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Water landing floats for mavic mini.

jac1957

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I seen on Amazon, water landing floats for the mini. My question is, are they worth the money or are they useless. Earlier today i was flying over water and got a strong wind warning. Tried RTH but the mini couldn't fly into the strong wind and started to drift. Of course i was over water. My idea is, if the mini would have come down in the water and i had these floats on at least it wouldn't sink and i would have something to send back to DJI for replacement if the mini was damaged or destroyed. otherwise i guess it would just sink. Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated.
 
I seen on Amazon, water landing floats for the mini. My question is, are they worth the money or are they useless. Earlier today i was flying over water and got a strong wind warning. Tried RTH but the mini couldn't fly into the strong wind and started to drift. Of course i was over water. My idea is, if the mini would have come down in the water and i had these floats on at least it wouldn't sink and i would have something to send back to DJI for replacement if the mini was damaged or destroyed. otherwise i guess it would just sink. Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated.
Unless you need to land on water, they would be completely useless (just as they are for larger drones).
The smaller the drone, the bigger the burden of weight and wind resistance when you strap this junk to it.
Floats are a constant attraction for nervous new flyers but they are more likely to contribute to losing your drone than helping save it.
 
Well i certainly am a new flyer. My idea was that i would just use them around water. But you are right about weight and wind resistance. Thanks for the reply. And i also learned an important lesson about flying the mini on windy days.
 
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I am curious to know if the MM could even lift that monstrosity indoors, much less outdoors in any kind of breeze. Better have a string attached as it will act more like a kite than a drone.

Amazon should do some vetting of their sellers.
 
Amazon should do some vetting of their sellers.

And this is exactly why I don't order some things from Amazon anymore, like memory cards, water filters, etc. I never thought that fake products would end up in the Amazon product stream, but that's exactly what's happening.

Quite frankly, I think Amazon has hurt its reputation considerably by allowing unvetted third-party sellers to use its system. The good news is that, in my case, Best Buy is benefiting from Amazon's cavalier attitude regarding its third-party sellers.

I only wish there was an easier way to filter Amazon products so you can only see those that are shipped and sold by Amazon. But, that too would benefit Best Buy. :)
 
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As far as the wet suits for the mini's is concerned, these drones are not designed for or meant to be flying in the rain even with the wet suit. On that note, I would never try a launch or a landing on water deliberately. But if I know I will be doing a fair amount of flying over water I was just considering the floats for an emergency landing. I have the DJI Care refresh insurance so at least I would have the bad drone to send back. I kind of doubt if they would honor the insurance if I told them my drone was on the bottom of a lake.
 
I have the DJI Care refresh insurance so at least I would have the bad drone to send back. I kind of doubt if they would honor the insurance if I told them my drone was on the bottom of a lake.
No, they wouldn't. I'm pretty sure you would have to send them back a physical product. :)
 
I have a solution with foam balls for my Mavic Pro which works well and has been tested several times with touch down and takeoff on water. Primarly I have bought them for security reasons in case smoething goes wrong over water.

BUT:
I get strong wind warnings already very early because of the increased wind attack area, so I am using them only if there is no or only calm wind.

Compared to the Pro the Mavic Mini has significantly less power reserves against wind and even less safety distance reserves between water surface and camera. So it is not worth the effort adding floats, the risk is too high.
 
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I seen on Amazon, water landing floats for the mini. My question is, are they worth the money or are they useless. Earlier today i was flying over water and got a strong wind warning. Tried RTH but the mini couldn't fly into the strong wind and started to drift. Of course i was over water. My idea is, if the mini would have come down in the water and i had these floats on at least it wouldn't sink and i would have something to send back to DJI for replacement if the mini was damaged or destroyed. otherwise i guess it would just sink. Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated.
Just received a patent for a water landing pontoon and am waiting for the prototype to arrive. It does more than just float. I hope this community will be amazed at the possibilities.
 
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I guess you guy's are a key target for the Mavic Mini Wet Suits.
Hey Phantomrain.org, you got to step in and present your product.
The wet suit helps while flying...but would be useless with a forced landing over water.

Phantomrain.org does offer a "Sea Lander Jacket", but not a version for the Mini at this point. The sea lander jacket does keep the drone floating...so hopefully time for a rescue by boat (or by a strong swimmer).
 
Unless you need to land on water, they would be completely useless (just as they are for larger drones).
The smaller the drone, the bigger the burden of weight and wind resistance when you strap this junk to it.
Floats are a constant attraction for nervous new flyers but they are more likely to contribute to losing your drone than helping save it.
Also, wondering whether the pontoons would be visible in photos or videos, depending on camera direction.
 
I have been thinking the exact same thing. I have the DJI care package but how do I retrieve the drone in the event of a water landing. I don’t want the wind age of the big Floats and I don’t want the added weight. Here is what I am thinking... BUBBLE WRAP. Just enough on the top with two sided tape to make it float. Question is... how much is enough? DJI would you sponsor one DJI Mavic mini so we can find out?

image.jpg
 
I have been thinking the exact same thing. I have the DJI care package but how do I retrieve the drone in the event of a water landing. I don’t want the wind age of the big Floats and I don’t want the added weight. Here is what I am thinking... BUBBLE WRAP. Just enough on the top with two sided tape to make it float. Question is... how much is enough? DJI would you sponsor one DJI Mavic mini so we can find out? Of course the drone would be destroyed but you could recover it and I think the bubble wrap is under a gram so no need to get the flight certificate.

View attachment 105280
 
I have been thinking the exact same thing. I have the DJI care package but how do I retrieve the drone in the event of a water landing. I don’t want the wind age of the big Floats and I don’t want the added weight. Here is what I am thinking... BUBBLE WRAP. Just enough on the top with two sided tape to make it float. Question is... how much is enough? DJI would you sponsor one DJI Mavic mini so we can find out?

View attachment 105280
Floating 249 grams requires displacing about 15.2 cubic inches of water. If you're only interested in emergencies and put the bubble wrap on the top, that would allow the drone itself to be submerged, so it would displace some, with things like the foam inserts in the legs and perhaps some trapped air helping, but I'd guess that you'd want at least 10 cubic inches of bubble wrap.
 
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Floating 249 grams requires displacing about 15.2 cubic inches of water. If you're only interested in emergencies and put the bubble wrap on the top, that would allow the drone itself to be submerged, so it would displace some, with things like the foam inserts in the legs and perhaps some trapped air helping, but I'd guess that you'd want at least 10 cubic inches of bubble wrap.
Yes and getting that much bubble wrap on is tough. My calculations suggest I need between 64 and 73 bubbles to make it float which is ridiculous. I’ll have to think more about the volume of the drone itself that it displaced because I just need enough to keep it at the surface for retrieval rather than sitting on top. I don’t have time to try this with my own drone before I leave for my trip otherwise I would see what I could do.
so far I have made it to 11 bubbles which is about 2.3 cubic inches of displacement. I have a long way to go. image.jpg
 
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