Some of you may remember the thread posted here several months ago, titled "Inspire The Jesus Bug) (http://forum.dji.com/thread-38143-1-1.html) ...

Well, here it is: The Advanced Landing Gear for Inspire. After numerous improvements, finally the concept have been successfully and thoroughly tested this summer on and around spectacular Arrow Lake BC. I'm glad to report that the device works exactly as expected and better.

This is a DIY project and not commercially available product. It was developed to allow for take-off and landing on water or rough terrain, operating the drones off the deck of a cruising boat or within challenging landscapes. Although many pilots may prefer hand release-and-catch approach in such scenario, that's not the case of yours truly.

Needless to say, the modification is taxing the performance of the craft. The flying time is reduced by average 3-5 minutes, depending on the weather (wind) conditions. This issue is particularly significant for Inspire 1 Pro, born with not much of the payload headroom and of rather short range. Phantom seemed to be less affected by modification, delivering good 15 minutes of vigorous flight with 80% battery depletion and stable, convincing landing on almost any surface, level or not. Of course shaky water is a big NO since the drone's brain will desperately try to compensate for ups and downs and may result in unpredictable decision during take-off or landing attempt. Yes, it happen … The Phantom went belly up, took a dip fully submerged and … survived! Two days later she was flying and taking images with a smile, thanks to the glacier clear waters of Arrow Lake.  

Why bother? What's the benefit, taking crippled bird's performance into consideration? There's a few, ability of safely landing almost anywhere as being the most obvious. In one situation the Inspire performed emergency landing after RH procedure with Lady Voice whispering “Critically Low Battery” … The copter landed rather abruptly but intact near the boat, and the X5 camera didn't received a single drop of splash! Being able to recover the wreckage and access the DAT file after an catastrophic failure over the water is another consideration worthy advantage, critical in many warranty claims cases. Finally, the X5 camera at the water level provides yet another angle for image framing (frog angle?).  

The goal was to position the floats away from propeller's wash and provide enough clearance for the camera. This approach proved to be right: pull down force and air turbulence caused by the floats below is negligible, while wide footprint provides solid and stable landing. To a degree the system acts as a props guard too. Finally, the floats are anchored with steel wire to a drone's main frame, making the craft unsinkable in an unfortunate case of crash landing. Chances to survive such accident in one piece are slim, but it may happen. No, I didn't test that, volunteers are welcomed ...

Hi Dobmatt,

I like the idea, and am glad you implemented it and tested it. The 3-5 min.'s cost is not bad at all.

Can the landing gear / floats be raised? It seams to me it's possible if the joints of the steel wires are pivot joints.

Henry

Henry Mo-Yung Posted at 2016-9-3 20:55
Hi Dobmatt,

I like the idea, and am glad you implemented it and tested it. The 3-5 min.'s cost is n ...

Thanks for the comments. No, Henry, the structure is eliminating raising arms feature of Inspire. To put it simply the pivots are too weak to handle the stress of rough landings with floats attached, therefore the struts were necessary to make the entire system rigid enough. This modification renders Inspire features to a Phantom class (aside the camera issue), but I've found no problem whatsoever taking pictures or filming in FPV gimbal mode.

Thank for clarification.

Henry

Another neat concept, thank you for sharing. Again, the music choice is very entertaining.

Realy Cool Stuff ! ;)