Okay so I'm considering a parachute for the inspire & would like to hear your thoughts pro's con's and anything else in between, so please if you have an opinion no matter what it is please chime in and let me know your thoughts.

What for? Quad copters generally don't fall out of the sky if flown properly

Useless weight the flight time is very weight sensitive and will not help at crashes with trees or cables in the air.

I would not mind having one ,
If it was compact, light , reasonable price , I would consider it for emergencies.  

I fly mine over water quite often so all a parachute would do for me slow down the inevitable. It would be bad enough watching fall into the water. It would be worse watching it SLOWLY fall into water.  

Thats a tough one.  I can see how it might give someone peace of mind kinda like insurance.  I would imagine there are still circumstances that would make it unrecoverable even if it didn't crash out of the sky, like it comes down in a huge/tall tree, power lines, the side of mountain, etc...

QuadBart Posted at 2016-8-27 07:54
Thats a tough one.  I can see how it might give someone peace of mind kinda like insurance.  I would ...

So far I see it's a No vote interesting.Do any of you you have insurance?

RearViewMirror Posted at 2016-8-27 05:41
I fly mine over water quite often so all a parachute would do for me slow down the inevitable. It wo ...

Haha that's true

Mike-the-cat Posted at 2016-8-26 18:30
What for? Quad copters generally don't fall out of the sky if flown properly

So would you say crashes and falling out of the sky you hear about are all 100% pilot error.

Machoman Posted at 2016-8-26 18:48
Useless weight the flight time is very weight sensitive and will not help at crashes with trees or c ...

I agree with your point about extra weight these things aren't like like the old 50 size nitro's I had.

Donnie Posted at 2016-8-26 20:45
I would not mind having one ,
If it was compact, light , reasonable price , I would consider it for  ...

So Donnie you seem to have been very involved with the inspire does this bird give you a high degree of confidence when flying?

A good pilot doesn't need parachute. i flew over water 95% of the time. Keep my air craft up to date and maintained.

Does anybody out there actually have one?

japoyiii Posted at 2016-8-27 08:14
A good pilot doesn't parachute. i flew over water 95% of the time. Keep my air craft up to date and  ...

Ok so what your saying is you have 100% confidence in the inspire?

MadMat Posted at 2016-8-26 17:18
Ok so what your saying is you have 100% confidence in the inspire?

Almost a year of flying with my inspire 1v2 without any trouble and highly confidence with it. Thats the reason i would like to fly over water so i don't deal with power lines and trees from crashing . Over water is my best spot to fly full throttle at all time. I keep my aircraft in maintained like check mechanical hardwares and electrical connectors. so far love my inspire 1 v2.

japoyiii Posted at 2016-8-27 08:32
Almost a year of flying with my inspire 1v2 without any trouble and highly confidence with it. Tha ...

Very good to hear

I'm going against the grain here, I personally will be purchasing one, and here's why:

In the full scale aircraft I build, I certainly wish every customer would have me install a chute.  Granted, I'm test flying the aircraft when they are finished and my life is at stake.  Anything can happen, regardless of HOW careful you are and HOW well maintained your equipment is.

GA pilots tend to think "If you feel the plane needs a parachute, it must not be safe!"   On the contrary, we've never had a structural failure of over 600 example of the aircraft produced.  There is always the chance of a mid-air collision, pilot becomes incapacitated due to a health issue, etc.  This is no different then a UAV having a bird strike, prop loss, signal loss, fly away, etc.

Now I realize this is a different animal, but something coming down from several hundred feet that weighs 4.5 lbs is going to make quite a dent - whether its the ground or hitting someone else.  Just see the recent posts in the last week or so of accidents noted in the Inspire Facebook forum.

I feel we should make this is as safe as possible.  If we don't, more regulations will be forthcoming.  Also in the full scale world, we have worked out insurance discounts for aircraft equipped with parachutes.  That is a possibility here also, as well as a 'feel good' for the customers too.

jim@recreationa Posted at 2016-8-27 09:14
I'm going against the grain here, I personally will be purchasing one, and here's why:

In the full  ...

