Anybody here from Hawaii?

I spent a few months a year on Maui and O'hau.

I need to get there because last time I drove pork across the Polly and I have been having bad luck since.
 
Hey guys! Im visiting (first time) Oahu next week and was wondering of any good places to fly? Is it ok to fly at Diamond Head? Thanks in advance!
 
I personally like to fly around the North Shore, but that's because i'm a shy flyer. Don't like to fly with alot of people around me :)

I'm assuming you will be in Waikiki, so I would fly off the beaches there and go up from there when you drive around the island. Go west from Waikiki and follow the coast line. Diamond head would be your first stop. I've seen plenty of video of people flying at the top there. Once you hike all the way up there, climb on top of the pill box and fly away.

On the way to the north shore you can probably at all the scenic points.

Examples are: (you can google these places)
1. China Wall
2. Hanauma bay
3. Makapuu Light house
4. Makkapuu Beach near sea life park
5 Chinamans Hat
6. Tantalus lookout
7. Pali Look out
8. Shark coves
9. Ala Moana Beach near the pier
10. List goes on.

Food:
Must eats imo: (yelp or google location)
Boots n Kimo- Order full stack of banana mac pancake to share with the table, and then order whatever breakfast you want on the menu.
Giovanni's shrimp truck.. the on in kahuku. Order the garlic and ask for hot sauce on the side.
Sushi- Sushi II or Sushi Sasabuni. Need reservations sit at the bar is a must for Sasabuni, else do do it at all.
I can name much more, but I think you should invest your time on the first 2.

Have fun here.
 
Any good places to fly in Maui? Anyone know the flying restrictions there, if any? I'm heading there in May 2017 for a week vacation and was thinking about bringing my P3.
 
Diamond Head, also go to Lost Beach.

Lanikai Beach.

Thanks for the tip. Have you ever ran into any issues as far people saying anything? Also any issues at the airport? This is my first time I'd be bringing it with me so a little nervous. I'm flying out of San Francisco to Maui and back.
 
Flying on Oahu is great just gotta keep an eye out cuz there are a lot of helicopters and planes flying around, gets a little hectic some times
 
Flying on Oahu is great just gotta keep an eye out cuz there are a lot of helicopters and planes flying around, gets a little hectic some times
You dont get hounded by people? We are going to be staying at the Royal Lahaina in Maui so looking for places in maui to get some nice shots.
 
You dont get hounded by people? We are going to be staying at the Royal Lahaina in Maui so looking for places in maui to get some nice shots.
Not sure all depends on how you fly and I usually try to get away from people to fly
 
Thanks for the tip. Have you ever ran into any issues as far people saying anything? Also any issues at the airport? This is my first time I'd be bringing it with me so a little nervous. I'm flying out of San Francisco to Maui and back.
To be honest, I haven't shot out there since everyone in the world was flying so no, I never got any problem or issues at all. The only other time I've flown there was on a proper gig with permits and all.

I would just call HNL if you are less than 5 miles away and only bother calling if no more than 2.5-3 miles away. Otherwise, just keep a low key and don't fly over people, the usual and I think you will be fine. HI tends to be pretty lax.
 
Any good places to fly in Maui? Anyone know the flying restrictions there, if any? I'm heading there in May 2017 for a week vacation and was thinking about bringing my P3.
I'm also going to Maui early June, so let me know what you find. I just got back from Oahu yesterday. I got photos and video of our friends on the top of Diamond head. I launched outside of Diamond Head park at a turnout along the beach 750' below the Diamond Head lookout peak. I also captured surfers on the North shore.
 
Have you ever ran into any issues as far people saying anything? Also any issues at the airport?
Most resorts don't like drones, but if you use common sense and fly away from people and keep yourself hidden, you shouldn't have any problem. A security guard at the resort I was staying at found me once and asked where I was flying. I said only over the water, and showed him my iPad Air2 display view, which he thought was very cool. He said as long as I'm over water that's OK, otherwise they would ask me to land. This worked fine because I don't fly over crowds of people, we were in sync.

