Water nerves.

meissner58 · Mar 11, 2016

Don Miller said:
View attachment 41564 View attachment 41565 View attachment 41566

Beautiful shots!!!

meissner58 · Mar 11, 2016

Will

Mr Billz world said:
can cause issues and unstable flight trying to free hover and land over water. The texture of the waste and the rolling nature don't work well with the ultrasonic sensors.

Will it still hover using gps signal and vps off? That was my biggest question . Thanks ahead!

RCFantom · Apr 12, 2016

John Locke said:
Why not test the floats? Take the floats off the Phantom, tie them together and start adding weight to them in water. You could use 1/2" drive sockets to incrementally add weight. Weigh the Phantom and compare the actual weight the key-bobs will float. I think the Phantom weighs about 2.8lbs, so if the key-bobs will hold 2.8lbs of 1/2 sockets, you're good. However, I'm not sure it will save a Phantom if it gets totally soaked. Recovery may not accomplish much unless you have insurance (which isn't a bad idea if you fly water much).

Nice idea though, inexpensive! Let us know how viable it is if you validate the concept.

Had I done that with my first P2V+, it might not be in the bottom of a lake.

GadgetGuy · Apr 12, 2016

alokbhargava said:
It would be ok to fly over water if you take care of following:

1. Look for the birds around
2. Your flying start direction should preferably against the wind for long distance flying
4. Have enough battery charge for safe return
4. Turn VPS off
5. You may need hand catch during landing
6. Flying over water will get you long range experience but flying near the beach and over people is not advisable.
7. Be careful, you might spot low flying helicopters too.

Don't forget Kite surfers and speed boats pulling parasailers!
Easy to get tangled in their lines, resulting in Blackhawk down!

alokbhargava · Apr 12, 2016

GadgetGuy said:
Don't forget Kite surfers and speed boats pulling parasailers!
Easy to get tangled in their lines, resulting in Blackhawk down!

Perfect!

GadgetGuy · Apr 12, 2016

alokbhargava said:
Perfect!

I need to add Inspire 1's to that list!
Almost had a head on collision with one, discovered on video later!

Near miss, by about 20 feet, at full speed on both!
I'm sure he didn't see me either, until he got home!
I was about 20 feet above him!
At a 60mph+ closing speed at 100 feet above ground, even VLOS would not have helped!

Norm Walker · Apr 12, 2016

pilot ss said:
Had my P3 Advanced for around 2wks now. Pretty comfortable flying on land, and have had around 10 trouble free flights (thankfully). I would love to take it to the beach and and out over the ocean (roughly 300 distance)

Is there anyways to over come the nerves of taking it out over water? I know that at the end of the day it is no different to flying over land, but there is always that worrying thought that something could go wrong, and sink to the bottom of the ocean (same could happen on land but you would in most cases be able to retrieve)

Any confidence boosters/tips would be greatly appreciated!

Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

Just a word from bad experience. Don't let the batteries get down too far. I let this happen on mine and it got very close to the water before I gave it enough power to recover. The prop wash splased a drop or two onto the gimble motors and a trip to Hong Kong ensued.
The sweaty palms go away after a while. My bird has never done anything wrong over water or land all issues have been with pilot error.

LightCollector · Apr 13, 2016

My trip out to sea. I'm of the opinion that a crash from altitude over land or in the water will most likely be a total loss in either case.

GadgetGuy · Apr 13, 2016

LightCollector said:
My trip out to sea. I'm of the opinion that a crash from altitude over land or in the water will most likely be a total loss in either case.

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Agreed.

Isn't that Gliderport in a NFZ?

LightCollector · Apr 13, 2016

GadgetGuy said:
Agreed. Isn't that Gliderport in a NFZ?

Oddly, it isn't reflected in the DJI Go app. On the late afternoon I flew, the gliderport was not active though there was at least one RC glider being flown from the north side of the gliderport.

Rock Shelter · May 5, 2016

Start out with hard water and transition.

