I'm very curious how other MA pilots think about taking particular risks to take a perfect shot. I consider myself as a some one who tries to reduce the risk during the flight, but of course I love to shoot beautiful videos...

To discuss in this topic:

• How much risk do you take during a flight?
• Share your stories here :-)
  

I think biggest risks are going under cover, example low bridge if you lose gps almost impossible to recover. Best way is to carefully fly under the beginning of the Bridge, maybe just 12 inches, then do a reverse and up, finish by reversing footage in post, do similar at other end of bridge but flying forward and out/up, put both together speed up slightly . It will look like you flew straight under and out other side, and risk averted.

Some: See at 45 seconds.

Braveness and Faith!!! =)

BTW, that was it Spark

I've flown through a tree line 4 foot wide, 80' up and a few hundred feet away. I've also tested APAS flying the drone straight at me - all OK

I guess 'risk' is a subjective term.  I know some people that are willing to do things with their drones that I would never do.  An example is the guy on YouTube that chases cruise ships that are headed out to open water.  In some of those videos the pilot is MILES from the drone/ship over OPEN WATER.  I'm getting anxious just thinking about it!  That being the case, the riskiest thing I've done with mine is flown out of line of sight on my parents property.  I was at 400' and about a mile and half away before I started getting nervous.  Really, it was just a test to see if I could ever get to 400' without feeling like I need to vomit and to get more flight time without worrying about crashing over someone else's stuff.  If I crashed while it was out of LOS, all I'd have to do is go get it with the 4-wheeler.  Needless to say, I'm a big weenie when I fly, but then again, I don't have many hours of flight time under my belt.

El Kab0ng Posted at 2018-5-29 06:17
I guess 'risk' is a subjective term.  I know some people that are willing to do things with their drones that I would never do.  An example is the guy on YouTube that chases cruise ships that are headed out to open water.  In some of those videos the pilot is MILES from the drone/ship over OPEN WATER.  I'm getting anxious just thinking about it!  That being the case, the riskiest thing I've done with mine is flown out of line of sight on my parents property.  I was at 400' and about a mile and half away before I started getting nervous.  Really, it was just a test to see if I could ever get to 400' without feeling like I need to vomit and to get more flight time without worrying about crashing over someone else's stuff.  If I crashed while it was out of LOS, all I'd have to do is go get it with the 4-wheeler.  Needless to say, I'm a big weenie when I fly, but then again, I don't have many hours of flight time under my belt.

Also, just noticed this was directed at the MA crowd, but whatever, we're all friends here.  

hallmark007 Posted at 2018-5-29 03:02
I think biggest risks are going under cover, example low bridge if you lose gps almost impossible to recover. Best way is to carefully fly under the beginning of the Bridge, maybe just 12 inches, then do a reverse and up, finish by reversing footage in post, do similar at other end of bridge but flying forward and out/up, put both together speed up slightly . It will look like you flew straight under and out other side, and risk averted.

That is a brilliant hint, thank you!

El Kab0ng Posted at 2018-5-29 06:18
Also, just noticed this was directed at the MA crowd, but whatever, we're all friends here.

Thanks for sharing, and I changed the subject :-)

For me it depends on the view worth to take the risk or not. If something really great or rare to see I willing to take higher risk. But I will avoid any unnecessary risk.

One lesson learn is shooting a canyon on hillside. The landscape is very bad on there without any spot for takeoff and landing. No flat place and all covered by plants. I managed clean out a small area and use my backpack as landing platform. No problem for takeoff but I got trouble on landing. MA refuses come back to the landing spot because trees around. Finally I managed to bring it back and landed with a lot of effort. Not a good landing but no damage. Even not comfortable with the environment I still decided to fly again. This time unexpected things happen as I suddenly disconnected with aircraft. It returned back in front of me but I still unable to reconnect. Then the worst thing happen as MA try to land in to the canyon! The RTH works perfectly and MA detected the home point covered by trees so it try to land few meters away. If it landed in the canyon I won’t be able to take it back! Luckily there is no place for landing and MA hovering there. Finally I restarted RC and connected to MA again and bring it back. I left the place immediately as that’s enough for me.

The lesson learn is worst thing will happen on the worst place. No matter how good the skill you have there are something out of your control. Now I will avoid takeoff on place RTH may not working.

Here is the video in case you interested. You can decide is it worth to take the risk.

https://forum.dji.com/thread-144754-1-1.html

Biggest risk I have taken thus far has been installing latest Firmware upgrade - against my vary own advice to others to not be Alpha tester of Beta testers.

HedgeTrimmer Posted at 2018-5-29 20:32
Biggest risk I have taken thus far has been installing latest Firmware upgrade - against my vary own advice to others to not be Alpha tester of Beta testers.

LOL.  That's a good one.  

I generally don't tend to take risks, I will consider the flying environment prior to taking flight and if anything is flagged as a potential risk I stay grounded. No point becoming a statistic. If a risk presents itself whilst flying I will take avoiding action and mitigate the risk, again for the same reason, I value my drones and the perfect shot will present itself devoid of risk, maybe not that day but it will present itself at some stage and I can wait.