Mavic 2 water recovery solution

[Marco Cantieni]

When flying over water the fear of a droned drone has always been a blind passenger for me. Then I discovered several solutions for water landing installations such as skids or styrofoam balls. However all of them have been designed to softly land on water just for the sake of fun or achieving exciting perspectives. They are not stable enough to survive a hard crash on water and prevent the drone from drowning making a later recovery impossible.

This drove me to construct a solution involving swim noodles but closer and more firmly mounted to the Mavic than the available skid solution. I've built this for my Mavic 1 and used it for 18 months. Now I've built a new version to fit the Mavic 2. Here is the result.












Pro:

• compact design, it even fits in my Mavic bag
• high probability the floating body keeps attached to the drone even during a hard crash.
• easy and quick mount
• light weight (50 grams)
• much less wind sensitive than styrofoam balls or bigger skid solution
• all sensors continue to be fully functional
• Camera view not obstructed

Con:

• landing on water will Mavic definitely catch water, because of compact design. Designed to keep Mavic on the surface only not turning Mavic into a RC boat.
• battery change requires to loose 1 strap

So let me know what you think ツ

 

[go-ahead-doubledown]

Super mod! I use a mp quite a bit while chartering on lake Erie. Would you have time to post a materials list?
(pvc size & length, etc.) Thanks. Have a lot of respect for you guys with the better mouse trap!

 

[smoothie]

Looks cool. Have you actually landed.on water with no damage?

 

[Marco Cantieni]

Thanks for your comment.
Shopping list:

2 freshly sliced pieces of pool noodles, 6,5cm in diameter, 22cm in length
2 plastic tubes, 1,5cm in diameter, 20cm in length
2 strips of velcro tape, available in bike shops. I could only get two 25cm pieces thus I stitched ot together.

Its up to you how you clamp the tube ends. I've used washers made of pool noodle material and plastic sticks.

 

[Marco Cantieni]

Looks cool. Have you actually landed.on water with no damage?

• landing on water will Mavic definitely catch water, because of compact design. Designed to keep Mavic on the surface only not turning Mavic into a RC boat.

 

[jsinon]

Love the idea! I'm much more concerned about after crash recovery than I am intentionally landing on water. What about the air/cooling vents on the drone itself, do they remain unobstructed?

How does the added weight affect battery life/flight time?

 

[Marco Cantieni]

What about the air/cooling vents on the drone itself, do they remain unobstructed?

Yes, totally

How does the added weight affect battery life/flight time?

It‘s not just the weight but also the increased air resistance. The flight time is reduced my 5mins. max. That figure is based on my experience using this design for the last 18 months

 

[go-ahead-doubledown]

BTW, Is that plastic over the strobes?

 

[Marco Cantieni]

BTW, Is that plastic over the strobes?

It is a Polycarbonate Lens

Strobon v2 Polycarbonate Lens - Flytron

 

[ff22]

Neat flotation method.

I liked your Lago di Garda video. I've done a few hikes around there - Parmelan (sp?) and another on the east side - with stations of the cross or similar. The Dolomites are wonderful.

 

[Marco Cantieni]

Just in case I want to softly land on water this solution can be equipped with additional pieces of swim noodles.

Now the extra weight is noticable. The Mavics agility suffers a bit.

 

[Marco Cantieni]

The strobe module I use is a „STROBON Cree Standalone“ from Flytron, expanded with two additional Cree LEDs. That makes a 3 LED strobe. Super bright but still not bright enough to spot the bird from more than 400m distance.

 

[jsinon]

Yes, totally


It‘s not just the weight but also the increased air resistance. The flight time is reduced my 5mins. max. That figure is based on my experience using this design for the last 18 months

5 minutes, thats not bad at all.

 

[Marco Cantieni]

5 minutes, thats not bad at all.

Practically 5mins are acceptable. Hard to believe that only 50 grams are reducing the flight time by 5mins. The primary factor here is most likely the drag. But other solution are even more bulky.