How does the H+ fly over water?

[wrench567]

I'm considering the H+ as a hobby. How does it fly over water and shorelines? I want to see if I can capture some sharks hunting the local seal population. Some local towns are hiring boaters and jetskiers to patrol the swimming areas. Why not use a camera drone? The great white sharks show up dark over the sandy bottom and aircraft photography has been used and aircrafts are used as spotters for tagging the sharks. Why not use a drone?
Thanks.

 

[DoomMeister]

The Yuneec Hex series drones are all good over water. They do not use downward sensors that get fooled by the water’s surface.

The Typhoon H Plus is very stable in wind and can easily handle 30mph winds. The screen for the ST16S controller is brighter than the former ST16 and with a sunshade is quite easy to see even in bright sun.

Although the video feed is good with the stock patch antenna, I would also suggest using a 4Hawks SR or XR range extending antenna.

Also get a good aftermarket charger and adapter cables to help maintain your batteries in good condition. The OEM charger only balance charges. It does not have a storage voltage function.

 

[Eagle's Eye Video]

Sharks find the H Plus a little crunchy, but well within their bite radius...

 

[7cyclops]

I'm considering the H+ as a hobby. How does it fly over water and shorelines? I want to see if I can capture some sharks hunting the local seal population. Some local towns are hiring boaters and jetskiers to patrol the swimming areas. Why not use a camera drone? The great white sharks show up dark over the sandy bottom and aircraft photography has been used and aircrafts are used as spotters for tagging the sharks. Why not use a drone?
Thanks.

I fly my H pro in some pretty hefty winds and have flown the beach over lake michigan shoreline and also go up on the bluffs and take it out over the lake,but I never go a great distance out,maybe 500 feet,no more. I have been over land to around 1,200 feet and no problems. Problem over water is me. I would like to fly out to the end of the piers breakwalls ,so perhaps I will look into Doomeisters suggestion and try a range extender ,just as an extra insurance. I can see down in the water pretty well at say 100 feet high, or more. Should work well for you,the plus is better than my 480 pro sposedly. I need to get a little braver! K.C.

 

[Ty Pilot]

I would echo everything @DoomMeister said, the H Plus (flight control-wise) is solid over water. I would add that if you are going to attempt to see what is in the water, that you familiarize yourself with polarized filters as well. When flying in daylight over water - seeing down into the water is not only a matter of the water being clear and so forth, it also is very dependent upon the angle and direction of the camera in relation to the ambient light (sun). A polarized filter can aid to cut glare that normally appears if you set it up correctly prior to flight.

 

[wrench567]

Thank you all.
Very good suggestions. I never would have considered a polarized filter. Makes a ton of sense. As for range extender. I would keep it LOS for sure. Do I still need a range extender? Probably under 150 feet in hight because of the Coast guard helicopters love to fly low over the beaches. And we get the banner planes flying overhead.

When I fly my RC helicopters at the beach I usually draw a crowd of onlookers and get all sorts of questions. I never start out near anyone and never over anyone, but somehow they appear. I don't do 3D but more akin to scale flying. I can imagine the questions I would get with a camera drone.

Thanks for the advice. Very helpful.

 

[DoomMeister]

Staying VLOS you will most likely be fine with the stock antennas. If you find that video feed is getting laggy or breaking up you could just use a different patch antenna on the 5.8 GHz WiFi on the ST16S that gives a little more boost. Over water and at the beach there will probably be very little WiFi interference.

 

[Nesher]

The Typhoon H flies OVER water just fine.
It is NOT water-resistant, i.e. if you fly so low that spray get in/on the drone it may malfunction.
It is NOT set up to land/take off from water.
The PowerEgg X with Wizard package is weatherproof and can land/take off from water. The video quality is nowhere near as good as the CGO3(+). It does not do well in wind. I do not have one, this is from multiple reviews.
The Spry+ drone can fly in rain, take off/land from water, and it's camera works below the surface. BUT: I don't fly mine because it is buggy, and unreliable. I'm probably gonna try to unload it on eBay. I simply cannot recommend it.

