Controlling a drone from a vehicle for the first time

[Kristina Fowler]

I have a gig that requires me to fly numerous long straight line stretches over paved private access roads and trying to conserve batteries in the process. Start at one end and finish at the other for each stretch. Average length of each stretch is about 1,200 ft. (Might not seem long to some but is to me). I want to follow the drone in my vehicle so I won't have to call it back to the start point each time (to save on batteries). This is the first time I control the drone from my vehicle.

Anything I should know before I press on? Any tips or cautions? Thanks in advance....

 

[Meta4]

Anything I should know before I press on? Any tips or cautions?

Two things:
1. Discussion of the official The FAA rules governing this are here: - -
2. It's not clear how far you are (travelling in total) while flying but if you started off and kept going, eventually you get to a point where the drone calculates that it only has enough battery for the flight back to the launch point and wants to go back.
This can be prevented by resetting your home point a few times during the flight, to keep the drone's home point close rather than back where you started.
Resetting the home point to the current location of the drone works just as well as the controller's location for this.

 

[Defens]

Sounds like you're inspecting utility lines or something like that. Any way to fly one of your segments and then land the drone in a safe place and drive forward to retrieve it, leapfrogging down the line?

 

[Kristina Fowler]

I was actually planning on trailing the drone in my vehicle (approx 12 MPH; 75 ft AGL) until it reaches the last mission point, disengage (hover), and hand-catch it. Wash, rinse, repeat. The drone will be going in a straight line with the camera pointed forward - and I'll be in back of the drone, trailing it, and out of the image frame.

 

[R.Perry]

First of all 1200 feet is nothing in regards to distance. Personally I would use Litchi, create a mission have the drone hover in place at the end of the mission. Reset home point and fly next leg.
What is the total distance you will be traveling? I just did one at one of the fires here, three and half miles then landed, followed drone as you plan to. By making it an autonomous flight all you need to do is follow it and not worry about flying it.

 

[skiptv]

Here is how you fly from a car, 1. get someone else to drive, you really can't do both, 2. Unless the car is a convertible you are going to have major radio / controller interference from the metal car frame, 3. your drone needs to take off away from the car as again the mettle in the car causes magnetic interference. You were told above to constantly reset your home point, that is wrong! You can set your home point to the controller, so the drone will aways come back to the controller. I have filmed from a vehicle with my drone following a car in front of me for a TV scene. I shot from the back of a pick up truck, with a harness belt supporting me. we did the shot for a mile.

 

[Kristina Fowler]

I only tried it for 1 leg. Not worth the trouble for just that relatively short distance. I drove and controlled. Max speed: 8MPH. The drone was already airborne when I engaged the app. Interference was never an issue. Overall, it was weird. Also, I was using a wi-fi only iPad connected to my iPhone hotspot. I don't believe you can use a dynamic home point with that setup. I think you have to use a wireless device with it's own wireless account connected to the controller for a moving home point.

 

[Meta4]

You were told above to constantly reset your home point, that is wrong!
You can set your home point to the controller, so the drone will always come back to the controller.

Who's wrong?
In post #2, I said:

if you started off and kept going, eventually you get to a point where the drone calculates that it only has enough battery for the flight back to the launch point and wants to go back.
This can be prevented by resetting your home point a few times during the flight, to keep the drone's home point close rather than back where you started.
Resetting the home point to the current location of the drone works just as well as the controller's location for this.

That is correct and anyone who imagines they can reset home to the aircraft's location and have the homepoint follow them, doesn't read the message on their controller that says:

The word current is what you've missed.
DJI has not had a dynamic homepoint since the Phantom 2 series (at least for Phantoms and all their smaller drones).

And just to add an additional complication, resetting the homepoint to the controller's current location hasn't worked for Apple device users for over a year.
From personal experience in fast boats 5 miles offshore, I can verify that ...
Resetting the home point to the current location of the drone works just as well as the controller's location

 

[Meta4]

Also, I was using a wi-fi only iPad connected to my iPhone hotspot. I don't believe you can use a dynamic home point with that setup. I think you have to use a wireless device with it's own wireless account connected to the controller for a moving home point.

As mentioned above, there is no dynamic homepoint.
Your wifi iPad, lacks GPS which would be needed to reset to the current location of the controller, and hotspotting will give internet data but does not share GPS location data.
But even if you used a GPS-enabled Apple device, you still couldn't reset to the current location of the controller, due to the mystery problem that prevents this with Apple devices.