As for the airport, it's best if you're organized with a backpack to carry all your drone stuff on the plane to store in the overhead. ALL LIPOS must be carried on the plane, no checked batteries. I've flown over 50 times and never had an issue. I was swabbed only once as a random check. I recommend a backpack that doesn't scream DRONE for other reasons that are non-airline related. You don't want anyone getting ideas of stealing it, stalking you for an opportunity, or hassling you if they hate drones, etc. A good backpack makes it very convenient while on vacation to keep things together and hike to interesting places to fly. The a multi-battery charger is great to setup and leave in your room, ready to put all your batteries on to charge while you relax at the pool bar with a Margarita! Take a car charger too, that comes in very handy as you drive around to see various sites.

I saw a guy last week at Oahu's north shore toting around his drone in the original beer cooler box. Stupid idea in the sand. He was a nice guy, but struggling to keep thing out of the sand, due to lack of room to be organized. Hand launching is often advised if you're at a sanding beach. The Inspire RC harness helps with that task, and the High Aerial sun shade is also very helpful in the bright ambient light at the islands.
 
Most resorts don't like drones, but if you use common sense and fly away from people and keep yourself hidden, you shouldn't have any problem. A security guard at the resort I was staying at found me once and asked where I was flying. I said only over the water, and showed him my iPad Air2 display view, which he thought was very cool. He said as long as I'm over water that's OK, otherwise they would ask me to land. This worked fine because I don't fly over crowds of people, we were in sync.

As for the airport, it's best if you're organized with a backpack to carry all your drone stuff on the plane to store in the overhead. ALL LIPOS must be carried on the plane, no checked batteries. I've flown over 50 times and never had an issue. I was swabbed only once as a random check. I recommend a backpack that doesn't scream DRONE for other reasons that are non-airline related. You don't want anyone getting ideas of stealing it, stalking you for an opportunity, or hassling you if they hate drones, etc. A good backpack makes it very convenient while on vacation to keep things together and hike to interesting places to fly. The a multi-battery charger is great to setup and leave in your room, ready to put all your batteries on to charge while you relax at the pool bar with a Margarita! Take a car charger too, that comes in very handy as you drive around to see various sites.

I saw a guy last week at Oahu's north shore toting around his drone in the original beer cooler box. Stupid idea in the sand. He was a nice guy, but struggling to keep thing out of the sand, due to lack of room to be organized. Hand launching is often advised if you're at a sanding beach. The Inspire RC harness helps with that task, and the High Aerial sun shade is also very helpful in the bright ambient light at the islands.

John...appreciate your feedback. I got myself a Manfrotto D1 backpack for my P3P. Planning to carry all the drone stuff plus the GoPro stuff. Debating if I should bring my DSLR though, or if I even have the room in the backpack. I had contemplated getting the Mavic for the portability but shelling out the $1K just for this trip doesn't seem smart and I'm sure the wife would agree. I would think that I probably won't be the only guy on vacation out there flying a drone. My only other concern was going through security at the airport, getting hassled by TSA or something.

As for the lipos, did you carry them on board fully charged? Do recommend having them in a lipo bag?

Do you fly with any filters?

I've never hand launched to be honest, always took off from the ground. I have a couple months to get accustomed to it. I do have the Inspire RC harness and a simple neck harness to hold my remote so should help. I guess its as simple as holding it above your head and hitting the take off button on the app? Then when landing, hover above your head and grab the landing gear and press down on the left stick to shutdown the motors?
 
John...appreciate your feedback. I got myself a Manfrotto D1 backpack for my P3P. Planning to carry all the drone stuff plus the GoPro stuff. Debating if I should bring my DSLR though, or if I even have the room in the backpack. I had contemplated getting the Mavic for the portability but shelling out the $1K just for this trip doesn't seem smart and I'm sure the wife would agree. I would think that I probably won't be the only guy on vacation out there flying a drone. My only other concern was going through security at the airport, getting hassled by TSA or something.

As for the lipos, did you carry them on board fully charged? Do recommend having them in a lipo bag?

Do you fly with any filters?

