Hello community. One of the main uses I have for my Mavic is to take video and still photos of my family waterskiing. Any help on what I should use for settings would really be appreciated. I'm looking for both help with best settings to create the best images, but also safety sugestions for over water flight. As a beginner, I'm quite nervous about sending my new Mavic over the lake for fear of a water crash. This would enevitably be fatal for the Mavic and my footage as I have no scuba gear to retrieve it. Here are some specific questions I have, but please feel free to chime in with any other related advice. 1) Kids tend to ski with boat running at 32 MPH (52 KM/h). When active track is initiated, will Mavic keep up automatically? Do I need to initiate sport mode too?

2) I've heard about downward vision system getting confused over water. Should this always be turned off when flying over the lake?
3) What's the lowest altitude I can safely fly over the lake with active track. I think some of the coolest closeup footage would be at low altitude?
4) Can I snap still photos with the shutter button while video is recording simultaneously?
5) Would it be best to control the Mavic from the boat, or from a fixed location at the shore?

I have no answer but I'm going to follow this thread because I too plan on trying to film waterskiing.

It would be best to control the Mavic from the boat, because so you see it by eye all the time. It would be save to set the homepoint at land. If there are some problems it will fly there and land by it self. I would start at a save altitude and distance. If you unterstand what the Mavic will do you can decrease both.

gnom Posted at 2017-1-19 12:29
It would be best to control the Mavic from the boat, because so you see it by eye all the time. It would be save to set the homepoint at land. If there are some problems it will fly there and land by it self. I would start at a save altitude and distance. If you unterstand what the Mavic will do you can decrease both.

This sounds like good advise. Thank you. I really like the idea of being in the boat with a home point set on the beach like you say. The lake I'll be on is a narrow lake in a deep valley with many curves. Its actually a damed river valley. If I was to remain on shore, I guess I'd lose signal when my subject traveled around a curve and behind a hill. I should go in the boat and set my RTH elevation higher than the surrounding valley hills.   

You would need to manually fly in Sport Mode as I don't think Active Track will go that fast.
Yes, you can disable the downward sensors since you'll be close to the water.
You cannot take photos while recording.
It's probably easiest to control it from the boat.

DJI-Ken Posted at 2017-1-19 14:18
You would need to manually fly in Sport Mode as I don't think Active Track will go that fast.
Yes, you can disable the downward sensors since you'll be close to the water.
You cannot take photos while recording.

You say I can disable the downward sensors. Could you please explain a little more. The sensors are a safety feature, are they not? Turning off a safety feature will require me understanding it better before I go ahead and do it. I guess it would be helpful to know how the Mavic's computer is programmed to make decisions. Is there a pecking order in which it trusts different sensors? For example, if it loses GPS signal, will it trust its downward sensors next, and then it's barometric altimeter last? Any idea how it all works? I'm also hesitant to turn off the downward sensors because I'm told they are beneficial for an RTH landing when it arrives at shore.  

Unfortunately you cannot use active track if you disable the downward sensor. So it's you choice. Fly and film without active track or keep everything on. I have been flying over water using active track with no issues but it was SUP so way slower than ski.

I dont konw in active track, but in manual P-mode with vps on it can go very close to water, no problem at all.

TrevorSK Posted at 2017-1-19 17:39
You say I can disable the downward sensors. Could you please explain a little more. The sensors are a safety feature, are they not? Turning off a safety feature will require me understanding it better before I go ahead and do it. I guess it would be helpful to know how the Mavic's computer is programmed to make decisions. Is there a pecking order in which it trusts different sensors? For example, if it loses GPS signal, will it trust its downward sensors next, and then it's barometric altimeter last? Any idea how it all works? I'm also hesitant to turn off the downward sensors because I'm told they are beneficial for an RTH landing when it arrives at shore.

You can disable the downward facing sensors if your flight environment is outside of the sensor limitations and you still want to fly over that environment and not have a sensor working.
For example, if you must fly low over animals, you'll want to disable the downward sensors as the sonar emits high frequency and could effect some animals.
Or flying over water or transparent surfaces could also effect the sonar so if you fly low over still water then it's better to disable the downward vision system.

You do this by going into the Visual Navigation Settings, then Advanced Settings, then move the slider to the left under "Enable Vision Positioning".

I know it's January right now, so maybe I'll have to wait for summer, but if anyone has any success or failure stories about filming waterskiing with the Mavic I'd love to hear.

DJI-Ken Posted at 2017-1-19 14:18
You would need to manually fly in Sport Mode as I don't think Active Track will go that fast.
Yes, you can disable the downward sensors since you'll be close to the water.
You cannot take photos while recording.

Can you please elaborate on Sport Mode + Active Track? I am looking to buy a drone to primarily shoot windsurfing. That means typically 20mph wind and I am also moving 20mph across the wind, so the drone needs to have approximately 30mph airspeed to keep up. Does this mean that the Mavic won't be able to track me at that speed and I need someone at the controls?

nikitapiankov Posted at 2017-1-20 14:53
Can you please elaborate on Sport Mode + Active Track? I am looking to buy a drone to primarily shoot windsurfing. That means typically 20mph wind and I am also moving 20mph across the wind, so the drone needs to have approximately 30mph airspeed to keep up. Does this mean that the Mavic won't be able to track me at that speed and I need someone at the controls?

I'm going to try all this out in a scientific way with a friend driving a car as my subject. I feel more comfortable flying over land while I'm learning. I'll post my results on this thread. Then at least we'll have an idea what to expect before flying over water.

nikitapiankov Posted at 2017-1-20 14:53
Can you please elaborate on Sport Mode + Active Track? I am looking to buy a drone to primarily shoot windsurfing. That means typically 20mph wind and I am also moving 20mph across the wind, so the drone needs to have approximately 30mph airspeed to keep up. Does this mean that the Mavic won't be able to track me at that speed and I need someone at the controls?

Yes, Active Track works in P-Mode, not Sport Mode so the Mavic will not be able to what you need it to.