Flying Over Water

[srosen]

I am new to flying having purchased a Phantom 4 only 2 weeks ago. Fortunately I am retired so I have a lot of time to learn and enjoy my new toy. I have been flying, reading and watching lots of videos. I live on the Hudson River, but have not ventured on the water yet. I understand when flying on the water, I should turn off VPS. I have flown many times without VPS, but much prefer flying with it. My understanding is VPS is only active up to 30 meters. If I keep my altitude over water over 30 meters, is it still necessary to disable VPS when flying over water ??


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[WWK888]

How are you turning off the VPS? Do you have the Litchi app because that is the only way I thought you could turn off VPS?

 

[srosen]

The way I've been doing it on the Phantom 4 using DJI Go is switch RC to A - that disables VPS. Unfortunately once you do that, the Phantom will keep its altitude, but it drifts with the wind because it no longer uses GPS for stability.


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[WWK888]

I personally have flown over water numerous times (low altitude) with VPS and have had no problems at all. I would prefer to fly with GPS and VPS than without GPS and VPS.


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[srosen]

What "low altitude" do you fly at over water ?


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[WWK888]

My latest video I started out flying about 10' over the ocean and slowly headed out towards the break then rose to about 30'.


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[srosen]

Thanks for the help. Is there anything you can tell me I need to be particularly careful about flying over water vs land ?


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[WWK888]

As long as your P4 is flying normally I fly it no differently if it is over land or water. Of course if you are flying over ocean be aware of surf. In most cases your signal is much stronger and less likely to receive interference when flying over water.


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