I've never hand launched to be honest, always took off from the ground. I have a couple months to get accustomed to it. I do have the Inspire RC harness and a simple neck harness to hold my remote so should help. I guess its as simple as holding it above your head and hitting the take off button on the app? Then when landing, hover above your head and grab the landing gear and press down on the left stick to shutdown the motors?
Take the P4, IMO it's more fool proof for delivering good video. Mavic suffers from lens flares in bright sunlight, even with filters. And the lens hoods I have tried aren't usable because they appear in the camera view too much. I have real problems with the Mavic camera, but that's me. I love the craft, but the camera not so much. I left my Mavic home and took my P4 to Hawaii last week, no regrets.

Don't worry about TSA, it's a breeze. It's unlikely they will say anything, assuming you don't put any liquids in the backpack ;-). I will often carry-on my LiPo's fully charged, because many times when I arrive my destination I'll go fly the same day. There is no restriction of having them fully charged, but logically it's safer if you know you won't fly the same day you arrive. I would never go out of my way to discharge batteries just to fly on a plane. Every discharge costs money in discharge wear. I use 60 cents to $1 as the estimate per charge, since batteries cost about $120 and you can get 100 to 200 charges, depending on how they are cared for. I don't use lipo bags. The FAA guideline is that each battery should have protection against shorts. My backpack has individual pockets for batteries that separate them from coming in contact with anything else, which fulfills the individual protection against shorts requirement. LiPo bags are safer, granted, but too bulky to fit in my backpack. I've never heard of any uninstalled batteries failing in airplanes, but I suppose it's possible. The odds it will happen to me are probably less than getting hit by lightning.

I do fly with ND16 filter in bright sunlight. ND4 at sunset.

For hand launching, see this tip.

Hand catching is easy if you are careful and not overconfident. Let it hover in front of you above head level. Watch it a few seconds to insure it's stable. TAKE YOUR FINGERS OFF THE RC STICKS and slowly walk over and grab a leg with your RIGHT HAND. When you grab it, hold it there in place, with the RC in your LEFT HAND, push the RC left stick down for 3 seconds with your LEFT THUMB. After the motors turn off, lower the drone down and turn off the battery. Using an RC harness helps with hand catching too, but it's doable without a harness by holding the RC with your left hand against your body to help out doing the "one handed" stick movement.
 
Last edited:
Take the P4, IMO it's more fool proof for delivering good video. Mavic suffers from lens flares in bright sunlight, even with filters. And the lens hoods I have tried aren't usable because they appear in the camera view too much. I have real problems with the Mavic camera, but that's me. I love the craft, but the camera not so much. I left my Mavic home and took my P4 to Hawaii last week, no regrets.

Don't worry about TSA, it's a breeze. It's unlikely they will say anything, assuming you don't put any liquids in the backpack ;-). I will often carry-on my LiPo's fully charged, because many times when I arrive my destination I'll go fly the same day. There is no restriction of having them fully charged, but logically it's safer if you know you won't fly the same day you arrive.

I am sorry to call you out John as I like you and think you are highly intelligent and almost always nice but to tell someone to take a battery fully charged onto an airplane (a drone lipo isn't as safe as a computer battery although that shouldn't be fully charged either but much safer for reasons that you can Google).

You should down charge to a minimum of 25-30% or you risk the lives of yourself and everyone on board that flight because if this happens as it happened on the way to Fiji on a crowded international flight:

5728792-3x2-940x627.jpg


And that causes the fuselage to breach at a high altitude you could cost the lives of every infant, man and woman on that flight. Forget the fact that it is now FAA regulation, even when traveling on a cargo plane, and especially on a passenger plane, if you go with a fully charged battery, and you get a TSA agent with a bug up his arse and decides to test yours, you will be in violation of criminal and civil laws which I believe is a felony (punishable by jail time) and if there were an incident, you would be liable monetarily,

Instead, de-charge your batteries, go to the hotel, get a Mai Tai, and charge your batteries for an hour or two and let's all try to keep each other alive. I don't mean to be dramatic here but if I knew someone had a UAS battery fully charged on a passenger flight I was on, he'd hear it.
 

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
143,066
Messages
1,467,358
Members
104,935
Latest member
Pauos31