purposes, which seems to imply a commercial context, so one would assume that an OP flying a drone under those circumstances would have undergone the required training for a commercial operator, hence my comment, how is the guy operating in a commercial environment, if he did not know about RTH and it's associated settings.

PS if you followed the thread you will see I mentioned 107, on the assumptions made above..

Waylander

 

[JarrodF]

I would definitely recommend shorter sections - with visual line of sight at all times. That way your spotter can tell you if you are getting drift and approaching the branches. Please be super careful when flying over people (even in vehicles). Also, get ridiculously comfortable with the controls before this gig so when the unexpected happens you are able to respond safely. Best of luck!

 

[Meta4]

I recently started flying a Phantom 4 Pro for work purposes (I have only flown twice so far for a combined 40 ish minutes experience) and have a couple of very noob questions I'd like to ask that I haven't been able to find answers for if that's ok.

I would suggest that you hold off and get more experience.
The flight you described has a number of possible complications and it sounds like it would require a greater experience level than you have.
It's hard to tell from the description but an experienced flyer might even refuse to fly it at all if the risks are too great.
There are lots of ways for things to go badly wrong and before you tackle a flight like that, you need to be aware of all the things that could go wrong and how to make sure they don't.
The questions you are asking indicate that you aren't even aware of many of the potential issues you could run into.

I would be reluctant to fly low over traffic because of the potential to distract drivers.
What's the job that needs flying under tree cover along the road?

 

[Meta4]

Err Dude, how is it that you have obtained your 107 if you are so sketchy on the control functions of your Drone...?

Actually it is quite possible for US flyers (and non-flyers) to obtain a 107 without ever having flown anything.
It's a straight rules knowledge test and has no practical component and isn't particularly drone specific.

 

[Zaiforce]

Hi all, thank you very much for all the responses and assistance, I appreciate it a lot.

After reading a few of the replies here I have decided that I won't be doing the flight, not until I can gain some more experience with the drone or I can guarantee that there will be no vehicles.

Just to clarify I am based outside of the USA, I did have to do a training course but it was very basic and didn't cover a lot of the features of the Phantom 4 Pro, such as how RTH works in certain circumstances, so until I have a better understanding of these things I feel it is best not to attempt such a job, and if I eventually do it, it will be in very short sections, say 200m or so, not the full length.

Once again thanks for the advice, I do appreciate it greatly

 

[With The Birds]

OK with the birds

As you have included your location, I know that under 2Kg you we need to fly commercially in the CASA "Excluded" category
If you were in the UK you would need to fly with PfCO (Permissions for Commercial Operations) permissions.

But as the OP failed to give his location I did assume he was State Side, as the majority of posts in this forum originate in the USA, oops my BAD....

But as Technical Bob points out he did say " I have a job coming up which would..etc etc " and mentioned that it was for work purposes, which seems to imply a commercial context, so one would assume that an OP flying a drone under those circumstances would have undergone the required training for a commercial operator, hence my comment, how is the guy operating in a commercial environment, if he did not know about RTH and it's associated settings.

PS if you followed the thread you will see I mentioned 107, on the assumptions made above..

Waylander

You didn’t need to make assumptions, the OP made it clear they are a new entrant to the hobby. My assumption was you had a high degree of certainty they weren’t 107 or other similar level of certification and it was simply a setup for a call out. Is what it is.

You can get certified without knowing much. I have seen some really safe and competent flyers who haven’t laid the money and taken a test also.

 

[Zaiforce]

Just to address what I meant by this flight being a job (apologies, my details were pretty vague, I didn't clarify it very well), the business I work recently bought a couple of drones for the purposes of checking and recording the condition of infrastructure e.g. bridges and roads etc. before and after we have worked on them, so that we can show what the site looked like before and after.

We used to do this by driving the road with a camera mounted in a vehicle or just regular cameras but the drone footage just provides such a better view.

I expressed my concerns to my boss today and told him that I do not think I have the capability to do this job safely, he has offered to provide traffic control so that vehicles will be taken out of the equation, allowing me to fly lower under the trees and I won't have to worry about hitting a car etc.

I'm going to assess it myself when I get on site but I feel a lot better knowing that I won't have to worry about colliding with a vehicle, however I still won't proceed with the job if I feel I don't have the ability to avoid the trees.

I have changed my RTH settings so that the drone will land if it loses signal, but I still will make sure that I do the flying in short sections of 400m or less if I do go through with it.

Thank you again to everyone for the help!

 

[Waylander]

Hi Zailforce

Sounds like you are on the right track with this approach, good luck

Waylander

 

[Russ43Phantom]

I would select the "hoover" RTH function as your drone will follow a road so that if the signal is lost, you can drive closer to the drone while it is hovering until your signal strength returns. Next, I would be sure to set all the response functions to near minimum so that the drone does not over react to joy stick movements. Finally, I would use the TapFly function. This function will let the drone fly by maintaining it's last course, speed, and altitude. That means you can manually adjust any of those three variables to conform to the winding, hilly road. If you response functions are set to a minimum, your manual interventions (only when course, speed or altitude need adjustment) will be smooth. Hope this is helpful. BTW ... find an open field and practice TapFly with lower joy stick response settings to get an idea of how great this will work for your stated objectives.

 

[Zaiforce]

I would select the "hoover" RTH function as your drone will follow a road so that if the signal is lost, you can drive closer to the drone while it is hovering until your signal strength returns. Next, I would be sure to set all the response functions to near minimum so that the drone does not over react to joy stick movements. Finally, I would use the TapFly function. This function will let the drone fly by maintaining it's last course, speed, and altitude. That means you can manually adjust any of those three variables to conform to the winding, hilly road. If you response functions are set to a minimum, your manual interventions (only when course, speed or altitude need adjustment) will be smooth. Hope this is helpful. BTW ... find an open field and practice TapFly with lower joy stick response settings to get an idea of how great this will work for your stated objectives.

Thank you very much for the advice

One of the questions I was going to ask is if the draw fly feature would be practical/useful for this purpose so you answered that for me, thanks!!