Flying over water? - Tips

one thing I have noticed if your flying over water isn't a factor till you hit post production... if the water is moving or there are waves and you need to stabilize your footage at all it doesn't stabilize well. The stabilization software is looking for points to lock onto to figure out how to stabilize it so if your shot is mostly water without anything "permanently stationary" stabilization in post becomes a nightmare... just FYI.

Get your camera to be as stable as you possibly can to help minimize the need for stabilization in post.

Josh

 

Chris, I feel confident with four pool noodles running the full length of the booms on a CS8, or if I use the smaller diameter pipe insulation, I would go with eight foam sections. MK seems to initialize and fly from a boat just fine. Hoverfly does not. In rougher seas we launched and retrieved by hand, but obviously be very careful and wear protection.

 

Gentleman unfortunately pool noodles are alike sails the wind hits them and your already unstable copter gets worst
I insist put several of this
http://www.waterbuoy.net

 

I was launching and landing off a boat with the hoverfly recently. It's slightly annoying because it has to be armed the entire time and with the new firmware that means it is beeping constantly. It also means that any movement of the throttle will start the motors up.
I programmed a throttle hold switch to disable the throttle stick.
I found it pretty easy to fly off the boat, because the distance to the copter stays pretty constant. Landing was not bad either, even with a little wind, but I can see how more wind and choppy waters would require a "catcher".

Jose- I really didn't notice a difference with pool noodles on or off. I was in gusts up to 22mph and it seemed to handle the same as without. That waterbuoy looks pretty good, but only floating 1kg I figure I would need like 6 of them. That definitely will come with a weight penalty compared to a pool noodle.

 

Hi Tim I call the guy at http://www.waterbuoy.net and told me that each water buoy can bring to the surface up to 2 pounds and that each unit with the key ring weigh is 1 Oz so for a 10 pound copter you would need 5 water buoy, = 5 Oz of extra low profile weight on the ecopter plus the balloons glow in the dark, I still think the pool noodles create some wind surface resistance on the copter but anyway the other solution is a compromise of having smaller pool noodles and some water buoys, having said all of this there are 2 disadvantages for the wate buoy
1 once they deploy thats it no reuse
2 traveling on a plane may be an issue since it has some kind of discharge canister
just my thoughts

 

Jose, You may not need as much flotation as you think. The critical factor is the density of your rig relative to either saltwater or freshwater, not the total weight. I have an underwater housing that weighs 90 pounds in air, but is neutrally buoyant in water. Carbon fiber is not very dense, but the batteries are. My guess is that four pounds of flotation would be more than adequate to float a large multi-rotor with camera. I too was surprised how little difference the pool noodles made to the flying, even in moderate wind.

 

You are right Shane I was just considering the Raw weight of the copter in air did not consider the buoyancy if any of the different components I am also a UW shooter and own several housings among a aluminum Gates and yes out of the water easy 20 pounds in the water totally neutral and thats because of all the air in it

 

or just hire a diver to rescue it for you.

 

One thing to note, be careful to keep your kopter still when initializing or leveling your gyros. I crashed mine into a lake because i initialized while my brother was moving the kopter. May have been a fluke though. Luckily when i did it the lake was frozen

 

With MK we initialized with the helicopter on deck then lifted it overhead by hand and just flew it slowly out of hand. I think catching is by hand is preferred if there's significant wave action. The key is to be patient and not have the catcher try to snatch it out of the air because you may fight the helicopter wanting to remain level. When you see the catcher has a light hold, cut the throttle immediately. It's probably best to have the skipper idle into the seas at the minimum speed to maintain steering. It's really not that difficult. Good Luck!

 

I'm thinking that combining one of these buoys with the other idea floated on here ... a string that could spool out would be a great solution. Don't need to float the whole copter, just the line to fish it from the bottom.

 

I have a new frame to build but before I do I will do some tests in the water to see really how many noodles it takes to float a CS.
Personally, I have grown accustomed to noodles on booms 3 and 7. In the air it makes orientation much easier, in combination with a bright tail light.

 

Great info! Thanks everyone for this thread and ideas. The lake where I'll be flying is over 600 feet deep, so that would be a really long spool. Seems like the foam/noodle idea is the best solution.

 

Four pool noodles the length of your booms will float a CS8 with 9000 mah battery, two-axis gimbal and CX-760 in freshwater and would be even more buoyant in saltwater. If you should be so unfortunate as to crash in freshwater, remove your batteries as quickly as possible let everything bake in the sun for a few days and who knows, it just might all work again. Saltwater conducts electricity, so things will short and, of course, it's very corrosive, so if you crash into saltwater you'll probably have to scrap all electronics, but the frame and motors will be fine if you rinse them well in fresh water and blow them dry. Not that I would know from experience, or anything like that