Inspired by some recent threads here :-(, I wonder whether people here have opinions on landing legs with floatation devices, to keep the MM from drowning when going down in a lake or river.

At this point I don't want to highlight any particular products, also because I have seen some that are total rubbish for any of the following reasons:

a) obstruction of the downward looking optical sensors by either the mounting brackets or the "swimmers"
b) flimsy construction that would probably brake on impact

c) additional weight and/or drag too much to be practical.


Are there any products (which DJI cannot endorse, I can understand this :-), asking for user input here...) that could actually be useful?


(And yes, people have managed to clean/dry MMs that went underwater, so keeping the drone afloat even semi-submerged could be nice, at the very least you would still  have the wreckage to send back to DJI, or salvage the SD card with footage of a water crash :-)).

i did order one ,,, i'll test and report, at least we will know that the drone won't sink

Cool, looking forward to it. How are you going to test it? Make a fake 249g drone and drop it in water with the thingy strapped to it?

There were 2 versions on sale about until two months ago on Ax. They had a very similar design, one was light grey the other black. They differed slightly in anchor points, weight and floating level (above water).

For what I've seen both can do fine if you know what you're doing. But of course it must be noted... even when you give inoffensive an much safer devices like the props cage, people will use them improperly, crash and then wonder why.

If you like me are fascinated to capture some stills or occasional videos with it you should be fine. My plan was to send the MM very close by on the water surface, water-land there and wait for something to happen, like a duck floating by or wait for the sun the be low on the horizon. Start the motors from time to time to relocate the drone (possibly without taking off) as the idle spinning of the props using the right stick (Mode 2) to control the motion should still work to slowly move in all 4 directions.

Before testing, I want to check the mini's behaviour , I will test the stability, after this, I can make some water flight but my target is do not sink the drone, I mean that I wont take risks, the drone will land on the sea When it gets a failure, There is some vídeos on YouTube where some guys test it too, check them out

Cheers

Are there any products that could actually be useful?
No .. they are all rubbish made to exploit the fears of timid flyers
For any DJI consumer drone they have too much additional weight and/or drag too much to be practical.
But for the Mini which is underpowered without them, they are downright dangerous.

There are posts here each week from people wanting to slap these things on their drone, but for some strange reason you don't get posts from people that use them on an ongoing basis.
I wonder why.

And despite the fears of the timid new flyers, your drone is no more likely to fall from the sky over water than it is on land.

> And despite the fears of the timid new flyers, your drone is no more likely to fall from the sky over water than it is on land.

Just retrieving it post-crash is a bit more ... difficult, you'll have to admit. So some extra caution when flying over water is warranted, I guess...
(To be fair, retrieving it and then sending it back to DJI to claim a replacement is probably a violation of ther terms because ithe floatation thingies are third party. But repairs are possible sometimes. )

EHEA Posted at 8-16 05:16
> And despite the fears of the timid new flyers, your drone is no more likely to fall from the sky over water than it is on land.

Just retrieving it post-crash is a bit more ... difficult, you'll have to admit. So some extra caution when flying over water is warranted, I guess...

Just retrieving it post-crash is a bit more ... difficult, you'll have to admit.
No I won't.
How would you retrieve a downed Mini?
Are you planning to only fly over water within 10 metres of the shore?
Always fly with a Jetski at the ready?
I'm always amazed that fearful flyers ever consider how they would recover floating wreckage.
I suppose that on land they only ever fly in their backyard or the neighbourhood park because how else can they recover wreckage?

So some extra caution when flying over water is warranted, I guess...
But not extending to ensuring that your drone can handle wind (as much as a Mini can) or that it doesn't get blown away because of the extra windage.

(To be fair, retrieving it and then sending it back to DJI to claim a replacement is probably a violation of ther terms because it's third party)?
Mostly because they are just dangerous for the drone.
Ask DJI what they think of handicapping the Mini like that.
As someone that does a lot of over water flying, I think those things are more likely to contribute to the loss of a Mini, than prevent it.

