Do you hand catch your drone?

[Droning on and on...]

Hand launching, in my opinion, should only be done on an as needed basis. Like moving from a boat,

I know people do it, and it's been done successfully many times, but hand-catching while YOU are moving is about as risky as you can get.

You have to be flying the drone with pitch and roll input, so it will be tilting all over the place.

 

[Droning on and on...]

All the time except when I'm launching from concrete or pavement. I don't pinch though. I merely have my palms open and wait for the drone to land. I used to pinch and then turn the drone over but found it was just an accident prone way of catching.

IMO, this is the riskiest way to do it. If a sudden gust hits you will have no control at all, and a bit of position offset countered by some pitch and/or roll as the FC tries to hold position, tilting the spinning props right into your hand.

This is how the failures happen.

The rare time I hand catch (ALWAYS because of laziness) I come in frome behind, avoid the VPS sensors, hold the throttle all the way down to start landing, grab it firmly on the sides, then flip it over to stop it.

 

[jencarta]

Yes! I’m often on a small boat so hand catching is safer than trying to land on the boat.

 

[Michel Soucy]

With my M3C, have begun to do this fairly regularly.
First lesson I learned, do NOT leave your thumb sticking up. yup...them blades cut nicely. lol That cost me a blade replacement, but yeah, easier than I had expected. Winds where we live are enough to sometimes prevent me laying my pad on the ground. I do use the sunroof on my vehicle to launch, I'd yet to do a hand launch, ok, maybe I'll give it a try later today.

 

[Prop Wash]

Mini 2 - I've done several times so I know how-to IF I need to. Most of the time, departures/arrivals are from/to my pad.

 

[kilhan]

Funny thing, it was quite common for fellow thrill risk-takers to be very careful too.

I think it’s 100% true. I am also very careful while preparing to launch or catch the drone.

As to the risk, I always launch from my hand as far above my head as possible. The same with landing. And you shouldn’t pinch your drone, but let it land on your flat palm, then stop the motors, and only than pinch with your fingers. And to have something well trained, you must do it as often as possible. Like a pilot of a plane, who should always train manual flight, to be comfortable when it is really needed. As to the safety of others, I often start from sidewalks, parking or other places where people walk or ride on bikes. Starting or landing on the ground can be dangerous for them, while hand launching/catching far above my head is safest for others. That’s why it is probably a “habit of professional drone pilots”, if it really is.

But it also depends on the type of a drone. With Mavic 3 it is safe, as it is enough heavy and stable. Not all the drones are so trustworthy.

 

[archoptical]

I've always caught mine. Did slice my fingers a bit once with the mini 2 when trying to pluck it out of the air instead of waiting for it to descend, but learned my lesson. Fingers unharmed in nearly a year of Mini 3 pro flights. Pretty sure it looks awesome too. Have never hand launched though. I'm a bit scared it will just fall off, :crunch:

 

[David D. Busch]

I've never tried it. But I'm a clumsy person, so it is me, not my drone, that is an accident waiting to happen. I keep a landing pad in my vehicle at all times, and rarely encounter any challenges in finding a place to launch or land. I must be in the minority.

 

[MA2 317]

I've seen items such as this to help hand catch.

https://www.amazon.com/Handheld-Take-Off-Landing-Protector-Accessories/dp/B086W62Y9Q

Talk about stick the landing.

 

[Dmcvey]

It is the only thing you can’t practice, has to right the first time. We banned hand catching in our flight policy Ops manual.

Good engineering article:

drone dangers, risks and injuries

This professional article deals with the dangers of quadrocopters. Did you know that a quadcopter can rotate into the forearmin in 0.3 seconds?

www.technik-consulting.eu

And finally:

 

[rwilliam99]

I took my Mini 3 Pro off from a log but opted to hand catch it on landing today. I should have brought my landing pad with me but I forgot it..... That is my bad.

I don't like landing in tall grass or weeds which is why I did the hand catch today. It worked perfectly, but I've seen when things can go sideways VERY quickly, so I will try and make sure I have my landing pad on future hikes.

 

[TonyPHX]

No it's not, and there's no reason to be insulting to people.

