I am going to be shooting along the Mississippi River this weekend - weather permitting.

Anyway, I have never flown over water, so any advice?

I will obveiously turn off the VPS, but I would like to get a high-speed low angle run coming down the river and then rise up over the I-74 bridge as I approach. If I stay 6-10' above the water, I should be ok, wouldn't you think?

Hi,
I have flown over lakes and the sea.
Have had no cause to panic.
With latest FW you don't need to turn off VPS any more, let it assist you if you are close to the ground/water but let it do this autonomously.
More dramatic the closer you are to water as the reflections are more intense, but do it slow and high then get progressively lower and faster.
Good luck.

I have flown over lakes and at the beach and had no issues at all, I had it hovering over some surfers at about 15' and the VPS was fine.  Just keep it in "line of sight" and watch your battery level.  I did notice that the wind was more noticeable the closer you get to the water, but flight was still very stable and controllable.

Just start over the parking lot and inch out over the water slowly!

The only issue over water is personal anxiety :-)    You'll feel pretty nervous when that thing is 0.5 mile away knowing it's 'all alone'.   

As long as there isn't any strong magnetic interference from radio stations/power lines, etc, you'll be just fine.

One note of caution....you 'could' potentially lose signal going under the bridge, so just be cautious.

Make sure your home point is set before take off . Also adjust your RTH heigth accordingly .

As mentionned before , personnal anxiety might/will come in when you think that if your bird falls , it'll be very wet . But it has no reason to be different  than over land .


Enjoy the scenery

Just make sure you check wind speed and direction before setting out. You don't want to get caught out over the water struggling to get back against the wind.....

agrewe Posted at 2015-8-21 02:14
Just make sure you check wind speed and direction before setting out. You don't want to get caught o ...

Excellent point.....which is why I typically do not allow my battery to drain below 60% before heading home.  Although same distance back as out, you need to account for wind resistance.

spheasant1 Posted at 2015-8-21 02:17
Excellent point.....which is why I typically do not allow my battery to drain below 60% before hea ...

At least. But also keep in mind the strength of the wind. If the wind speed is faster than the top speed of your copter it will never come back. Always keep in mind that the top speed of the copter is through the air, not over the ground.
E.g. if the top speed is 30mph through the air and you're flying against a 20mph wind you will only move 10mph over the ground.
Meaning in extreme cases even 60% battery might not be sufficient.

agrewe Posted at 2015-8-21 02:30
At least. But also keep in mind the strength of the wind. If the wind speed is faster than the top ...

Point noted!

Guess its different for all of us. From my 40+ flights on my P2V non plus I can only count as few as 5 to 7 flights that were not near the beach/river. No VPS, counting only on couple of satellites from GPS. I assume you get comfortable after a while and living in the Caribbean it is a must to fly and shoot stills at the beach, they come out perfect! Hope you can control yourself, as for the bird I would say just fly as you would normally avoiding the ground (in this case the water) and keep it in your LOS.

This will all be pretty low altitude and close proximity.  I will probably get a few loftier shots over the bridge, but most no higher than 50' It will be in LOS the entire time. As for the anxiety? Already setting in!

Water is no problem. in fact, your range will increase as well. I skim 2 feet off lake Washington quite often when there is no wind at about 20 mph. Just be mentally prepared to lose it while doing these types of things.

brycerichert Posted at 2015-8-21 13:44
Water is no problem. in fact, your range will increase as well. I skim 2 feet off lake Washington qu ...

How do you mentally prepare yourself to lose your UAV?

I've had no problems flying 390' above my local lake! but like others have said, the bird will do fine.  If you're near a STRONG waterfall be sure you know that wind may "swirl" in that general area, but again probably nothing to worry about.  Can't wait to see the footage!!

Just reading this thread creates anxiety!!

Fly over water first day out of the box. As you can see from the intro, no issues.