flying near rivers and lakes always comes with a certain probability that a quadcopter crashes into the water, disappearing forever. while my designs are somewhat cheap, the loss of the camera and other equipment would still hurt. therefore i designed a quadcopter with a lot of buoyancy.

the quadcopter consists of a 4 mm layer of poplar plywood as the top plate, which is glued to a 50 mm styrofoam core. the top plate and a temporary bottom plate serve as a template for hot wire cutting along the perimeter. by the way, i built my hot wire cutter using isachrom 60 wire with a diameter of 0.5 mm, a servo tester, an esc and a 3s lipo. the wire is held under tension on a wooden bow and a rubber rope. i got the idea from a “flite test” youtube video.

this is my largest quadcopter so far, having a length of 600 mm and a width of 500 mm excluding propellers. the takeoff weight will be around 1.2 kg including fpv equipment, a gopro camera and a 3s 4200 mah lipo. the motors are again emax mt2213 motors, the same kind i’ve used in all my larger quadcopters.

the quadcopter has not yet made its maiden flight since i’m still waiting for esc’s. as soon as i get them i’ll take it outside for a first flight.