Yes. Great Info!! For myself: Calibrate Compass, wind app, plan route, don't guess shots in flight, always check remaining power, start return at 40% in Normal.
Thanks great help , the technology is brilliant, I’m 73 enjoy the mini 2 , as usual the nut behind wheel , still making mistakes, always keep in site , no worries, so taking my time and still learning , you experience is welcome , cheers
I’m seeing a lot of people here making noise about the “zigzag” method talked about in the video. And I am here to say it DOES work! In fact it worked very well and saved me from a 200m hike to find my drone Today!
Amazing video. I’m also considering buying the DJI Mini 2 and these are so useful tipps & tricks. Congratulations and thanks for this! Still got hope for people who are giving real life experience :)
I've found that flying low helps considerably. Just today I went from getting a warning of strong winds on the way back over a large section of water about 100m up to no warning at all after lowering to a meter from the water which was glass which helped.
One nice feature to add to DJI Fly software would be a temp setting for minimum height allowed for flight, this would help to prevent going beneath a predetermined minimum“floor” while flying, should be easy to see on main flying screen, because must be disabled to land. Perhaps, it is simple audible warning below desired flight deck. Think it would be easy to add more advanced autopilot features like rate of change on any of axis, one just has to be aware they are activated. Having an auto rate of change program on gimbal or altitude would allow for even more cool shots and greater flexibility. These modern drones capable of some incredible things, I am sure we will see some cool features added in furure drones.
Minimum height allowed is call "build in bottom sensor", the drone will never fly into the ground! to test it just hover your drone and put your hand underneth and see what happen! the drone will rise up!
I'm getting my Mini 2 next week, thanks for all your fantastic tips. So glad that I've found your channel Matthew! Keep all your videos coming, many thanks 😊 👍🏻 🇬🇧
Great video! As a new drone pilot, I just made the mistake of doing an auto take-off and not waiting a few seconds to let it settle in and let RTH set up. I took off and then heard my controller tell me that RTH is now set, except it was over my pond when that happened. ALWAYS give it a few seconds before taking off!!
Well done sir, and thank you! I have a Mini 2 SE on the way, I'm a new pilot and intend to fly over water (a lake only 3 miles long and half mile wide) and once I gain some experience, I may try to fly from my boat. Wish me luck! Thanks again and should I say Slainte? If not, Cheers!😁
i found 2-3 meters is more typical but in a busy city with lots of tall buildings or with other nearby tall obstacles that accuracy can decrease considerably. And be very careful flying from a moving boat especially a sailboat with all sorts of lines. The drone tries to keep its location and as the boat moves parts of it may collide with your drone if you don't fly up fast to clear obstacles on your boat. And don't use return to home when flying from a boat whether at anchor or moving.
Absolutely correct n good advice. Mistake that I had made 3 days ago flying on the sea with strong winds coming back. Even though with fully power battery but it drain out fast. Immediately the RTH kicked in and I was panicked. As a begginer I did not set my RTH altitude and it went higher before it returned. Hence, I quickly use manual control to lower the drone ASAP n managed to retrue6it back. Phew... Lesson learned, always check your RTH setting n surroundings n wind condition.
Yeah am late to the party but just bought a mini 2 today and I bloody love it. Ok so I have only flown it up in the sky and straight back down but being from the north east I so wanna get to the coast and try flying over water. This video is awesome man...new sub and I will be binge watching all your back catalogue....Mark
Great video and tips, also subscribed . A question regarding RTH....... If I set my RTH to 45 meters and flying at 100 meters and select RTH, will drone drop to 45 meters to return to home or will it rise the extra 45 meters, meaning it will exceed height and rise to 145 meters???????
If you are at 100m when pressing RTH, the drone will return at that altitude if your preset altitude is lower. It will not go higher or lower. You can take the drone lower as it is returning if you want to.
