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Staking an Inspire 2 down.

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I need to fly near a place but people are present so I don't want to cross the invisible line in the sand near them. Only about 40-50 feet up for the entire battery run time in interval still photo mode with a 45mm lens for added distance.

I was thinking about tying a 50 pound pull nylon braided fish line to one arm and staking it down with a tent stake so it couldn't cross over them in case of some pilot or equipment error. Maybe tying to two arms which would keep it from going side-to-side too.

Don't know if it would tangle in the blades, but if it were a heavy enough line it might be blown underneath and not pose any flying issues? Also thought about a heavier brass wire maybe 3 feet long and tying the nylon braided line to that. Might keep it hanging down better and less likely to tangle than a braided fish line.

Ideas?
 
I need to fly near a place but people are present so I don't want to cross the invisible line in the sand near them. Only about 40-50 feet up for the entire battery run time in interval still photo mode with a 45mm lens for added distance.

I was thinking about tying a 50 pound pull nylon braided fish line to one arm and staking it down with a tent stake so it couldn't cross over them in case of some pilot or equipment error. Maybe tying to two arms which would keep it from going side-to-side too.

Don't know if it would tangle in the blades, but if it were a heavy enough line it might be blown underneath and not pose any flying issues? Also thought about a heavier brass wire maybe 3 feet long and tying the nylon braided line to that. Might keep it hanging down better and less likely to tangle than a braided fish line.

Ideas?
Hiya Casey53 ------
I am a pilot that is considering an Inspire and was reading around here and saw your post. Your idea may work and your picked the right type of line which must be very limp to hang and not get caught up in the rotors. I would worry too about control such that the line slack is not depleted and jerk hard on the aircraft in flight. But tethering might work for ya.

How do you like your Inspire?? I fly a couple of smaller quads, including a Mavik, and wonder how the investment is working our for you??

Cheers!!! ;)
 
The chances of your line causing issues are far more greater than GPS or aircraft failure. IMO that plan sounds like it is more prone to accidents then just letting the aircraft use GPS.
That being said, I have personally seen an Inspire relay and transfer a line up a building.
 
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With the various vortex's created underneath the inspire from prop wash, it's very possible the line could get thrown into the motors.

Going Into the props is probably not an issue if they cut the line quickly. If the line got wrapped around a motor, it could potentially stop (or burn out) the motor and if the line then got cut by the prop, you would now have an untethered, 3 motor, garbage disposal that is out of your control. :(
 
I need to fly near a place but people are present so I don't want to cross the invisible line in the sand near them. Only about 40-50 feet up for the entire battery run time in interval still photo mode with a 45mm lens for added distance.

I was thinking about tying a 50 pound pull nylon braided fish line to one arm and staking it down with a tent stake so it couldn't cross over them in case of some pilot or equipment error. Maybe tying to two arms which would keep it from going side-to-side too.

Don't know if it would tangle in the blades, but if it were a heavy enough line it might be blown underneath and not pose any flying issues? Also thought about a heavier brass wire maybe 3 feet long and tying the nylon braided line to that. Might keep it hanging down better and less likely to tangle than a braided fish line.

Ideas?
Very bad idea.
You will suffer integral wind up as the flight controller fights to correct something which is uncorrectable (due to the tether).
This will result eventually with the potential of one or more of the motors going to full throttle.
The algorithms and PID tuning is simply not designed to be 'held back' by a line.
 
The chances of your line causing issues are far more greater than GPS or aircraft failure. IMO that plan sounds like it is more prone to accidents then just letting the aircraft use GPS.
That being said, I have personally seen an Inspire relay and transfer a line up a building.

I'm more concerned with the proximity to the people than the drone and why the 45mm telephoto lens too. No way I try it with the stock 15mm.

The location is a walkway eight feet near the edge of a 200 foot cliff and I do not want the thing to startle them backing off over the edge should it go into some bizarre attack mode. I'm not guaranteeing my flying ability looking at the thing 100% of the time over directing the shot, or whatever DJI "treat" lies in store with some fly-away due to a compass, prop matter, firmware, software, or IMU glitch. Hence I feel the need to "tie it down" should something flight wise go wrong. Better trash the drone than call S&R to find bodies who backed over the cliff when the drone attacked.

I've seen too many drones flying into wedding couples and people walking on the beach on the web I guess. Mostly operator error no doubt. I'm also a pilot and have been put into a spin just looking down at a map in the cockpit which is disturbing on looking back up. Two seconds while inattentive to the plane's yoke or drone's RC sticks can lead to a major foo-pah, imhe.

I know CNN got their waiver for flying over the people with some tethered drone, but haven't seen it tried with the Inspire. I'm not looking for overheads, just maybe 30 feet to the side and 40 feet up.
 
I am really interested on the tethering idea. I've always thought that it would/should be possible to use a lightweight extension (power) cord instead of a battery to power a drone for essentially unlimited, albeit static location flight. Essentially a video camera on a pole, but I think a 100' pole would hard to manage. Image you could take some awesome timelapse if you could remain in position for hours.
 
