I've been looking for a drone that can fly fluidly through a path with lots of trees on either side. If I track a subject, that works in a lot of cases but I want footage without a subject in the shot. Where I live there is no path that is straight and no path without altitude change. I had seen footage from the Skydio 2+ that looked really impressive using keyframes but then found a video of someone attempting to do exactly what I want to do and the keyframes drift! He crashed his Skydio into some bare branches and damaged his drone. Not good.


I had not considered the Mavic 3 until now since the newest firmware has waypoint capability for video footage. Has anyone tried this yet with their Mavic 3? Will waypoints work down a forest path? Is it precise enough?


Thanks for any help you can provide.

The Mavic 3 has good OA sensors but flying within a Forest with lots of branches and thin twigs is a big risk and this could cause your drone to crash. There are many videos on YouTube of people crashing their Mavic 3 doing active track in Forests, waypoint will be worse.

Thanks for the quick response. I do understand that (as far as I know) there are no collision sensors on the market that can see tiny branches, wires, etc. and active track will cause crashes. I guess I was just hoping that waypoints might be precise enough to stay within inches of the desired path. (I'm assuming DJI is using GPS for waypoints?) That's the key here no so much optical avoidance.

FLYMN Posted at 1-1 09:54
Thanks for the quick response. I do understand that (as far as I know) there are no collision sensors on the market that can see tiny branches, wires, etc. and active track will cause crashes. I guess I was just hoping that waypoints might be precise enough to stay within inches of the desired path. (I'm assuming DJI is using GPS for waypoints?) That's the key here no so much optical avoidance.

I may have answered my own question here. GPS precision for us folks isn't nearly as good as what the military can access. I'm sure GPS can be accurate down to inches but I'm sure the civilian version isn't nearly as accurate which leads me to believe that waypoints may not work for what I want.

the skydio doesn't need waypoints or keyframes to navigate a forest path.  you can just push ahead on the sticks and the drone will avoid the obstacles as it moves ahead (or backwards). on rare occasion it will get stuck with no options but as you mentioned, no drone can avoid the tiny branches.  unfortunately the skydio will crash if it strikes a tiny branch, it doesn't do well with fighting to stay airborne.  perhaps the avata is what you are looking for since it can navigate tight spaces with precision and without tracking.

FLYMN Posted at 1-1 09:54
Thanks for the quick response. I do understand that (as far as I know) there are no collision sensors on the market that can see tiny branches, wires, etc. and active track will cause crashes. I guess I was just hoping that waypoints might be precise enough to stay within inches of the desired path. (I'm assuming DJI is using GPS for waypoints?) That's the key here no so much optical avoidance.

I was just hoping that waypoints might be precise enough to stay within inches of the desired path.
It's not.
Consumer GPS is only good to +/- 2-3 metres.
And under tree cover it could easily be worse and poor lighting would make obstacle avoidance less reliable.
Using GPS to fly waypoints on a forest path sounds like a good way to crash your drone.