I have read many people here say hand catching is easy and I think its necessary to fly on and off boats. BUT I also have real fear of it. It seems particularly dicey if in small boat which may suddenly rock up and down or side to side. I did get smacked in hand once by a drone (not DJI) which turned on by itself when I picked up off ground (not sure why it happened possibly RTH activated when picked up). No serious injury but some blood and not anxious to do again! I wonder if something like this might be used?
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Well, on a calm sea, when the boat is anchored and big enough, then take-off and landing is probably not a big problem. The start actually always succeeds.
A start from a slowly moving ground should also work well. But the ground will move away from the Mavic while trying to maintain its GPS-based position, and that could be a big problem for inexperienced pilots.
RTH takes the Mavic back to his recorded GPS starting point, he will return there and try to land. If the ground is not there, then we know what will happen
As far as I can remember, the old Mavics can not keep the distance to the water surface well. Therefore, there was the recommendation to fly above water without active ultrasonic sensors (Precise Landing OFF or so). This should work better with the new Mavics, so they will probably only go diving when the battery is empty
...However, I did find a good how-to article with videos:
How to Hand Catch a DJI Mavic Pro Drone
I looked at these two videos where the hand catching is explained really well. Thanks for sharing Chip
I'm not sure, but somewhere I've also seen such 3D printed parts (handles) that can be mounted on the bottom of the Mavic to make hand catching easier. But all the extra stuff makes the Mavics even heavier.
And again ... Hand catching the Mavics can really cause serious injury because the blades have very sharp edges at the ends. The old Mavic does not have such sharp blades, but they too are dangerous. The blades will collapse on contact, but these little motors are very powerful.
For me, all that is nothing I really want to try. I always feel like my arms are not long enough anyway. Also, I do not like to fly over water any more. A total loss of the mavic is much more likely there. I believe the old fears return :-(
while on our hols I was flying from the beach, took off on a platform but the wife hand catched it when the battery was low. But I now always use a good old fashion landing pad
