Floats for a Drone

I recently bought myself a fairly expensive drone and was wondering what type of material would be good for making floats for the skids in case of an emergency water landing (not that I'm going to do that). But we have a camp near a lake. The drone with battery weighs 3 lbs. and the 2 skids are 12" long. Any advice would be appreciated. (Besides saying don't sky near water.) :-) Thank you, Gene
- Gene Wolak (age 65)
Syracuse, NY

First, a feasibility check. Your drone with lightweight floats will weigh a little over 3 lbs, about 1.5kg mass. So the float volume would need to be a bit more than 1.5 liter, the volume of that much water mass. That sounds practical.

So I think plain old styrofoam would be your best bet. Cheap, lightweight, easy to work with. They'll keep your drone from sinking, but in a crash landing it's hard to guarantee that they won't end up on top and the drone underneath, very wet.

Mike W.

(published on 01/05/2017)