Drones on vessels

[wholybee]

Originally Posted by AA3JY

Yep..hit a TFR (tnx Pres.Biden) and auto RTH took over ..be aware of old RTH vs. new RTH location

What did Biden have do do with TFR's? They preceded his presidency by decades.

[AA3JY]

Originally Posted by wholybee

What did Biden have do do with TFR's? They preceded his presidency by decades.

About every weekend Mr. President travels/flys to Wilmington,Del. and the issued TFR blankets just about the whole SE Pa. for several days…

tfr.faa.gov

[RedneckRedcoat]

Been flying a dji mini for 4 years and it’s about to be retired , there was a post earlier that said you only need a part 107 for commercial that is not correct.

Totally agree flying drones has gotten way to complicated and has ruined the hobby. Having said that I’m looking at getting a mini 4 pro and probably get my part 107 just so I don’t get hassles from Karen’s or the drone police. By the way landing your drone in the net can and will eventually damage the blades and the motors . Over time you will start to see the drone struggle to stay horizontal and not drop or drift.

Catching the drone under way is difficult and I hate doing it. Cut my hands up pretty badly a few times and just don’t do it now

[Rob19321]

My friend lost one, maybe just a funny story but many have "auto home" feature... and remember on a boat "home changes."

He launched from bear teh anchor locker, we all watched the android display of the video while he flew, then sent it "home."

Our rafter up boats swung on the anchor and we watched it sink to the water.

He got a nicer one after that loss... lesson learned.

[AA3JY]

Originally Posted by RedneckRedcoat

..there was a post earlier that said you only need a part 107 for commercial that is not correct.

Oh..tell me how you get around Part 107 if one contemplates making $$ around your drone other than illegally… I hear that these voyaging utubers posting their drone videos on their web pages and asking for support in the form of monetary means are possibly in violation without a part 107 certificate..However outside the US it maybe different.

[sailorboy1]

I could care less if people want their drones to fly around my boat as long as they don't make a lot of noise. If you have nothing better than to spy and take pictures of me I feel bad for you and wouldn't want you to start feeling even sorrier for yourself if I were to deny you.

[thecicada]

I fly a Splashdrone 4, it lands in the water making it very easy to retrieve and launch. I just toss it in. It has a tip to tip of 29" across the axis, fixed arm, so it takes some room to store. I also bought the boat kit to make it a skimmer and a 15" extension to the 3 gimbal 4K camera so you can get under the water with it. The remote control is waterproof, floats, and has a gps in it as well so the drone has "dynamic return to home" in case you lose it in the sky. The company, Swellpro, a Chinese company, makes them, no I am not a dealer, at this point they seem to be having a time of it getting the remote id issue in hand as they have yet to offer up a solution for upgrade as it would need to be waterproof. I have found a solution, I believe, at dronetag, that can be placed inside a small, waterproof key float, the type that have storage inside and hung from my payload release device. I have about 3300.00 USD into it.
I plan this winter to test out for the commercial drone pilot license which enables one to operate a drone in most locations. It is not much different than the private pilots ground school test, piece of cake!

[JBsurfin]

Originally Posted by wholybee

I haven't flown it in a while. It is always nerve-wracking when underway. Now I can't even keep up with all the laws/rules regarding their use. It sometimes seems like the middle of the ocean is the only place they are allowed. (As someone who grew up flying model airplanes which are now grouped in and regulated with them, this really pisses me off)

Anyway, this was not a typical "landing" but I do make it look easy here.
https://youtu.be/1fzqpI7kO5w

My recently purchased one has auto return and GPS auto landing. Touch a button and done, it lands.

[chris in SG]

Can't help recalling a bad experience about 8 years ago. A US company was developing a truly waterproof compact drone and I saw this in the UK based Yachting World, which has a generally solid reputation (US members may have browsed it in an airport newsagent, before deciding it would be better value to buy a paperback novel for the same price).

In a section called "New Equipment", this drone was featured in YW, appearing to be fully developed, but requiring interested buyers to make a substantial deposit pending final development and production. I won't reveal the deposit amount because it's embarrassing.

The promotional video was impressive, including shots of the drone being launched from the water. However, development stalled, mainly because the enclosed compact design meant that the camera was not gyro stabilized and they had gambled on finding a different solution.

Then it was revealed that the video was actually faked by using a DGI (?) drone and then splicing this with shots of the development model. There may have been allegations of fraud but in any event the bad publicity killed the project. I received a form from the bankruptcy administrators but no refund. Fortunately I was still working at the time, so the financial damage was bearable.

The only lesson I can take from the experience is that you should not rely on the recommendations of even the glossiest of magazines! If I had merely read about this somewhere online, I would not have parted with any money.