From the knowledge youve aquired , what is the best advice u can share  ( no "don't do it " please ) while flying from a boat

Hi there, thanks for reaching out. I hope you can get the best suggestion or recommendation from our valued Customer. Also, we highly suggest you fly your drone in an open area. Avoid flying near tall buildings, steel structures, mountains, rock or even tress cause this can affect the accuracy of the onboard compass and block the GPS Signal. Avoid interference between the AC and RC and do not fly near areas with magnetic or radio interference. Should you have further question, please let us know.  Thank you.

REALLY! Dont need a lecture on flying I passed my Canadian Dron Pilots Liscense and FULLY KNOW WHATEVER U CAN TELL ME .........Instead of lecturing why dont u work with the IT team and develop a Return to Controller in your Go 4 App.
Thank You

I also have been thinking about flying of a boat, but haven done it yet. So I have no good  advice to give, but you can set the homeport to the controller for a start. At least that was possible las time I was flying my mavic a few months ago.

What setting is that, on the Controler or App. Dont think it's to the Controler , may be the home point is updated to the position of the Mavic periodically but not the controller unless I'm missed something . Also Hover is in my opinion the best RTH , then u can get under it and work on your reconnect . I wouldn't want it to commence landing anywhere on the Pacific ocean unless I'm under it and can cancell it .

Its in the app, but I don't have the gear here right now.

Dont think it comes back to controller, unless you have not moved from the original take off home point if set to that and the other is being updated to the magics position sm, all settings are to mavic position except RTH at take off

"REALLY! Dont need a lecture on flying I passed my Canadian Dron Pilots Liscense and FULLY KNOW WHATEVER U CAN TELL ME .........Instead of lecturing why dont u work with the IT team and develop a Return to Controller in your Go 4 App.
Thank You "

They already have developed an option to set current RC position as RTH point.

On post number 22 the image points to the icon that you use to manually set the home point to the current RC position. This resetting to RC position can only be manually updated by tapping on that icon on screen, and is dependent on the display device used on the RC having good GNSS reception (GPS and/or GLONASS etc).

OK,will have to check into that , let's move on

PLEASE , I'd really appreciate some comments from those of you who HAVE flown from your boat and your advice
(THANKS everyone for bringing the above to my attention ,I'm going to look into and please please let's move on lol)

Salmonslayer Posted at 2-16 13:23
OK,will have to check into that , let's move on

PLEASE , I'd really appreciate some comments from those of you who HAVE flown from your boat and your advice

As someone who regularly flys from a boat, simply set loss of signal to Hover, and leave RTH as is and if you let craft go to low battery and it initiate RTH the just tap on X on your screen or pause and craft will hover just fly back to where boat is. All your bases are covered unless you are going to fly to critical battery or BVLOS .

I would also recommend becoming proficient in hand launching and hand catching .

Salmonslayer Posted at 2-16 13:23
OK,will have to check into that , let's move on

PLEASE , I'd really appreciate some comments from those of you who HAVE flown from your boat and your advice

I film waterskiing often. It's one of my main reasons for having a drone. I've used the home point as the controller rather than the take off point, and it has worked flawlessly.  It alway  brings my Mavic to within about 25' of the boat, then I land it manually on th boat deck.

Mostly though, I shoot from shore. I find being in the boat a little distracting while flying. The boat driver usually changes direction putting the sun is on my screen, or he drives over other boats wakes and I bounce out of my seat, because I was watching the screen rather than noticing waves coming. I just prefer flying from shore, standing in shade, even though sometimes the boat goes beyond my range, it's how I've gotten my best footage.

Hey Trev and Hallmark, do you turn off your forward and below sensors ???

hallmark007 Posted at 2-16 13:51
As someone who regularly flys from a boat, simply set loss of signal to Hover, and leave RTH as is and if you let craft go to low battery and it initiate RTH the just tap on X on your screen or pause and craft will hover just fly back to where boat is. All your bases are covered unless you are going to fly to critical battery or BVLOS .

I would also recommend becoming proficient in hand launching and hand catching .

