Mavic water recovery system

[JulienG]

I am not so convinced of these. They produce high air resistance to the propeller downwash.

The pontoons do not seem to go too much under the props.

 

[Hutch]

Hello - Have you ever tried this one ? Does it work well in case of emergency landing?
It is cheap and available on Amazon and other similar websites.

3D Printed Landing Gear Bracket Protector with Buoyancy Bar Floating Set for DJI Mavic Pro Drone Parts Accessories - intl | Lazada Singapore

View media item 1710

Hey Julien,

I'm not convinced with these either, but for very different reasons than GerdS.

The ones I built a year or so ago (posted on page 5 or 6) work well and are made from readily available stuff. I have not found the "pool noodle" pontoon to adversely effect flight. Sure they would in a gale or trying to race with your Mavic, but that isn't the point here. You also wouldn't want to descend as fast as you possibly can due to that stuff hanging below the props. But all drones are sensitive on too fast a decent. So just take it easy coming down. You'll be at 400 ft or less anyway to be safe & legal. No problem. Just avoid big wind. For general flying and cinematic video, the floats do not effect flight much. You need to have them out of the way of the downward sensors, but over water its best to disable the downward sensors anyway. Just don't have the pontoons in the way and NOT turn off downward sensors. Your Mavic will simply climb to its set height and it ain't easy to get it back down. (Don't ask me how I know)

The key is recovery if you loose your Mavic over water. The problem I have with most of the floats you see in this thread is that in a hard landing (like an out of control crash) the pontoon system would be ripped off the Mavic. It would sink like a rock. It's fine to want to try to land on the water in VERY favorable conditions, like no wind, etc. In that case your Mavic has to be high enough above the water to protect the gimbal & sensors from splash. Higher you go with the pontoons, the more instability in wind you may produce. Not high enough and your gimbal may get splashed. Not good. So I settled in the middle. A very soft landing and my gimbal & bottom sensors are dry. The way I wrapped the velcro's around the arms of the Mavic should keep the noodles in place in a hard landing. It would have to rip off the arms of the Mavic it to sink.

What I posted on this thread a year or so ago is all I need for my fishing trips in Canada & works for me. Your milage may vary, as they say.

- hutch

 

[Matt]

I am not so convinced of these. They produce high air resistance to the propeller downwash.

Hutch gives a detailed account on his experience on performance which i can confirm as well with the year plus i have been flying my two versions

The down wash is a by-product of the lift of the propeller as the wright bothers learned and sikorsky adapted to the helicopter is it the difference in the time the air travels across the blade between the top and bottom of the blade that gives lift. this cause a differential pressure. This all occurs at the blade proper. we are talking mm here. Look a phantom the blades they cross right over the arms. These are not Jet engines thrust is a different dynamic.

I guess we could debate and someone else can give a better physics lesson but i know for the fact they fly just fine. The key is a design that will survive a crash if not why waste your time putting these on

 

[JulienG]

Hey Julien,

I'm not convinced with these either, but for very different reasons than GerdS.

The ones I built a year or so ago (posted on page 5 or 6) work well and are made from readily available stuff. I have not found the "pool noodle" pontoon to adversely effect flight. Sure they would in a gale or trying to race with your Mavic, but that isn't the point here. You also wouldn't want to descend as fast as you possibly can due to that stuff hanging below the props. But all drones are sensitive on too fast a decent. So just take it easy coming down. You'll be at 400 ft or less anyway to be safe & legal. No problem. Just avoid big wind. For general flying and cinematic video, the floats do not effect flight much. You need to have them out of the way of the downward sensors, but over water its best to disable the downward sensors anyway. Just don't have the pontoons in the way and NOT turn off downward sensors. Your Mavic will simply climb to its set height and it ain't easy to get it back down. (Don't ask me how I know)

The key is recovery if you loose your Mavic over water. The problem I have with most of the floats you see in this thread is that in a hard landing (like an out of control crash) the pontoon system would be ripped off the Mavic. It would sink like a rock. It's fine to want to try to land on the water in VERY favorable conditions, like no wind, etc. In that case your Mavic has to be high enough above the water to protect the gimbal & sensors from splash. Higher you go with the pontoons, the more instability in wind you may produce. Not high enough and your gimbal may get splashed. Not good. So I settled in the middle. A very soft landing and my gimbal & bottom sensors are dry. The way I wrapped the velcro's around the arms of the Mavic should keep the noodles in place in a hard landing. It would have to rip off the arms of the Mavic it to sink.

