Take off and land in water

[larrym]

"Do you have a parachute and airbags in case it happens over land?"

Great idea. I'll get right to work on that.

 

[Uncle Stumpy]

And with that I'm going in to watch Sheldon, Leonard & Penny to see what they come up with tonight! Lol

Who are Sheldon Leonard and Penny?

 

[MikeyP]

Altho I had read of concerns that people have of flying over water, I forgot about it the first time I flew over water and I never encountered any problem. In this video, I flew close enough for my props to ripple the water

I made no changes in any settings and have made other flights over water without incident. I fly a Phantom4. While there, at my Ekim Nosreip youTube channel, I invite you to watch some of my other flight videos, showing off the area of the Mojave Desert and other places.

 

[Ken Nash]

These hopeful contraptions really are silly.
It's an irrational fear that makes timid flyers think they are a good idea.
People touting them say they are to save the Phantom in case the worst happens.
Do you have a parachute and airbags in case it happens over land?
If you are unfortunate enough to have a fall-from-the-sky incident, your Phantom does not make a gentle descent and land on it's undercarriage.
It's going to be spinning and tumbling and will crash upside down. The Phantom will get a soaking.
If it's salt water, within 1/10th of a second, all that can be saved would be the sd card and the props.
Everything else is toast.
If it's fresh water ... maybe it could be dried and repaired - but maybe not.
If your Phantom comes down half a mile out, do you have a safety boat on standby to go and find it?

But the most important point is what lumbering a Phantom like this does to its aerodynamics.
We never hear anything about this from the designers and constructors.
How much does it slow the Phantom down? How much flight time does it reduce with the added wind resistance?
How much does it increase the wind's ability to blow your Phantom away?

Most of my flying is over water and there's no way I'd ever handicap my Phantom with any of these contraptions because I always want to bring it home.
A cost-benefit analysis shows, they will cost you every flight in lost performance while any benefit is much less than imagined and only likely in very rare circumstances that never happen anyway.
That's a loss-lose situation.
Unless you actually want to land and take off on water, these things are more likely to cause the loss of your Phantom than do anything to save it.

Very sensible and littered with common sense - go to the top of the class.

 

[UpLift Aerial]

I'm honestly just doing it for a experiment. Landing in the pool and taking off from the pool.

 

[larrym]

I'm honestly just doing it for a experiment. Landing in the pool and taking off from the pool.

lol Don't let the naysayers get you down. A hobby is supposed to be fun, right? So rock on and ignore the Debbie Downers. If we all do they'll go berate someone else.

 

[solentlife]

I'm honestly just doing it for a experiment. Landing in the pool and taking off from the pool.

Without experimenters - world would be a dull place.

Nigel

 

[Meta4]

lol Don't let the naysayers get you down. A hobby is supposed to be fun, right? So rock on and ignore the Debbie Downers. If we all do they'll go berate someone else.

Sure ...go ahead and ignore those that actually know what they are talking about.
Advice isn't berating.

 

[Erised]

If you really really want to take off and land on water you need them, apart from that they will make the crash easier to find and recover.

 

[andyimages]

Crash and you are screwed......either way. I have a Phantom 3 Pro.....if I crash its the cost of doing
business.

 

[Oso]

Who are Sheldon Leonard and Penny?

A quick OT FYI - they are characters in an enormously popular and successful US television sitcom called The Big Bang Theory.
The show will start it's 11th season (series) next month.

 

[jwmcgrath]

Well... I pulled the trigger on the Waterstrider.

I don't disagree with Meta4's thoughts on this, and in fact have been flying over water all summer, with a bit of a "use it or don't" approach. A fall to water won't fare any better than a fall to pavement...

But the decision came from a couple of things... being able to get the lower level shots with a little more confidence:

...but probably moreso because the more adventurous I get, and having been invited to remote cabins, there have been numerous occasions where there is simply NO safe RTH landing point:

Yes, I do hand catch when in this situation, but that won't help if/when I have a loss of signal RTH and it doesn't come to within reach of me on that dock.

Besides... they're pretty cool. It's all part of the experimental adventure... I expect they'll catch some wind but I'm still curious enough to try them.

If they make me happy... yay me.

And red pods are finally back in stock!

Looks like they work...

 

[jwmcgrath]

Also, I have a Getterback. If it sinks, I'd like to at least get it back, rescuable or not. And at least I'll have spare propellers!

I was just looking up the Getterback on Amazon today, this time for a fishing rod (as it was specifically designed and intended).

I get a kick out of the fact that all the reviews (at least on Amazon.ca) are posted by people that bought them for Phantoms!
And better yet, some are even critical of it... probably won't work to raise a car either. Don't strap one to your antenna and drive off a bridge.

Tip: it's not designed for a Phantom. Don't be critical of something if you're not using it as intended. Wow. People are... interesting.

 

[larrym]

Well... I pulled the trigger on the Waterstrider.

I don't disagree with Meta4's thoughts on this, and in fact have been flying over water all summer, with a bit of a "use it or don't" approach. A fall to water won't fare any better than a fall to pavement...

But the decision came from a couple of things... being able to get the lower level shots with a little more confidence:

...but probably moreso because the more adventurous I get, and having been invited to remote cabins, there have been numerous occasions where there is simply NO safe RTH landing point:

Yes, I do hand catch when in this situation, but that won't help if/when I have a loss of signal RTH and it doesn't come to within reach of me on that dock.

Besides... they're pretty cool. It's all part of the experimental adventure... I expect they'll catch some wind but I'm still curious enough to try them.

If they make me happy... yay me.

And red pods are finally back in stock!

Looks like they work...

Way to go!

 

[Henry Matias]

Good point. My thought is I would sill do all I can to keep it from tipping but if it does tip it will HOPEFULLY float even if it is upside down, atleast you can go out in a boat and get it and it won't be down bottom.

Yup won't be down bottom but it would be just paper weight after like mine once it went under.

 

[stujol]

20170829_180440[1]

• stujol
• Aug 30, 2017

water bottle pontoons

After a unfortunate incident involving a steel boat, a little wind, a vhf antenna and a exit from gps mode because of the steel boat my p3p fell into the water. Fortunately it was in only 5 feet of water so I recovered it quickly and pulled the battery immediately. After drying it out for 2 days with lots of canned air it was fine. Since most of the shots I want involve much deeper water I built a set of water bottle pontoons for the drone. They work well the drone is stable on the water and still flies well, albeit slightly sluggish.

 

[jwmcgrath]

WaterStrider just shipped...

 

[jwmcgrath]

WaterStrider just arrived...

And I can't make it to the lake this weekend. [emoji53]

 

[jwmcgrath]

 

[jwmcgrath]

Ya, I know... if I was a drone purist I'd be saying "no way I'm strapping that thing to my craft"... but 95% of all my flying is from uneven, rough, wet terrain at or very near water... and we all know RTH isn't "precise" under all circumstances.

I've taken off from places where the only way to launch is from a 10x4' dock. It's a measure of peace of mind I'm willing to give a try!