Taking off from 14th floor balcony

[rbhamilton]

If you are an expert this won't be a problem. Fly out away from your building on manual (ATTI). Set a new home point some distance from your building roughly even with the 14th floor that has a good view of a bunch of sats. Switch to GPS mode. Fly around and have fun but keep the flight lines open between your drone and it's new "home". If it gets on the wrong side of a tall building it will try and fly through the building to get home. If it ends up doing a RTH it will fly back to it's new "home" spot in mid air.

Once there it will slowly descend all the way down to the ground. Plan for the worst - make sure that ground is out in the open. And leave lots of gas in the tank at all time - descending 14 stories takes a long time. But that's worst case. Hopefully you will be able to switch it over to ATTI once it gets "home" (it's new home out in mid air). Once it's in ATTI you can fly it back in to your balcony manually. Tricky but doable.

You can't really count on doing this in full GPS mode because your building will block half the sky. GPS sats move around. Sure you get 6 at one time and maybe 8 at another but then later you will be down to 3 or 4. Not reliable. Your compass also won't be reliable because of the metal in your building. Your home point has to be in the wide open - full view of the sky.

Risky but could be some great shots. On the other hand, you can probably pick a nice clear spot out in front of your building and launch from the ground on full GPS. You can still fly it up to the 14th balcony height and get the exact same shots but a lot safer with a solid real home to return to. I get the "no guts no glory" idea but I also get the "be safe or be sorry" philosophy. Your call either way.

 

[spudmachine]

I think this is a fairly reckless thing to consider. I mean - you're in a restricted area!!! They don't define those just for fun.

I know we all tend to bend the CAA rules a bit, but given that you're so close to City Airport, the consequences of this thing falling out of the sky over such a congested area are horrible.

There is zero redundancy on a Phantom, so only one thing has to go wrong and this thing turns into a falling object.

Also consider the wind turbulence around tall buildings, even on "calm" days. Imagine a gust of wind causes it to slam into the side of the building as you try to bring it into the balcony from the side, and then it drops like a stone.

I'm not so much worried about the thousand quid you just lost - it's the danger to others, and also the fact that when (not if) it ends up on the news we're all one step closer to these things requiring a license to fly them.

Seriously - please don't do it.

 

[moralneeeick]

I've taken it to a local field several times, and I would say I'm reasonable at flying the thing. However I agree flying over water is certainly a much more complex/risky maneuver.

Having read all the comments I am not going to attempt the balcony flight, or even a flight close to the building itself, for the simple reason that even in ATTI mode there is always a chance something 'could' go wrong, and its probably not worth the risk - agreed.

I was conflicted about the whole thing anyway, hence coming to this forum - I definitely won't be doing it.

Further down river away from civilization is obviously the answer. Thanks for input people!

 

[robinb]

Reminds me of this horrendous video.

http://youtu.be/_U8iHn_2l0U

 

[dalebb]

Reminds me of this horrendous video.

http://youtu.be/_U8iHn_2l0U

How did it keep flying? :shock:

 

[robinb]

Reminds me of this horrendous video.

http://youtu.be/_U8iHn_2l0U

How did it keep flying? :shock:

It bounced around until it could take no more. It will always try to stay upright.
How to waste $1000 in 3 minutes.

 

[landmannnn]

Agreed it does make you wonder about the build quality complaints. Repeatedly slamming into buildings and still flying...

 

[moralneeeick]

I think it has propeller guards on, which would provide some protection when hitting a building. I would think without these it would not have survived as long.

 

[moralneeeick]

Hmm actually - I don't think it does.... A testament to the build quality then, and just blind luck

 

[cahutch]

Do you really think it's safe doing this ?

NO!
When close to a tall building you will likely encounter significant wind or up/down draft. There's a high likelihood that you'll hit an updraft and lose it or a downdraft will send it crashing to the ground.
I've seen a video of someone taking off from a parking lot near a tall building, getting too close to the building and the phantom drops like a rock and crashes.

Also, on the subject of the compass. It is not only used for heading.
In ATTI mode it's only used to hold orientation and keep it from yawing.

In GPS mode it is critical to holding position in a hover.
If GPS tells the Phantom that it's drifting north, it needs to know what direction it's facing to know which direction to correct to get back to where it was.
I know from painful experience, If the compass is miscalibrated (or interfered with in flight), the phantom will spiral out of control and fly away very fast. It's trying to get back to where it was hovering but it's going the wrong way. A common cause of fly away.
If you notice this happening, switch to ATTI mode immediately. You may have a warning just before it takes off where it starts slowing spiraling out (TBE) in an expanding circle.