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"They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown. ~Carl Sagan
I posted this nearly a year ago, and many laughed. To me, it was an invention of necessity. I lived aboard for 8 years, bought the P2V+, and wanted to get footage of the New England coast; much of it over water. I could not come to terms with the possibility of a $1500.00 drone marinating at the bottom of the ocean in the event of a mishap. I came up with this, and was finally vindicated when a buddy's drone augered in to the Atlantic recently. He got his drone back. I will not guarantee that it works for you, but any chance of saving the quad is better than no chance. Be sure to use the "HEAVY DUTY" Freezer storage bags with the double zipper. Also buy quality nylon zip-ties with 18 lb tensile strength. Do not use the cheap brittle plastic version. Two inflated 1 quart bags will support ~4.5 lb; my phantom tips the scales at 3.2 lbs, so there is >1 lb of reserve flotation. The pool test was done with 3.5 lbs of steel to simulate the phantom's weight; much more dense and compact than the bird, which is spread out over a much larger area. I forcibly threw the test sample as hard as I could into the pool. There was no breakage of zip ties, or bags popping or ripping. UHMW polyethylene and nylon are tough materials. In reality, the bird is hollow, and the weight is spread out over a much larger area, so the test was more severe than a real-world splashdown. I believe a phantom would actually float on it's own for a bit until she swallowed. Laugh if you want, but I won't fly over water without these.
10¢ and 5 minutes of your time could save your bird.
Snip and toss when you're done, and I'm your uncle.
THE IMPLEMENTATION
Video HERE:
THE TEST
Video HERE:
"They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown. ~Carl Sagan
I posted this nearly a year ago, and many laughed. To me, it was an invention of necessity. I lived aboard for 8 years, bought the P2V+, and wanted to get footage of the New England coast; much of it over water. I could not come to terms with the possibility of a $1500.00 drone marinating at the bottom of the ocean in the event of a mishap. I came up with this, and was finally vindicated when a buddy's drone augered in to the Atlantic recently. He got his drone back. I will not guarantee that it works for you, but any chance of saving the quad is better than no chance. Be sure to use the "HEAVY DUTY" Freezer storage bags with the double zipper. Also buy quality nylon zip-ties with 18 lb tensile strength. Do not use the cheap brittle plastic version. Two inflated 1 quart bags will support ~4.5 lb; my phantom tips the scales at 3.2 lbs, so there is >1 lb of reserve flotation. The pool test was done with 3.5 lbs of steel to simulate the phantom's weight; much more dense and compact than the bird, which is spread out over a much larger area. I forcibly threw the test sample as hard as I could into the pool. There was no breakage of zip ties, or bags popping or ripping. UHMW polyethylene and nylon are tough materials. In reality, the bird is hollow, and the weight is spread out over a much larger area, so the test was more severe than a real-world splashdown. I believe a phantom would actually float on it's own for a bit until she swallowed. Laugh if you want, but I won't fly over water without these.
10¢ and 5 minutes of your time could save your bird.
Snip and toss when you're done, and I'm your uncle.
THE IMPLEMENTATION
Video HERE:
THE TEST
Video HERE:
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