I want to thank all who took the time to respond it my original thread “Help! What is the best WATER rescue device?” especially TedS and JMTremblay on MavicPilots site for their detailed responses. Since I posted my request on both the Mavic and Phantom sites I will post this on there as well. Since someone asked for an update on my decision here it is. I decided to do this as a separate thread due too much off topic discussion on my original thread.
There appear to be 4 types of products out there. My evaluation is for crashing on water not landing on water. Some factors in my decision by product.
Getterback: A device that does not work unless the water depth is greater than 10 feet which is not good for many lakes. Also it allows the drone to end up on the bottom of the lake. It is a one use product. Bobber will be difficult to find due to very small size.
Round Floats from many Chinese vendors: Need to purchase 2 units one for each drone. Looks like they will break off during a crash. My concern is wind resistance if I get into a headwind. Also they look silly. They typically raise the center of gravity of the drone so if a drone was to auto land on water they would most likely allow the drone to flip over. A lot of volume to carry around and put on and take off.
Flat floats from Phantomrain.com: Need to purchase 2 units one for each drone. These look like they will definitely survive a water crash and would be reusable. A concern is wind resistance if I get into a headwind. Another concern, the drone props have to overcome the weight of these floats and the downward wind resistance as they block downward air flow. I was concerned with reduced flight time. A lot of volume to carry around and put on and take off. After a crash the float would end up on the surface with the drone below it, but the profile would be difficult to see unless the water was flat. Any waves and there was only going to be something 1-2” floating on the surface. Not easy to find. After one comment about this type of device, I realized that high end life vests are worn uninflated. They are only designed to be inflated when and if a person hits the water they can manually activate them to fill up. Higher end units automatically activate. In all fairness these floats appear to be designed for landing on water within short distance from the pilot and may very well work fine for that application. Also if your drone decides to auto land on water this device may work fine but any rough water and it could flip as the float raises the center of gravity which will enhance its ability to flip.
I purchased the DR9 Drone Life Preserver from drone-retriever.com and 2 sets of reflectors.
They arrived yesterday and were mounted to my Mavic Platinum.
Side evaluation: The reflectors look nice. Last night I placed my drone at the end of a field about 3 football fields away on a tree branch several feet above the ground.
My dad came over about 8:00pm and it was dark, I told him that I wanted to see if he could find my drone in the field as I wanted to see if the reflectors helped. He only knew that he was looking for my Mavic Platinum and he used my new LED flashlight. He spotted reflections at about 2 football fields from the drone and became curious. As we approached with the flashlight pointing at the drone it lit up like a beacon. Although not a water device it will definitely help locate a lost drone in the woods.
This morning I flew the drone with the life preserver attached to the top. No issues it flew so well that I couldn’t notice any performance shortcomings. After 1 min of flying you don’t even notice that it is on the drone. There was absolutely no wind so flight time was only reduced by about 5 min. My drone usually has >28min of flight time and hovers at 4800rpm after precision takeoff. With this unit attached and hovering the rpms increase to 5600 or 16.7% higher. So 28min less 16.7% gives an estimated flight time of 28 - 4.7 = 23.3min which I can live with and I actually got. A nice feature about this device is that it makes handling the drone very easy as it does work like a handle when attached to the top of the drone. Yes the stress level when flying over water does drop knowing that if the drone or in my case when the drone crashes it will be saved and easy to find with an orange air buoy floating on the surface of the lake. Also it is so compact that it easily fits into my drone bag when not attached to the drone.
The quality of the unit is excellent. When my dad saw it he told me that the activator that they used is the same type used on professional high end marine life vests which had been redesigned to accept a much smaller CO2 cylinder [he is an engineer]. I asked him to estimate what it cost me, to see if I got a good deal. His guess was $50.00 more than the delivered $79.00 price.
Finally, if you want a straight forward competitive comparison of rescue devices their website does a good job of providing insight on this product as well as various other types of devices. Also if you have or had a water event this site tells and shows what to do to after the drone goes swimming. I just purchased a gallon of methanol on Amazon.
