Can you fly a drone while skiing? [Active track problems on DJI drones]

A combination of my two favorite activities proves to be a bit more difficult than expected. Problems with the telemetry of the mavic pro flying during active track modes means that its capabilities of being used for skiing are limited.
Filmed in Nozawa Onsen in the Karasawa area, on the GoPro hero 8 black and DJI mavic pro.
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[@SeguirViajandosv]

We had the same problem this weekend skiing, I think it is a mix of speed and altitude.
Thanks for sharing!

[@JoshVaBien]

Yeah totally agree, you can ski slower if necessary but it just doesn't seem to want to descend.
I'm planning on trying it again taking off from the bottom of the slope to see if it's maybe anything to do with it being reluctant to descend into what it thinks is negative altitude.
Glad you found it useful!

[@badboy-bob5255]

Hi Josh, Nice sharing! you are one of The few who is sharing experience with combo “skiing and drone”. I only recently bumped in to your clip, and this was after I recently used my First drone for The same purpose (skiing + self recording via drone).
I did use a DJI mini 3 pro (recording on my channel): there are still some obstacles as you mentionned but The NEW drones did inprove (and I hope they will improve more) for active tracking while skiing.
Thanks for sharing your experiences!, Bbb

[@JoshVaBien]

Oh cool! Good to know that the newer drones are getting better. Thanks for the update and comment, really appreciate it! 👍

[@tonypellerito2853]

You answered my question as I wanted to capture my kids sledding. Maybe i'll give it a try starting from the bottom of the hill, otherwise, give my manual flights skills (rather limited) a go.

[@JoshVaBien]

Yeah if you've got plenty of space i can see manual flying being ok! A lower angle shot would look better too. Quite quick acceleration when sledging so you may have to begin moving before they do...

[@tonypellerito2853]

Yes all good insight (from your vid.) on how to try and capture this with will a quicker learning curve, will be trying in a couple hours :)

[@efeoktay244]

I did the same test in Bansko 2020 January with Mavic 2 Pro. Same problem. It doesn't want to descend below zero altitude. The interesting thing is, you can see some footage that it actually descends below zero while following
some biker fellas. I don't know what exactly the problem is but It's so useless for skiing. There should be an option of choosing below zero..

[@JoshVaBien]

Oh thats interesting, I'd thought that maybe they'd made improvements to the active tracking on the M2P.
I actually made a follow up video on this one trying out a few suggestions and unfortunately didnt get any better results:
th-cam.com/video/4JUV2_eNNtY/w-d-xo.html

[@efeoktay244]

@@JoshVaBien I saw your second video now. You tried everything but no luck.. On the MP2 no improvement about this particular case. It's quite disappointing that a drone costs that much cannot simply follow you while you're skiing. It stays so high that the subject seems like a microbe and It loses the subject eventually.. I don't know If there is a trick but It shouldn't be that hard.

[@marcairsoft]

U should try the follow mode in sports mode if that's possible

[@mattmusic1494]

it is possible but then theres no obstacle avoidance in sport mode

[@marcairsoft]

Or put the drone in front of u while u ski

[@JoshVaBien]

Yeah I'll give both of these a go, good ideas! I still think I'll outpace the drone even in sports mode (only does ~40mph with no wind) but it would be better.

[@vakula485]

One of the reason I'm not buying drone yet.

[@JoshVaBien]

Yet 😏 they're a lot of fun and dont regret it. The mavic pro is a few years old now so you may get a really good deal on a second hand one.