Preparing to fly from boat

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I plan to hand launch my drone while on a schooner and want to get the steps down. Should I start up on a flat area away from all metal (raised on a bucket or my backpack, which has a flat surface), let the bird get oriented, then pick it up to launch? I don't think I can hold it very steady with one hand.. Any suggestions for best practices?
 
Do not start props and then pick it up, you will be looking to get hurt. The Phantom will attempt to hold it's position when you move it and fight that movement. You either start the props and launch from deck or start props from hand and launch from hand.

** Edit: Correction: if you've not launched, the Phantom probably won't attempt to hold it's position. I'd still not recommend starting props and then picking it up.

Change RTH to hover over RTH. If you don't have a lot of experience flying the Phantom I'd not recommend flying from a boat.
 
OK - thanks, Just worried that if the bird isn't level it may throw off the compass. Will practice before leaving.
The schooner will be in a bay in Greenland - once in a lifetime opportunity. So with a lot of practice under my belt (and good insurance), I'm going for the best.
 
I plan to hand launch my drone while on a schooner and want to get the steps down. Should I start up on a flat area away from all metal (raised on a bucket or my backpack, which has a flat surface), let the bird get oriented, then pick it up to launch? I don't think I can hold it very steady with one hand.. Any suggestions for best practices?


I did this for the first time yesterday! I live on a boat, so have had plenty of practice landing while we're anchored, but yesterday was the first time I tried take-off and landing while we were moving. We did everything the same as normal (take off from the flat roof of our salon, land on the same surface), except that we slowed the boat to a crawl (i.e., run the engines in reverse even though the sails were up) while taking off and landing.

Unless you're quite experienced, I wouldn't try take-offs and landings to hand for the first time on a moving boat. Try it a couple of times on land first, to get the hang of it. (A young guest mangled his hands attempting to land to hand in gusting winds with his Mavic yesterday. In addition to slicing his hands quite badly, he broke 2 props.)

Best wishes for safe and happy travels and marvellous photos on your trip of a lifetime!
 
Give yourself LOTS of time to get it back to the ship . . or the original takeoff spot whether you use RTH or Hover. . .or you can find yourself watching your P4P or Mav run out of steam before you get maneuvered back in position to land or capture it. Wear gloves with the Mavic . . something light weight, with a bit of rubber grip on the fingertips at least and you should be able to grab it from below and behind easily (in a calm sea). I do it all the time with bare hands on land. Got caught once in winter with poor footing and got dinged but the gloves saved my thumb. My P4P is much safer just grabbing a landing strut . . I routinely hand catch the P4P. (you may have noticed by Icon)

For Mavic, If you have not practiced this many times I would not try it from a boat, certainly not bare hands. There is barely space for your fingers to grip it and only safely done if Mavic is quite stable and you have confidence it will remain so. Grip the waist when the rotors are stopped and move the rotors by hand to see the clearance . . there is not much. Stay forward of the battery latches and do it smoothly on one motion.

I wait below and behind Mavic and then in a single move go under and up and grip the waist firmly . . Left hand thumb near the left stick and drop the throttle immediately cause it will fight you as soon as it "sees" something close on the sonar sensors. It would be nice if you could turn the sonar OFF just before doing this so it does not fight you.
 

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