Hope this is helpful to others and it is only 1 opinion, so do your own research.
Fly safe and thanks again for the insight provided.
Maureen
There appear to be 4 types of products out there. My evaluation is for crashing on water not landing on water. Some factors in my decision by product.
Getterback: A device that does not work unless the water depth is greater than 10 feet which is not good for many lakes. Also it allows the drone to end up on the bottom of the lake. It is a one use product. Bobber will be difficult to find due to very small size.
Round Floats from many Chinese vendors: Need to purchase 2 units one for each drone. Looks like they will break off during a crash. My concern is wind resistance if I get into a headwind. Also they look silly. They typically raise the center of gravity of the drone so if a drone was to auto land on water they would most likely allow the drone to flip over. A lot of volume to carry around and put on and take off.
Flat floats from Phantomrain.com: Need to purchase 2 units one for each drone. These look like they will definitely survive a water crash and would be reusable. A concern is wind resistance if I get into a headwind. Another concern, the drone props have to overcome the weight of these floats and the downward wind resistance as they block downward air flow. I was concerned with reduced flight time. A lot of volume to carry around and put on and take off. After a crash the float would end up on the surface with the drone below it, but the profile would be difficult to see unless the water was flat. Any waves and there was only going to be something 1-2” floating on the surface. Not easy to find. After one comment about this type of device, I realized that high end life vests are worn uninflated. They are only designed to be inflated when and if a person hits the water they can manually activate them to fill up. Higher end units automatically activate. In all fairness these floats appear to be designed for landing on water within short distance from the pilot and may very well work fine for that application. Also if your drone decides to auto land on water this device may work fine but any rough water and it could flip as the float raises the center of gravity which will enhance its ability to flip.
I purchased the DR9 Drone Life Preserver from drone-retriever.com and 2 sets of reflectors.
They arrived yesterday and were mounted to my Mavic Platinum.
Side evaluation: The reflectors look nice. Last night I placed my drone at the end of a field about 3 football fields away on a tree branch several feet above the ground.
My dad came over about 8:00pm and it was dark, I told him that I wanted to see if he could find my drone in the field as I wanted to see if the reflectors helped. He only knew that he was looking for my Mavic Platinum and he used my new LED flashlight. He spotted reflections at about 2 football fields from the drone and became curious. As we approached with the flashlight pointing at the drone it lit up like a beacon. Although not a water device it will definitely help locate a lost drone in the woods.
This morning I flew the drone with the life preserver attached to the top. No issues it flew so well that I couldn’t notice any performance shortcomings. After 1 min of flying you don’t even notice that it is on the drone. There was absolutely no wind so flight time was only reduced by about 5 min. My drone usually has >28min of flight time and hovers at 4800rpm after precision takeoff. With this unit attached and hovering the rpms increase to 5600 or 16.7% higher. So 28min less 16.7% gives an estimated flight time of 28 - 4.7 = 23.3min which I can live with and I actually got. A nice feature about this device is that it makes handling the drone very easy as it does work like a handle when attached to the top of the drone. Yes the stress level when flying over water does drop knowing that if the drone or in my case when the drone crashes it will be saved and easy to find with an orange air buoy floating on the surface of the lake. Also it is so compact that it easily fits into my drone bag when not attached to the drone.
The quality of the unit is excellent. When my dad saw it he told me that the activator that they used is the same type used on professional high end marine life vests which had been redesigned to accept a much smaller CO2 cylinder [he is an engineer]. I asked him to estimate what it cost me, to see if I got a good deal. His guess was $50.00 more than the delivered $79.00 price.
Finally, if you want a straight forward competitive comparison of rescue devices their website does a good job of providing insight on this product as well as various other types of devices. Also if you have or had a water event this site tells and shows what to do to after the drone goes swimming. I just purchased a gallon of methanol on Amazon.
Hope this is helpful to others and it is only 1 opinion, so do your own research.
Fly safe and thanks again for the insight provided.
Maureen