Considerations for those thinking of buying floats,
1) the increased susceptability to wind.
2) Your personal ability to control the drone i.e. your skill, so that it will not flip when either landing, idling or taking off from the water.
3) The necessary calmness of the water and overall stability of the drone when sat on the water be that with the props stopped or idling
4) will payload restirctions be triggered, thereby limiting the distance you can fly on the outward leg of your journey AND much more importantly, if the motors stop when landed on the water, on the return leg when the drone will, for one thing, be heavier? The motor stop and restart will reset the home point to out there on the water. Do you know how to reset the home point? If you have gone a long way out and payload restictions are in place for teh return journey how many times will you have to reset the home point to get it to shore?
etc etc

I do not doubt at all that floats could stop the drone from sinking but if it flips it is probably dead anyway. In the hands of an experienced pilot who can control their drone appropriatley I can see they have their uses but in the hands of a novice I'd think they are more of a liability.
That said most on my flying is over salt water and I have, once or twice, taken the mini down low, over calm water to under 1m, but if I do I am watching it like a hawk and am ready to put the throttle to the stop if it shows any inclination to sink.
Obviously such low flying is well within visual range and I am not suggesting in anyway that there is no risk to the drone.

PLEASE DELETE, double posting, I guess when everything was so slow a day or so ago. Thanks

Hello there EHEA. Thank you for reaching out and for these information you have shared with us. I hope that you will get the best recommendation from our fellow DJI co pilots who owns the DJI Mavic Mini and uses a flotation accessory for the said DJI drone. Just a reminder that DJI does not recommend you to your 3rd party accessories on your DJI Drones or modify your DJI product. These 3rd party accessories might affect the said DJI drone when in use. Actually, there is a possibility that these 3rd party accessories will be able work. However, since it's not tested by DJI we cannot guaranteed the stability of the said 3rd party accessory if it will work all the time with no issues and might void the warranty of the said DJI product. Thank you and have a safe flight always.

I have tried 2 versions on my Mini. The first was a standard cylindrical pontoon version like you have probably seen. It is for actually landing on the water. I had several motor force errors while hovering aside a 10 mph wind, so unless you really have to land on the water, it is not too good. The second is a crude homemade version, just for retrieval if it goes into the drink. I rarely get motor errors with this one but it does reduce range by at least 20%, speed likewise. To be safe, a minimum of 15 cubic inches of zero-weight flotation is the requirement. I still use it on occasion and have had no real issues in relatively light winds including a 1 mile tour over the river area at my home. Note, there is a firm wire stay fastened that keeps the front of the block from sliding to the side and into the props. Needless to say, I have multiple chase vessels ;-)

Yeah, why not?!

That material is pretty transparent when it comes to GPS signals I guess,

Thanks for sharing

Sean-newbie Posted at 8-16 06:06
Considerations for those thinking of buying floats,
1) the increased susceptability to wind.
2) Your personal ability to control the drone i.e. your skill, such that it will not flip when either landing, idling or taking off from the water.

Like i told before, my target is "BE SAFE" if the Mini suddenly takes the choice of auto land off by mistake like someone happened when flying over water,,,, on my case, water (sea) won't be full calmed, but at least i'll have 1-5 seconds to react after the land off and take off again before the drone sinks or gets wet,i'll evaluate if wind conditions are bad for it ,, anyway i'm not a SPORT guy ,, i just use the thing for C-Mode cinematic movies

I understand why you want floats etc, but I suspect they will make flying the mini riskier. And if you fly is C mode you will have even less manual ability to fight wind

The most of uncontrolled descend to water on this forum are on SPORT mode,i haven't seen any C-Mode uncontrolled sinking yet ,,, i don't know if it has some influence ,at least C-Mode is the slowest speed and i would have more time to try control and fix the MINI FAIL.

GetterBack devices haven't been available for months. But maybe they have some now, not on Amazon yet. The biggest issue with them is that they do NOT work in water less than about 10 feet deep! That is a killer for me. They MIGHT work at 7-8 feet but it would be hit or miss. I have talked with the owner about that issue and he says nothing can be done with the current design to improve that.

One of many early Mini flights over the river here with the float attached in 8-10 knot wind:

Another positive thing I could see for such a floating add on is it might be easier to land it on a boat, especially If it moves. As one can just grab one of those 'legs'.
But to me the added weight and worse behaviour in wind wouldn't be worth it, as I'm only flying over water when there's some wind...

Thanks for all the all the useful thoughts on this subject.
The GetterBack thingy has some potential IMHO, not just for drones, thanks for sharing!