It presents a risk of serious injury that may be necessary depending on the circumstances. Some of the risk is controllable (i.e. don't do it in gusty conditions, as one example).

It is also true that it is almost never truly necessary, especially with a minimum of preflight planning, and opine that in the vast vast vast majority of instances it is not necessary at all.

IMO, the risk is never worth it. People's hands have truly been maimed by accidents, with major loss of sensory function not to mention cosmetic scarring. The worst is rare, but it only has to happen once.

lol, I insulted nobody. I think it's ridiculous. That's my opinion. : ) That's all it is.

 

[Skydreamer]

with my eyes i would probably loose my whole arm

 

[Nico El Greco]

I fly mainly on a rugged Greek island where there are rarely any clean or flat areas to take off and land. Thus I try and do hand launch / catch whenever I can. So thanks for posting the video. I haven't ever had any problems with hand launching. But hand catching has been a big challenge for me - especially the part where you stop the motors after grabbing the drone. I was under the impression from reading the manual that to stop the motors you had to do what DJI calls a CSC (Combination Stick Command): push both sticks to the inner or outer bottom corners. However, I have found the drone fights you quite hard once you've grasped it, and rasises the throttle of all 4 motors trying to get away. And because the drone avoids your hand when you bring it close, I have had to disable collision detection, which is a nuisance in the middle off landing. Then, that SCS is really fiddly to do with one hand - and I don't know why, but it takes forever (> 5s) before the motors stop, all the while the drone fighting you and trying to take off again from your hand. So after watching your video I have learned 2 things: (1) get a lanyard for the controller and (2) just "land" the drone onto your hand and use the left stick down move to stop the motors. Can't wait to try out this new technique! Thanks again for sharing!

 

[waynorth]

I sometimes hand catch, most of the times not. Depends on the situation.
I have practiced hand catching a lot, and when I had Phantom 4 I always hand caught it, very easy to grip it in the legs. With the Mavic 2 I often use a landing pad, so I find hand catching unnecessary. And catching the Mavic is a little bit more risky than the Phantom, at least it requires more concentration. I had a prop hitting my thumb once, but I wore gloves so it didn't draw blood

 

[DARKSeifer]

At home I use a big plastic table I have in the garden as the helipad, on location I always take off/land from the hand as usually there are no big plastic tables around and leaving it on the ground means pebbles/dust will fly around and could scratch the camera or get inside the motors.

It is the only thing you can’t practice, has to right the first time. We banned hand catching in our flight policy Ops manual.

Good engineering article:

drone dangers, risks and injuries

This professional article deals with the dangers of quadrocopters. Did you know that a quadcopter can rotate into the forearmin in 0.3 seconds?

www.technik-consulting.eu

And finally:

Those wounds would come from a rigid prop, either DIY FPVs at max power or something like the Matrice. Mini2-Mavic 3 range with self foldable props and low idle speed would mostly do a cut like the shown, but of course stupidity has no limits, **** happens and things can malfunction, like for example, drone could go full throttle to your face.

The greatest danger from hand catching drones aren't for the hands but for the eyes, so wear at least sunglasses.

PS: I forgot to tell that proper hand catching is like the show in the OP video, things like catching the drone and turning it for the IMU to shut down the motors are a complete nonsense that put the drone under stress and chances to get your fingers chopped are way higher.

 

[shawgod]

I am totally afraid of hurting myself. I have read a lot of people having success with this and some people getting into trouble with this. I like my fingers, and don't want to put them into jeopardy.

 

[mashman]

This video looks to be resonating with some, so I thought I would share here. I’m surprised more people don’t hand catch!

These Are 5 Habits of Professional Drone Pilots You Should Do!

I purchased a used Mavic A2 couple months ago (my first drone) The guy selling me the drone showed me that he had only hand launched, so that is what I learned. Super easy So I guess its how I learned and all I have done. Theory was keeping dirt away from the motors/electronics so made sense to me.

 

[Clarkent]

This video looks to be resonating with some, so I thought I would share here. I’m surprised more people don’t hand catch!

These Are 5 Habits of Professional Drone Pilots You Should Do!

Every time

 

[Photobobhunt]

Why anyone would intentionally hand catch puzzles me? but then I can't understand why people juggle running chainsaws either.