Making water landing "pontoons" from a swimming pool noodle

Joined
Oct 1, 2014
Messages
52
Reaction score
0
I got myself a bright orange "swimming pool noodle" (I think that's what they're called) from the dollar store for cheap with the intention of trying to make some floats. This is less so I can intentionally land on water and more so I can recover the quad if it somehow goes down over the water.

Anyone else tried this before, and what were the issues? I assume it will create some drag but will it be enough to matter? I also have to make sure they stay out of the way of the camera, both field of view and movement.
 
Re: Making water landing "pontoons" from a swimming pool noo

I've seen many post about this here.
(see: search.php?keywords=noodle )

I have no need for it (but do fly a lot over / above water)

Personally I think that this is one of the best ways of doing it.
(It's for a Phantom, but with some small changes also usable for a Vision)

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mb2p-rbwFF8[/youtube]
 
Re: Making water landing "pontoons" from a swimming pool noo

Thanks. I guess I'll have to figure something else out because I don't have a waterproof gopro camera, just the one that comes with the P2V non-plus.
 
Re: Making water landing "pontoons" from a swimming pool noo

If you search, you will find many examples of floats added to a Phantom. The problem with them is that by the time you add enough volume to keep the bird from sinking, you have a lot of surface area to be affected by wind and propwash. Another issue is that the floats will show up in the camera's view.
If you plan to fly over water often, I would recommend buying or building a waterproof quad.
 
Re: Making water landing "pontoons" from a swimming pool noo

I did search, actually, and wasn't coming up with anything that looked very good. As you say it's probably just not going to work very well without a specially built vehicle body.
 
Re: Making water landing "pontoons" from a swimming pool noo

I have flown my P2F several times over water using "noodle" floats. In mild winds, there is not much performance degradation in performance. The floats do show up in the photos.
 
Re: Making water landing "pontoons" from a swimming pool noo

Don't forget the "buttered side down" law. Floats will allow you to take off and carefully land in water, but a Phantom falling out of the sky without power is probably more likely to land upside down because of the wind resistance of the floats. They may keep it from sinking, but you still may have water damage.
 
I got myself a bright orange "swimming pool noodle" (I think that's what they're called) from the dollar store for cheap with the intention of trying to make some floats. This is less so I can intentionally land on water and more so I can recover the quad if it somehow goes down over the water.

Anyone else tried this before, and what were the issues? I assume it will create some drag but will it be enough to matter? I also have to make sure they stay out of the way of the camera, both field of view and movement.

Did it worked for you? How about using pieces of styrofoam/thermocol ice boxes
 
I did this last fall when I was a noob (I still am kinda). It doesn't work very well. It'll float but it's top heavy and unstable and wants to flip over. It will work if you're very very very careful and you land in a dead calm water. It will flip upside down easily. Also, it doesn't fly well. Bottom line: I wouldn't recommend it.
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
143,066
Messages
1,467,355
Members
104,934
Latest member
jody.paugh@fullerandsons.