Lots of great advice. Thanks. The only bit that makes no sense whatsoever is flying against a headwind using a zig-zag pattern. For sure, if you can't make it back against a strong headwind, then heading off at any other angle for an emergency landing at some closer shoreline is a very good idea. But flying a zig-zag course will only increase the distance travelled and does nothing to improve progress against a headwind. Picture swimming the length of any pool of water. Swimming the shortest straight line is always going to win over someone swimming a zig-zag path. Now picture you're out in the ocean with no shoreline in sight so you don't even realize you're being carried away by the Gulf Stream current. You're still always going to be making better headway swimming a straight line in one direction, versus your friend beside you who's swimming a zig-zag pattern in the same direction.
The swimmers don’t have wind resistance to deal with just cutting thru the water. I think zig zag is similar to a sailboat tacking… and sailing into the wind. Myself I’d lower elevation, make a judgement call to head home or land at the nearest safe spot accessible to humans lol.
If your drone cannot make significant progress against a headwind flying directly back to you, flying at an angle to the wind, may allow the drone to fly forward, but its upwind component to the velocity will be less. If there is shoreline off to an angle, you may be able to fly it there and retrieve it afterwards.
Great video, thanks. One thing you didn't cover is possible problems the downward sensors may have determining the actual surface of the water. These sensors are meant to be looking at land not liquid water and sometimes they don't get accurate information which may end up putting it in the water. Also waves can cause issues with the sensors providing a reading that represents the actual water surface. Have you seen any problems like these? What minimum altitude do you recommend when flying over water?
What is needed is a Return TO Position "RTP" option as opposed to "RTH" where the drones hight while returning toward home can be set to a minimum hight ( hover high ) so to can stay in level flight but rather than land hover and at a set hight . Not only would there be useful over water but when landing is not safe for example people wondering into the area and the landing area is something as altered? RTP would mean that as long as you can get to the "RTH" location your drone while be hovering at it's set hight waiting for it's next instruction.
Really appreciate the in-depth info you give in your videos, just learning to fly so they are greatly appreciated, Fantastic footage as well! subscribed with pleasure! p.s. Amazing hair!!! :-)
New subscriber ! I wish I had found your channel approximately two weeks. This is when I lost my drone not over water but using RTH in windy conditions. I truly panicked did not realize I was making this mistake needless to say it’s gone two weeks now it has rain a couple of times already. I’m calling it a loss for now. Using the Find My drone application I believe I’m in the correct area but I have not seen it till this day. 😢😢😢
Beautiful country, wish I could have seen it while I was living in England back in 1981 to 83.. But back than Northern Ireland was a restricted area for me to site see while I served in the US Air Force... Hey I have been learning much watching your content, thanks for your efforts I appreciate it.
I lost my Mini2 recently, into a raging river. DJI looked at the logs and agreed to fix it under warranty. It was flying wonky, and I tried to land it. Unfortunately, it hit a tree over the river, and in it went. No chance of retrieval. Worthwhile to submit a claim. DJI is excellent company.
@@toddhubley8691 That's a shame. Here's a link to it's last flight. It was saved automatically to my cell phone. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-X5JIZ4OlQd4.html Maybe you can see I was struggling to control it.
Well from personal experience I've lost my drone over water , even with dji care they would not honor their warranty, I wasn't able to retrieve the aircraft, dji said that it was an operator error . Apparently if you fly too low over water the bottom sensors don't work properly and could send your aircraft crashing , dji customer service is not that great, they offer 50% discount on a new unit . Lesson learned for me , I will not fly close to the surface of the water ever . YMMV
Thanks ! great tips for a first time drone owner like myself, i flew my Mini SE for the first time today and was blown away with how much i need to actually learn to fly it. Ive flown RC planes etc before but the muscle memory needed for these is more. Subscribed and looking forward to more content.
Just a few days ago, after buying my very first drone, I immediately flew it over the sea when I went out on a floating cottage the next morning. I even nicked my leg as I pushed my right joystick forward like an imbecile when I was trying to take off. Turns out, standing right in front of something with rapidly rotating blades was incredibly stupid. I was pretty lucky that I didn't crash it in the water, as I was still learning how to even make the damn thing turn around. Definitely going to follow your tips in the future. Thanks.
