Taking off and landing on a moving ship
On land, the spot you took off from is still there when you come back. On a three-hundred-metre ship under way, it is not.
Why it is hard
The real difference is not flying over water, it is that the recovery point has moved while you were airborne, and so has the relative wind. A cruise ship under way makes its own wind across the decks, changing in direction and strength depending where on the ship you are.
There is no recoverable margin underneath. On land a forced landing is a broken aircraft. Over salt water it is a lost aircraft, and with it the material from that take if it has not been offloaded already.
And the ship does not stop. Normal operations and passengers continue around the production, so the working area cannot be locked down the way a set is.
How it gets solved
Before the first take you build a workflow specific to that ship: take-off points by deck, approaches, and a recovery point for each one with its alternative. It is not a generic procedure, it is raised for that ship and that route.
Wind is measured on deck, not inferred from a forecast. The difference between the bow and a sheltered deck on the same ship is enough to change which aircraft flies which shot.
Platforms get combined. Wide exteriors want stabilized; the ship's interiors, between passengers and through a theatre auditorium, want the guarded platform. One forty-second piece can need both, and the choice is made by the space rather than by preference.
What it takes
- Platform
- RAW FPV Drone · Protected FPV · DJI Inspire 3
- Cameras
- Cinema camera payloads
Where we have done it
What goes wrong
- Salt. Everything that goes on deck comes back salted, and that governs maintenance between shooting days.
- Water on glass. An airframe can survive a spray. A lens comes back beaded and useless for the rest of the take.
- Passengers. People within a few metres at all times changes which platform is allowed, even when the shot wanted a different one.