I will be in some remote parts of Yucatan and plan to bring my new DJI Mini 2 along, hopefully to get some nice aerial shots of the boat journey upriver and some jungle surrounding.  I plan mostly to fly above the trees but am worrying that I may have connectivity issues.  I won't be in an area with cell phone towers or wifi, but am I right that GPS will still work?

Also, my previous drone, the Mavic Air, was wonderful overall but I often had frustrating issues trying to calibrate it.  It seemed to get confused often, and each time I'd start it required calibration that sometimes didn't work for 5, 6, 7 times.  Are there any good tutorials on calibrating and tips about how to reduce the need?  Will I be able to launch from a moving boat without the river or the boat hull/engines causing problems?

Any tips from folks who've successfully headed into remote locations and used these little guys would be very appreciated.  Thank you in advance!

I won't be in an area with cell phone towers or wifi, but am I right that GPS will still work?
Of course it will.
The G in GPS stands for Global.
The signals come from a constellation of satellites out in space, not from cell towers.

Also, my previous drone, the Mavic Air, was wonderful overall but I often had frustrating issues trying to calibrate it.  It seemed to get confused often, and each time I'd start it required calibration that sometimes didn't work for 5, 6, 7 times.  Are there any good tutorials on calibrating and tips about how to reduce the need?
1.  You shouldn't need to recalibrate anything.
2.  It sounds like you were attempting recalibration in an unsuitable environment (which probably caused the message that made you think you needed to recalibrate).

Will I be able to launch from a moving boat without the river or the boat hull/engines causing problems?
If the boat is moving fast enough that will prevent launching.
If you power up your drone too close to live cables or steel components of the boat, that has potential to cause serious flight issues.

If you've not flown from a moving boat before, I'd advise against trying on your holiday.
It's a lot more complicated than flying from solid ground and could be quite risky if you are trying for the first time.

Labroides Posted at 12-8 14:44
I won't be in an area with cell phone towers or wifi, but am I right that GPS will still work?
Of course it will.
The G in GPS stands for Global.

Thank you very much for the suggestions and recommendations, @Labroides -- I appreciate it.  I think the boat won't be moving that fast, more like putting up or downstream, rather than a speedboat type setting.  If the drone can overtake the boat, will it be a problem?  I can always ask them to slow down.  

And I suspect the boat will be a long wooden one carved from a tree, not metal.  Not sure.

Glad about the GPS.

As far as the calibration, no, these were pretty "normal" settings:  a beach, a field, a parking lot...cars or other objects 10 or more feet away.  One was a volcano, which I suspect had lava or magnetic pull or something that made it "land" 40 feet above the ground.  That was true interference.  But with my Mavic Air it nearly always needed calibrating prior to use.  

Again, thank you for the info.  That's very helpful.

In addition of Labroides wonderful explainations.

I'm living in an area with lots of trees (near the rainforests in Malaysia), in some parts covered by trees standing on a hill above me, I sometimes have too less satelites to connect to. I fly a couple meters into an open space to get the homepoint set. While no gps, the drone can't lift more than 3 meters.

Be aware that landing on a moving object is very tricky. Even more than taking of. If you can even ask the boat to stop for couple of seconds to get the drone in. There are enough video's of accidents on the Internet of attempts to land a drone on a moving boat, resulting loosing the drone in the water or hurting people.
Like Labroides said, if you never did that before don't attempt on your holiday.

JohnDG Posted at 12-8 16:57
In addition of Labroides wonderful explainations.

I'm living in an area with lots of trees (near the rainforests in Malaysia), in some parts covered by trees standing on a hill above me, I sometimes have too less satelites to connect to. I fly a couple meters into an open space to get the homepoint set. While no gps, the drone can't lift more than 3 meters.

Thank you, @JohnDG!  I really appreciate your suggestions and help.  I have been to Malaysia, so I know it's similar in many ways to Yucatan.  So if there's no connection to GPS it won't fly at all?  That's good to know.  

I think the boat will be able to slow down or stop.  I've flown my Mavic Air many times and caught it in the air a few times.  It seems like the DJI Mini 2 is actually easier to get than the Mavic Air.  But maybe they make it look easy in the videos?

Are there any other tips you have for flying in jungles?  Really, I expect to fly _above_ the jungle mostly, except for take off and landing...I thought the river would offer more open space and be easier, but maybe not.  

Anyway, thank you very much.  

thesunray Posted at 12-8 19:00
Thank you, @JohnDG!  I really appreciate your suggestions and help.  I have been to Malaysia, so I know it's similar in many ways to Yucatan.  So if there's no connection to GPS it won't fly at all?  That's good to know.  

I think the boat will be able to slow down or stop.  I've flown my Mavic Air many times and caught it in the air a few times.  It seems like the DJI Mini 2 is actually easier to get than the Mavic Air.  But maybe they make it look easy in the videos?

So if there's no connection to GPS it won't fly at all?
No, that's not how it works.
It will fly, but height is restricted to 16 ft (5 m) when flying without GPS.

thesunray Posted at 12-8 19:00
Thank you, @JohnDG!  I really appreciate your suggestions and help.  I have been to Malaysia, so I know it's similar in many ways to Yucatan.  So if there's no connection to GPS it won't fly at all?  That's good to know.  

I think the boat will be able to slow down or stop.  I've flown my Mavic Air many times and caught it in the air a few times.  It seems like the DJI Mini 2 is actually easier to get than the Mavic Air.  But maybe they make it look easy in the videos?

it wil fly just like Labroides stated. Not higher than 5 m.
And it won't register the home point as it can't define position without gps signal.
It wil be stable flying as it uses it's ground sensors to stabilise. Just be careful over water as it seems to have a bad influence when using the bottom sensors to stabilise.

I usually stay in the neighborghood till I get the audible confirmation it has set it's home point.

The mini2 is indeed easier to catch than the bigger drones and a little bit less frightfull.

I feel a little bit more comfortable to catch my mini2 than my M2P.

If the jungle is wet you may find it will reduce the distance you can fly, as water absorbs radio waves.

Hi there. Thank you for reaching out. Hope that you could get the best recommendation from our fellow DJI Pilots here in Forum. Thank you for your valued support.

DJI Paladin Posted at 12-9 03:52
Hi there. Thank you for reaching out. Hope that you could get the best recommendation from our fellow DJI Pilots here in Forum. Thank you for your valued support.

I appreciate all the suggestions and tips.  Last question:  Is there any reason to think that the Mavic Air would be better suited to take for this than the DJI Mini 2?  I don't plan to fly it particularly far, but if it doesn't have GPS (which it seems it certainly should!) the 5m height would be a showstopper, because the jungle canopy is higher than that and I need to get above the trees to get the shots I'm looking for.  

Again, thank you.  Very useful info.

thesunray Posted at 12-9 06:15
I appreciate all the suggestions and tips.  Last question:  Is there any reason to think that the Mavic Air would be better suited to take for this than the DJI Mini 2?  I don't plan to fly it particularly far, but if it doesn't have GPS (which it seems it certainly should!) the 5m height would be a showstopper, because the jungle canopy is higher than that and I need to get above the trees to get the shots I'm looking for.  

Again, thank you.  Very useful info.

Thank you for your response. For this inquiry, you may compare both products using the link below for you to decide the better drone for the said project. Thank you for your valued support.

https://www.dji.com/products/comparison-consumer-drones