Follow you flying drone | GTAMotorcycle.com

Follow you flying drone

gaihosa

Well-known member
Wondering if anyone has any experience with flying drones. I am thinking of getting one to follow me while I ride (factoring in speed limitations ofcourse). Thanks for any info.
 
Wondering if anyone has any experience with flying drones. I am thinking of getting one to follow me while I ride (factoring in speed limitations ofcourse). Thanks for any info.

Very likely not legal in Ontario. It has to be more than 100' (measured horizontally) from any vehicle or person and within your sight at all times. That would be hard if you were riding.

With a separate operator it may be possible but make sure you have all the boxes checked (including liability insurance that covers the drone).
 
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Wondering if anyone has any experience with flying drones. I am thinking of getting one to follow me while I ride (factoring in speed limitations ofcourse). Thanks for any info.

If you wanted to do some 'closed course' shots then its plausible. They can go pretty quick but battery life and tracking/obstacle avoidance will make it situational.
 
Very likely not legal in Ontario. It has to be more than 100' from any vehicle and within your sight at all times. That would be hard if you were riding.

I don't know if they measure the 100 feet including vertical or if they want 100 horizontal feet which would be very hard for a follow drone to do.

With a separate operator it may be possible but make sure you have all the boxes checked (including liability insurance that covers the drone).

A good point I never thought of but I was hoping to use it outside of Ontario and Canada. I guess I'll have to check the rules every where I go.
 
It's a Canadian law not Ontario.

below 90 m above the ground
at least 30 m away from vehicles, vessels and the public (if your drone weighs over 250 g and up to 1 kg)
at least 75 m away from vehicles, vessels and the public (if your drone weighs over 1 kg and up to 35 kg)
at least 5.5 km away from aerodromes (any airport, seaplane base or area where aircraft take off and land)
at least 1.8 km away from heliports or aerodromes used by helicopters only
outside of controlled or restricted airspace
at least 9 km away from a natural hazard or disaster area
away from areas where its use could interfere with police or first responders
during the day and not in clouds
within your sight at all times
within 500 m of yourself
only if clearly marked with your name, address and telephone number
 
We have a guy that films us on our race boat, its over water and he is often "outside the rules" for operation, but hes over water and so far nothing has gone wrong.
His setup is pretty expensive from what he tells us and there is a pretty big group of guy modding these things for flight time and range.

Just know the local rules where you play with these things, they are pretty loathed in some places and the fines are getting large.
 
It's a Canadian law not Ontario.

below 90 m above the ground
at least 30 m away from vehicles, vessels and the public (if your drone weighs over 250 g and up to 1 kg)
at least 75 m away from vehicles, vessels and the public (if your drone weighs over 1 kg and up to 35 kg)
at least 5.5 km away from aerodromes (any airport, seaplane base or area where aircraft take off and land)
at least 1.8 km away from heliports or aerodromes used by helicopters only
outside of controlled or restricted airspace
at least 9 km away from a natural hazard or disaster area
away from areas where its use could interfere with police or first responders
during the day and not in clouds
within your sight at all times
within 500 m of yourself
only if clearly marked with your name, address and telephone number


so every drone i see in toronto is being flown illegally
 
Biggest concerns imo would be speed and battery life (esp at max speed), but also obstacle avoidance over that much ground. If you wanted to have it follow you for 1-2 mins down a road or 1 corner, that might work.

so every drone i see in toronto is being flown illegally

Pretty much. Kinda like how every car you see on the 401 is breaking speed laws.
 
A good point I never thought of but I was hoping to use it outside of Ontario and Canada. I guess I'll have to check the rules every where I go.

Yes, you need to check the laws. GF is heading to Sri Lanka shortly and she had to file a million documents with the Defense Ministry to get a 'license' to use it there.
 
so every drone i see in toronto is being flown illegally

I have a DJI Phantom 3, and yes, sadly, it's virtually impossible to fly one legally in any city environment, and even in more rural areas the laws are so restrictive that you're always dancing on the fine line of legal vs illegal, and you can cross that line unexpectedly and even uncontrollably many times during a 15 minute flight.

I always try to fly legally (both from the perspective of the law, as well as morally, IE, not flying over peoples backyards and peeping at them etc) but it really reduces the usefullness of the drone - the main issue being that you're not allowed to fly it outside of ones own view. In a reality where even a premium consumer level drone can easily fly outside ones vision (at which point you switch to the FPV display on the controller itself), this is frustrating.

