Flying from boat.

LukasTaurins · Apr 4, 2019

Hello everyone, I have a small boat (20 feet or so) and I want to get some drone footage with my Typhoon H. I’ve tried taking it off from a much bigger boat before, but it wouldn’t work properly. It was pretty calm and the boat wasn’t moving much, but the drone could not get a GPS lock. I tried taking it up without GPS hoping I could connect in the air. It didn’t work. (I got this idea from my phantom, and was hoping they’d work similarly.) is there some kind of mode or setting I need to toggle to get it to take off? Can the drone not take off when it’s on a moving object? Many thanks. (Attached is a pic of the boat model)

AH-1G · Apr 4, 2019

I've flown my H from my refurbished 16.6 foot Glastron taking off from the front seat. You may want to hand launch and hand catch, be careful.
No issues with GPS.

Ty Pilot · Apr 4, 2019

I agree, being on a boat is not a problem as far as acquiring satellites for GPS. Learning to hand launch and recover will allow you to operate from a floating craft no matter the size.

LukasTaurins · Apr 4, 2019

I’d want to take off from the back engine hatch, it’s a pretty good size patch of launch space. I’ll try and launch the typhoon from the boat soon and hopefully it’ll work.

Steve Carr · Apr 4, 2019

It gets GPS signals when on land but not from the boat?
I'd be concerned about that engine hatch. There is a lot of steel under it that doesn't play well with the compass.

AH-1G · Apr 5, 2019

Yes stay away from the engine hatch, that's why I launch in front of the boat, no metal.
Close proximity of metal will cause (sometimes if not most of the time) calibration warnings, is this what you're getting?

TurboDad81 · Apr 5, 2019

Then I guess it wouldn't be a good idea to launch mine from a big aluminum boat. How about hand launching?

AH-1G · Apr 5, 2019

TurboDad81 said:
Then I guess it wouldn't be a good idea to launch mine from a big aluminum boat. How about hand launching?

If you are seeing calibration warnings then hand launch.
Metal will make your radio signals bounce around causing control issue.
There is no monitor warning for this, you'll see your drone drifting in weird ways.

TurboDad81 · Apr 5, 2019

AH-1G said:
you'll see your drone drifting in weird ways.

Like I already see happening in wide open farm fields? Lol. Sorry, couldn't resist.

Spidercam · Apr 5, 2019

I am thinking about th the boat also. Hand catching is a great idea. I would
also want to make sure that the auto return to land was set to the controller
so it would come back. It might be important to in the case of an auto return to
align the longitudinal axis of the boat with the arrival trajectory and have the controlle
on the bow. Just some thoughts.

Steve Carr · Apr 5, 2019

Spidercam said:
want to make sure that the auto return to land was set to the controller

That is correct but you must stop the autoland function and land manually when it gets close enough. Autoland will result in a water landing.

Spidercam · Apr 6, 2019

Steve Carr said:
That is correct but you must stop the autoland function and land manually when it gets close enough. Autoland will result in a water landing.

So, wouldn’t that depend on the size of the boat? ?
Thanks Steve.

Keith Glover · Apr 6, 2019

I have had a lot of success launching and landing from our boat's Bimini cover. It's the highest point on the boat and it makes it easy to put a hand on the landing gear until I can shut the rotors off.

Spidercam · Apr 6, 2019

Great idea Keith! Thanks.

Sheepdog · Apr 10, 2019

Spidercam said:
So, wouldn’t that depend on the size of the boat? ?
Thanks Steve.

I believe that the specied landing is within 8 mtr, depending on gps signal, as you are not getting a good one, use auto to within about 20 mtr, then manual land. Otherwise it gets a wash