1.5 mile low-altitude flight to sailboat

[jflyer3]

Here's a flight I did where I tried to keep the Phantom2 as low as possible while still maintaining control and video signals. Caught up to a sailboat about 1.45 miles offshore before turning around. I wanted to keep going but better judgment got the best of me. Most of the flight was under 75 feet altitude. Used Flytrex Core 2 to log GPS and temperature data and RaceRender3 on my Mac to overlay the data. See you at Drone Expo LA!

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=px_WD9PXoDM[/youtube]

 

[IflyinWY]

Nice job, that was fun to watch.

 

[Fplvert]

Very nice! Me likee!

 

[Khudson7]

Nice job, that was fun to watch.

+1

 

[pilsburypie]

That's some distance..... any problem and it's goodbye Phantom! Braver than me.....

 

[ianwood]

I don't have the huevos to do that. I am surprised you maintained signal that low over water for such a distance.

 

[phantomi]

Be aware of the altitude flying in atti at that speed, and so close to water. In my experience it tend to sink and to lost altitude unexpectedly.

 

[Larry L]

Pretty cool! Thanks for sharing.

 

[MrTommy]

Very cool vid. Thanks for showing it.

 

[StangLuvr]

That is bad arse! I wanna get my Phantom to go that far.

 

[johncanfield]

Nicely done ! Always a rush when ya hear it coming home huh Bet the guy in the sailboat thought WTF !

We used to sail - I was looking at the guy in the cockpit and he apparently never heard the Phantom since it approached him downwind. Fun video.

 

[jflyer3]

Nicely done ! Always a rush when ya hear it coming home huh Bet the guy in the sailboat thought WTF !

We used to sail - I was looking at the guy in the cockpit and he apparently never heard the Phantom since it approached him downwind. Fun video.

Yeah, I actually *wanted* to get his attention just to see the look on his face! However, by the time I caught up to him, the video feed was cutting out and I didn't want to risk going any further. The hesitation you see at Dmax is because I lost video and paused to regain signal.

 

[dutch]

that's awesome!
thank you,,

what would you estimate the winds were out over the water?
and what was the total time of the flight?

 

[max]

That's funny jflyer3... I chased down my own boat on Sunday too. Here's the video (still uploading as I type this, should work though in a bit):
[vimeo]114668795[/vimeo]

Heads up jflyuer, there's the newport beach boat parade and fireworks show this week/weekend...

 

[jflyer3]

Nice flight and music, max! Too bad no one was on the deck of the boat. Btw, where was everyone? Hardly anyone on the beach or on the pier.

dutch, the wind was relatively calm that evening. Total flight time was about 13 minutes. I edited some of the ending footage out.

 

[Happyflyer]

That is bad arse! I wanna get my Phantom to go that far.

I've had my quad a couple of feet short of being 10,000 feet away from me testing new antennas and know it would go more. But it was all over land. When flying weather returns I will mostly stay within 6,000 feet and not worry about loss of signal or FPV and over land. I just can not see the reason of risking a device that costs over $1,000.00 by flying over that much water. Unless you just have too much money and have the need to throw it into a deep lake or the ocean.