I am really interested on the tethering idea. I've always thought that it would/should be possible to use a lightweight extension (power) cord instead of a battery to power a drone for essentially unlimited, albeit static location flight. Essentially a video camera on a pole, but I think a 100' pole would hard to manage. Image you could take some awesome timelapse if you could remain in position for hours.

I think the CNN AIR drone uses a cable that can power it from the ground as well as the video feed. I think it has some reel where the operator can reel it in as it pulls against it. The wire looked like some microphone cable that it was hooked too and maybe the weight kept it under the drone and out of the blade areas. I think their waiver had some restrictions on altitude and distance too even if tied down by the reel and cable. Wasn't a cheap setup either for what it looked like. Found it: The Fotokite Pro: Unlimited flight time and 1080p aerial live stream
https://fotokite.com/
Now if someone could ditch the two T-50 batteries and figure a way to plug into the Inspire power socket they might have something better than the linked Fotokite thing above
 
There was something around on the net showing an Inspire with a specially designed customer power tether. I'm not sure if it was an I1 or I2, but iirc... it wasn't tethered by an arm, but by the body.

From what you've said, you'd be better to have some marshals to pre-warn or delay people using the cliff path than the tethering business... it sounds like you're going down the route of using a 10 ton jack hammer to crack a peanut.
 
Bad idea.Simply fly your Inspire.Trust your skils(I hope you have enough experience).If you can't do this simply stay away from doing these kind of things.And maybe take someone with you to keep an extra eye.
 
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Some 3rd party software has the ability to set up a Geo Fence. This would allow you to set up a Virtual Fence that would block the drone from getting too close to the path.
 
found it... for I1, and you don't want to know the price :D ....

PowerLine Tethered Drone - sUAS News - The Business of Drones

Thanks! Probably right as the price is no where to be seen, and a bit more than I need just to tie it down. I see he made one for the i2 now too:


Seems like he moved the rigid attaching point way down to around camera position or lower on the i1 and i2 both. The cable line seems to have weights at about 5 and 10 feet from the bird maybe to avoid tangling. Don't know what the box is under and in back of the drone though unless it is for video feed.

DJI Ground Station Pro for iOS has the Geo Fence where you can draw a box for it to stay within, but given DJI's ability to mess up their software where recently Litchi and Autopilot both had fly-away warning issues on their websites due to some DJI screw up in their SDK kit, I'm not that trusting of DJI software or firmware where the GO 4 app may crash or pop the bird into ATTI mode and blow off someplace it shouldn't be even for an instant. Their stuff ain't all that perfect, and I often question the altitude and location positions flying the same route where it doesn't fly the same exact same path but moves to the side a bit and altitude is +/-25 feet at times.
 
I need to fly near a place but people are present so I don't want to cross the invisible line in the sand near them. Only about 40-50 feet up for the entire battery run time in interval still photo mode with a 45mm lens for added distance.

I was thinking about tying a 50 pound pull nylon braided fish line to one arm and staking it down with a tent stake so it couldn't cross over them in case of some pilot or equipment error. Maybe tying to two arms which would keep it from going side-to-side too.

Don't know if it would tangle in the blades, but if it were a heavy enough line it might be blown underneath and not pose any flying issues? Also thought about a heavier brass wire maybe 3 feet long and tying the nylon braided line to that. Might keep it hanging down better and less likely to tangle than a braided fish line.

Ideas?
"The location is a walkway eight feet near the edge of a 200 foot cliff and I do not want the thing to startle them backing off over the edge should it go into some bizarre attack mode. I'm not guaranteeing my flying ability looking at the thing 100% of the time over directing the shot"

There's one more option if you feel you don't have the skills to do this safely.. don't.
 
I have had some experience with tethered UASes, as we deployed some at a national event in 2016. Wasn't using DJI platforms, but autonomous commercial rigs. We used steel cables on a reel, and the attachment points on the UAVs were on solid metal extensions to keep the tether away from the props.

However, i echo what many have said. If you're not confident flying untethered, don't do it. If it's a conmercial job, get the location owners to close it off to public for your flight. Better to be safe than to lose your drone or injure people.
 
The local RCMP were telling me that they are purchasing a powered tether for their I1 drone, so drone can stay up in the air indefinitely. Didn't say what it would be used for?
 
"The location is a walkway eight feet near the edge of a 200 foot cliff and I do not want the thing to startle them backing off over the edge should it go into some bizarre attack mode. I'm not guaranteeing my flying ability looking at the thing 100% of the time over directing the shot"

There's one more option if you feel you don't have the skills to do this safely.. don't.

I agree with licensed pilot here...what you're describing doesn't sound all that difficult and it seems using a tether will increase the risk of failure rather than rely on the GPS. At least if the GPS fails, you can control the bird in ATTI and fly it far away, I always keep in mind what direction I will throw the bird in if GPS fails so that I go far away from people. If the line gets tangled or the bird tries to correct drift but the tether interferes, even flying in ATTI won't save you then and it may well crash into someone anyway.

If you're not comfortable doing it, don't do it until you're ready.
 
Tethering something to the drone can cause it to behave differently. It can even take the drone down if you don't do it right. And if you're not confident flying the operation without a tether, you might want to reconsider doing it.

Practice helps to build skills but you should always only fly within your capabilities and what you are comfortable with.
 
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