My inspire currently sits in 30' of water off star island in Miami.

Ferdi · Sep 11, 2015

huppe said:
When doing such things it's maybe better to have a few 16GB(32GB) and change this when you place another battery.If you have anyway another battery!

Totally agree. It's standard practice for us to swap out cards between flights when we fly over water. No matter how long you've been flying or how good you are, sooner or later pilot error or component failure will take your bird down.

wbill · Sep 12, 2015

Soflms said:
Depends which one you buy...something like this, or another inspire with the zenmuse x5 on the inspire

That's a GH4, i've talked to the dude that owns it. says he gets 20+ mins flying time and with dual batteries over 30

They sell that x8 at hobbyking belive it or not, but you cant hate on that, because they also sell the inspire I think its like 699$ with electronics no naza etc

Maybe the best bet is to just have an inspire upgrade the camera later, and the phantom 3 standard to fly over water..

Well the strong point of the x5 is the controllability from the app. If you have a gh4 on an S900 or something, you can't control exposure, aperture, shutter, etc like you can with the x5 while its flying...

John Perrone · Sep 12, 2015

After the Apple event, I would love to replace my iPad Air with the iPad Pro. Would look like awesome combined with the new Zenmuse X5, or X5R camera.

Mani · Sep 12, 2015

Sorry for your loss, been there, know how it feels to see your white hawk dawn. Hope you'll recover your footage, I didn't manage to do that, but my circumstances were a little bit different, as my bird felt from around 80-90 meters on solid concrete, so the card was totally distroyed. In your case, if you manage to find a boat fast, there are pretty good chances to save the shots.
Also, you can take your bird back home and let her enjoy her final rest on your desk

Good luck, hope you'll be back in the air soon !

skylabimaging · Sep 12, 2015

Kilrah said:
X8 is the general motor arrangement, not a particular model.

BTW I don't like X8s because if you hit one prop you obviously hit the other one too and the advantage becomes nothing at all.

I never thought of it like that...

Blue Bird · Sep 12, 2015

Mani said:
Sorry for your loss, been there, know how it feels to see your white hawk dawn. Hope you'll recover your footage, I didn't manage to do that, but my circumstances were a little bit different, as my bird felt from around 80-90 meters on solid concrete, so the card was totally distroyed. In your case, if you manage to find a boat fast, there are pretty good chances to save the shots.
Also, you can take your bird back home and let her enjoy her final rest on your desk
Good luck, hope you'll be back in the air soon !

We gave a credit to the owner for what the parts were worth and supplied him with a new bird. We at our dealership decided to use the bird as a display model hung from our ceiling. That is after submerging in fresh water for 24 hours and then prepping it by saturating it in WD 40 and anti corrosion coating. It looks great. My customers just look at it and start thinking about purchasing one. Of course those are Phantom customers.. LOL!! Heck! We even named the bird Old Salty!!

BlueSkies · Sep 13, 2015

Soflms, Sorry you lost I1. Hey if you ever recover the SD card your last video if you were still recording when you crashed will most likely look like a corupt file. Same thing happened to me on my P2 with a GoPro 3. My brother found some software that fixed the file. You can see some of the footage here. Also I know all to well what that sound is like when you crash. Here's the video that my cousin shot of me and the P2 when it hit the dock. I found out that day that it's not good to try to climb when you have full forward right stick. Hope you have a good laugh and like the Talking Heads. BTW someone else lost a Phantom that day so we had a few beers that night.

BlueSkies,
Bill

Soflms · Sep 13, 2015

Well, I did it. And it was sketchy. And i'm up for a good challenge. The thing that seemed to make the most sense to me was to rent a few ocean kayaks with a friend of mine that dives. I freedive, and he scuba dives. It was really windy, and the port of miami is insane on the weekends. it's non stop boats doing tours, getting as close to the shore as they can so the tourist can take pics of the houses. sometimes within 30' or so of the shore. The problem is, my drone went down in a very bad spot because of how close tour boats like to cut to star island. I had the phone I was using that day I crashed, and it was still showing the last recorded GPS coordinates of the inspire, so I kayaked with the app open, and it showed where I was in the kayak in relation to the underwater drone. We had to battle boats every 5 minutes, and very large ones that would sound their air horn at us, and then we'd have to ride out their massive waves. Anyway it was an intense day of dodging ships and diving very murky water but finally my buddy came to the surface, inspire in hand. I was so happy. Even though I knew it was shot, I was just so happy to have it back. Everything on it but the camera actually looked completely normal. Well, until I got home and opened it up.

