While on a road trip thru Namibia earlier this year with my Mavic Pro, there were several times where I wanted to get footage of our SUV driving along the roads there and the beautiful scenery all around.  I did stop a few times, but needed to keep on schedule and didn’t have a lot of time to get out, set up the drone, have my wife drive the SUV while I filmed, and then come back to pick me up.  The idea is to have a pod of some sort that attaches to a roof rack, lets you launch the drone from inside the vehicle and set it up to follow and record while you drive along, and then it could land back onto the roof.  For takeoff and landing the vehicle would be stopped.  It would also make sense to not have the drone ride on the roof as there could be dust or rain, so the drone could be set on the roof for takeoff, set into follow-me mode while driving, and then returns back to its home port on the roof, where you would retrieve it.   Ideally it would be small enough to allow for packing it in luggage for flights. Is this a crazy idea and not practical?  Or do folks just fly their drones from inside a vehicle while it’s driving?  I do that on my sailboat, but haven’t tried it while in a car.  I have heard of some regulations that don’t allow flying a drone from a moving vehicle, so this wouldn’t work everywhere.  Thoughts anyone?

This would be a great idea but I believe that you would get a lot of compass interference because of all the metal on the roof of the car.

Taking off near a car is not a good idea and will not work out.

I sometimes launch my drones from my Gobi Roof Rack

It's not ideal and recommended but sometimes, if my truck is surrounded by waist deep water, my roof rack is the only place to land. I do have a drone landing pad laid out. Never had issues with compass or any pre-flight initializations.

Do not RTH and let the drone land on its own!

I launched my drone from the Aluminium canopy, while in Namibia. Works like a charm. Also launched it from my bonnet once, but not possible to land it there, as it will slide off.
Good idea.

Sounds like a good idea to me (except that the compass may malfuntion)!

compass interference, surely would be a problem.

I have flown my MP1 a couple of times from the roof of my car, no roofrack, just the roof of the car, all without problems.  Landing went all good aswell

GhostWolf010 Posted at 2018-9-14 01:54
I have flown my MP1 a couple of times from the roof of my car, no roofrack, just the roof of the car, all without problems.  Landing went all good aswell

Agree, no problems for me to fly from the roof of my bakkie, or the aliminium canopy.

Picanoc Jack Posted at 2018-9-14 01:41
compass interference, surely would be a problem.

Your correct compass interference will be a problem, and has been the cause of many crashes.

If you design your roof rack launch Pod, out of plastic (or non-ferrous metal) to keep drone sufficient distance from metal (ferrous) of your car, it is possible.

It does not take much distance between drone and ferrous metal for compass interference not to be a problem.  Sometimes as little as a few inches is all it takes.

Here is one of two ways to check for compass interference when designing your Launch Pod

* Under main menu of GO-4 App - in middle at Top of Screen - Tap on QuadCopter Icon
* At bottom of MC Settings screen - Tap on Adance Settings
* At bottom of Advance Settings screen - Tap on Sensor State
* At top of Sensor State screen - Tap on Compass

Below Interference, you should see two compasses for Mavic Pro, and one compass for Mavic Air
Blue dot next to Compass (1 or 2) indicates which one is being used in case of Mavic Pro

With a correctly calibrated compass - Both bars should be "Green'' and short in length.  Neither of bars should be ''Yellow'' or ''Red''.




Here is another way of checking for magnetic interference when designing your Launch Pod:

All you need is a Smartdevice (iPhone, iPad,  Android phone or tablet)  that you can download and install one of  several Tesla or Gauss magnetic  field strength Applications on.
  
  What makes this method easy is all you do is walk around area,  observing  magnetic field strength.  No need to walk straight line with  digital  compass or align your smartdevice running GO-4 with direction  your drone  is facing, then check GO-4 compasses.
  
  If you observe any major field strength changes upwards or downwards, usally reported in Gauss or µT (micro Tesla),  you  avoid that spot as possible takeoff point or area for  compass  calibration.  If you are going to takeoff from within that  area, last  step is to check your chosen takeoff spot.  Done by lowering  Smartdevice  down to ground, then moving smartdevice around spot  looking for any  changes from what you previously observed over the  area.  This last  steps checks for buried ferrous metals (aka rebar,  steel pipe, scrape  metal) and underground power lines.  Best to check spot in sweeping motion covering few feet from center.

Two different Apps Showing deviation from Earth's normal magnetic field
App #1


App #2

hallmark007 Posted at 2018-9-14 04:18
Your correct compass interference will be a problem, and has been the cause of many crashes.

thank you Hallmark

Picanoc Jack Posted at 2018-9-14 09:21
thank you Hallmark

Taking off from the roof or bonnet or the back of any vehicle, is almost certainly one of the worst possible places to launch your drone from, while some on this thread think it’s fine, I would say these were lucky simple as that.

You will probably/maybe  get a compass error.  I tried once from the bed of my truck. First time no compass error.  MP didn't fly so well but I did manage not to crash. Second attempt the compass indicators were solid red.  Got away from the truck and compass was OK and the MP flew great.

hallmark007 Posted at 2018-9-14 10:44
Taking off from the roof or bonnet or the back of any vehicle, is almost certainly one of the worst possible places to launch your drone from, while some on this thread think it’s fine, I would say these were lucky simple as that.

I am in full agreement Hallmark, why look for problems?

I regularly launch off the roof of my car (Audi Q5). I simply open the sunroof, place either the P4P or Mavic on top and off it goes. Lands there as well. Never had an issue. It's a great method to keep paranoid idiots away from me to complain about the drone.