Blue Water Ops

Operator74656 · Jul 2, 2015

My ultimate goal for the solo is to perform "blue water ops." Essentially this means performing flight operations from a boat/ship without the possibility for divert to land. I have been doing this for years (with various degrees of success) using fixed wing r/c planes.

Obstacles to this will be the lack of a gps home point (since it is always moving), possible calibration issues due to the rolling of a boat, inability to take off (due to out of limits gyro), difficulty landing on a moving platform, and possible magnetic interference from the ship causing compass calibration issues. Anything I am missing?

I am pretty comfortable using fly manual mode and have practiced catching solo by hand several times. It is definitely a 2 person operation as one person needs to grab the legs while the other kills the throttle. Solo has behaved as expected each time and emergency shutoff of motors was not required. I am seeking any guidance or tips from people who have done this before since I would prefer not to lose a $1000 quad (and $400 unprotected go pro) to the abyss.

1013D · Jul 2, 2015

You solo might need a life vest....see the discussion here.http://www.3drpilots.com/threads/life-vest-for-solo.204/

Sounds like a cool application though....can you say which area it is in?

Operator74656 · Jul 2, 2015

I have been following that thread closely! Unfortunately that is only one (albeit a very important) aspect of successfully running the quad off a boat. The problem with flotation is that most of the options would significantly affect the available camera FOV.....

1013D · Jul 2, 2015

I have pondered a stabilized takeoff platform too. But that would be difficult and expensive to make.

Return to home to a moving platform is more difficult. But the parameters can be changed so it only hovers at the home spot, instead of lands....then you could go pick it up.

Operator74656 · Jul 2, 2015

This discussion has me reminiscing of the days before gps and hovering....I lost 2 super sky surfers to the waves.....but I have some good (for the times) footage to show for it. Can't wait to see what this gimbal can do...

nacjr · Jul 2, 2015

Operator74656 said:
This discussion has me reminiscing of the days before gps and hovering....I lost 2 super sky surfers to the waves.....but I have some good (for the times) footage to show for it. Can't wait to see what this gimbal can do...

Nice video. I have a Penguin I use for FPV flying.

David Weston · Jul 3, 2015

What kind of boat/ship? I'm taking "blue water" as significantly offshore. I have had a number of boats and done a fair amount of ocean cruises. Lived 18 years until recently in the Florida keys, did a LOT of fishing, particularly backcountry flats fishing. Hunting for redfish and snook over miles and acres of shallow flats and shoreline poling a bonefishing skiff, well, thought maybe flying the flats and locating the schools would work. Of course a flat calm day and a solid platform makes flying and retrieval simpler. Would like to hear what and how your are doing this.

Rich · Jul 3, 2015

I have s boat (sitting on it now) and I have some ideas about this.

As to the home position I'd like an option for an "active home point" where the drone would fly using part of the follow me protocol to continuously update the home point.

When needed to fly home, the bird would come to the operator, then hover about 20 ft out and 20 ft up to wait for a manual landing by the operator.

The only downside is if the bird loses communication and can't get updated home positions and if your boat is moving, it may end up hovering over open water, but this is better than landing in water at a home point where there is no boat.

I wonder if we can get 3dr to give us an option like this? It could be a unique feature that could come in handy for many different purposes.

1013D · Jul 3, 2015

If it has no signal, it will return to home. But if you get signal back during this, you can switch it to follow me mode and then manually land it.

Raybro · Jul 3, 2015

Rich said:
I have s boat (sitting on it now) and I have some ideas about this.

As to the home position I'd like an option for an "active home point" where the drone would fly using part of the follow me protocol to continuously update the home point.

When needed to fly home, the bird would come to the operator, then hover about 20 ft out and 20 ft up to wait for a manual landing by the operator.

The only downside is if the bird loses communication and can't get updated home positions and if your boat is moving, it may end up hovering over open water, but this is better than landing in water at a home point where there is no boat.

I wonder if we can get 3dr to give us an option like this? It could be a unique feature that could come in handy for many different purposes.

I was thinking along the same lines. Follow me mode along with the ability to set a dynamic home point.

Greg Parker · Jul 3, 2015

Using Tower with Guided mode should allow one to bring it back a little more simply than manually flying. Since Follow Me is a guided mode that receives continuous position updates of the controller position it might accomplish the purpose.