I read this other forum where this guy sunk his phantom in the ocean for like 3 days, cleaned it up really well, soaked his electronics in 91% rubbing alcohol and actually was able to fly it again. Well, the only thing that managed to survive was indeed the SD card. And how the camera was this bashed up and the SD survived I have no idea. At first glance it looks good, until I opened it up. Check this out...after not even 4 full days of salt water. There were actually creatures already living inside and eating their way through.

Is there absolutely anything I should realistically keep this around for? Repairing it is out of the question im assuming...But then again my friend told me you can actually find decently priced inspire parts now...I dont even know everything i'd need. the list would go on and on and on im sure. And also all the black paint came off the boards during the cleaning process. Even the lightest touch after being in the saltwater would wipe the black paint off any microchip or board.

It seriously sucks so bad seeing it like this.

Kilrah · Sep 13, 2015

Wow that is completely insane... how can the camera's plastic... pretty much being eaten through?? Wow...

It's not salt water you've got there, it's sulfuric acid...

You could maybe reuse the plastic/carbon parts... but I wouldn't even risk it. Who knows what it did to the resin...

Stealthmatt · Sep 13, 2015

Good work on getting it back. I guess you wont be able to put the SD card in your inspire 1 to finalize the file lol (I have an application that will finalise the file for you - send me a PM if you want help with fixing ur last movie - ( I only ask that I can get to see the footage of the splendid crash

) just kidding happy to help out either way)

Just a few things, you can sell your controller and other parts and stuff and get some money back. i.e $400 - $500 for controller, case $200, etc

DJI also have been known to offer discounted Inspire 1s if you send it to them if its unrepairable, which this would be. However, even crashed Inspire 1s will fetch $1000 for crashed inspires on ebay and yours isnt event cracked.

Anyways if you do have the last bit of footage from the inspire, I think we would all love to see it

Ferdi · Sep 13, 2015

Well done! There's something very therapeutic about getting a lost drone back. I've recovered 2 from their watery graves and each time I was elated even though I knew it was nothing more than a cool looking paper weight (there's also the thrill of taking it apart to see how it all goes together, something I'm not skilled or brave enough to do with a working one). When I spend so many good times with a piece of kit I get kinda attached to it

I'd keep it on display and get a new one that you can trust completely (and insure it

)

huppe · Sep 13, 2015

[QUOTE="Soflms, post: 59783, member: 18100"

Is there absolutely anything I should realistically keep this around for? Repairing it is out of the question im assuming...But then again my friend told me you can actually find decently priced inspire parts now...I dont even know everything i'd need. the list would go on and on and on im sure. And also all the black paint came off the boards during the cleaning process. Even the lightest touch after being in the saltwater would wipe the black paint off any microchip or board.

It seriously sucks so bad seeing it like this.[/QUOTE]
This looks like a dead Inspire

.But hopefully you get your footage back(would be nice to see this(sorry))

.Great you recovered it anyway.

B-Scene Films · Sep 13, 2015

Outstanding! Let us know if you recovered all the footage. Of course we want to see any go pro footage you might have of the dive

MoxieSky · Sep 13, 2015

If any parts are salvageable for spares, I might be interested. Thanks.

jasonthomson · Sep 13, 2015

"Is there absolutely anything I should realistically keep this around for? Repairing it is out of the question im assuming.."

Wow. Great story of the recovery.

I would disassemble, clean and keep the frame. The sad part is all the electronics have suffered some form of electrolysis and are not any good. The Frame looks Great. I have seen Damaged Inspire 1s go on eBay between $600. to $1100. You could clean the frame and swap the electronics from a damaged one. The motors and ESC's are probably toast too. You will also need the transition servo.

Chris McCorkel · Sep 13, 2015

I just read about your story and hope you get your footage!! Glad to hear the dive was a success. Sorry to hear about your loss!!! Good luck!!!

dronesforhire · Sep 13, 2015

Ferdi said:
There's something very therapeutic about getting a lost drone back.

Leave no soldier behind.

Soflms · Sep 13, 2015

dronesforhire said:
Leave no soldier behind.

I'm so ocd Bro, it would have bugged me for life. Your comment made me laugh.

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk

LockMD · Sep 14, 2015

Very HAPPY for you! Even though its toast, you got your SD card back and now have a sense of closure, Good Job!!

Soflms · Sep 14, 2015

I found this pic and thought I'd share it. It's insane how I managed to save everything on this SD card. Yeah Yeah, I'll post the crash vid when I have time but look at this! This is how it was, on the bottom of the ocean floor sticking out like this :

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk