Drones for use while travelling by motorcycle [Archive]

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MarkH

10th June 2018, 16:19

I'm thinking about getting a drone to take on my adventure tourer on trips around NZ. My plan would be to load the camping gear in the panniers & bag on the rear seat and to put a drone & a D-SLR in the top-box where I could easily get at them whenever I wanted to create some video or photos.

I liked the look of the DJI Spark and the fact that it is small, but the DJI Mavic Air has a better camera, 3-axis gimbal instead of 2-axis and its arms fold in so that it is even smaller to pack on the bike. My income is reasonable and a DJI Mavic Air (Fly More Kit) would only cost me ~4 weeks of savings, that doesn't seem too bad. The Fly More kit comes with 3 batteries altogether which would be a help when travelling by motorcycle and staying at camp-grounds each night. I'd probably add a car charger to give me a way of charging one of the batteries while riding (put battery in tank bag and plug charger into it). Maybe a 4th battery too, since the charger can have 4 batteries plugged into it (it charges one then the next, not all at once).

Next year I'll be heading down to the South Island for 3-4 weeks for Bike Week, Vincent County Rally & Burt Munro Rally. With such great scenery down there I definitely want to have my D-SLR and a drone with me.

Here is an example of the sort of idea: https://youtu.be/Z2jUxTw_NVM?t=9m33s
Also: This year at the Burt Munro Rally there were way more people than at the previous one. I wanted to get a good photo of all the bikes & tents at the site, but unfortunately there is no hill overlooking the site to get a good shot from and I just didn't have a way of getting a good overview of the site in a photo. It would have be cool to be able to put a drone up and get some good shots of the massive group of bikes & tent set up there.

Does anyone else here take a drone on the bike when travelling? What drone and how do you find it?
Thoughts on the idea?

rustys

10th June 2018, 16:28

pritch

10th June 2018, 17:23

You are going to be crossing Cook Strait. Some people doing that have their tie downs in the tank bag. You definitely want them where they're easy to get at. If you do that too you'll need a good plastic bag for the tie downs to ensure the drone and associated paraphernalia don't get covered in cow shit. It doesn't happen every trip but it does happen.

BMWST?

10th June 2018, 17:27

you may find THIS THREAD (http://advrider.com/index.php?threads/camera-drones-motorcycles.1288292/) interesting

russd7

10th June 2018, 17:47

two things, firstly, why not extend and do the woodstock on the way down, secondly, ya may need to check legality of flying drone over rally site, not very far from international airport

MarkH

10th June 2018, 20:15

two things, firstly, why not extend and do the woodstock on the way down, secondly, ya may need to check legality of flying drone over rally site, not very far from international airport

That isn't extending my trip, I'll already be at bike week in Bannockburn when the Woodstock rally is on.

Legality? Pffft!
Although I'd probably keep it under 20m altitude to ensure I'm nowhere near any flight paths.
I think the airport is a few kms away and I just can't see there being an issue as long as the drone isn't going super high.
Flying a drone over the site - several people did it this year with no issues.

MarkH

10th June 2018, 20:19

Good idea but i would be inclined to read up about where and when you can fly these things, lots of rules and regulations coming on stream these days. Almost need a pilots licence, and i dont think you can fly them over DOC land anymore.

https://www.airshare.co.nz/rules

I read something about the DoC land thing, I don't quite get it. Why would there be any issue with flying over DoC land, what is their problem with drones?
I've been riding out on gravel roads where there are fuck all people apart from the occasional farmer, not really anyone that would kick up a fuss over a drone being put into the air for a few minutes.

AllanB

10th June 2018, 20:46

I read something about the DoC land thing, I don't quite get it. Why would there be any issue with flying over DoC land, what is their problem with drones?
.

Because if people are taking the time to walk in the bush the last thing they want is a fucking drone ruining the trip.

russd7

10th June 2018, 21:27

That isn't extending my trip, I'll already be at bike week in Bannockburn when the Woodstock rally is on.

Legality? Pffft!
Although I'd probably keep it under 20m altitude to ensure I'm nowhere near any flight paths.
I think the airport is a few kms away and I just can't see there being an issue as long as the drone isn't going super high.
Flying a drone over the site - several people did it this year with no issues.

my bad, thought woodstock was weekend before bike week and vincent was weekend after

MarkH

11th June 2018, 01:55

my bad, thought woodstock was weekend before bike week and vincent was weekend after

Actually, I thought the same, but their website shows the date overlapping. It is possible that they have cocked up the dates though. If the Woodstock Rally was actually on a week earlier than the website currently shows then I would consider starting my holiday earlier.

MarkH

11th June 2018, 01:58

Because if people are taking the time to walk in the bush the last thing they want is a fucking drone ruining the trip.

For busy bush walks I would agree. But there is a lot of DoC land that is really quiet with no fucker around. I suppose that you COULD fly a drone if there is no one else around to object to it - if you fly a drone in the forest and there is no one to hear it, then does it make a sound?

AllanB

11th June 2018, 19:44

For busy bush walks I would agree. But there is a lot of DoC land that is really quiet with no fucker around. I suppose that you COULD fly a drone if there is no one else around to object to it - if you fly a drone in the forest and there is no one to hear it, then does it make a sound?

Probably equally concerned at the native wildlife being disturbed by a drone. Or a rare horny bird getting hurt trying to mate with it.

Swoop

11th June 2018, 23:06

... the DJI Mavic Air...

That's the one you want.

Talking to some very senior CAA officials recently and drone use is a MAJOR topic at the moment. Expect some serious new laws and requirements in the future.
As for using one near an airport... forget it.
There will be "systems" in place in the foreseeable future where you will not be able to use your drone near a significant airport, because you find out that "my drone will not work for some reason"...

MarkH

12th June 2018, 13:45

That's the one you want.

I considered the upcoming Mavic 2 but that would be much more expensive and is a larger size. I think that the Mavic Air offers enough for my current needs/wants.

Talking to some very senior CAA officials recently and drone use is a MAJOR topic at the moment. Expect some serious new laws and requirements in the future.
As for using one near an airport... forget it.
There will be "systems" in place in the foreseeable future where you will not be able to use your drone near a significant airport, because you find out that "my drone will not work for some reason"...

I wouldn't be surprised at new laws, but I'm dubious about a drone not working.
Drones are smart and many have GPS, so with co-operation from manufacturers they possibly could refuse to fly in certain locations - that's a maybe and would only work on drones from certain manufacturers and only ones that have GPS.
Blocking the signal obviously wouldn't work, there is no way anyone will accept WiFi (drones work on the same frequencies) not working for anyone within a few kms of an airport.

Meanwhile, if you aren't a complete idiot - don't fly at any height near an airport. If very close to an airport then don't fly at all unless you are keeping below the height of the buildings. An plane flying below building height has bigger problems than drones. Drones can fly very high, definitely don't do that near any airports though.

If you are more than 5km from a runway and are flying a drone with a ceiling height kept below 100m then I wouldn't think you would be causing any problems for any planes. If you are very near an airport and flying very high (like flight path high) then there should be some very severe penalties available - preferably including revoking your right to breed, we have enough stupid fucks in the world already.

WALRUS

12th June 2018, 14:06

I'd be curious to give some of these a go (http://www.droneguru.net/8-best-drones-that-follow-you-follow-drones/)but I'm not sure if they'd be able to keep up with a motorcycle on a twisty road..

Swoop

12th June 2018, 15:54

I'm dubious about a drone not working.
Drones are smart and many have GPS, so with co-operation from manufacturers they possibly could refuse to fly in certain locations - that's a maybe and would only work on drones from certain manufacturers and only ones that have GPS.
Blocking the signal obviously wouldn't work...
Wrong...

Meanwhile, if you aren't a complete idiot - don't fly at any height near an airport. Drones can fly very high
Sadly the idiots are working hard and proving that information, including flight information on drones sold in NZ (or "should contain info" chinese importers may vary...) are not addressing the issue.
Secondly, judging altitude visually is next to impossible from the ground. At a meeting today a chap stated he was "at 1500ft above the airfield" when the user of the uav stated he "would have been around 500ft".

Yes, sensible people can use them quite safely, but the retards are out there.

MarkH

12th June 2018, 17:58

Wrong...

Which bit is wrong exactly?

I'm genuinely curious about this.

Berries

12th June 2018, 22:58

As for using one near an airport... forget it.
And state highways. (https://nzta.govt.nz/assets/Highways-Information-Portal/Processes/Corridor-management/SM012-SH-control-manual-consolidated-sections/Response-to-the-Civil-Aviation-Authority-Rule-Changes-August-2015.pdf) Not completely impossible that local councils will go down the same track.

Honest Andy

13th June 2018, 08:14

rastuscat

13th June 2018, 09:35

So..... are you going to actually sit down and watch the hours of footage sometime?
When the GoPro thing started a mate came round and showed me his helmet-cam footage. Quite interesting for about 2 minutes but then we got bored and watched an Isle of Man repeat instead...

Drone footage is only vaguely more interesting than go pro footage, which is generally as boring as batshit.

Unless something interesting happens, it's not interesting.

To anyone other than the person who took it.

MarkH

13th June 2018, 14:30

I'm a bit more interested in getting a few photos, I've always been more keen on photography than videography.
Having said that, I'd probably play around with capturing short video of stuff that seems interesting.

HEsch

13th June 2018, 14:51

rustys

14th June 2018, 12:17

Hey Mark, Swoop is correct. A friend of mine was doing some footage along the North Shore water front, wont say where, but a very expensive drone disapeared very suddenly, never to be found, i will leave it at that. So they can be taken out by very mysterious means.

WALRUS

14th June 2018, 18:56

https://www.news.com.au/technology/gadgets/queensland-cops-to-be-armed-with-antidrone-guns-during-commonwealth-games-next-month/news-story/d4d0aff3563e9e9754c7848b55ec7d33 ;)

MarkH

15th June 2018, 02:34

Hey Mark, Swoop is correct.

I do understand that it is technically possible to jam radio signals and therefore you could target the particular frequencies used by drones and successfully jam them. BUT - you couldn't block all drone control signals in a 10km radius, or at least not without all home-owners in a 10km radius complaining that their WiFi doesn't work. If you limited the jamming to a much closer radius then you could get away with it, or if you used drone jamming just when a drone was spotted (rather than blanketing an area constantly so no one could fly drones) then nearby home owners would only be without WiFi for a short period of time.

The DJI Spark uses WiFi and the Mavic Air uses enhanced WiFi - you can't jam them without jamming WiFi because that is literally what they are using for communication.

https://www.news.com.au/technology/gadgets/queensland-cops-to-be-armed-with-antidrone-guns-during-commonwealth-games-next-month/news-story/d4d0aff3563e9e9754c7848b55ec7d33 ;)

The description of how it works seems a bit dodgy. "It takes control of the GPS and sends it home"? It's more likely it would jam the frequencies that drones use for remote control, when a drone loses signal it will generally land or return home, depending on settings used. Taking control of the Global Positioning System doesn't really make sense, in fact not all drones even have GPS. Jamming the control signal makes much more sense, without communication from the operator the drone has to revert to doing what has been set to do, which would get that drone out of the way and stop a drone with a bomb from flying to wherever the operator was trying to fly it to.

A friend of mine was doing some footage along the North Shore water front, wont say where, but a very expensive drone disapeared very suddenly, never to be found, i will leave it at that. So they can be taken out by very mysterious means.

