I have been reading different posts about flying over water and most relate to the Phantom 3 or older.  Can anyone help me understadn how I can ste my settings so I can fly my Phantom 4 over water?  I understand the there isnt a way to turn off the Visual Sensing off as there was in the older models.

I'm interested too.  Never touched any settings other than gimbal speed and I always fly over water.  I just took my P3A a little over a mile out into the Pacific during my lunch break.

I got my P4 about a 2 weeks or so ago. I have mostly been flying over water due to where we live. The only settings I've put in are the ones which are put in on initial setup. I have not had any problem
what-so-ever.

Same here, I fly over water on a daily basis, it's what I prefer to film. I would say that when you are, be very wary of where your P4 is at all times(in terms of elevation above water, trees, etc) and remember - if your flying low over water, there is an issue with a lot of P4s (including mine) where the aircraft drops in altitude after a full speed stop, so, just be careful. You might even want to throttle up a little when braking (it's almost a habit now) to avoid this issue until a fix is given. Just be careful over all!

The limitations and warnings are in the manual.Just be careful flying low over water.

FatedFilmsNC Posted at 2016-4-14 03:00
Same here, I fly over water on a daily basis, it's what I prefer to film. I would say that when you  ...

The drop is not an issue, it's now the sonar works from going fast then stopping quickly in VPS range

Has anyone flown their P4 over water with less than 10m of altitude?

Seen lots of comments about not being able to turn off VPS and not having an issues flying over water at high altitudes but haven't found anything about what actually happens when you have to get close to the water now that you can't turn off the VPS.

I guess you could fly in ATTI to bypass the VPS but then you'd have no GPS either. Doesn't seem like a good solution for what I'd like to do.

Any input is appreciated. Thank you.

DJI-Ken Posted at 2016-4-13 14:06
The drop is not an issue, it's now the sonar works from going fast then stopping quickly.

Ken the drop is an issue that many have reported.  What is being done about it?

DJI-Ken Posted at 2016-4-13 15:06
The drop is not an issue, it's now the sonar works from going fast then stopping quickly.

what? i don't understand your sentence. And in my experience, and dozens of others on this forum, the drop is an issue Ken. Just sayin.

DJI-Ken Posted at 2016-4-14 03:06
The drop is not an issue, it's now the sonar works from going fast then stopping quickly.

I'm not sure I'm following you, Ken...  What do you mean when you say "The drop is not the issue?"  The sonar has NOTHING to do with the aircraft and it's dropping when it is 400' AGL...  

Please clarify your statement. Perhaps it is I who is misunderstanding your statement, and I'm just trying to understand the whole dropping issue.  It is QUITE pronounced with MY Phantom 4 (anywhere from an estimated 4' to 12')...

xjoeyx@satx.rr. Posted at 2016-4-16 09:18
I'm not sure I'm following you, Ken...  What do you mean when you say "The drop is not the issue?"  ...

The person I was responding to was talking about flying close to the water. I edited the post to state in VPS range.

DJI-Ken Posted at 2016-4-15 21:36
The person I was responding to was talking about flying close to the water. I edited the post to s ...

Your edited comment still makes no sense. Please repost with more clarity about what you are trying to convey.

DJI-Ken Posted at 2016-4-13 15:06
The drop is not an issue, it's now the sonar works from going fast then stopping quickly in VPS ran ...

The drop is still an issue Ken, even with VPS enabled, please dont sit there and tell me its not, cus it is. That list is EXTREMELY limiting, what can you fly over according to DJI? Grass? Anything else? VPS without the ability to turn it off was the absolute WORST idea DJI had for the P4, I do not fly indoors, The VPS disables your throttle forward/backward at a low altitude, and I cant stand it. My next drone will NOT be a P4 SOLELY because of this poor design decision by R&D. VPS has apnost caused 6 crashes. 6 Ken. So dont insult my intelligence by stating untrue facts please. Your betas dont do this (apparently) so you do not know what we as users are experiencing, so please dont act like you do. Thank you.

Butterpuff 6 Posted at 2016-5-24 01:31
Your edited comment still makes no sense. Please repost with more clarity about what you are tryin ...

When going from full speed in Sport Mode to a full stop there will be a slight altitude change.

