My wife and I spent the weekend in Cayucos, CA., visiting there to check out a large horse camping site for our riding club.  I had a chance to shoot some videos of this fun area.

Wow, definitely fun place to video.  Nice video as well, mavic did really well for such wind.

Cool video!!

Lucas775 Posted at 2017-10-31 17:37
Wow, definitely fun place to video.  Nice video as well, mavic did really well for such wind.

Thanks.  Yeah, it was quite windy there.  Out near the end of that pier, I lost some contact with the Mavic.  Although I've tested RTH a couple of times, that was the very first time I used it for real.  Came back very nicely.

Impressive video, bro. Just a word of caution, please avoid flying when there is a strong wind, or keep the drone in visual area in this condition.

DJI Thor Posted at 2017-10-31 19:13
Impressive video, bro. Just a word of caution, please avoid flying when there is a strong wind, or keep the drone in visual area in this condition.

Thanks, Thor.  In the video, there is that shot of the pier at the beginning.  I was originally flying and trying to record sideways and back to shore from the end of that pier, a couple hundred yards into the ocean.  When I got a warning and lost FPV, I used RTH to get it back.  Then I only went out half way - and that's the shot you see in the video.  I did have the quad in sight, but got nervous when I lost FPV out over the water.  After that one scare, I had no more problems the rest of the day.  But keep your counsel going - I enjoy reading all your posts and your assistance to all of us on this forum.

Really nice shots. Did you happen to get any official information on restrictions around the beaches there? I'm maybe paranoid but it seems most of the shoreline up here around Monterey and San Francisco does have drone restrictions. The CA State beaches here all appear to ban drones and/or much of the shoreline is part of marine protection areas which also have bans. (I don't want to get into the semantics of where the restriction areas begin and end.) It would be ideal to have a few documented places on the California coast where there are rocks, waves and no drone rules. I've seen people flying drones just north of Morrow rock, but Morro rock itself is a bird sanctuary, and I think Morro harbor is off limits. I've not checked Cayucos or the coast further up.

StanfordWebbie Posted at 2017-10-31 19:20
Thanks, Thor.  In the video, there is that shot of the pier at the beginning.  I was originally flying and trying to record sideways and back to shore from the end of that pier, a couple hundred yards into the ocean.  When I got a warning and lost FPV, I used RTH to get it back.  Then I only went out half way - and that's the shot you see in the video.  I did have the quad in sight, but got nervous when I lost FPV out over the water.  After that one scare, I had no more problems the rest of the day.  But keep your counsel going - I enjoy reading all your posts and your assistance to all of us on this forum.

That's a really uptight experience, and you are excellent for not losing your mind on that flight. You might've learned something from this flight, don't you?
Anyway, I am looking forward to your more sharings.

Nice video!

djiuser_larry Posted at 2017-10-31 22:06
Really nice shots. Did you happen to get any official information on restrictions around the beaches there? I'm maybe paranoid but it seems most of the shoreline up here around Monterey and San Francisco does have drone restrictions. The CA State beaches here all appear to ban drones and/or much of the shoreline is part of marine protection areas which also have bans. (I don't want to get into the semantics of where the restriction areas begin and end.) It would be ideal to have a few documented places on the California coast where there are rocks, waves and no drone rules. I've seen people flying drones just north of Morrow rock, but Morro rock itself is a bird sanctuary, and I think Morro harbor is off limits. I've not checked Cayucos or the coast further up.

I'm not sure about any laws there nor did I see any signs regarding restrictions.  But I do support the concept that we drone pilots should not fly over people or cars or where folks object to our being there.  We should be like mountain bikers.  They were quite disliked when mountain bikes were first invented, but the bikers themselves "got religion" and really cleaned up their act.  Today, you just about NEVER come across a discourteous mountain biker (at least that's so here in California).  We drone pilots need to be the same way.  That said, I was never standing on a beach, instead using areas like the sidewalk up above.  I took care not to fly over anyone or their cars.