Tricopter Floats

by InComing RC | October 7, 2012 | (17) Posted in Projects

Over the summer, when my family was getting ready to go to Key West, I knew I was going to bring my tricopter and I would be flying over water. I didn't want my precious tricopter to sink if I were to crash over water, so I made these. 

The floats are just pool noodles cut to length and zip-tied to the arms of my tricopter.

Two zip-ties hold one float on. This gives each float stability, while still being able to fold out of the way in crashes and for transportation.

The back arm has a red pool noodle for orientation. I ended up keeping these on for the rest of the summer and for the Palm Coast trip. I never intended these to allow me to do water landings, since they don't have that much floatation, and if I hit the water to hard everything would get wet anyway, like at Palm Coast. Instead, I wanted them to prevent the tricopter from sinking, so that I could recover the GoPro, which costs more than my tricopter. The tricopter is a bit more sluggish with the floats on, so I don't recommend them for day to day FPV flying but if you are a beginner, these landing gear will never break!

See more of my blog posts at my blog




COMMENTS

Jake Wells on October 7, 2012
No crashes right? Great article. I dig the blog too and your logo. It reminds me of Al Merrick's Channel Islands logo.
Log In to reply
colorex on October 7, 2012
Well-written article!

Taking off from water would be hard - because of a LOT of splashing from the prop wash.
Log In to reply
InComing RC on October 7, 2012
Yes there would be, that's why I never tried it.
Log In to reply
Brian fred carr on October 7, 2012
Nice
Log In to reply
sakadalim on February 19, 2013
what transmitter did u use for this?
Log In to reply
LokaDesign on July 10, 2013
I really like the idea and even looks cool. But if you really only did it to safe your go pro from sinking you could have saved yourself some wobbly flying and gotten the GoPro floater.

http://gopro.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/PDP_Floaty_s1.683x426.jpg

Not trying to be cocky here my friend, just laying down another solution!

;)
Log In to reply

You need to log-in to comment on articles.


Tricopter Floats