Of course you need the apps working and a connection.

Raybro · Jul 3, 2015

David Weston said:
What kind of boat/ship? I'm taking "blue water" as significantly offshore. I have had a number of boats and done a fair amount of ocean cruises. Lived 18 years until recently in the Florida keys, did a LOT of fishing, particularly backcountry flats fishing. Hunting for redfish and snook over miles and acres of shallow flats and shoreline poling a bonefishing skiff, well, thought maybe flying the flats and locating the schools would work. Of course a flat calm day and a solid platform makes flying and retrieval simpler. Would like to hear what and how your are doing this.

Years ago as a private pilot I would fly an angler out over Lake Amistad in Del Rio Tx so he could mark on his lake map where all the underwater plant life was....where the fish hung out. He won several tournaments after those fly overs.

Operator74656 · Jul 3, 2015

I am running iOS exclusively right now so I don't know what I am missing with the Tower app. If you really have the ability to customize all the parameters for RTH, etc...that would be great for flying off a boat.

We have a sailboat down in the Fort Myers, FL area and unless it is perfectly calm (which isn't good sailing weather) it can be pretty challenging to land on a rocking boat.

My other adopted "boat" is slightly bigger but I don't think I will ever be able to fly the quad off of it. And not for the reason you would think.....the amount of EMI is enough to fry your watches and cameras when you are close to the radars. It would undoubtedly fry the solo.

Here is a short video that I made from our most "trip".....

Jubalr · Jul 3, 2015

Operator74656 said:
I am running iOS exclusively right now so I don't know what I am missing with the Tower app. If you really have the ability to customize all the parameters for RTH, etc...that would be great for flying off a boat.

We have a sailboat down in the Fort Myers, FL area and unless it is perfectly calm (which isn't good sailing weather) it can be pretty challenging to land on a rocking boat.

My other adopted "boat" is slightly bigger but I don't think I will ever be able to fly the quad off of it. And not for the reason you would think.....the amount of EMI is enough to fry your watches and cameras when you are close to the radars. It would undoubtedly fry the solo.

Here is a short video that I made from our most "trip".....

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VERY Cool Video! Thank you for posting and thank you for what you do!..

David Weston · Jul 3, 2015

Very cool! My neighbor in Key Largo was an A6 guy in nam, went on to Delta (that's another story). His son was an F18C jock, F5's in Aggressor squadron now. Me, Coast Guard helo's in Miami (quit laughing,,

. My last boat was a 52' sportfish, also had a 35' Contender and on a breezy day when the laundry is out well, if your Solo is expendable. Even under power on a calm day would be a challenge,,but fun!! Dynamic home point is what you want I think, and my guess is that it will be available in the future. Havent tried Follow Me yet, in theory I think it would work but I think I would try it in a golf cart 1st somewhere as I think a car chassis has the potential to block some signal. Good luck, interested in how it works out for you.

RyanG · Jul 5, 2015

Awesome video.. Thank you for your service.. How did you get the footage so close to the Jet taking off with the pan? That was pretty impressive.

Thanks
Ryan G

RichWest · Jul 6, 2015

I'd be curious if a scaled dry compass gimbal could provide a level platform for the Solo's start up needs. It's old school...but it's worked for centuries.

RyanG · Jul 6, 2015

How likely is it that the Solo would lose signal and then just drop in the ocean? Wouldn't it just fly in GPS mode and then IF it lost GPS you could fly it in Manual?

What about trying to grab the solo underneath the middle of the body instead of one of the legs?

Wearing a strap might allow this to work with the one handed controller yourself.

Just wondering myself as I have flown it over the ocean a few times and worry and now you have me thinking even further.

Thanks
Ryan G

Jubalr · Jul 6, 2015

If GPS signal degrades enough it will switch to manual (Alt Hold) and allow you to fly it normally in a non GPS mode but maintain altitude (using barometer, not GPS). If GPS is regained, the controller will vibrate to let you know. You can then switch back or use other GPS modes like RTH.

RyanG · Jul 6, 2015

Ok.. this was my worry. That it would just land in the water. So I guess now then accidents happen so this is really only a very slim chance that it just crashed.

I wonder if it WAS the Drone's fault and it crashed into the ocean (it would sink to the bottom of course) would the warranty still be valid (if you can't send them anything back)?

Ryan G