AlanLichty
Moderator
After doing a bit of flying in the Gorge a couple of weeks ago I decided I needed a solution for launch/landing that would keep my drone's prop wash away from the dirt. Our typically bone dry summers and the volcanic soils in the Cascades are a bad combination for fine dust and my Mavic 3 can kick a lot of it up. I have played a little with various landing pad solutions but decided to try something that would let me use the back of my truck. I have landed my drone in the truck bed itself but the avoidance sensors don't particularly like dropping down into the bed all that much and with windy conditions it would be all too easy to get bumped into the sides of the bed.
I ended up building a small bracket that fits just on top of a rail in the bed of the truck at the same height as the top of the truck bed. This lets me drop a folding landing pad down on top of the tail gate and the bracket surface and fasten it down with small bungee cords:
I thread another bungee cord off the loop tab you can see just above the gate latch and then hang a small bag of load straps from it to weight down the back. Turns out I really needed that rear weight today as it was rather breezy. The grass just to the left of the road gives an indication of the wind.
Here is what it looks like from the air - one taken right after launch at low altitude and a second image from about 300'.
I used some bicycle pedal straps to hold the bracket down and it can be easily installed and removed.
I ended up building a small bracket that fits just on top of a rail in the bed of the truck at the same height as the top of the truck bed. This lets me drop a folding landing pad down on top of the tail gate and the bracket surface and fasten it down with small bungee cords:
I thread another bungee cord off the loop tab you can see just above the gate latch and then hang a small bag of load straps from it to weight down the back. Turns out I really needed that rear weight today as it was rather breezy. The grass just to the left of the road gives an indication of the wind.
Here is what it looks like from the air - one taken right after launch at low altitude and a second image from about 300'.
I used some bicycle pedal straps to hold the bracket down and it can be easily installed and removed.