Any reason not to hand catch?

[Phantomrain.org]

If interested, here is the website for the person selling the "hand" launchpad for the Mavic series: Home

I was thinking of getting one, until I saw the price ($125-$135). A little too much for a piece of plastic with straps. Wish they made one that was JUST the handheld pad without the straps at a reduced price.

Thanks for your interest , the Price for the all the Forum members is $99.95 plus $5.95 for shipping for the Lunar Landing Pad

There is no plastic in the Design of the Lunar landing Pad , the material used it water proof ,and extremely durable.

The Lunar Pad has a Cross Support and uses the finest materials along with 1/2 custom made straps that are self locking.

Keep in mind that the Mavic Enterprise, , the smart controller and the accessories can run a few thousand dollars , and so rather than skimp , we follwed the lead on the Wet Suits and went for A premium Product to protect the Drone , the results well worth it.

One bad landing , One Cut Finger and it pays for itself in GOLD. lol

Phantomrain.org
Coal

 

[NJInfrared]

Yesterday I was forced to both start the Mavic from my hands, as well as catch it when it returned. The ground was uneven and rocky. So I wonder, is there any reason not to do this all the time? Seemed safe to me

Your hands are your assets, not for the flying nutra bullet to catch.

 

[MGee]

Perfect way to safeguard your drone. As long as you do not loose focus doing the handcatch, it's perfect. I do it a lot of times

 

[peteair75]

I made a "hand landing pad" a few days ago , out of "Coreflute" we call it in Australia. I just hold on to a corner of it , like an extension of my hand . Cost nothing , and measures about 1 foot square, easy to carry in a backpack .

 

[Victorian Aerial Vision]

Nice pretty pink props

 

[Lon Denard]

I made a "hand landing pad" a few days ago , out of "Coreflute" we call it in Australia. I just hold on to a corner of it , like an extension of my hand . Cost nothing , and measures about 1 foot square, easy to carry in a backpack .

I carried a plastic garbage can lid with me to the beach and on the boat when I first got my Mavic Pro a few years ago. Hahaha! I even attached some foam and an actual landing pad for fun. I looked like a goof but it worked pretty good and the raised sides stopped it from sliding off. "Necessity is the mother..."

 

[Clipper707]

Again, I'd rather have a firm grip on the drone itself, rather than something the drone rests upon.

For protection purposes, a glove works well and better fits my portability preferences.

 

[GadgetGuy]

When Hand Landing my Mavic Pro Platinum I do the following:

Establish a nice controlled approach to my location. When the aircraft is about 5 feet away I hover, rotate the aircraft "Tail In" (facing away from me) and come in slowly at around eye level. When it's 2' away I let it hover in place and stabilize. I then ease in from underneath but off to the side (belly sensors) and firmly grasp it in the middle and quickly rotate the aircraft upside down. This immediately shuts the motors OFF and you can carry on with your next step (battery change, packing up for the day etc . . .)

In regards to PhantomRainSuit Lunar Landing Pad.... Mine should arrive ANY day now Can't wait get it into use.

New Product Launch - Phantom Rain ! Lunar Landing Pad System :]

The Lunar Landing Pad is a Revolutionary new way of Hand Catching your drone.* It's Safe / Fast and very Secure and even minimizes the risk of Hand Catching and launching your drone. Hand Launching with the Lunar Pad is so effortless that you won't think twice about using it and helps to avoid...

mavicpilots.com

New Product ! Lunar Landing Pad is shipping

The Lunar Landing Pad is a Revolutionary new way of Hand Catching your drone.* It's Safe / Fast and very Secure and even minimizes the risk of Hand Catching and launching your drone. Hand Launching with the Lunar Pad is so effortless that you won't think twice about using it and helps to...

mavicpilots.com

What? No Selfie of the pilot grabbing the drone out of the air? That's the best part!

 

[Lon Denard]

What? No Selfie of the pilot grabbing the drone out of the air? That's the best part!

I like that he's basically sneaking up on his drone!

 

[GadgetGuy]

I like that he's basically sneaking up on his drone!

Avoiding the built-in Chinese facial recognition database!

 

[Lon Denard]

Avoiding the built-in Chinese facial recognition database!

Hahahaha!

 

[dronerat]

Safe? Not really.

Thankfully, this was his hand, and not his face. Letting the drone get within an arm's length of your face is putting a lot of trust in technology. Just peruse this forum for posts about sudden flyaways to get a sense of just one way this could go wrong.

After asking a similar question to yours, I was advised by member of this forum to try hand launch & retrieval. So, I went ahead and made a bunch of hand launches and retrievals, and it is indeed simple enough to do. However, I echo the current Farmer's Insurance advertising tagline: "We know a thing or two, because we've seen a thing or two." I'm well north of 65 and have definitely "seen a thing or two." I know that "stuff happens."

Hand retrieval seems like an open invitation to that "stuff." I'll certainly do it when I absolutely must do it, but I'm not going to do it if I don't have to.

[edit] Here's a link to yet another flyaway post, from today, talking about a flyawy while landing. Read it and imagine that it happened while the drone was hovering less than three feet from your head:

Mavic 2 Crash

Yikes imagine if those lacerations were on the other side of his wrist. “Stuff happens”, you could wind up in the hospital or die if you were in a remote location.

I got my first drone lacerations today while rushing during a windy hand launch at a beach. I will be using my big orane launching pad *exclusively* from now on.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Yikes imagine if those lacerations were on the other side of his wrist. “Stuff happens”, you could wind up in the hospital or die if you were in a remote location.

I got my first drone lacerations today while rushing during a windy hand launch at a beach. I will be using my big orane launching pad *exclusively* from now on.

Windy conditions are always more challenging, but learning the proper hand catching technique is most important. Not every situation lends itself to using a launching pad.