What I posted on this thread a year or so ago is all I need for my fishing trips in Canada & works for me. Your milage may vary, as they say.

- hutch

I really don't need to land on water but I just want something to make it float if it crashes....
Getterback is bit extreme solution.

Something like a gopro floaty for Mavic could be great (basically just increasing the volume to make it float).

 

[bobjonesx]

Inspired my Matt I created these. First test flight yesterday. All seemed fine, but I had no wind at all. So more testing ahead. Material was 8 Euro (pool noodle and velcro strap).

Sent from my iPad using MavicPilots

I am super-impressed by all the creativity here (used to be called Yankee ingenuity 2 centuries ago). I can imagined one having more fun tinkering & engineering than actually getting out to fly??!!

 

[DTC709]

Great read and a lot of great insight and creativity here. I just recently purchased a MP and will have it in a few days, living on island, with a outstanding amount of ponds, lakes, wetlands and beautifully rugged coastline, a recovery system was my first thought as well, because like most I’ll avoid water until I’m well versed with my Mavic, but even then, stuff can still go sideways quick.

From what I seen, I’ll be building a design based off Matt’s life jacket and Hutch’s set up. Great work guys!

 

[RayOZ]

Just a thought, would the Mavic float if it ejects it's battery when in water?

 

[BIGLUG24]

Made something similar for my P3. These are for recovery only. Made these for the mavic. I fly quite a bit over open water. Mostly launch from the Aft hardtop on the boat out on the Great Lakes. Similar to the getrback concept but you don't have to worry about the depth of the water, will it deploy and waiting 15 minutes plus. Also trying to find a bobber that floats up out on open water.

Tested the mavic today for the first time. First without the flots then with them on. They do not interfere with the bottom sensors in that I can see a change in height on the app. I have not tested the bottom camera for the landing pic it takes. Not sure how you can access that picture if at all. Hand caught no problem. Just reach up from underneath.

It was 15 degrees today so just a short first flight to check the camera. Looks good thus far. No soft edges. Flew next to a brick school building to check. Didn't see any jello effects while flying as well.

I brought the osmo plus to film as I flew. I was going to use Autoframe by autopilot on the osmo to track the drone. (Airspace app links the two) Neat app but after a few minutes in 15 degrees setting that up I handed the osmo to my nine year old to film. Got some great shots of clouds and evething else but the mavic. Lol

Second flight was with the floats. I did not see any changes in flight characteristics. Second flight was a bit more agreesive to see if the floats got in the camera shot which they did not. Total weight is about 1.75 ounces. Tested them by adding 2# of weight on them in water. they are a bit past half way up as they floated in water. They should displace around 3#. The mavic weights a pound and a half but given it has vents on it and a hard crash water will get in increasing the amount of weight you need to displace. The floats are a bit aft of center mass so I would think more often than not it will actually find itself upside down in the event of a hard landing. I did not put them on and try and float it. It would get wet and these are not landing floats. Just recovery.

It's my mavic Life jacket. It will get wet but will not sink down to Davy Jones's locker.

I painted the rear tip black and the rest neon orange plastic dip spray. This I think will help with orientation from a distance. Two orange dots it is facing me. Orange ringes with black centers camera facing away.

I will do some more tests to see if this decrease performance but in a short flight on heathy drones I lost a couple of minutes of battery but then again my second flight with these on was much more aggressive.

These are just piece of mind and a way to quickly recover the drone in case it drops like a brick from the sky. I keep a bottle of denatured alcohol over 95% to quickly displace the water (after removal of battery) since I fly mostly over fresh water it is possible to negate water damage. Saltwater no way. Instant loss but with DJI refresh no drone no chance.



