Taking off from a Boat?!

[Kirk Voclain]

More important than taking off...is with a 30MPH wind.....and choppy water...HOW DO YOU LAND????

Well....here in South Louisiana, along the Intercostal waterway, there are these "LOCKS" that they close down from time to time....esp. if a Hurricane is coming. The idea is it will keep the Water OUT.

Will it work? Well the experts say yes....but it has not been tested yet. It's major Political because BILLIONS and BILLIONS of Dollars have been spent on this stuff.

GUESS WHAT THEY WANT???? Aerial Images and Video....so they call me.

I get out there and I ask: "Where do you expect me to take off from? more important, where do you expect me to LAND?????"

The guy says, can't you just throw it???? HAHA, he has been watching too many YouTube Videos!!

NO...I cannot...so on top of the boat is this little canvas platform, about 3x4 foot with radio antennas in the front and fishing poles in the back. I can take off there, but I explain that with the wind and the waves...I will most probably have to land into this guys hands....he is going to have to snatch my $5000 drone out of the sky!!!



OK....so off I go....I did the shots.....got what they wanted....and literally flew back into this guys hands who snatched it...and THANKFULLY did not drop it overboard.

Fun STUFF!!!!



Kirk

 

[marsmock]

I'm curious as I live on the gulf coast as well. Did you get any interference from boat's radio/radar? Did you turn them off? I would like to launch from vessels but have not done so yet. How was your RC/Aircraft signal? Strong? Thanks.

 

[Kirk Voclain]

I'm curious as I live on the gulf coast as well. Did you get any interference from boat's radio/radar? Did you turn them off? I would like to launch from vessels but have not done so yet. How was your RC/Aircraft signal? Strong? Thanks.

Thanks for asking!

Around the locks, I had a Compass Warning Message. But everywhere else no problem. I only had that warning when I was low, about 10 feet. I blamed this on the metal! The things are all metal and I think it was causing the compass on the inspire to fail.

I was also flying in GPS mode, and when I would get low by the locks, it would switch to Atti mode.

Kirk

 

[Kirk Voclain]

I flew from a small fishing boat 50 miles off the coast in pretty rough seas. There was a large enough area to take off from but landing was definitely tricky. It was hand catch only and I had to time it with the swells. Pretty darn stressful. Don't think I'll be trying that again anytime soon.

YES!!! Stressful, that is the word!!!