Judging distance above trees. Tricks or tips.....Is there an app for that?

[Ryan Hanscom]

I fly above a lot of really tall trees. Even with the camera pointed down it's still pretty hard to judge distance. Are there any tips or tricks for this? Is there an app that can take advantage of the sensors on the bottom of the phantom pro or an app that can use the camera to judge distance?


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[tevek]

I live in a forest where the average tree height is about 25-30 metres and I flew to the one nearest me, looked at the height on the app and added 15 metres to allow for variances in the terrain. There may be apps out there but so far have had no issues with RTH.

 

[alokbhargava]

The best tip is to keep sky visible all the times between drone and trees, if not, raise the drone up.


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[Richard R]

Old plot trick, if it looks like the trees (or landscape) is slipping under you as you approach, then you are above them. Nothing beats pilot awareness and maintaining situation awareness. And it's not the tress in front of you that will get you, but the ones that sneak up behind you or from the side (don't ask how I know!).

 

[Mark The Droner]

Yes, the blue sky strategy mentioned in post 3 is a good one. You can get really close to trees and yet your AC is safe. Best when it's dead calm though.

Check the beginning of this vid from my P2V - I'm really close to the tree branches and yet I had blue sky around the AC the entire flight.

Another trick is to fly up just high enough so you can see the horizon in the far distance for a 360 degree rotation with no tree tops breaking the line. From there, you can fly anywhere you want with no risk of tree problems.

 

[NoBiffBetter]

What about flying in camera mode? Anyone ever think this works better being that it's zoomed out a bit more that video? I have used this to first person land my quad before but it's def tricky


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