[Rhodes22-list] Drone video of Fretless

[Michael Weisner]

Olivier,

A Phantom 4! Wow! The 3 Pro also has the 4K camera, but, the major differences in the 4 over the 3 are the visual collision avoidance system and the "Follow me" mode.  Follow me should have been able to circle the remote controller (boat) just as the point of interest mode does in the older model.  It might have made your effort simpler.

I don't think that the VHF caused the interference.  Most of the time it is not transmitting.  When it does transmit, it is in the 100 MHz band.  The Lightbridge communications are at 2.4 GHz.

Thanks for the tip on disabling the GPS at launch since the drone and the boat are in motion.  Now that I think about it, without the GPS, follow me may not function.  I'll have to read up a bit more before dropping my toy in the drink.

Mike
s/v Wind Lass ('91)
Nissequogue River, NY


-----Original Message-----
From: Rhodes22-list [mailto:rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org] On Behalf Of Olivier Hecht
Sent: Sunday, July 3, 2016 6:31 PM
To: The Rhodes 22 Email List <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Drone video of Fretless

It's a DJI Phantom 4 that uses a 4K camera. I launched and retrieved it from my hands off the port quarter. At the time we were running and that was the windward side so it was as far away from the sails as I could get it and it was the safest departure and approach route based on the direction of the boat. Launching anchored or even drifting without any sails up would be easier and is what I would do if the conditions were any breezier than what we had yesterday at the time. 

Launching and catching the drone by hand is not as dangerous as it sounds once you're used to flying it based on the stability of the drone. It uses the GPS and Russian satellite networks simultaneously and often is tracking between 15 and 20 satellites.  It will hover exactly in place when you're not actively steering it. 

The trick to launch is to turn off the GPS stabilization because otherwise the drone tries to stabilize itself against the forward motion of the boat. So I launched in "manual" flight mode and fights you as you hold it before launch.  For landing I left it fully stabilized and brought it in very carefully until I could grab the landing gear as it hovered just over and slightly away from the gunwale. The thing to watch there is the "ground effect" as the turbulence from the rotors bounces off parts of the boat. 

I wouldn't do this casually but wanted to prove the concept at least. It's an odd thing to have on board but could be a useful tool in many situations where you need to "scout ahead" of your boat for whatever reason...

> On Jul 3, 2016, at 4:45 PM, trimsails . <trimsails at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Very nice video.  Could you please describe your drone/video equipment?
> And how the heck do you land the drone on a moving boat?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Jerry
> 
>> On Sun, Jul 3, 2016 at 3:49 PM, Olivier Hecht <ohecht at earthlink.net> wrote:
>> 
>> We had our second sail on Fretless yesterday…a perfect sailing day on 
>> the Rappahannock and we had the whole family including the dog this 
>> time…everyone seemed to enjoy it.  It was a tough start and finish to 
>> the day dealing with a broken trailer jack before we launched and a 
>> flat trailer tire when we retrieved her.  Fortunately, some 
>> improvisation with the car’s jack, wood blocking, and extra tools I 
>> had decided to bring at the last minute allowed us to still enjoy the day.
>> 
>> I even managed to get the spinnaker (Doyle “UPS") up during a more 
>> calm period on the water, and it was really easy to deploy and worked 
>> very well.  I think we hit ~7 mph for a little while on a reach…that 
>> was exciting!  I also managed to get her “wing-on-wing” for a few 
>> minutes while running, although that was pretty hard to sustain!
>> 
>> Here’s a quick video I was able to shoot from the drone (nice to have 
>> an aerial scouting vehicle on board to check weather or what’s around 
>> the next point of land, etc.)…launching and retrieving it from a 
>> moving sailboat crewed by novices was definitely exciting and a 
>> little nerve-racking, but we got it done.  The camera work is not 
>> great, either, since the video link to my phone was full of 
>> interference for some reason…possibly the VHF traffic…I had to fly 
>> and frame the shots without really being able to see what the camera 
>> was pointing at…
>> 
>> https://youtu.be/PyG78xToiVM
>> 
>> Olivier
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