GadgetGuy · May 6, 2016

LightCollector said:
Oddly, it isn't reflected in the DJI Go app. On the late afternoon I flew, the gliderport was not active though there was at least one RC glider being flown from the north side of the gliderport.

Indeed. It's not like you can't see when a gliderport is closed or they have all landed for the day, after sunset. Just like a Sports Stadium when it's closed. No harm, no foul!

CCDD · May 6, 2016

LightCollector said:
My trip out to sea. I'm of the opinion that a crash from altitude over land or in the water will most likely be a total loss in either case.

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spectacular!!!!

MILLER4PRESIDENT2020 · May 6, 2016

Dont immediately take off and fly out over water, fly around for a minute and make sure that everything is fine in case a prop were to come off it is likely to happen soon, and test the RTH. Also take note of your altitude in your display and learn to trust it. You lose depth perception on the drone both with your own line of sight and though the transmitter unless you have something for reference. I was down in Costa Rica, my bird was literally a mile offshore checking out some huge waves and there were no surfers or boats for reference. So I put kept the altitude at about 30 feet because I figures there is no way the waves are that high, but it can get kind of nerve wracking being out that far and relying solely on your instruments

peterepeat69 · May 6, 2016

No confidence boosters here, heard of many a story of phantoms being carried out to sea with off shore winds, good luck!

Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

CCDD · May 6, 2016

Miller is absolutely right, don't immediately fly out over water, give your bird a chance to hover a bit to make sure all is in working order. A short amount of flying over dry land then proceed carefully on your journey over water. As many of you have read, I lost my P3P nearly 3 weeks ago after only seconds after taking off. If I was to blame for anything, it was the fact that I immediately pushed on throttle and failure occurred in first few seconds unfortunately, I was already over water. Had I given it a chance to "warm up" a bit by hovering and ensuring all was functioning properly, it might have saved my bird albeit with considerably less damage. Fortunately, DJI stepped up to the plate and is in the process of sending me a new one. They never asked to see or request that I return my P3P, they accepted my flight log and explanation of loss as complete evidence.
Nearly all of my flying is over a fresh water lake and most is above 150ft altitude. If your Phantom was to drop from the sky at that altitude, it doesn't matter whether you're over water or dry land, you're likely facing a total loss regardless of what you hit.

GadgetGuy · May 7, 2016

CCDD said:
Miller is absolutely right, don't immediately fly out over water, give your bird a chance to hover a bit to make sure all is in working order. A short amount of flying over dry land then proceed carefully on your journey over water. As many of you have read, I lost my P3P nearly 3 weeks ago after only seconds after taking off. If I was to blame for anything, it was the fact that I immediately pushed on throttle and failure occurred in first few seconds unfortunately, I was already over water. Had I given it a chance to "warm up" a bit by hovering and ensuring all was functioning properly, it might have saved my bird albeit with considerably less damage. Fortunately, DJI stepped up to the plate and is in the process of sending me a new one. They never asked to see or request that I return my P3P, they accepted my flight log and explanation of loss as complete evidence.
Nearly all of my flying is over a fresh water lake and most is above 150ft altitude. If your Phantom was to drop from the sky at that altitude, it doesn't matter whether you're over water or dry land, you're likely facing a total loss regardless of what you hit.

What firmware were you on? Did you top the battery off before flight? Is there any chance that the battery was in a discharge state, based upon your battery storage settings?

CCDD · May 7, 2016

GadgetGuy said:
What firmware were you on? Did you top the battery off before flight? Is there any chance that the battery was in a discharge state, based upon your battery storage settings?

Battery was recently charged and FW was the latest.

GadgetGuy · May 7, 2016

CCDD said:
Battery was recently charged and FW was the latest.

Recently as in the same day? So is the battery shutoff in flight still happening despite all the changes? What exactly happened?

MarkT · May 7, 2016

LightCollector said:
My trip out to sea. I'm of the opinion that a crash from altitude over land or in the water will most likely be a total loss in either case.

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