Anyone looked into these?

Romenfree · May 25, 2016

Hello people, new to the DJI P4 but wondering if anyone had found a flaw with these "Waterstrider" landing pontoons for the DJI P's. I sail a lot and would love to get some footage but always concerned about being over water.
New to posting links to so please forgive me if it doesn't work. Let me know what you think.
Cheers
WaterStrider: Perfect Footage. Confident Landings. Anywhere.

Romonaga · May 25, 2016

I don't know, the things are ugly as sin, look large as heck, concerned about how well it protects camera. I also wonder about possible structural damage from the extra load, not only to the body but the engines.

I also wonder about take offs. There is a representative of the company that pops in and he has provided footage and many people back this project. I have watched the video, examined the info, while I don't mind being an early adaptor, there are to many questions in my mind about this device. I personally will take a wait and see on this. For the time, I prefer to keep my Birds feet dry, after all she is not a water bird at all.

BDOG · May 25, 2016

They are not released yet as their KickStarter campaign has not been fully funded yet.

So essentially its still a concept without any mass production orders being fulfilled.

An inherent flaw is to do an angled landing at a high altitude drop will undoubtedly dunk the camera. Nice soft touch landing would be a must with a product like this. Pressing the Autoland button might also be a risky proposition as sometimes autolanding on the ground and not water has the quad land pretty hard. Could you imagine over water?

Romonaga · May 25, 2016

I also question what they are doing to stabilize and prevent tip over.

Romenfree · May 25, 2016

Good points, I don't think tipping over would be a concern unless you were coming in too fast in which case nothing is going to help. I am only looking at them as a safety when flying over water, landing and take off on water is not what I would be interested in.
Just think they would be good insurance when over the blue.

Romonaga · May 25, 2016

Romenfree said:
Good points, I don't think tipping over would be a concern unless you were coming in too fast in which case nothing is going to help. I am only looking at them as a safety when flying over water, landing and take off on water is not what I would be interested in.
Just think they would be good insurance when over the blue.

I have to agree, if you do plan on doing a lot of water flying it might just save you.

BDOG · May 25, 2016

Agreed! Sign up as a KickStarter backer to get the deal.
They angle the carbon fiber landing gear rods in directions that add to stability when landing on water.

Take a close look at the angles that they are placed in. The carbon arms are not straight out or straight down.

Romonaga · May 25, 2016

The FAQ answers a lot of the questions, the one real concern left is "We see a roughly 30% reduction in a lab environment"

That's a lot of lost flight time, and that was in lab conditions, and I would expect that number to be worse in real conditions.

Meta4 · May 25, 2016

Romenfree said:
Hello people, new to the DJI P4 but wondering if anyone had found a flaw with these "Waterstrider" landing pontoons for the DJI P's. I sail a lot and would love to get some footage but always concerned about being over water.
New to posting links to so please forgive me if it doesn't work. Let me know what you think.

It looks fabulous ... if what you need is the ability to land on a pond.
It looks horrible if you just want to fly over water.

They'll probably sell a few to nervous flyers that want to buy something for peace of mind but it makes no sense for practical flying
Your Phantom doesn't have a psychological issue flying over water ... you do.
I do most of my flying over water but I wouldn't be able to do what I do if I strapped this much stuff onto my Phantom.

BDOG · May 25, 2016

Yeah they are going to act like big wind sails and add alot of wind resistance.

Wish they folded up vertically to provide more of a slicing through the air and then deployed should sudden altitude drop be experienced. Kinda like those actuator style landing gear they make aftermarket for the Phantoms.

Chopstix Kid · May 25, 2016

Romonaga said:
The FAQ answers a lot of the questions, the one real concern left is "We see a roughly 30% reduction in a lab environment"

That's a lot of lost flight time, and that was in lab conditions, and I would expect that number to be worse in real conditions.

I believe that number is with their prototype 3D printed version, not the planned final injected version.

John Locke · May 25, 2016

BDOG said:
. Nice soft touch landing would be a must with a product like this.

Aren't soft touch landing always a must? Do some pilots make a habit of coming in for hard landings? Sorry for the sarcasm.

This looks like a great idea for those doing a lot of water work. It appears they have made the float spacing such that it's not in the field of view, which is what I was initially thinking. I like how the floats are spaced away from the down flow of air from the props, almost no obstruction for lift efficiency. The P4 has plenty of lift power, more power than P3, so this extra weight should be easy for the P4 to handle with ease. The float assembly weighs only .66lbs. P4 weighs 3lbs, the Solo weights 3.9lbs. So with the floats installed it's going to weigh less than a Solo without pontoons. The views show the P4 handling pretty good. I may pick this up for water jobs, looks like a nice accessory. However it looks too bulky to fly on an airplane on vacation, where I do most of my water work. MSRP of $239 is too much, needs to be under $100 if they want to sell many of these, IMHO.

BDOG · May 25, 2016

John Locke said:
Aren't soft touch landing always a must? Do some pilots make a habit of coming in for hard landings? Sorry for the sarcasm.

This looks like a great idea for those doing a lot of water work. It appears they have made the float spacing such that it's not in the field of view, which is what I was initially thinking. I like how the floats are spaced away from the down flow of air from the props, almost no obstruction for lift efficiency. The P4 has plenty of lift power, more power than P3, so this extra weight should be easy for the P4 to handle with ease. The float assembly weighs only .66lbs. P4 weighs 3lbs, the Solo weights 3.9lbs. So with the floats installed it's going to weigh less than a Solo without pontoons. The views show the P4 handling pretty good. I may pick this up for water jobs, looks like a nice accessory. However it looks too bulky to fly on an airplane on vacation, where I do most of my water work. MSRP of $239 is too much, needs to be under $100 if they want to sell many of these, IMHO.

If using the Autoland button one is not always guaranteed a nice soft touch down. That's essentially the point I was making. I hand catch so its a non-issue for me.

eyecon82 · May 25, 2016

This is a dumb idea

BDOG · May 25, 2016

eyecon82 said:
This is a dumb idea

Well that's insightful!

msinger · May 25, 2016

I think the idea is pretty ingenious. It's certainly not a must-have for all Phantom pilots. That can be said about many third party accessories though.