Launching drones off on top of cars & flying over bodies of water?

[pricelessppp]

Is their anything I should know about if I attempt launching a drone off of the top of a car & would it Return to home & land on the roof of the vehicle? Also what are some good tips on flying over bodies of water like to catch boats/ships passing bye & nice scenery?

 

[Tufargon]

For flying around boats you may want to watch the youtube channel iflynoosa. That's pretty well all that guy does but he just chases them and doesn't edit much. I'm sure he'd get great edits out of them if he did.
As for launching off the top of the roof, it should be fine if you don't get any interference from it because it's all metal. I've seen many people do it without problems but just as many do with the magnetic interference. Same as people flying from inside their vehicle.

 

[pricelessppp]

For flying around boats you may want to watch the youtube channel iflynoosa. That's pretty well all that guy does but he just chases them and doesn't edit much. I'm sure he'd get great edits out of them if he did.
As for launching off the top of the roof, it should be fine if you don't get any interference from it because it's all metal. I've seen many people do it without problems but just as many do with the magnetic interference. Same as people flying from inside their vehicle.

Thanks! Is their any tips from launching off of vacant parking garages I see that a lot on YouTube.

 

[Tufargon]

Vacant or not. The building is filled with rebar. I've taken off in places where I didn't think it would have any problems and it did because of metal (cement picnic table that I didn't think of it at the time but obviously had rebar in it. Moved 10 feet away and it was no problem) and other places I figured it wouldn't be possible and it had no problems (under/beside a tin metal roof). That's all hit and miss till you try it and see.

 

[Atomic08]

I have launched my Phantom and Typhoon H off a few top floor parking ramps with no problems. Return to home worked great every time.
With my EVO I find that it is more sensitive to magnetic interference and I get a warning most every time no matter where I place the EVO on the ramp. I stay away from antennas and metal pipes and ingore the warnings and take it up about 12 feet or so until the warning goes away and let it hoover for about a minute, then go fly. It returns to home, but I manually land starting when it is about 50 ft from me.

 

[Ken Ramsley]

It may work to launch from the roof of a car, but the steel roof will very likely confuse the drone's compass, and this will produce a warning to re-calibrate the compass. Sometimes I see this when I launch from a rebar-reinforced concrete deck. The Evo is pretty sensitive to nearby steel.

If you have solid GPS and compass locks, and are using a distinctly-patterned and contrasting landing pad -- the Evo can RTH within a foot of its take-off point. This also requires slowly taking off straight up to ~40 feet before leaving the area ...giving the drone a chance to photograph and 'remember' its home point. Even still, there's no 100% way to ensure a dead nuts landing every time with RTH.

Personally, I see RTH as an emergency backstop -- not a convenience or a source of entertainment, and I almost never use it. If the drone loses connection to the remote controller, it's nice to know it might return home. But that's about it.

 

[Rorysee]

Is their anything I should know about if I attempt launching a drone off of the top of a car & would it Return to home & land on the roof of the vehicle? Also what are some good tips on flying over bodies of water like to catch boats/ships passing bye & nice scenery?

The drone will return to its take-off position so if you moved after the fact the drone simply doesn’t care if you walk, fly or swim. Flying from a moving platform is very risky. Don’t mess with this, you could damage your drone. Once you have disconnected with your moving platform you have to fly the drone so you will have all sorts of problems like added wind speed and your momentum and inertia. etc. like jumping from a moving train the same thing.

Rather stop the boat or vehicle then take off and enable follow me mode then move the boat or car. I have taken footage from boats and yachts a few times BUT always took off from a stationary platform. I had only one scary situation with high winds landing on a stationary yacht avoiding cable and the boat moving and, without a decent GPS lock. You have to be in complete control of your nerves and mental faculties. No mistakes. so add up the cost. Is the shot worth the risk of launching from a moving platform? When you can get the same shot from taking off a stationary platform. No brainer, don’t take off from a moving platform