Want to film my ship. Compass an issue?

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I work on a ship and I would love to get some great footage with my P3P. I'm concerned about the compass though from some of the things I'm reading here. It's basically a football field of steel moving along. Would it be best to calibrate on land prior to embarking and not calibrate while at sea?
 
That would be my recommendation. I sometimes launched (p2v+) from the glass sunroof of my car and if the compass wasn't right in the middle of the glass it would tell me I needed to calibrate. Rather than recalibrate I'd just center it properly (reducing the magnetic interference by increasing the distance from the medal) and it worked fine. Therefore I'd suggest attempting a hand launch with a buddie, but being very careful that it doesn't tell you to recalibrate when your buddie has it over his head.
 
The only likely problem is that the Phantom will tell you the compass needs calibration and refuse to start up.
 
I flew on my cruise ship recently and did get a compass error after calibrating when I put it down to take off. So i calibrated and took off by hold it and had no issues at all. It was rock solid. Flying In the middle of the ocean was scary especially with a moving boat since the home point got father away every second lol


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That's good news that calibrating near all of the steel didn't affect the compass after it was clear of the ship. Very awesome photo. I can only imagine what the crew had to say about you flying off the cruise ship!
 
Just a question? I will be going on a cruise in October - will the cruise lines allow you to bring a Phantom with? I might actually have something to look forward too if that might be the case.
 
That's good news that calibrating near all of the steel didn't affect the compass after it was clear of the ship. Very awesome photo. I can only imagine what the crew had to say about you flying off the cruise ship!
How far are you travelling on the ship?
If you are say, within 100 miles of home, no compass calibration is necessary but if you are going long distance, it could be an issue.
Calibration on the ship isn't recommended anyway.
You calibrate your compass so the Phantom understands the local magnetic environment where it is flying, up in the air - not the distorted magnetic environment on the ship, car roof or manhole cover where you launch it.
Calibrating on the ship will not help your Phantom fly up away from the ship and could have negative consequences.
 
Just a question? I will be going on a cruise in October - will the cruise lines allow you to bring a Phantom with? I might actually have something to look forward too if that might be the case.

Just a question? I will be going on a cruise in October - will the cruise lines allow you to bring a Phantom with? I might actually have something to look forward too if that might be the case.
A lot of cruise ships will take your drone off you and only give it back when you are disembarking. Some of them are very strict so I would ask first, don't just take it on board and take off without asking permission first.
 
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How far are you travelling on the ship?
If you are say, within 100 miles of home, no compass calibration is necessary but if you are going long distance, it could be an issue.
Calibration on the ship isn't recommended anyway.
You calibrate your compass so the Phantom understands the local magnetic environment where it is flying, up in the air - not the distorted magnetic environment on the ship, car roof or manhole cover where you launch it.
Calibrating on the ship will not help your Phantom fly up away from the ship and could have negative consequences.
I work in the Gulf of Mexico and typically go out close to 200 miles. This is in a southerly direction inmost cases and local magnetic variation will only change by roughly 1/4 of a degree from the home port. My hope is that if I calibrate on the dock away from the ship before departure that it will still be good at sea. If anything I guess I'll try to get footage nearer to land at the beginning and end of the voyage.

I assume that if the compass were to be an issue a warning is given first and it doesn't allow me to fly. Is this correct? If I were to do no onboard calibrations (only on land before leaving while away from ship) and the P3 says "Ready to Fly" then I should be good to go right?
 
That's good news that calibrating near all of the steel didn't affect the compass after it was clear of the ship. Very awesome photo. I can only imagine what the crew had to say about you flying off the cruise ship!
No one said anything. Most wanted info on where to get one and stuff. They didn't hold it or take it away. They even scanned my bag every stop and nothing.
 
I work in the Gulf of Mexico and typically go out close to 200 miles. This is in a southerly direction inmost cases and local magnetic variation will only change by roughly 1/4 of a degree from the home port.
OK .. sounds like you'll be OK if the variation isn't changing much
I assume that if the compass were to be an issue a warning is given first and it doesn't allow me to fly. Is this correct? If I were to do no onboard calibrations (only on land before leaving while away from ship) and the P3 says "Ready to Fly" then I should be good to go right?
I'm not certain with the P3 .. have only seen it with the P2.
Easy enough to check though.
Just put the P3 on your car roof and see if you can take off from there.
I would expect it to bring up an error to say it \s compass is getting unexpected values (because of the steel close by)
See if it lets you fly or locks you out.
 
No one said anything. Most wanted info on where to get one and stuff. They didn't hold it or take it away. They even scanned my bag every stop and nothing.
Nice!! How many flights off the ship did you take? And did it ask you to calibrate often?
 
OK .. sounds like you'll be OK if the variation isn't changing much

I'm not certain with the P3 .. have only seen it with the P2.
Easy enough to check though.
Just put the P3 on your car roof and see if you can take off from there.
I would expect it to bring up an error to say it \s compass is getting unexpected values (because of the steel close by)
See if it lets you fly or locks you out.
Will do. Thanks.
 
Nice!! How many flights off the ship did you take? And did it ask you to calibrate often?
Like 4 flights. Only had one battery at the time so it was once a day lol. I calibrate every single flight reguardless if I move or not. Takes 20 seconds, better to be safe than sorry. Just calibrate in an open area of the ship over my head and don't put it down to take off and you should be fine. Felt rock solid. Not even for a second did feel like it was not controlable. I was scared as **** and shaking but just because i was scared of losing it lol
 

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Like 4 flights. Only had one battery at the time so it was once a day lol. I calibrate every single flight reguardless if I move or not. Takes 20 seconds, better to be safe than sorry. Just calibrate in an open area of the ship over my head and don't put it down to take off and you should be fine. Felt rock solid. Not even for a second did feel like it was not controlable. I was scared as **** and shaking but just because i was scared of losing it lol
Excellent, that's what I was hoping to hear. Daydreaming of aerial videos of the ship underway was the one big motivating factor for me to purchase the P3P. I plan to spend quite a bit of time learning before the attempt and take it slow from there as well but I can imagine I will share the same exact feeling as you.

One more question, hand catching....did you find that difficult trying to match the ships forward movement with only one hand on the controller? I'm imagining maneuvering in front at a catchable altitude then slowly letting off right stick and as soon as caught use same hand to quickly back off throttle to shut down.
 
Do not calibrate on a steel ship. Even if you travel a large distance on it. Those other examples are lucky exceptions. Calibrating with that much metal nearby will assure a bad calibration. Calibrate on shore.

Your best bet is to find a way to get the Phantom as far from the steel as possible during take off and landing. A large wooden crate would be ideal. At minimum, 4ft, but preferably more. And make sure your away from large electric motors, e.g. winches, pumps, etc.
 

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