What do u mean by "leave RTH alone" isnt that the same as setting RC Signal to hover ? I plan on making sure I retrn to tbe boat with NO LESS than 40% min. And Ill be LOV not furthwr than 50 meters altitude and 25-100 meters from veasel. I will be will also be turning off the dynamic return on a low battrty , because I dont want any risk of it melfunctioning and RTH  
Again , what did u mean in your post to leave RTH and do u turn off your sensors forward and below ?
Thanks

Salmonslayer Posted at 2-17 09:52
What do u mean by "leave RTH alone" isnt that the same as setting RC Signal to hover ? I plan on making sure I retrn to tbe boat with NO LESS than 40% min. And Ill be LOV not furthwr than 50 meters altitude and 25-100 meters from veasel. I will be will also be turning off the dynamic return on a low battrty , because I dont want any risk of it melfunctioning and RTH  
Again , what did u mean in your post to leave RTH and do u turn off your sensors forward and below ?
Thanks

Guess Im going to answer my own question, RTH and RC Lost of Signal ,are two different things . I akways thought yhry were the same . If u loose connection it will do as u set ; RTH , LAND or HOVER . But, if you Activate RTH is will either "Return to Take off " or an "Updated Home Point" some call it Controller Home Point because your Moving.

Salmonslayer Posted at 2-16 18:15
Hey Trev and Hallmark, do you turn off your forward and below sensors ???

I do not turn off the sensors. I'm not saying it's best practice to leave them on, just that I personally don't turn them off. Not sure of the big advantage to turning them off. They say that the clear or reflective water surface may confuse the sensors, but to me, the result of them not working right, or them being turned off, would be exactly the same. Can anyone with more insight weigh in on this please.

Salmonslayer Posted at 2-17 09:52
What do u mean by "leave RTH alone" isnt that the same as setting RC Signal to hover ? I plan on making sure I retrn to tbe boat with NO LESS than 40% min. And Ill be LOV not furthwr than 50 meters altitude and 25-100 meters from veasel. I will be will also be turning off the dynamic return on a low battrty , because I dont want any risk of it melfunctioning and RTH  
Again , what did u mean in your post to leave RTH and do u turn off your sensors forward and below ?
Thanks

Well you don’t need to set RTH to anything, your Aircraft will only go into RTH if it hits low battery, except if it looses signal, which you need to set to hover if boating and keeping VLOS .

If you are flying at 50metres then you will always have good vision so if for some reason your craft goes into low battery RTH then just hit pause button or X button and your Aircraft will hover giving you the option to fly your craft back to the boat and from there you can safely land it.

Continually setting RTH to RC and depending on your craft to find RC while RC is constantly moving with the boat, the chances of RTH kicking in even 50 metres away and finding your exact RC position well you’d have more chance of winning the lottery , trying to use homepoint to RC while on a boat is not a good idea, because the accuracy of a constantly moving boat and drone will insure an incorrect RTH .

So depending on that method will get you into more trouble than you need.
If you are just using RTH to auto fly your craft to the boat this is fraught with danger for your drone.

hallmark007 Posted at 2-17 13:28
Well you don’t need to set RTH to anything, your Aircraft will only go into RTH if it hits low battery, except if it looses signal, which you need to set to hover if boating and keeping VLOS .

If you are flying at 50metres then you will always have good vision so if for some reason your craft goes into low battery RTH then just hit pause button or X button and your Aircraft will hover giving you the option to fly your craft back to the boat and from there you can safely land it.

"if for some reason your craft goes into low battery RTH"

The 'low battery RTH' (returns home when only sufficient power left in battery to do so), as well as being able to cancel it on display; it can also be disabled in DJI Go 4. In the battery menu disable the 'smart-return-to-home' which is not the best description to give to this switch. As DJI always refer to 'smart return to home' as the function of manually initiating an RTH. The 'smart' part being the aircrafts ability to navigate home itself.

Aardvark Posted at 2-17 13:56
"if for some reason your craft goes into low battery RTH"

The 'low battery RTH' (returns home when only sufficient power left in battery to do so), as well as being able to cancel it on display; it can also be disabled in DJI Go 4. In the battery menu disable the 'smart-return-to-home' which is not the best description to give to this switch. As DJI always refer to 'smart return to home' as the function of manually initiating an RTH. The 'smart' part being the aircrafts ability to navigate home itself.

