I love turbo! After a few seconds of use and my brain has already collected all the data it needs, without the backpack!
Rant off.
Just buy proper light where turbo lasts longer. Like BLF GT or similar 
I would wonder if you’re searching for the right kind of light for this role…
A torch/flashlight is designed for hand-held use with the ability to switch modes as needed.
Perhaps you would be better off mounting an LED security light or something, with a separate battery pack?
This topic comes up with dizzying frequency. I have 58 high performance lights. The larger ones I categorize by 30 second lumens. Medium size I categorize by 15 second lumens, the small ones I categorize by two second lumens, and the tiny pocket rockets I categorize by turn on lumens.
I already know that ultra high performance lights will get hot in a few seconds on max. I already know that if I do not throttle back to a lower mode in a few seconds, the flashlight will melt down. I do not expect that the flashlight can run safely for longer than briefly after it gets hot. I already know that the advertised max lumen spec is only for a few seconds, until it gets hot, and then I need to throttle down to a lower mode to prevent the product from frying.
Ultra high performance lights are not marketed to target purchases to be made by neophytes.
Some of us, who are enthusiasts, already know that ultra high performance lights need to be quickly throttled down by the user to a lower mode to prevent the product from melting down.
Some of us, who are enthusiasts, already know that the advertised max lumens are for short burst only, due to limited fuel supply capacity and heat management.
Yet, when any manufacturer offers an ultra high performance light that is marketed to target purchases to be made by enthusiasts, we complain that the light gets hot too quickly, and that the flashlight melts down when it gets too hot.
I feel grateful that manufactures continue to offer new developments in ultra high performance lights, even though when any manufacturer releases such an new, exciting product, there will be enthusiasts who point out that the light gets too hot too quickly.
I like to use my high power to size ratio lights in max turbo for a few seconds to quickly light up as large an area as possible, as deep as possible, as many lumens as possible, for a few seconds or only two seconds, to very quickly identify target spots in the area field. Then I quickly throttle back to lower mode from there.
All of my pocket rockets, hand held rockets and shoulder fired lumen rockets also have normal modes to provide for normal run time and normal heat generation.
A very large light, due to very large fuel supply, that has only one medium caliber emitter, that on max mode can run for days: I have not bought such yet. Maybe I should.
A very expensive light of normal edc size that on max mode is a fraction of max mode on other lights that are a fraction of the cost: I plan on buying one soon, but I have not done so yet.
My lights: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/9150/287
Flashlights are built to be hand-held. It’s just not physically possible for such small units to maintain such outputs for longer than a couple of minutes - and for their intended purpose that’s usually plenty. I know there are specific types of lights favored by SAR-types, but that’s beyond my experience as a mere enthusiast.
Stay sharp, check out this thread.
As I stated this if for mounting to a drone and weight is key.
Thanks
That’s the problem. Unless you specifically design something with a weight-efficient heatsink, lights generally require more mass to make more light (sustained).
Big drone, then…
Is your key criteria throw (feet/meters) or lumens?
I get the sense that what you are really after is throw, although I could see it being both, depending on your goal.
If a narrow beam is useful to you, then few lumens can suffice.
Ya done yet?
You care about lumens per weight. I have a AA light that does 2000 lumens but it won’t do it for long. The higher the lumens and the longer you want it to run, the bigger it will be. You can’t mess with physics.
I’m pretty sure any light would be able to sustain much higher output when mounted on a drone. All that air hitting the light will greatly help to keep it cool.
There are lights where you can disable thermal stepdown, they will get hot! Like 80 degC, but when there is enough airflow, it should run cooler.
what’s your weight limit?
A BLF Q8 for example would be great, (with disabled stepdown)
but its a bit heavy.
A bicycle light with external battery pack might meet your criteria too.
I agree, I always consider “Turbo” and “Burst” a temporary output.
ANSI-NEMA FL-1 is to blame for the misinformation. Most (all?) manufacturers call the highest mode ‘turbo’, indicating that this mode has a characteristics much different from the remaining mode set. This is fair marketing imo, especially if you think of all the cheaters with their 1,000,000 lumen pocket lights and their 50,000 mAh batteries they have to compete with. I think especially Sofirn, being a budget manufacturer, suffers from those cheaters.
I would look at dropping the body, battery, and switch as pointless weight, and power a single mode head from the drone battery through a voltage convertor instead, or use a 12v driver/LED to match your drone batteries. Or if you already have a usable 5v supply on your drone you could run a 3v LED through a buck driver.
This is what i advised a friend do on his.
Obv you’d need to waterproof it, i can’t remember what my friend used but he built his own drones and coated the electronics with some silicone or resin type stuff. And if you’re feeling adventurous you may be able to incorporate a remote control relay in the circuit to switch it on and off.
If you go this route though you’re probably going to need a fixed current driver rather than a FET-based one.
Personally i think the torch you linked too is going to be too floody for your purpose unless you’re always going to be close to the ground, if not you either want a bigger head or a smaller LED in the head size you linked to. If you want to stick to simply adding a full torch to the drone then have a look at the Wildtrail BLF D80v2 with an SST40 which is a great searchlight with excellent heat-dissipating capabilites, or there’s an XP-L HI version for a more focused beam with a bit more range that you might find more suitable. It’s 80g heavier and more expensive than the torch you linked to though but i think it will be a far more suitable beam than anything smaller and lighter.
Does the drone have any ability to control switches? Some lights (Fenix is one example) have accessories available which replace the tailcap with an alternative kind of switch, like a pressure switch on a cable. You could hack the pressure switch part off and wire it into the drone. If it has the ability to fire switches when you could have an array of lights and switch between them in order to keep turbo power going for longer.
For search and rescue I would imagine you need not just throw but flood as well, i.e. you want as much light over as much distance and area as you can get.
If controlling switches via the drone isn’t possible it would probably be simple enough to build a tiny AA-powered controller circuit that would switch between the lights periodically. As a quick example suppose you had two Fenix PD36R mounted and a controller circuit to cycle between them. I would guess that the turbo runtime of one at altitude would be plenty enough time for the other light to cool down enough to get back into turbo. You just need to figure out how long to run each one for before switching over. Some experiments at different altitudes and ambient temperatures would probably give you enough data to know this with some certainty, then you could perhaps add a simple temperature sensor to the controller circuit.
I could easily program an arduino board to do this for you and they’re tiny, lightweight and run for ages on a tiny lightweight li-po battery. Shout if you want me to help.
Mark
Just realised Marc E is right - at height you want a more focused beam than the PD36R. PD32v2 is very focused but only 1200 lumens. Maybe you should start by determining how far you need the beam to reach and then look at light options from there.