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Hand catch question

MikeyNick

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I've always wondered, if you were to hand catch from a moving platform - say a boat or the back of a truck - as soon as you grabbed it, wouldn't the GPS stabilization immediately make it fight with you to go back to hovering where it was?

E.g. say you're going 5 mph in the back of a truck, so you have to fly the drone forward 5mph to match your speed and catch it while it's flying forward, then as soon as you catch it, shut off the motors. But in that instant between catching it and and letting go of the right stick (which was moving you forward at 5mph) to pull down on the left stick (to shut the motors off), wouldn't it immediately start trying to fly backward to get back to its GPS location, since you're still on the back of the truck moving 5mph?

I never understood how people could hand catch from a moving boat (unless they put it in ATTI mode first, in which case it would only try to fight you on altitude, not GPS position. however, as I understand it, there is no ATTI mode on the mavic).
 
If somehow you could find the video of the Yahoos who tried this, it would make you forget it and concentrate on just about anything else in life. Suffice to say, it did not end well.
 
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This guy, for example, does it quite successfully. And he claimed he was in GPS mode

 
The only situation I can think of where you wouldn't have the option of stopping to land is sailing. So if I ever have to do that, the best idea I can think of is to hold up a net and just fly it into that so the propellers get caught up in the net, then just untangle it out. And considering that's the best thing I can think of, I think I'll just avoid the situation altogether lol
 
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I've always wondered, if you were to hand catch from a moving platform - say a boat or the back of a truck - as soon as you grabbed it, wouldn't the GPS stabilization immediately make it fight with you to go back to hovering where it was?

You are correct. Also, the boat might be moving up and down. The video below is a Phantom which is completely different. The person has the luxury of grabbing landing gear that is fairly easy to grab and hang onto. The Mavic does not have this and the body is very slim so your hand would be very close to the props. It's certainly possible but I'd say there is a _high_ percentage that something goes wrong. Really high percentage.
 
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It might try to fight a little bit but no more than it tries to fight if you leave landing protection on. ATTI mode would be preferable but we obviously don't have access to that on the Mavic. Next best bet would be to decrease the braking distance as far as it'll go in the settings.
 
This guy does a demonstration how hard it is to land a Mavic on a moving platform.
Hand catch? He almost had a crotch catch! :eek:

Good challenge for someone to complete.;)
 
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I launch launch and catch from a boat quite often and it does not fly away. I catch it low down by grabbing the bottom of the mavic, covering up the VPS sensors, and then shut down the motors. Whilst it's waiting to shut down the the mavic wants to climb away in my hand but all I do is lift the Mavic up slowly higher so it thinks it climbing which slows the motors down. If you don't lift it up higher during motor shutdown the blades spin up really fast.
 
I've hand caught my Mavic several times at the Beach. I disable VPS and then just grab the bottom until motors turn off, with VPS disabled it won't fight you and try to fly up. Just note, be careful of your finger placement so you don't accidentally put your finger into the props...and if anyone has doubt about the Mavic's ability to take skin off, I have a scar on the tip of my finger to prove it can :)
 
I have it active track my buddy driving the boat, set at a height and distance I can grab it from the back of the boat. Then just grab it and shut it down. Even at 15 mph it appears to be standing still;)
 
There clearly is a problem landing conventionally if you are having to maintain forward motion to keep up with your 'platform', because normal landing commands don't allow you to maintain the lateral motion.
However grab it firmly enough and you can kil the motors with CSC.
 
I have it active track my buddy driving the boat, set at a height and distance I can grab it from the back of the boat. Then just grab it and shut it down. Even at 15 mph it appears to be standing still;)
I'd luv to see any video of someone catching a Mavic on a boat moving at 15 mph.........
 
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Well, it sounds like it can be done if you have the huevos for it. Maybe once I get mine insured I will be a little more daring in my maneuvers. Hand launching sounds super easy regardless of whether you're moving. I'll probably just end stopping the vehicle momentarily to catch, if such a need arises.

The active track sounds like a pretty good idea. Just get it nice and close to you and it should just lock position.
 
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