You can turn off SRH, and although I’m not 100% sure I think you can pause and X out of this, but as I said I’m not sure.
Having flown off boats many times particularly on the sea or tidal river, using or depending on RC homepoint is not always a good idea, and although I’m not certain, if you press RTH while using RC homepoint and you further lose signal your aircraft will not hover but continue flying to remote at such time if your boat has moved 5 feet then your aircraft is likely to land in the water as you will have no signal. Just something to think about when using RC homepoint on boat in water .

hallmark007 Posted at 2-17 14:14
You can turn off SRH, and although I’m not 100% sure I think you can pause and X out of this, but as I said I’m not sure.
Having flown off boats many times particularly on the sea or tidal river, using or depending on RC homepoint is not always a good idea, and although I’m not certain, if you press RTH while using RC homepoint and you further lose signal your aircraft will not hover but continue flying to remote at such time if your boat has moved 5 feet then your aircraft is likely to land in the water as you will have no signal. Just something to think about when using RC homepoint on boat in water .

"and although I’m not 100% sure I think you can pause and X out of this"

There's a ten second window to cancel if my memory cell is working correctly ;-)

Aardvark Posted at 2-17 14:18
"and although I’m not 100% sure I think you can pause and X out of this"

There's a ten second window to cancel if my memory cell is working correctly ;-)

Dont plan on requesting a RTH, and since the RC lost signal is HOVER ,should be ok . Oh and will turn off the smart return on low battery , which shouldnt be problem will return with min 40%

Salmonslayer Posted at 2-17 15:22
Dont plan on requesting a RTH, and since the RC lost signal is HOVER ,should be ok . Oh and will turn off the smart return on low battery , which shouldnt be problem will return with min 40%

That sounds like a plan, as you'll be in VLOS you shouldn't really have any problems at all. But, as you've done, you need to cover all probabilities. So that if or when something doesn't go as planned you can recover the situation without having to think too long about it.

I fly from a boat fairly regularly and I can tell you a huge lesson I learned real quick. From 400ft up boats all seem to look the same, at least where we fly. We fly on an inland 91 mile long lake with boats ranging from 21-41ft all different configurations EXCEPT they are all WHITE! On one of the first boat flights I gave myself plenty of time at the end of the battery and I was planning on coming back to the boat after some great action shots but at 400ft they all looked the same.

Luckily, there was a giant pink realty sign on the shore that I was able to make it to during a forced descent. It didn't crash but my son wound up having to swim 20 yards to shore and back with only one arm It did, however, make for some great footage!!!   It seems to easy to say hover, instead of return home when it really should be, HOPE YOU CAN SPOT YOUR BOAT!!!


   

Thanks Muchmore, I'll be flying no more than 150 feet altitude and probably most of the time around 60-70 feet altitude and absolutely no further than 100 feet from the boat. I just want to get some fish catching clips and a few follow me's to show off the 21' Striper Sea Swirl I have.

Muchmore Posted at 2-17 19:30
I fly from a boat fairly regularly and I can tell you a huge lesson I learned real quick. From 400ft up boats all seem to look the same, at least where we fly. We fly on an inland 91 mile long lake with boats ranging from 21-41ft all different configurations EXCEPT they are all WHITE! On one of the first boat flights I gave myself plenty of time at the end of the battery and I was planning on coming back to the boat after some great action shots but at 400ft they all looked the same.

Luckily, there was a giant pink realty sign on the shore that I was able to make it to during a forced descent. It didn't crash but my son wound up having to swim 20 yards to shore and back with only one arm  It did, however, make for some great footage!!!   It seems to easy to say hover, instead of return home when it really should be, HOPE YOU CAN SPOT YOUR BOAT!!!

You should have made your son swim in with a Spare battery in a baggy, swap battery out, swim back with depleted battery in a baggy.  While filming with drone as he struggling to swim back to boat.

HedgeTrimmer Posted at 2-18 13:50
You should have made your son swim in with a Spare battery in a baggy, swap battery out, swim back with depleted battery in a baggy.  While filming with drone as he struggling to swim back to boat.

You're a genius.....