Intentional Parachute Deployment - Smart Controller Demo - Monday - Fort Myers

[Florida Drone Supply]

We had been posting in a few of the parachute related threads over on Phantom Pilots about intentionally deploying a Phantom parachute and are now confirmed for this to happen on Monday (February 4th) in Fort Myers. We will install the parachute, send up to 300+ feet and turn the aircraft off and test the deployment of the chute as well as the impact it has when it hits the ground.

We are posting here on CommercialDronePilots as well because we know many pilots have multiple aircraft and the parachute is also available for M200, M210, M600 and soon to be available for the Mavic line.

We have invited anyone willing to make the drive to join us at our large and wide open testing facility near Fort Myers.

We will also be happy to bring over anything else anyone wants to get their hands on and test fly - especially some of the newer Mavic 2 and Mavic 2 Enterprise aircrafts (as well as the Smart Controller). We could also bring anything from the Matrice line, Inspire line, etc.

If you are interested in witnessing the parachute tests or have anything in particular you would like us to bring for you to test fly, just let us know. Send us a message here or to the email below and we will get you the address and info you need to get into the facility.

Thanks - and we will be reporting the results here after the test...good, bad or indifferent. We did the same thing with a Matrice 200. We put it up in the air (200-300 feet) and turned it off to test the parachute system.

If you are not familiar with the parachute system we are going to be testing, here is a link to them:
Parachutes

Hope to see you there!

 

[PhantomFandom]

WONDERFUL !!!

It's always great to see actual real life tests of ancillary equipment so that we can see how the manufacturer claims stack up. Unfortunately I am too far to get there but I am looking forward to seeing the results.

 

[Florida Drone Supply]

Thats exactly why we do this. We will definitely post the results and I am sure ours will not be the only cameras rolling during the deployment. When we deployed an M200 chute we added a couple Go Pro cameras, had 2 drones in the air filming and a long lens filming from the ground.

We will keep you posted!

 

[MapMaker53]

Looking forward to seeing the video.

 

[Florida Drone Supply]

Looking forward to seeing the video.

Thanks - because the Phantom parachute is self re-packable we are hoping to deploy, recover, re-pack and then repeat the process again a couple more times. We are hoping to get a real good read on its ease of use, reliability and overall value as an accessory.

We also did a deployment on an M200 as well...that one uses a small charge to deploy the chute and has to be sent back to the manufacturer to be re-packed....but it deployed as expected when the turned off the M200 at about 300 feet!

 

[BigAl07]

Can't wait to see the video compilation you come up with.

 

[jmorris]

So.... how did it go? Following closely. We have this same test scheduled for this week.

 

[R.Perry]

The FAA has given a few part 39 waivers for drones with parachutes. It is my understanding that is based on the expected kinetic energy upon impact that is a determining factor for the overflight waiver. I fly the Inspire 2, and even though parachute systems are available for it I question if the kinetic impact would be low enough for the FAA to grant a waiver.
We have so many jobs that require flying in areas that are heavily populated and consequently limits our ability to give our clients everything they want. Example, at UC Merced California I can only do mapping on Sunday mornings because some of the mapping the surveyors want is over active campus areas.

 

[jmorris]

Although the amount of wavers granted are low it only makes since that all parties are working on a solution to open regulations on commercial operations. I'm not sure of the ASTM documentation for the I2 but I would guess that it falls in line with an acceptable ranges. (add PPE on a construction site) and your joule rating only gets even better.

 

[R.Perry]

Although the amount of wavers granted are low it only makes since that all parties are working on a solution to open regulations on commercial operations. I'm not sure of the ASTM documentation for the I2 but I would guess that it falls in line with an acceptable ranges. (add PPE on a construction site) and your joule rating only gets even better.

The issue I'm having isn't with the construction people, but overflying students and faculty, as for the PPE on the construction site, I don't think the FAA would even consider hard hats as adequate protection from a falling drone that didn't have a parachute.

 

[jmorris]

Understood on the students. But I'm sure they are taking hardhats in consideration for construction sites with the parachute. Anything to mitigate the damage to person and set adequate regulations while upping deliverables. Im sure since were on a secured data center site its much easier for us to lower the risk than some of out university or active sites. I just hope the FAA gets on the ball with setting new policies and I hope they are listing to the end users.