I tend to agree with you hole heartedly, what's your thoughts on what's available?

MadMat Posted at 2016-8-26 19:10
So Donnie you seem to have been very involved with the inspire does this bird give you a high degr ...

I have a lot of confidence in the Inspire , after flying RC Helicopters , sailplanes, 1/4 scale war-birds,etc. (25 + years experience)   This is about as good as it gets as far as reliability .

It may be to easy actually , when you had not only Money but a huge amount of time invested in the aircraft ,you were more mindful  of Property and other aviators.  Some in the community are getting to lax on safety which is a recipe for disaster.

donnie

P.S.  *** I am not happy with the latest update, I am getting disconnect warnings and RTH which I seldom ever had before.  1.9 on Aircraft and 1.7 on the RC .  

I am going to Rollback to the previous FW Until this is resolved.  

Pleas tell us which parachute you are considering.  Do you have a link that you might share?

Movin on Posted at 2016-8-27 21:42
Pleas tell us which parachute you are considering.  Do you have a link that you might share?

MARS 58:  http://www.marsparachutes.com/pr ... spire-mount-mayday/

There are a couple others out there, but they are made overseas and cost considerable more - like the cost of an entire Inspire.  One of them (Skycat?) uses some sort of fuse that you have to have on-hand as replacements.  

Besides, I like USA designed / produced whenever possible.

Movin on Posted at 2016-8-27 21:42
Pleas tell us which parachute you are considering.  Do you have a link that you might share?

Ok so here are are a few of my preliminary thoughts
1 It must be light and aerodynamic
2 system must release automatically
3 It must land the drone on its back to save cam/gimble,but to be honest with you I'm not sure if that's the best option so I'm still undecided at this point in time
4 Must be user friendly a set and forget system
5 Not interfere with overall operation
6 Price
Skycat http://www.skycat.pro/shop/dji-inspire-1-mount
Pros
Cons
-looks to bulky,lands drone on the camera and not sure if it has an auto release


Mars 58 with mayday http://www.riseabove.com.au/mars ... ne-parachute-system
Pros
-looks tidy and aerodynamic
Cons
-lands drone onto camera/gimble,supposedly very difficult to pack chute into tube

Opal system. http://www.opale-paramodels.com/ ... ji-inspire-1-detail
Pros
Cons
-Don't quote me but I believe you have to pack the chute before each flight.
-Weight 200g plus
-Doesn't look as areodynamic as say the Mars58

Donnie Posted at 2016-8-27 21:17
I have a lot of confidence in the Inspire , after flying RC Helicopters , sailplanes, 1/4 scale war ...

I'm hearing you Donnie, having flown large 6ch nitro helicopters on and off for 10+ years I get the feeling that some out there take safety for granted & that's how drones have ended up with such terrible press,way to much reliance on electronics and very little reliance on skill.

I'm not entirely sure that the Inspire is that great a design to accommodate a parachute system.
I have looked into the various solutions as they have announced and launched, but yet to see one actually save a craft in a real world scenario or test.

Adding much in the way of extra payload is a problem for flight duration, I'm of the opinion that a structured approach to flight planning and risk mitigation gets you in a better operating methodology.
In other words, by avoiding flight ops where hazard or danger is present you don't need the parachute to begin with.

As to reliability of the AC and confidence in it performing consistently - as the Pilot in charge I never assume that the AC will make it back in one piece, so I operate it accordingly to maximise the likelihood that it does land safely at the end of a flight. But I don't take off without understanding that real possibility that each and every flight could end in failure or damage. There are too many variables (A/C, technology, environment, weather, location etc.) for certainty.

This isn't an Inspire thing this is an aviation thing. Expect and be prepared for the worst every time, learn with every take off and avoid complacency.

Having said all that, there was some serious clenching happening the first time I flew over water!   

Farnk666 Posted at 2016-8-29 09:09
I'm not entirely sure that the Inspire is that great a design to accommodate a parachute system.
I h ...

Solid advice Frank Thankyou for your input.

Where are you based MadMat?
I'm in Melbourne but there are quite a few Oz based Inspire pilots about - we should setup a flight/meet day.

