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Take off from a ship.

Roland

Well-Known Member
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Jul 30, 2019
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178
Age
64
I was wondering,
I am planning a motorcycle trip the end of next week from Belgium Via Italy to Croatia or Greece or the other direction the lofoten islands in Norway. It all will depend on the weather forecast .
in both cases we wil have to make use of several ferry boats. It would be a nice if I could make some footage from the ship.
Bust as those ships are mass iron, Can I expect compass errors or a fly away or interference by radar waves ?
Has anyone experience on this ?
 
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You most likely won't have any problems taking off. If it's from the deck you should be ok, it would be more likely to get a compass error if you are directly near or on the hull.

Manually set your channel to avoid interference.

If the ship is moving though I wouldn't even try it. The spark would barely be able to keep up. Not that I wouldn't do it myself but I would think it's probably frowned upon to take off from the ship itself with other patrons and passengers present.

I would wait until the ship docks, find a quiet spot in the port and fly from there to avoid interference, crowds, and people asking questions. I like to be in a spot by myself and not draw any attention to myself.
 
Ditto, our biggest challenge when flying is not flying but drawing unwanted attention by “drone haters” or curious ignorant people who love to draw you into a full blown conversation while piloting your drone.
 
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The last time I tried that in St. Maarten, I got an IMU calibration error and you can't do a calibration on a ship unless it is rock steady..... I was in a large catamaran and had to swim to the beach with the drone to recalibrate. Oh yeah, landing on a moving ship presents a few challenges too.....
 
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Not to mention, the “return home” feature will mark a location where the ship was, and if you have any in-flight problems, you’d hate for the spark to “return home” to where the ship was.
 
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Oh yeah, landing on a moving ship presents a few challenges too.....

Just a tip, fly backwards when landing.

The controls are orientated with the Spark and makes it much easier to navigate safely.
 
Not to mention, the “return home” feature will mark a location where the ship was, and if you have any in-flight problems, you’d hate for the spark to “return home” to where the ship was.


If you have a GPS enabled device, you could hit the Home Point update constantly in the Go4 app to have the Spark come to you on the boat. Battery permitting.
 
I take off from a aluminum bass boat all the time no problems.You would probably need to stay in sport mode to keep up with the ship which would use up your battery fast.IMO I wouldn't chance it.Like they said find a spot on shore to launch.Good luck and enjoy your trip !!*
 
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I was wondering,
I am planning a motorcycle trip the end of next week from Belgium Via Italy to Croatia or Greece or the other direction the lofoten islands in Norway. It all will depend on the weather forecast .
in both cases we wil have to make use of several ferry boats. It would be a nice if I could make some footage from the ship.
Bust as those ships are mass iron, Can I expect compass errors or a fly away or interference by radar waves ?
Has anyone experience on this ?
Hi, I suggest you check for any local laws in that area you would like to fly as well as any ship rules prior to your departure. I know FAA regulates a NFZ within so many feet from a cruise ship or military vessels.
 

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