This is so great! Thanks for this video. I just started using the DJI mini2 on our private island. So we are totally surrounded by water. I have learned as you said, to trust the drone. I have experienced it struggling coming against the wind. It has always made it back to the island with no problem, and lowering the drove has really helped, thanks for that tip.
Flying in sports mode against the wind will make the battery drain faster you said i think. So should we use that or normal mode when returning in emergency?
I don't like heights and can't swim, yet when I fly over a river and see the beauty that's on my screen, it reminds me why I purchased the drone in the first place!
All good tips, thanks. I had to land on a small drifting inflatable boat recently and flying back down to it found it very tricky to get the descent right. In the end, I put it a few feet up and a few feet down-wind of the boat, and just waited until we drifted underneath and I could pluck it out of the sky :-) I wasn't quite sure, though, why zig-zagging would help? You still have the same velocity of wind against the direction you want to go and you'd have to fly faster to make progress against it...
Haven't been in that situation myself to try that technique, but in my head I compared it to the tacking maneuvers of a sailboat on an upwind leg. And by not facing the wind directly your drone is pushing a bit less surface area into the wind (i.e. surface area shown from the tilt of the drone when moving forward)
I want to be able to film from a barge on rivers, any tips on it returning to a slow moving barge as it trundles down the river please. Can go slow but will not be able to come to a stop as its very big 25 tons worth, only when moored is the barge static. DJi Mini 3.
Good question. So if you lose just the video feed, which happens sometimes. You can enlarge the map on the bottom left and see where the drone is and where you are. Then you can fly the drone up high and back towards you. If you lose video feed and transmission, RTH will kick in and the drone will come back to you automatically.
Some use a rule of thirds of battery use for safety, I would go as far as to say 1/4 out, 1/4 on station 1/4 return last 1/4 on the ground transferring files... ☺
@@raphmtb634 Yes, sorry, I meant in the 'update RTHP' you can choose the controller as the RTHP which would be the sensible thing to do if on a moving boat. Obviously as Mattheww says, this would need to be done as often as feasibly possible during the flight and the boat journey.
Just subscribed to your channel ! As a RU-vidr and new drone owner myself (Mini SE) I am loving your videos. I tried flying over water for the first time last week.. I was about 25ft above the water when the drone seem to think it was time to start the auto landing... would this have been the bottom sensor getting confused from reflection in the water? It honestly scared the crap out of me. I pulled up and flew it home straight away 😂
I flew down a creek and the video feed randomly cut off and it went into RTH and was on its way to ascending into a tree. I recommend using hover mode instead of RTH in the settings.
Nearly lost my Mini 1 over a river. The drone was hovering and suddenly lost height without my interaction. I was close enough to see the issue and could save it by push it up .. the video is quite spectacular, as I only was around 5cm above water before rescue. This is an Issue with the mini drones: They use the optical sensors on the bottom to measure height and position, but over water this could lead to totally wrong measurements ... Lots of minis have been lost this way. So always keep an eye on your drone
Mattheww, you are great! You gave me a lot of important informations about flying over water. But still I am thinking about something. Is it any way to keep the drone on the water in case of user error or some accident, which will give me chance to receive it back and use my care refresh cover? Did you hear about any gadget or solution for that?
Great advice. Even for flying over land! As far as updating the home point when moving goes... Isn't there a setting in the Fly app to dynamically update the home point? Or was that in Litchi I saw that 😘
Nice video Matthew! A few thoughts. If the wind speed and direction remain unchanged, trying to zig-zag your way back will only decrease the forward speed (relative to the shore) and possibly blow your drone even further out over water. Also, the distance it needs to travel will increase. The only instance when the zig-zag maneuver would work is if the lateral movement puts the drone in an area with less relative wind speed from shore. However, this is all very theoretical as wind is rarely constant and can change direction and speed whenever.
New subscribers to your channel and thanks for the tips on how to fly over water as I'm not flying long and I always get nervous flying over water so I try to fly were i can see the drone as I only upgraded to the mavic 2 zoom so hopefully I will be able to get up closer to the waves and boats now thanks for sharing bud big like from me 😎👍👍