Farnk666 Posted at 2016-8-29 12:14
Where are you based MadMat?
I'm in Melbourne but there are quite a few Oz based Inspire pilots abou ...

Just north of Sydney(central coast area) shame we are so far away I'm looking forward to meeting other inspire owners in the area to fly with.

RearViewMirror Posted at 2016-8-27 05:41
I fly mine over water quite often so all a parachute would do for me slow down the inevitable. It wo ...

That made me giggle.

RearViewMirror Posted at 2016-8-26 17:41
I fly mine over water quite often so all a parachute would do for me slow down the inevitable. It wo ...

Hahahahahaha

MadMat Posted at 2016-8-28 03:04
Ok so here are are a few of my preliminary thoughts
1 It must be light and aerodynamic
2 system mus ...

There is also parachute from Galaxy - GBS4INSPIRE.
It controls ESC and the landing gear, so it won't fall to gimball with camera.
Deployment of parachute is done directly from DJI radio, no extra radio is required. Unfortunatelly they have no automatic deployment in this time.

http://www.galaxysky.cz/gbs4inspire-s102-en

In reality, you would need to fly incredibly high up in order for the drag of the parachute to actually slow down the drop in the first place. Given that recreational flyers are capped at 400ft by the FAA, at least in the US, it may just end up as unnecessary weight.

DJI-Jamie Posted at 2016-8-29 12:19
In reality, you would need to fly incredibly high up in order for the drag of the parachute to actua ...

The system I'm looking at, shows deployments as low as 60 ft.  Though none of the systems I've seen show the aircraft on the ground after deployment.  It would be interesting to see how much damage there is.  

The full scale chutes I install on experimental aircraft have a minimum deployment altitude of 300 ft, though there have been saves much lower.  You just land on the tail or nose as the aircraft hasn't stabilized under the chute below 300 ft.

jim@recreationa Posted at 2016-8-30 00:32
The system I'm looking at, shows deployments as low as 60 ft.  Though none of the systems I've see ...

There may be a reason as to why most of these parachute accessories don't provide "aftermath" photos from those shorter heights. This accessory does rely on some luck in orientation in order to receive minimal damage, though I do understand the want to have as many options as possible to save the aircraft from being decimated.

Ales Posted at 2016-8-30 00:07
There is also parachute from Galaxy - GBS4INSPIRE.
It controls ESC and the landing gear, so it won ...

I'll go and take a look thank for that.

DJI-Jamie Posted at 2016-8-30 04:34
There may be a reason as to why most of these parachute accessories don't provide "aftermath" phot ...

It's been one of those thought exercises so far, having flown and rebuilt my fair share of brushless & nitro helicopters over the years the idea of a parachute had me a little excited,who knows maybe someone will come up with a little inflatable rubber boat for flying over the water hahaha.

For test was used protective polystyrene. As you can see on video. Height before deploy was around 20m (66 ft). There was windy (around 7m/s).
After deployment, drone fall on the edge of field. One propeller was damaged, nothing else.
Another video from test -

Ales Posted at 2016-9-4 04:51
For test was used protective polystyrene. As you can see on video. Height before deploy was around 2 ...

Thanks for sharing that one pity you never get to see any real life testing,regardless not a bad outcome though.

You will need a parachute to get a waiver to fly over people with a heavier aircraft like the Inspire.  The waivers will only be available for commercial pilots in the US.  The French require parachutes now for flight over people.  

RearViewMirror Posted at 2016-8-27 05:41
I fly mine over water quite often so all a parachute would do for me slow down the inevitable. It wo ...

Did you see the video where they have styrofoam plontoons on the landing gear? To me that is a great idea and though not a guarantee of saving the craft from water, I think in many instances it would if it fell close to upright. I think I will make some for mine and test it in the bathtub for proper buoyancy and stabilazation.

cw Posted at 2016-9-11 06:01
Did you see the video where they have styrofoam plontoons on the landing gear? To me that is a gre ...

Mine will only get to see salt water so if it lands in the drink that's where it will be staying I think