Just got back from visiting a friend  in Penrith. Whilst there we went for a walk up to coniston water ,one of the Lakes in the Natioal park.
Anyway whilst there a man was there flying a drone across the lake ,not a P4 but similar in size . Apparantly he flys all ove the lakes. Anyway he had a set of clipon leg extenders on his drone with a set of model plane  floats fastened  on to the extenders whilst he flys over water . Looked really cool and I suppose if he has to land urgently saves his drone sinking.

He gave me the model name and I found them

I like the looks of those. I have wondered what would be the best way to save the Phantom if I ran into trouble while over water. You would have to practice in a small body of water to make sure you had the balance right before you had to use them in an emergency.

Depending on how you manage to attach them, you'd probably want to disable downward obstacle avoidance. Since you are flying over water, you'd probably have VPS disabled already. If not, that would also be necessary.
Me? I'm too much of a chicken to try something like this, but let us know how it works if you actually try it.

Unless you actually want to land and take off from water, these are more likely to help you lose your Phantom rather than being a safety feature.
They are going to eat your battery time and speed while making your Phantom less able to handle any wind and contribute to blow-away potential.

He recons he uses them all the time with very little problem, there supper light and simply attached via clip on leg extenders I watched him flying over the lake with quite a breeze blowing. But as a novice not sure if I would do it. But I suppose if flying over water a lot it might be better than loosing drone.

Alcorn61 Posted at 2017-6-25 08:53
He recons he uses them all the time with very little problem, there supper light and simply attached via clip on leg extenders I watched him flying over the lake with quite a breeze blowing. But as a novice not sure if I would do it. But I suppose if flying over water a lot it might be better than loosing drone.

How much do they catch the wind?
Easy to test by comparing top speed in calm conditions, with and without them.

They are going to cause major drag
I do most of my flying over water and I need my Phantom to have good speed and range to make sure it comes home every flight.
There's no way I'd handicap it with something like that.

I would be cautious none the less because even though you turn off the VPS the sonar is ALWAYS active.. If it interferes with that then you are going to have issues.. Possibly even lethal ones (to the craft of course).. I have verified this very simply by turning off VPS and holding up my phone while shooting video to the undercarriage of the craft and found that the sonar was still active (you can clearly hear it in the recording - try it for yourself).

hmmm....  sounds a bit kludgy.  I love the idea, but wouldn't be intererested n cobbling something together for my bird.  If someone made these specifically for a P4 (without the steerable rudders and servo motors), I'd be VERY interested.

Labroides Posted at 2017-6-25 17:34
How much do they catch the wind?
Easy to test by comparing top speed in calm conditions, with and without them.

The floats I have used on model planes have no weight to them really. As for the wind, the side of the copter has a fair amount of resistance itself. Because of the extra weight and resistance you will see some reduced battery flying time but I think that's a small price to pay if it saves the craft. Only getting it geared up and doing a few safe experiments will be the only way to tell if this is something that will or can work. One thing I have learned flying models is, everything is a trade off.  You have to decide if the gains are worth the losses.



PS:  If you are careful on how you mount them you may not have to shut anything off. Turning anything off that would risk the craft or someone's safety is just not worth it.

Bonez Posted at 2017-6-27 09:57
The floats I have used on model planes have no weight to them really. As for the wind, the side of the copter has a fair amount of resistance itself. Because of the extra weight and resistance you will see some reduced battery flying time but I think that's a small price to pay if it saves the craft. Only getting it geared up and doing a few safe experiments will be the only way to tell if this is something that will or can work. One thing I have learned flying models is, everything is a trade off.  You have to decide if the gains are worth the losses.

"I think that's a small price to pay if it saves the craft"

That's the key question.
Is having these strapped to your Phantom more likely to "save the craft" or cause problems that may lead to loss of the craft?

If these did not handicap my Phantom so much that I could still fly as I do, in the event of a downed Phantom over the sea, I'd have to have a boat to be able to recover the Phantom and even if I did, it's likely to be upside down and the electronics completely wrecked, leaving only the SD card and props worth salvaging.

To be able to float the Phantom high and dry, they would have to be bulky enough to cause big issues with flight and wind resistance as well as probably getting in the camera view.
Summary:  Only good if you actually need to land and take off from still freshwater close to land and giving a false sense of security.
Useless for regular flight and likely to cause more trouble than what the user hopes they prevent.