Skids and Floatation (landing/takeoff) from water

[saboken]

i just saw a pair of skids for sale that fit the Mavic and you can cut pool noodles to add pontoons to the drone so it can land and takeoff from calm water! Has anyone here done this? It would make the drone a bit more recoverable if it malfunctions over water also (dji won’t replace a lost drone on the bottom of a lake) and I’m to old to dive in a deep body of water to retrieve the drone. What are your experiences with using a flotation device on your Mavic?

 

[Gunglejim]

I would like to know as well as the majority of my flights are over water. You never know.

 

[Oglo]

I've added them to my kit.
They work amazingly, albeit with following caveats:
- Must be no/minor wind.
- don't fly high with them as more prone to "high winds"
- Reduces battery life a fair amount.
- Reduces fine control of MP, but MP certainly can handle them easily.

I land and take off from still water no problems (pontoons must be set up so MP is balanced).
I wouldn't use them in the sea with waves.

Plenty of posts with discussions and test flights.

 

[saboken]

I would like to know as well as the majority of my flights are over water. You never know.

The YouTube video looked promising but it was by the
Maker of the skids, he showed one water landing and one takeoff, on a calm lake with some ducks watching like it was just another bird, he has something if they work? The only thing that worries me is the loss of aerodynamics because of the noodles being so large it might not help with stability if you have them on at any real height a gust may try to flip the drone and that would be bad.

 

[saboken]

I've added them to my kit.
They work amazingly, albeit with following caveats:
- Must be no/minor wind.
- don't fly high with them as more prone to "high winds"
- Reduces battery life a fair amount.
- Reduces fine control of MP, but MP certainly can handle them easily.

I land and take off from still water no problems (pontoons must be set up so MP is balanced).
I wouldn't use them in the sea with waves.

Plenty of posts with discussions and test flights.

That’s what I thought about the wind to bad there’s no way to drop them in flight if you have a issue!

 

[saboken]

I thought some kind of inflatable device would work to keep the drone above water if there’s a failure. I wish I still worked for the tech company I retired from we could have developed a air bag of sorts that could either be automatically or manually deployed if needed, it could save a lot of lost drones! Dji generally won’t honor the protection plan if you can’t recover the drone! There have been a few exceptions (if true?) I’m really afraid of a loss over something I can’t retrieve my drone from.

 

[slk]

mikeflys.com

 

[BIGLUG24]

I just got a set yesterday and will receive them in 3 to 4 days the price is high right now being a start up
company 55.00 for skids and 50.00 for the floats. any changes to the set will be given to you free of charge
and they are good for life. You also get 50% off new products. The price in the summer is going to drop to
50.00 for the set but you do not get the discount. Here is the web site irepairmd looks like a very nice
set. They also do Phantom repairs

 

[saboken]

I just got a set yesterday and will receive them in 3 to 4 days the price is high right now being a start up
company 55.00 for skids and 50.00 for the floats. any changes to the set will be given to you free of charge
and they are good for life. You also get 50% off new products. The price in the summer is going to drop to
50.00 for the set but you do not get the discount. Here is the web site irepairmd looks like a very nice
set. They also do Phantom repairs

The site has issues the photos for the mavic go to the he phantom at least on my iPad but I love these ideas Dji doesn’t think this far ahead I’m sure if they become popular enough Dji will duplicate the idea unless this guys smart and patents it so they have to pay him to use the idea

 

[meens]

I have been using floating gears for a while originally designed by Noël ( see : Mavic water recovery system attachment. by NoeI) . SInce I do not have a printer I modified the files to make it only one piece that is available for printing on thingiverse : Floating gear for DJI Mavic Pro by meens but also on Shapeways where you can order the part : Floating Gear by meens on Shapeways. Noêle haes some videos on Thingiverse and I made a test flight with my version here :

.

I have bee using them this summer in Gernsey since flying was almost over water all the time. I had no difficulty and didn't notice any significant shortage of battery time.

Vincent