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Parachute?

Deleted Member 997

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I purchased the manti parachute. Anyone fly with a parachute? I'm not in this to keep buying replacements. Plus i have the pontoons for water landings. Granted I'll lose flight time but saves me from not buying a new UAS
 
I am curious, what makes you think you would otherwise HAVE to keep buying replacements, or asked another way, what makes you think that falling from the sky is inevitable?
To answer your question, I do not use a parachute.
 
Many of us like to "customize/outfit" our units to the MAX and I look at floats and a parachute as just that. If someone wants to spend the $$ and it makes them feel more confident why not?
 
Considering that most of the drone losses I've seen are from flyaways (where the drone isn't found) or from water landings, I don't see a parachute as being very useful. Drones just don't "fall from the sky" that often. Further, depending on wind drift, using a parachute might well hinder efforts to recover your bird if the actual landing area is different (due to the parachute) than when the drone went off line, and you are trying to base a search on those coordinates.

I'd say that your money and time are better spent buying batteries and flying more to build expertise and confidence!
 
The wind drift thing is an VERY GOOD point, it could be significant in terms of distance or what it lands on/in.
 
There have probably been far more canopy failures than catastrophic failures in drones ..but...and then again as Big A says.... if you have the bucks.... does anyone else remember when parachute flares for night operation were standard factory equipment on general aviation aircraft such as the Beechcraft Bonanza etc. Yike's...I've never talked with anyone with knowledge of anyone using one. There are still quite a few aircraft around today with the telltale three holes in the rear side of the fuselage.
 
Considering that most of the drone losses I've seen are from flyaways (where the drone isn't found) or from water landings, I don't see a parachute as being very useful. Drones just don't "fall from the sky" that often. Further, depending on wind drift, using a parachute might well hinder efforts to recover your bird if the actual landing area is different (due to the parachute) than when the drone went off line, and you are trying to base a search on those coordinates.

I'd say that your money and time are better spent buying batteries and flying more to build expertise and confidence!


Most are flyaways? While yes there are some of those (operator error usually) we see large number of failures that do not result in flyaways. Impacts into objects (trees, wires, etc) unseated batteries, mysterious mid-air strikes, and so many other situations where a Parachute "might" be helpful.

I've only seen one "sUAS Parachute deployment" (Inspire 1 I believe) and it wasn't a casual "Float Float Float" scenario. The parachute system significantly reduced the speed of descent but it wasn't even remotely near a "Floating" action. I guess it depends on the design of the chute compared to the weight of the UAS.

 
The main reason, at least in the USA, to purchase a parachute is to attain your Part 107.39 Operations over non-participants waiver from the FAA. They want to know you have a plan in place in case your drone falls from the sky, over people. If you shoot live events, concerts, etc...This is a must have to get the waiver.
 
Be careful we tried to develop a parachute product. The issue is you need to deploy and fill the canopy at a sufficient height to slow the drone such that it does become damaged upon impact. We determined that a 1.5m diameter canopy was required for a 1.7 to 2.4 lb load. Unfortunately a height above 80 feet was required to fully deploy but additional 30-50 feet was required to slow it down such that damage would only be minimal. We never were able to have a unit land with no damage. One adverse effect is, if there is any wind the unit could float 200-400 feet away if the deployment occurred above 150 feet.
We have one still hanging in a tree 125 deet in the air. Unfortunately the only way to get it down is to take down the tree.
However all that being said if you were flying above 250 feet the design might just work but the drift would be huge. We could not find a wide open location to test such a deployment.
In short unit weight and inability to guarantee deployment at a sufficient height makes concept unreliable.
 
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