DJI-Ken Posted at 2016-5-23 14:16
When going from full speed in Sport Mode to a full stop there will be a slight altitude change.

This also happens in "P" mode and it's more than just a slight drop.  If anything, the drop is less in "S" than in "P".   I frequently experience a 6 ft drop in "P" mode, which can land you in the water or in a tree.   DJI needs to fix this problem.

Butterpuff 6 Posted at 2016-5-24 02:59
This also happens in "P" mode and it's more than just a slight drop.  If anything, the drop is les ...

The manual already tells you about flying over water.
Please upload a DAT file to Dropbox and post a link here and I will forward it on for a resolution.

I routinely fly over the water. Matter of fact I do it a lot! I have a P3A, so I can't really say about your P4, but I do NOT turn off my VPS when going over the water. I understand that as long as you are not close (a couple feet over it) you should be fine. I have never been any closer that 50ft. to the surface, but I have never had an issue. It tells you in the manual not to fly  close to the surface, or for that matter over colors that are consitently the same like red, or browns, etc. It cannot maintain stability when it cannot get a good signal from the area below it. Must be the transpanency for the water, don't know about the colors, but pretty sure someone can chime in here. Take a look at a reply I made earlier on another area of the forum.

http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?m ... 26&page=1#pid412542

#12 on the post. All of these are a 1-mile to a couple miles over the water from where I take off.

Hope this gives you some reassurance about flying over the water.

I agree with the idea of P4 having issues overidding commands, even on Manual mode the dron tends to be erratic.

I was in a lake last weekend, not to many clear places to elevate the dron. Therefore I was triying to make it tru some threes over the water and the dron gained altitude. I switched to manual mode and found that the dron keep gaining altitude every time I tried to go trough. Finally I could take it out and do a emergency landing at other place.

I didn't risk to go back, because I notice that, even with the dron being at 3 meterse over the water. Dji go showed a -0.5 m altitude, my fear was to cause a poweroff when pushing the dron down (like whe you land and keep pushing the control down).

Even manual mode causes this abnormal elevation. I bought this drone because I work with crocodiles and not being able to use it near water is frustrating.


Do yo think that disabling FPV could help to avoid this issue? How can it be done in the P4?

Thanks in advance

*disabling VPS

You can turn off VPS when flying with litchi app

I fly over water all the time.  Even down to less than a metre off the surface. No problems at all.

http://youtu.be/ZbFZUr4GKdY

sambisset@gmail Posted at 2016-4-15 01:17
Has anyone flown their P4 over water with less than 10m of altitude?

Seen lots of comments about n ...

Check out my posts in video/photo. There is one where I fly across the Clutha River. From testing before I flew across I can confirm the VPS "locked" onto the surface of the river and the drone did indeed drift away with the current. I estimate I was at about 8m above the surface. Increasing the altitude instantly stopped the drift. For what it's worth I was flying quite slowly, probably at less than walking speed during my tests.

Kudos to DJI really, VPS does what it was designed to do - and it does what DJI say it will do over water. Take care, and always be ready to climbed or engage ATTI.

I fly over water daily. VPS on. Never had an issue.

edbighi@gmail.c Posted at 2016-8-2 06:44
I fly over water daily. VPS on. Never had an issue.

Which altitude?
less than 10 meters my Phantom starts to drift...

I seen a trick on Youtube for under 10 meters... the vPs sees the water moving, and because your stationary it moves with the water to stay still, weird I kno... youtube fix was to cover the sensors with some scotch tape... never tried it tho

Please Dji Add an option to turn OFF this VPS...I can't fly over water when my dogs or friends are swimming becauseP4 follows waves they create. The P4 become mad and I must take altitude...
Lots of people are waiting this feature...please

sorry for the double post...PS :  I dont wanna spend my money just for Litchi app...

At less than ten meters the phantom starts to drift? Not that I've noticed but atti mode is something everyone should be familiar with flying anything. Regardless, fly low crash hard. Get it up high enough and your problems are gone.

Yes, it drift and do some yoyo changing altitude which is annoying...if I go 10m I need to crop video to be close the action and loose image quality

Here is my latest video over water. 1m over water in sports mode.

No problems at all with a Phantom 4

Nice flying, that was low over water, thanks for sharing

You want low,  I was less than a metre over the water here on my return trip.  In fact I almost ditched it.