How to Build Floating Landing Gear For A DJI Phantom

https://youtu.be/OleU6XNA-0s

I guess the only thing worse than crashing a quadcopter is getting it drowned. I mean there must be some stuff you can salvage from a crash, but total immersion? Not as much.

This is where Floating landing gears come into the play. We have seen a few designs, what they all have in commons is that they are dirt cheap, and really easy to make.

Now I am not sure that if a DJI Phantom hits water falling from 30 meters, this is what’s going to save the day, but I do think that it can help if you want to shoot lots of video over water and are concerned with battery or just want an extra layer of security.

The other big plus is that floating landing gear will get your drone to float, as even if you have waterproofed a DJI (which can be done) once it goes below water level, it loses orientation and just runs around in circles.

The first video, by Buddhanz shown at the top is the quick and dirty way. 4 Styrofoam bars hot-glued together and held with a rubber band, but you can get a bit more sophisticated. (Which we do after the jump)

Manuel als Menschone upped the idea and made two CNC milled landing gear plates, both cut from high floatation expanded polypropylene.  The first design is pretty awesome already, but the second one is simply stellar.