I very much doubt that it was jammed. If it lost signal (being jammed isn't the only reason for losing signal) then it would have tried to return to home, if that wasn't correctly set then it could have decided to fly off to a point out of range. It isn't as hard as you might have thought to have this happen, if you don't set a new home position when you take off, then it could be trying to return to a previously set home position - which could be a long way away. If a drone decided to return home to a position that was many kilometres away then it would fly until the battery ran out and then emergency land wherever it was along that flight path. Do you have any knowledge of a ban on flying around the North Shore water front with signals jammed for offenders? An airport is different, you are not allowed to fly near them due to the risk of damaging a plane - they are entitled to take means to down your drone, if necessary and if they can.

If a drone loses signal, has it been jammed? Not necessarily, there are many ways for a drone to lose signal. A fault in the transmitter or receiver, transmitter batteries going flat, flying too close to a source of interference like power lines or any other electrical thing that generates radio noise, etc.

rustys

15th June 2018, 13:55

To my knowledge i don't know of any baned area's around the shore, not up with that, but you can guess what else is there though. My mate has a lot of experince flying these things and the drone was not a cheap one.

WALRUS

15th June 2018, 19:19

The description of how it works seems a bit dodgy. "It takes control of the GPS and sends it home"? It's more likely it would jam the frequencies that drones use for remote control, when a drone loses signal it will generally land or return home, depending on settings used. Taking control of the Global Positioning System doesn't really make sense, in fact not all drones even have GPS. Jamming the control signal makes much more sense, without communication from the operator the drone has to revert to doing what has been set to do, which would get that drone out of the way and stop a drone with a bomb from flying to wherever the operator was trying to fly it to.

Yeah, taking control of the GPS is a little bit bollocks but as a system jammer which either makes them land/return/whatever, I guess it'd be pretty effective.

I remember reading an article on Slashdot (possibly) a while ago about police officers in China carrying anti-drone rifles to stop curious tourists from looking where they don't want them to.. Probably just rubbish click-bait but hey, whatever..

I'm still curious about those "follow me" drones.. Has anybody here got/tried one and know how long or how far they can last? Or what sort of speed and agility they can muster?

R650R

16th June 2018, 18:02

Be very careful with that DSLR and the vibration from your bike's top box. Would hate to take it out for some snaps and find some delicate internal part had been vibrated to shit.

I've scrambled eggs, spilt milk and turned cream to butter in a top box.

(obviously, there's been packaging/packing issues every time I've arrived with a product in a different format to when I departed...)

I used to have some pro grade Canon 5DmkII bodies and several L glass lenses including 70-200 F2.8 II. They rode in my tankbag on top of GSXR750 and also in same bag mounted on rear rack of DR650 for many miles trouble free. I did always use an old wool jersey as padding though.
Only very recently did I break something, and that was a secondary cheap brand mount converter between my Fuji XT-1 and the Canon 70-200 lens while on long off road ride. Some little screws came loose but fixed when got home.

R650R

16th June 2018, 18:08

I read something about the DoC land thing, I don't quite get it. Why would there be any issue with flying over DoC land, what is their problem with drones?
I've been riding out on gravel roads where there are fuck all people apart from the occasional farmer, not really anyone that would kick up a fuss over a drone being put into the air for a few minutes.

I've been at the local beach and some perverted looking reprobate was flying a drone above. Aside from the annoying buzz and all the hot milfs leaving the beach in droves it created a bigger scene by pissing of the local seagulls.
They squaked like crazy at the intruder and tried best to take it out.
Some of us work long hours/shifts/weekends.... when we finally get a day off its often when theres "fuck all people about" so we don't want to finally get to paradise and have some thing unnatural buzzing around.

R650R

16th June 2018, 18:12

Drone footage is only vaguely more interesting than go pro footage, which is generally as boring as batshit.

Unless something interesting happens, it's not interesting.

To anyone other than the person who took it.

Sounds like some people's use of words too..... like anything in life training is required ;)..........