There's talk that the laws are going to be relaxed at some point this year, but it still seems to be a work in progress, and many of the proposed requirements (insurance) are not even available to consumers at this point, so there's an argument that the government is making policy that's impossible to actually adhere to. This will only continue to cause consumers to simply just ignore all the rules if they're overbearing and impossible to actually adhere to.

As for the OP's question of self-filming, it's not terribly realistic unless you have a very controlled environment - no trees (the main one, as many drones except the latest and greatest are not obstacle aware and will happily fly into trees, hydro lines, etc), somewhere where you can tightly control your riding (constant speed, no traffic, etc), and then you need ideal weather as the self-follow modes on many drones will struggle with high wind etc - yeah, they'll self fly, sure, but you may not be actually in the shot at all times.

I've tried the "Follow me" function on my drone and yeah, it works, but as soon as you start moving at high speed it struggles.

Here's a video of exactly what you are looking at doing (there's many on YouTube), but take note that not all these clips are drone footage - the ones directly beside the bike for example are in no way drone shot. Many of the overhead ones are though, but in one I clenched as it flew past the big tree - another 30 feet over and he'd have been climbing the tree looking to salvage it out of the branches, and that's the risk with this idea.

[video=youtube;12dZQrX-F4k]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12dZQrX-F4k[/video]
 
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I kind of see why all the restrictions are being put in place. A snowbirds practice here was cut short last year as a drone was flying too high. Lots of stories about near misses with commercial craft and drones. Also, since they are now being used for other purposes (the Israelis used one to drop tear gas on protesters the other day and in Afghanistan/Syria they are sometimes packed with explosives) naturally the security services are being careful.
 
so every drone i see in toronto is being flown illegally

Pretty much. People have made maps with the no drone areas and pretty much all of Toronto is off limits from that one rule alone. I didn't post if before as I have no idea if they are correct and I figured the OP wouldn't be dumb enough to try a follow drone within the city.
 
Biggest concerns imo would be speed and battery life (esp at max speed), but also obstacle avoidance over that much ground. If you wanted to have it follow you for 1-2 mins down a road or 1 corner, that might work.

I don't know if the software is smart enough yet, but the corner could be a cool shot. Set the drone to maintain position (hover) and track you with the camera as you pass. Solves most of the speed/range/obstacle problems.
 
I kind of see why all the restrictions are being put in place. A snowbirds practice here was cut short last year as a drone was flying too high. Lots of stories about near misses with commercial craft and drones. Also, since they are now being used for other purposes (the Israelis used one to drop tear gas on protesters the other day and in Afghanistan/Syria they are sometimes packed with explosives) naturally the security services are being careful.

All the laws on the planet are not going to fix any of those. The first few (explosives aside) are just pilot stupidity, and again, no amount of rules will stop people from doing stupid things with a drone if they want to.

Pretty much. People have made maps with the no drone areas and pretty much all of Toronto is off limits from that one rule alone. I didn't post if before as I have no idea if they are correct and I figured the OP wouldn't be dumb enough to try a follow drone within the city.

With the current regs any dense urban city environment is impossible to fly in legally.

I don't know if the software is smart enough yet, but the corner could be a cool shot. Set the drone to maintain position (hover) and track you with the camera as you pass. Solves most of the speed/range/obstacle problems.

Totally doable, and in full auto mode a quality drone (IE, any Phantom or newer) will fly until it's battery is exhausted in one place, and then even land automatically once it dies. Setup drone to frame the shot, leave controller on the ground, and go and ride your shot. Yes, you'll need to do lots of editing afterwards, but it'd look cool.
 
Just realized I forgot to include the video on my earlier post - edited it in.
 
So besides all the legal stuff is there a follow you flying drone that someone can recommend? I know I didn't state that in the original post but that was more what I was looking for.

Also most drones I looked at had at least a 15 min battery life and some could go as fast as 50mph. I was planning on using it in a rural area. Probably when nobody else is around.
 
Look for a used Phantom 3 Advanced or Pro, if you want 4K...advanced if 1080P is good enough.

50MPH airspeed ain't happening. 50KPH perhaps - my P3A tops out around 45-50KPH in calm wind conditions. If you're expecting 50MPH over ground you better have a very strong tailwind.
 
The Phantom 4(45mph) gains 10MPH over the 3(35mph). The advanced or pro P4 will also get you 60FPS in 4k. If you want better portability, the Mavic pro will give you that, but it will come with a speed and image penalty topping out at 40mph and 30fps4k.
 

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