What if any issues flying around a large ship?

[Chuck Young]

So what I have discovered is that in the heavy forest areas in the High Country of Colorado, coming down through the trees you will lose GPS and be shifted to atti mode at the will of the P3's nav system. In atti you are flying without a positional fix so the P3 will drift, given any wind it will be carried with the wind. You need to learn to fly in atti mode to be prepared for the situation when it happens. In and around large hunks of metal and charged metal objects will also cause the P3 to go into atti. I suggest you find a nice open area and a calm day, well a lot of calm days, and figure out how to fly your bird in atti mode, get comfortable with it and then go attack your "what if" situation.

JMHO

 

[J.James]

one other thing that would be a good ideal if flying by or esp behind any large ship object or structure is to make sure your return to home height settings are set high enough so that if it goes behind and loses signal from the controller and goes in to rth that it will go up high enough to clear the top and not smack in to any thing when it tries to go back to the home point.

 

[Bryce]

To reiterate what others have said:

1. Don't calibrate on ship
2. Set your return flight 20-30 feet above the tallest mast on the ship.

We fly around ferries on Puget Sound quite a bit... no issues at all with signals close to the vessels.

 

[aryabehkam]

We are a ship building and ship repair shipyard and a normal day, we have 8-10 ships are moored.
I am taking photos and videos of them, once a day with 4 batteries if the weather permits. I have some advices,

1- Calibration is important but you don't need to panic if there is a calibration error on mid flight, you should just pass to atti and increase the altitude.

2- Return to home must be safe height like more than 80 meters. If you have cranes, etc, as we have.

3- You can get closer up to 5 meters without a problem with steel body. But something more important than the steel body, is the navigation equipments, They may cause signal lost and compass error. And physically be careful with the antennas, some of them may have 10 meter height and you may not see them because they are so thin.

4- When we talk with the frequency, There are a lot of wireless communication devices on ships and shipyards, you should increase the channel capacity to 32 and pick a safe channel.

5- You cannot always follow your drone visually, you should focus on your screen.

6- You should check moving objects like cranes, hatches, ramps, etc. visually. It is better not to turn the drone on all directions.

7- Pick a high spot at the end of the area. This may reduce your range, but it will be easy to point the tx to the drone.

--

You can check shipyard's gallery from, Besiktas Shipyard (@besiktasshipyard) • Instagram photos and videos

and also from,

Ship photos by Besiktas Shipyard - AIS Marine Traffic

 

[Chuck Young]

We are a ship building and ship repair shipyard and a normal day, we have 8-10 ships are moored.
I am taking photos and videos of them, once a day with 4 batteries if the weather permits. I have some advices,

1- Calibration is important but you don't need to panic if there is a calibration error on mid flight, you should just pass to atti and increase the altitude.

2- Return to home must be safe height like more than 80 meters. If you have cranes, etc, as we have.

3- You can get closer up to 5 meters without a problem with steel body. But something more important than the steel body, is the navigation equipments, They may cause signal lost and compass error. And physically be careful with the antennas, some of them may have 10 meter height and you may not see them because they are so thin.

4- When we talk with the frequency, There are a lot of wireless communication devices on ships and shipyards, you should increase the channel capacity to 32 and pick a safe channel.

5- You cannot always follow your drone visually, you should focus on your screen.

6- You should check moving objects like cranes, hatches, ramps, etc. visually. It is better not to turn the drone on all directions.

7- Pick a high spot at the end of the area. This may reduce your range, but it will be easy to point the tx to the drone.

--

You can check shipyard's gallery from, Besiktas Shipyard (@besiktasshipyard) • Instagram photos and videos

and also from,

Ship photos by Besiktas Shipyard - AIS Marine Traffic

View attachment 31066

So my

View attachment 31067

View attachment 31068

So my inlaws are in Felixstowe UK. The Gun Shed, have you been there before?

 

[Bryce]

wow... that's a filming paradise... you are so lucky!!!

We are a ship building and ship repair shipyard and a normal day, we have 8-10 ships are moored.
I am taking photos and videos of them, once a day with 4 batteries if the weather permits. I have some advices,

1- Calibration is important but you don't need to panic if there is a calibration error on mid flight, you should just pass to atti and increase the altitude.

2- Return to home must be safe height like more than 80 meters. If you have cranes, etc, as we have.

3- You can get closer up to 5 meters without a problem with steel body. But something more important than the steel body, is the navigation equipments, They may cause signal lost and compass error. And physically be careful with the antennas, some of them may have 10 meter height and you may not see them because they are so thin.

4- When we talk with the frequency, There are a lot of wireless communication devices on ships and shipyards, you should increase the channel capacity to 32 and pick a safe channel.

5- You cannot always follow your drone visually, you should focus on your screen.

6- You should check moving objects like cranes, hatches, ramps, etc. visually. It is better not to turn the drone on all directions.

7- Pick a high spot at the end of the area. This may reduce your range, but it will be easy to point the tx to the drone.

--

You can check shipyard's gallery from, Besiktas Shipyard (@besiktasshipyard) • Instagram photos and videos

and also from,

Ship photos by Besiktas Shipyard - AIS Marine Traffic

View attachment 31066

View attachment 31067

View attachment 31068

 

[aryabehkam]

So my inlaws are in Felixstowe UK. The Gun Shed, have you been there before?

No, i haven't.. i'm from turkey.

 

[aryabehkam]

wow... that's a filming paradise... you are so lucky!!!

Absolutely. All formation changes once a week. I have a flight record of 18 hours / 350 kilometers in 1 kilometer square area.

 

[apsphoto]

I was asked to shoot some photos and video of a large ship. Its currently tied up. I won't be landing on it but I do plan to fly pretty close (within 50ft). The ship is steel, will I have an issue with the compass?

Thanks

As others have noted it might be a good idea to check if it is legal to fly in the harbor. In the Los Angeles area the entire harbor is off limits, you fly there they confiscate the drone and arrest you. They use the 9-11 reasoning as the harbor area is a sensitive location. Be careful of all those power lines when flying around.

Alan

 

[Chuck Young]

As others have noted it might be a good idea to check if it is legal to fly in the harbor. In the Los Angeles area the entire harbor is off limits, you fly there they confiscate the drone and arrest you. They use the 9-11 reasoning as the harbor area is a sensitive location. Be careful of all those power lines when flying around.

Alan

That is stupid and scared.

 

[Sudden Stop]

I fly around this all the time. Ive launched from her deck and had no problems. Like stated above just maintain LOS and shouldn't be a issue.

 

[apsphoto]

That is stupid and scared.

Maybe but it is a fact, the port of L.A. is one of the busiest in the U.S. so they are very sensitive of people taking pics and "surveying" and as well as the harbor the City of San Pedro has banned drone flights. You can get ticketed there.

Alan

 

[meringueman]

No problems. Just stay up and you'll be grand.

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What camera are you using

 

[FASTFJR]

Just a quick follow up

Sorry to say it didn't happen. The conservatory for the ship did not have a person available so I was on my own to get it. The shipped is docked at a working pier(s) and everything was closed and locked up. I could have parked across the street, flown over the fence and around the ship. My concern was I always like to fly LOS, the ship was maybe 250 yards from the fence. It just wasn't worth the risk, if anything happened to my P3 their was no way of entering the grounds to get it back. I'll be contacting them to see when they can get one of their people out there with me. I wish I still had my Boston Whaler LOL, it would make it so much easier

 

[happydays]

What camera are you using

That was with V+

 

[tvckz]

Do not forget to invite divers. Always helpful.