Who's launching drones off their boat?

Z-Worthy

Z-Worthy

Active Member
Jun 20, 2014
457
Sandusky, OH
Boat Info
2002 Sunseeker 44 Camargue
Engines
450hp Cat 3208s
My wife bought me a DJI Mavic Pro for Christmas, and I've had a blast practicing with it and flying it around the neighborhood the last few months. But I want to eventually get proficient enough to hand-launch off the boat, make videos of the boat running at speed, orbit, follow us into a marina, etc. I'm pretty comfortable with hand-launching and hand-catching in the backyard, but doing it on the boat still scares me.

How many of you on the forum are launching drones off your boat? What kind of drone? Anyone's drone go for a swim yet?
 
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Yeah I have done it quite a few times and its always nerve racking. And yes it has gone for a dip LOL. I usually have someone grab it as I bring it down. One thing if the battery starts getting low bring it in LOL the gps loses its bearings first and goes wonky. I lost a battery on mine when it splashed and the admiral swam out after it, I had home made foam pontoons wire tied to it. So when it came out I let it dry out real good for a few days and the battery shorted out, the but the memory card and the rest of the drone was in tact. So from then on I made sure that I record video as I take off and as I land to get any real good footage of accidents.

Oh yeah that one was a Phantom 2, I sold it to buy a waterproof one a splash drone and it was WAY too complicated and cumbersome not to mention I lost my ass when I sold it. I mean it has 5 sets of batteries to keep charged to use it. So now I'm in a Phantom 3 Pro and if it splashes so be it.
 
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I have done it a few times. I have a Phantom, so I have a better way to grab the landing gear. Kind of like docking a boat, don't go any faster than you have to and you will be just fine.
 
I fly my phantom 3 all the time. Launch off the roof or bow. Catch landing. Works great. It seems to be the only place I'm allowed to fly it anymore with all the no-fly zones.


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I had a buddy accidentally shut off the remote power while flying. The drone came down slowly as it was supposed to but the boat had drifted enough while anchored that we had to scramble last minute to catch it.....luckily he had a water mat off the back to run out on to. I have seen nerf noodles cut to length and zip tied on the drone for pontoons, I am not sure if that works....
 
Ctsearay said:
Yeah I have done it quite a few times and its always nerve racking. And yes it has gone for a dip LOL. I usually have someone grab it as I bring it down. One thing if the battery starts getting low bring it in LOL the gps loses its bearings first and goes wonky. I lost a battery on mine when it splashed and the admiral swam out after it, I had home made foam pontoons wire tied to it. So when it came out I let it dry out real good for a few days and the battery shorted out, the but the memory card and the rest of the drone was in tact. So from then on I made sure that I record video as I take off and as I land to get any real good footage of accidents.

Oh yeah that one was a Phantom 2, I sold it to buy a waterproof one a splash drone and it was WAY too complicated and cumbersome not to mention I lost my ass when I sold it. I mean it has 5 sets of batteries to keep charged to use it. So now I'm in a Phantom 3 Pro and if it splashes so be it.
Click to expand...
I have the Splash Drone and agree that it's pretty squirrelly to operate sometimes. It decided to take off so I crashed it into the water. At least it is waterproof! I have landed on the boat a few times but can't do the catch in the hands thing since I need 2 hands to shut it down with the controller I have.
 
My buddy does it all the time... I'm scared ****less to do it, but apparently he has a bigger set of balls than I do... lol

But it sure is cool to watch.. those things are pretty crazy with what they can do.


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I have seen it done a few times. I saw one withe pool noodles cut to length on the runners, it worked well for a water landing and retrieval.
 
We have several times with a friend who has a DJI Phantom 2, 3 and 4. Now that I've seen some of the videos of hotdogs going through rotor blades, I'm not quite as keen catching it, but it sure works. The Phantom does, indeed, have a great landing gear for retrieval.

Here's a video we did of the Whaler. Quadcopter footage starts at 2:40. It was kind of a trial to see if he could make boat videos for brokers, which he never really pursued. We laughed that next time we'd all smile for the camera and film it in the fall when the water isn't quite so brown.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f-bSVNhLA8

Remote PIC, sUAS
 
I have a Yuneec Q500 and I've done it many times. I did learn the hard way that it will not initialize to the GPS on a moving boat. Duh, it seems so obvious, but I had to learn the hard way.
 
My latest is the Blade Chroma. I dropped it in the drink once due to a loose prop (user error). Replaced the controller board and battery then back in business. I launch it from the platform and retrieve it by hand. It locks on to at least 10 gps satellites so it hovers wherever you put it. I've done the noodles on the landing gear on my old drone which worked pretty well. I may do the same on this one so it floats if I lose it off shore.
 
The nice part about the Phantom 4 that I have seen, is that it uses the GPS from my tablet (Android) to establish home. Then if the boat moves after launch, home follows the tablet. no need to chase a drone that goes home to the launch point. (saves me a lot of anguish.)
 
66pony said:
The nice part about the Phantom 4 that I have seen, is that it uses the GPS from my tablet (Android) to establish home. Then if the boat moves after launch, home follows the tablet. no need to chase a drone that goes home to the launch point. (saves me a lot of anguish.)
Click to expand...

My Mavic does the same thing. I haven't tested it yet, but it sounds like a game-changer. I've been really impressed with it's abilities so far though!
 
I've done it a few time, hand launch and hand catch. Launching is harder than catching, at least I find, deep breath and full throttle!
 
Have a phantom 3 I bought last fall. I'll definitely use it on the new boat when spring rolls around. I started flying RC airplanes in 2000, that lead to a pilots license in '01 (first solo 9/10/01) and a drone is the next logical toy. These things are so very easy to fly it's amazing! I can't wait to fly it around the boat, not around others!
 
Yeah there is a ton of products & accessories on the market now for landing on the water or at least to stop it from sinking. Back when I did it I uses some of that hard open cell package foam hollowed out leg channels and wire tied it to the landing gear. I'm taking the approach that if you dont risk the taking the shots you will miss out on some that could have been great. It took me 15-20 tries to get these shots I wanted in front of middle ground / Stratford shoal light house but I finally got them. The lens quality on the drone back then wasn't the best but I still have used the pics for countless avatars wallpaper and stuff. They were totally worth all the fuel of getting there and the risk of dunking the drone. I can't wait to do it this year with the new P3 Pro the lens is rediculas and should be 10 times better. I'm looking forward to taking some video of us on plane while we cruise, now with the addition of the ipad as a display its really easy to do anything you want. Here are two pics I took of the hundreds with the old original Phantom back in the day. The first one is the day I dunked it and Holly swam for it, the other two are obviously the light house.

DJI00081.jpg

IMG_0218m.jpg

IMG_0231.jpg
 
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Nice! I haven't gotten the nerve yet to fly it out in the Sound.
 
hahaha Yeah a little liquid courage didn't hurt to start out the first couple of times.
 
I flew my Mavic for the first time off my bow last weekend. When I brought it back to land it touched down on my bow cushion but would not shut off - the front stayed down but the rear was off the cushion by an inch. I took it back up and caught it by hand. It "bit" my finger. I still don't know why it wouldn't make a full landing. If it does that again I will let it run out of battery before I touch the thing. Anyone have any thoughts as to why that happened. I am very new to drones.
 
I think they have a sensor for pressure. The other possibility is that it didn't sense that it was level and therefore not on the ground. I landed mine on un level ground and it flipped over immediately instead of shutting down.

Secondly, your post is completely unbelievable without pictures of the offending finger...
 
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