Aircraft floats for the DJI Inspire

[Netwarrior]

What's the status of this prototype?

 

[lake_flyer]

+1 I'm curious as well.

 

[SimonMW]

Would be quite useful. For kayaking shots there are often tree lined banks which prevent a decent take off area. Being able to take off from water would be pretty useful.

 

[PB30X]

+1 Also Interested! Purchased water buoys and never took them out of their boxes. I've seen a YouTube video demonstrating failure[emoji20] after the sale.. Something with pressure does not activate them properly. That being said I avoid over water adventures[emoji6]

Surely something has got to be in the making. We know our AC's aren't water friendly, but an emergency recovery is a Very welcoming motive here[emoji6]

 

[Steve Domigan]

I personally can't see much real need for landing on water, any crash onto water is likely to be at speed or an uncontrolled free fall and most of these devices probably wouldn't handle anything but a controlled landing with out flipping. Some sort of device to stop the craft sinking may however be in order.

 

[Dobmatt]

The issue of making my Inspire 1 Pro floatable is of paramount relevance in my photo/videography adventures on remote mountain lakes of British Columbia. In most situations the machine will take off the boat deck and eventually land on relatively calm water nearby. No elaborate acrobatics or long range/high altitude flying will be involved, but the Inspire must be stable on water with the X5 gimbal/camera high enough above surface. It seems that most of this winter I'll be busy developing such system. The plan - in general - is to employ foam balls commonly available at the craft stores like Michael's. Some brave Chinese pilots already tested the buoyancy of 6" dia. balls attached to a landing gear, but the idea must be improved further in terms of stability on waves, mounting/dismounting procedure, optimization of thrust turbulences and overall reliability. Needless to say, such modification will render rather clumsy flying apparatus, but that's no issue here. I'll gladly report the progress of my work, although final conclusions will be available no sooner than after summer 2016 ...

 

[Eshorvath]

The issue of making my Inspire 1 Pro floatable is of paramount relevance in my photo/videography adventures on remote mountain lakes of British Columbia. In most situations the machine will take off the boat deck and eventually land on relatively calm water nearby. No elaborate acrobatics or long range/high altitude flying will be involved, but the Inspire must be stable on water with the X5 gimbal/camera high enough above surface. It seems that most of this winter I'll be busy developing such system. The plan - in general - is to employ foam balls commonly available at the craft stores like Michael's. Some brave Chinese pilots already tested the buoyancy of 6" dia. balls attached to a landing gear, but the idea must be improved further in terms of stability on waves, mounting/dismounting procedure, optimization of thrust turbulences and overall reliability. Needless to say, such modification will render rather clumsy flying apparatus, but that's no issue here. I'll gladly report the progress of my work, although final conclusions will be available no sooner than after summer 2016 ...

And the results?

 

[Dobmatt]

And the results?

Floating DJI Inspire quadcopter
Floating DJI Phantom drone
The results of my concept were astonishing. At least once these floats saved my Inspire, when RTH executed emergency landing due to critically low battery. My fault though. However, after gaining more confidence in piloting my drones I've abandoned this mod as impractical. One of these "ideas that works, but who cares?"

 

[Chipdji]

Something I would never risk. Better be some awful calm water.