Tell me this isn't interesting footage....

https://youtu.be/cRFeNd1VTQw?t=5m3s

MarkH

16th June 2018, 18:51

I've been at the local beach and some perverted looking reprobate was flying a drone above. Aside from the annoying buzz and all the hot milfs leaving the beach in droves it created a bigger scene by pissing of the local seagulls.
They squaked like crazy at the intruder and tried best to take it out.
Some of us work long hours/shifts/weekends.... when we finally get a day off its often when theres "fuck all people about" so we don't want to finally get to paradise and have some thing unnatural buzzing around.

You are talking about something a lot different to what I'm talking about when I say "fuck all people about". I mean that there is me and over a 10 minute time span one person in a car drives passed.

I'm talking about here:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/jltJSeiWHbcAplcuSNx52e2ZL8QG3wvfXb5Hfo1lhF_VM6x9YY wOW6IRZbrDf39ie0i6d3mrUbmP6Mkow7GbpzVFSxpA4_sLzn5d JyTwA1UJ7MW2xB5H-bimvjkPjqctdJwpJJhiLLzx2rtAM7xex-rMv4jYMSwXrH4a_8LGM22wBsLglY5h3q_4an0wRvjAAQoWAD4x 6yEvNz6KZHs6KZrSsUq9dfXilZQmVuk-LW9QjHKUNqQKanuOvXkvH96SwBU52JcG5CFojSlgaL7iY9pEIy W8AHGDfE2eNTWuHJ9BHhOq8DIQ0TT7A-rayjZ1LPaSHb5KIvxQwoglC2QhuxrMX2m1zMLNTQl4PFuAbXBq iWK4HOX-RjaS_U9tm2yRN673MIA2kMILiHp1Pu-x1CTyfRb3XrC8Ybm2vvw449NjJJ1Ijr4pUM1ipdbfZ5rcazOG3 k4oNC-pK53Zn3NDHE0rNUiLf8KuOMbb3Z89OFi1N17iqUhScKFs6MQrk g3G4QKg-gXV2VAkEf5DWIR18aLQO2juvN0_PnTHtOKwG5EV_1ib9w1W4Hv RVLGnWYiXSEiitJHVcl2I6NbfEOwgHJT1yQzXx-FB6quFgGQ=w1000-h750-no

and here:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/F71VLbMxPh2-4LrQJ1nlA0OMufQsDaJDFwaESIU-4xCecH36_-d6uYMkG_N_h5QjhfqYsrWXwLeTOG3TRPUTg5m-q_epC85oo_14nUr5dSKmE5c3AjQ2hn4DL1q6RgrgXMFU4Knvol Ymh9GMHAhj7LAhaFQiUxNBD8ycQl1IvwxUhyYzO4F74VivLOKz G10LbCzxBJddFJwj7dadpU3klMDXjvEbgQrTh9C1eR6zoqGS23 D3R2J5pY1tx9rpKnMkrod0PUg6PcmZX7ug-XXEkjDWOUczfZPZe9W-x8mMpC4Qx6wW8A0DIPBcuO3SV2-DKN03xeNcgC9ZZkNsbFz-kLYh1t-RKhzuHXkeVLzVFNvtjQZbz4VGond77iqHbHuAEAKOydWQSCeTU OiulqFQ5FpgSv0TLNMgNeWV34gSpu0rZAbW8okJJGdQ-6igXvm2dk81rLG0S9TYNzhEUqQo-zfJJDc2OL9Q4B9rT59IngooIvewbeN0xCrytdDeLTMbw8kadEQ veOZv-xwjDMbrynTkyA7JQvJSzRN_CBvbNe-yPzjWIs1jmhxMfqkvj03bOPcFOl-Q32OUY-vTDCX24q40Qm1qWJ6yx_BXuuI=w1000-h750-no

I stopped to take photos in these places, I was the only person around at the time. That isn't the same as a beach full of hot MILFs, where I'd be too busy trying to hide an erection to fly a drone!