- Joined
- Dec 13, 2015
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- Age
- 76
Easy to mount/dismount conversion of my Inspire 1 Pro into a floatable device is of paramount importance. In most photo/video missions the machine will take-off from boat deck, do the job and land on water nearby to be picked up or to move slowly around in controlled manner. The modification I've just sketched in CAD software employs 7" diameter foam balls, carbon fibre tubing and customized tube clamping devices, adding approx. 500 G of extra payload and providing 5900 G of replacement with half-submerged floats. The idea is to move floats away from down-thrusting props, provide enough clearance for X5 camera above surface and good stability on less than perfectly calm water. Of course such mod will render rather clumsy flying apparatus with significantly taxed range, but that's no issue here. No acrobatics or high altitude/elaborate flying routines will be involved with floats attached.
That's the theory ... It'll take most of this winter to develop such system before final testing on remote mountain lakes of British Columbia. For now, however, I'd love to hear some words of advice and comments from seasoned Inspire pilots.
And, oh, Merry Christmas and happy flying to everyone!