View attachment 3813 View attachment 3815 View attachment 3814

Here is what i have for me Mavic Pro. Pontoon's are removable and it leaves just the landing gear to get the drone higher

 

[Marco Cantieni]

Here is what i have for me Mavic Pro. Pontoon's are removable and it leaves just the landing gear to get the drone higher

Just right for landing on water intentionally. If you bird splashes into the water from more that 40meters in height I seriously doubt your gear will hold and keep it attached to your bird to prevent it from sinking. Your solution is also more vulnerable to wind.

I‘m using the more closer attached solutions for the reasons mentioned above. It also let me fly the Mavic in sport mode to chase fast boats and jetskis

 

[tstillman]

Have a look at this Alternative:

Taken from this German forum: Landegestell, schwimmfähig - Drohnen-Forum.de - Quadrocopter, Multicopter und FPV

Looks to be a very stable solution to a water landing. Just ordered my Mavic Pro and in the Pacific NW lots of variety of water to fly over. I'd be less worried it I had something like this attached to my drone.

 

[DTC709]

Looks to be a very stable solution to a water landing. Just ordered my Mavic Pro and in the Pacific NW lots of variety of water to fly over. I'd be less worried it I had something like this attached to my drone.

I was worried about water as well, I’m on a island in the Atlantic. But once I came to trust the Mavic, I decided I’d probably be doing more harm then good by adding stuff that isn’t original to the unit. But to each there own I guess. Enjoy your MP! It’s a amazing little piece of tech!

 

[JeffCharger]

I was worried about water as well, I’m on a island in the Atlantic. But once I came to trust the Mavic, I decided I’d probably be doing more harm then good by adding stuff that isn’t original to the unit. But to each there own I guess. Enjoy your MP! It’s a amazing little piece of tech!

I'm with DTC. I went to the task of building some flotation, did some testing, made some adjustments, and proved that it was able to land and take-off repeatedly. It also flew pretty well - I couldn't notice any impact. Once I became comfortable with the Mavic, I gained confidence in its ability (and my cautious nature) and spend most of my flying time over a lake without the flotation.

 

[DTC709]

I'm with DTC. I went to the task of building some flotation, did some testing, made some adjustments, and proved that it was able to land and take-off repeatedly. It also flew pretty well - I couldn't notice any impact. Once I became comfortable with the Mavic, I gained confidence in its ability (and my cautious nature) and spend most of my flying time over a lake without the flotation.

Yeah, I wasn’t even gunna go for water landings, just a worst case scenario recovery option. But I seen photos of stuff coming loose and hitting props, and people being super lucky to make it back and land. Let the mavic do its thing, out of all the research I’ve done, these do have some issues, but I haven’t seen anything really about them just dropping out of the sky

 

[Fly more]

I have these floats and using them flying over water in cinematic or tripod mode. Only 'problem' is error message about bottom sensors, usually appears around 50 meters altitude. I guess it's because sensors see the floats from the start and when gaining more altitude system gets confused why ground is still there

 

[Cybernaut]

Here's a video that shows how to attach the GetterBack to the Mavic. It also shows an audible recovery system for land.

I do like the idea of floats.It's better to keep the electronics and motors dry, especially if you are over salt water.

 

[Matt]

I have these floats and using them flying over water in cinematic or tripod mode. Only 'problem' is error message about bottom sensors, usually appears around 50 meters altitude. I guess it's because sensors see the floats from the start and when gaining more altitude system gets confused why ground is still there

View attachment 42625

If you do a calibration test on your bottom sensors you can check to see if the senor camera's are picking up the floats. I did this for my pontoon version and life jacket version to confirm they were not

 

[DTC709]

Here's a video that shows how to attach the GetterBack to the Mavic. It also shows an audible recovery system for land.

I do like the idea of floats.It's better to keep the electronics and motors dry, especially if you are over salt water.

Watch some videos on the getterback. After about 10ft depth the balloon doesn’t seem to deploy

 

[Andrew F]

I bought the floats but like others here I don't use them. I fly primarily over the ocean, and even on a calm day the waves and shifting tides would likely flip the drone over should it land in the water. The extra weight, though minimal, is also a negative as are the aerodynamic concerns. I've had many many hours of successful flying and feel confident in the Mavic's ability to stay in the air.

 

[nyctosf]

Anyone considered something like this just dangling below the drone as a floating / recovery tool - seems to be good up to 3.3 lbs

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