 

[WTFDproject]

I should mention I get a lot of cameras in for repair that have suffered salt damage. They typically didn't actually get dunked. It is common to find salt damage limited to the more open areas of the camera, up in the mount and near the camera vents. I suspect getting "splashed" accounts for some. Maybe salty sand getting blown in. I don't know. I do know the percentage of salt damage repairs far, far outweighs the percentage of beach area versus the total land area on this planet.

 

[johnnyb57]

I fly my H pro in some pretty hefty winds and have flown the beach over lake michigan shoreline and also go up on the bluffs and take it out over the lake,but I never go a great distance out,maybe 500 feet,no more. I have been over land to around 1,200 feet and no problems. Problem over water is me. I would like to fly out to the end of the piers breakwalls ,so perhaps I will look into Doomeisters suggestion and try a range extender ,just as an extra insurance. I can see down in the water pretty well at say 100 feet high, or more. Should work well for you,the plus is better than my 480 pro sposedly. I need to get a little braver! K.C.

Actually your range is better over water, no obstructions ? I've been out over a mile with my plus with stock antennas (patch) and could have gone alot further, but it was only a black dot, easily lost in the blue sky with no real reference to anything ?

 

[wrench567]

I should mention I get a lot of cameras in for repair that have suffered salt damage. They typically didn't actually get dunked. It is common to find salt damage limited to the more open areas of the camera, up in the mount and near the camera vents. I suspect getting "splashed" accounts for some. Maybe salty sand getting blown in. I don't know. I do know the percentage of salt damage repairs far, far outweighs the percentage of beach area versus the total land area on this planet.

The humid salt air in the summer is probably the culprit. The bearings in my helicopters take a beating and I have cleaned sand out of the motors. I take cans of air and also LPS dry lube and contact cleaner too. All my wire connectors have a good coating of dielectric grease on them. My 450 is nine years old and my 500 is seven. I sold my Chase 380. That thing was scary fast and too agile for me. My F450 franken drone is also five or six years old. I still have the first lipo (3s 3000 mAh) for it. It still outlasts the five minute timer.
After flight care is something I don't skimp on. Pre flight too.
Thanks for the heads up on the camera corrosion.

I just wonder about the sea gulls. They love to harass my RC gear. Especially the F450 quad. They crashed it twice! Luckily over land. Once in the wet sand the other on the dune. Bees, Dragon flies, Gulls and a Golden retriever have fallen victim to my birds. My Blade Inductrix was taken out by a Hawk in my backyard. He mangled it in the blink of an eye and left it falling into the gutter after bouncing down the roof. Animals are the wildcard. 99% of flights are uneventful. That 1% is the scariest.

 

[PaulEden]

I shot this today...

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[wrench567]

Nice shots.
Are those submerged bridges? Where was this filmed? Any filters being used?
Thank you.

 

[PaulEden]

No filters, it's au naturel
It was filmed in Buckinghamshire, UK. The county council and the water company wanted to slow the stream down as it was quite small and dried out often so they added some artificial meanders and dredged the bed to make it deeper, but just as they did this, the source of the river suddenly became stronger, so the new meanders turned into a small lake. The bridges were inundated.

 

[Pier2162]

Which were the settings of the camera for this video?
I don't know if it's a playback problem on my smartphone, I feel like I see blur while flying above the river...
In any case, very nice video ??

 

[PaulEden]

I didn't change any camera settings, they are probably default.

 

[wrench567]

No filters, it's au naturel
It was filmed in Buckinghamshire, UK. The county council and the water company wanted to slow the stream down as it was quite small and dried out often so they added some artificial meanders and dredged the bed to make it deeper, but just as they did this, the source of the river suddenly became stronger, so the new meanders turned into a small lake. The bridges were inundated.

That figures.
Our government does the same thing. I especially like it when they tear up a road and repave it nice and smooth. Then months later dig it up to put in new or repair old utilities. Then it's worse than before it was repaved.
Nice video. Very well shot.