How to Fly Your Drone Safely Over Water: Settings, Prep, and Emergency Tips

Water makes for stunning footage, but it’s also one of the easiest places to, well, lose your drone. In this article, I’m going to show you how to fly safely and with confidence over water. You want those stunning ocean shots and lake flyovers, but maybe you’re worried that one mistake could send the drone into the water. Or maybe you’ve thought, “What if I lose signal and it never comes back?” Well, guess what? You’re not alone. Let me show you what the pros do. I’m going to give you the confidence to take professional shots, and I’ll also give you the settings to keep your drone safe.

Plus, I’ll give you a practical checklist to use in your workflow. So let’s break this down.

First, why flying over water is risky and how to handle it. Second, we’re going to go into the prep and the in-flight strategies that keep your drone safe while you get the shot that you want. And third, what to do if something goes wrong so that you can fly with confidence every single time.

Why Flying Over Water Is Risky

Water may seem fine from the shore, but once you’re up and flying, it can catch you off guard pretty quickly. If something glitches, there are very few bailout options. Preparation here is going to help you tremendously when you’re flying over water.

So start with the basics. Check the weather first and the wind reports. That is the most important. Even a light breeze can feel harmless on the shore, but it might be double or triple at a different altitude. So keep that in mind when you’re flying a flight that’s going to go for a longer distance. You can use an app like Windy or UAV Forecast. Make sure that you check the wind direction and the speed at your flight height, not just on the ground. The wind can be much stronger when it’s above tree level, and it can also shift very quickly. If the weather or the winds turn bad, make sure that you reschedule. It’s not worth taking the risk.

Remember, your drone is very light, so the wind is going to affect it a lot more. This is going to drain the battery faster. It’s kind of like pedaling uphill instead of, well, the opposite, downhill. A tailwind is going to help you move out quickly, saving a lot of energy. But going against a headwind, maybe on the way back, is going to take a lot more effort and drain your battery faster than you think. That difference could be the 10% of battery that is needed to actually make it back home.

We’ve flown our drones over water many, many times, and sometimes the wind picks up, and when you turn around, well, you can barely make it back. This means going from exciting to stressful pretty quickly. There’s a very famous video online from a very long time ago of a guy running into the water into a pond to actually grab the drone as it’s coming down into the water right before it hits the surface. So just don’t be that guy.

Also, make sure that you’re conservative with your battery’s abilities. If you’re halfway across the lake with 50% left and you turn around, well, then you might be facing some strong winds on the way back and easily run out of battery and easily lose the drone.

One way to keep your flights quick and on point is by taking a minute to plan your shot and check out the spot ahead of time. That way, you’ll know exactly what you’re after before you’re even up in the air. Fewer surprises means a much smoother and a much safer flight.

And to help you with all of this, we’ve created a free course. It’s called Recreational Flying Made Easy. It includes more than 75 minutes of training. This can really boost your confidence for your next flight. I’m going to show you how to check the weather, how to find airspace information, and also how to conduct your first flight.

Flight Preparation and Settings

Before you even head out for your flight, make sure that you go into the settings for your drone. This is going to make sure that you have the right setup for flying over water and that the drone can actually return to home without having any trouble.

The first thing is to make sure that you have a return-to-home altitude that is set correctly for the area that you’re in. For most aircraft, this is going to be found in the safety tab. There you can adjust the RTH altitude to, well, avoid obstacles around you. I would aim for 50 to 100 feet above the highest obstacle in your area.

Next, if your drone has obstacle avoidance, make sure that you set it to brake or bypass. This is going to help your drone stop and hover when it senses something, or go around it if you have that option.

Another tip that can save you a lot of stress when you’re flying over water, especially if you’re starting out, is to consider raising the battery level warning. Most drones default to about 20%, which means it’s going to tell you and beep at you when you have 20% left. And that doesn’t really give you a whole lot of time if you’re halfway across the lake. Try bumping this to maybe 30%. That way, you’ll have a little bit more margin to have time to turn around before it’s too late.

The other thing that you can do is make sure that your return-to-home action is set to, well, actually return. You might laugh at this, but there are other options. You can hover or you can also land when the drone loses signal. But over water, those are just not really good options. Land means that the drone is going to go straight into the lake, and hover just wastes the battery’s energy, and eventually the aircraft is, well, going to fall because there’s no more battery, and it’s going to go into the lake. So return really is the only safety net that you want in this situation.

One last thing — I also recommend that you cap your maximum distance. You could set it to something that you know the battery can handle for a round trip with a little bit of room to spare. So maybe half of the battery flight time, if you know what the flight time is, is probably a good number to start. It’s going to keep you from flying too far and basically allow you to come back when you need to.

And then, let’s not forget about wildlife. Birds, especially gulls and geese, actually love to be around water bodies, and therefore they can mess with your drone. If one comes close to you, then make sure that you climb straight up. And if you do that fast, most of them won’t want to follow you vertically for very long.

Now let’s talk about a couple of maybe emergencies. Sometimes things just don’t go as planned. The weather might turn quickly, or your battery might drain faster than expected.

What to Do If Something Goes Wrong

When the battery is low, make sure that you keep your drone flying smooth and try to get back to land as calm and as fast as possible. Remember, starting and stopping is going to burn a lot more power than just going steady all the way back to land.

Also, accidents can still happen. If your drone touches the water and you can recover it, don’t turn it back on. That’s the key right here. If it fell in salt water, make sure that you rinse it out very thoroughly first using tap water, fresh water. And then you’re going to put it in high-purity isopropyl alcohol to wash out all of the moisture. Let it dry for several days before you try to power it back on. It might still need repairs at this stage, but this might give you the best possible chance to save your footage if you had footage in there, and maybe even the drone itself.

So with the right prep time and the right technique, you can capture amazing shots and still land safely every single time. Return-to-home settings are essential, and this is not just for flying over water, by the way. These settings are going to be very useful when you lose signal because they’re going to send the drone back exactly where it started. It’s one of those very small details that can save you thousands of dollars and, well, quite frankly, hours of frustration.

If you want to feel more confident about your skills, make sure that you grab that Recreational Flying Made Easy course. It’s free, loaded with a ton of great feedback, a ton of experience from our team that we’ve learned over the years, and it’s going to protect your drone and your business investment.

This article is based on a video from our YouTube partner Greg Reverdiau at Pilot Institute. You can read more of Greg’s work on his DroneXL author page.