Emergency Stop - Whilst grabbing drone in flight

[South-West-Skies]

Recently had an issue where I had to bring a Mavic Pro Platinum down to hoover and was unable to land on the surface due to the height of grass.

Thought if I hovered at 5 ft would be able to grab the drone by hand and switch off manually, this proved not possible.

This sort of situation may occur whilst in flight over water when attempting to land on a boat or moving vehicle.

Any advice on handling a Mavic whilst in flight would be greatly appreciated and immediate stop shut down.

 

[old man mavic]

i believe that if you grab the underside of the mav at arms length and quickly turn it through 90% then the motors will stop

 

[BD0G]

I hand catch all the time! Just bring the Mavic down to arms reach . Not directly overhead. Then grab the belly with two fingers and pinch tightly. If the downward sensors are turned on it may try and fly up and away from you. Trick is to pinch tightly and then left stick of the remote controller all the way down and hold it there. The props will stop spinning.

For safetys sake I now use an extended landing gear on the rear as a catch handle so I can keep my fingers and hand even farther away from the spinning props. Works wonderfully.

 

[Thomas B]

When you grab it come up from below and grasp mid-body. Don’t try to encircle with your hand and half way up the body is enough. Keep it at arm’s length and be aware that the drone will resist this motion. When I was learning the cuts on 3 fingers from my first try took a month to heal.

 

[msinger]

This video contains all of the most used hand catch methods:

 

[old man mavic]

of course you could always invest in leg extenders as BDOG or better still a landing pad

 

[BigAl07]

We "Hand Catch" almost every single flight. While I've heard the "grab and roll" method mentioned above works I've never tried it. I hover the aircraft about arms length away and roughly shoulder height. I gently grab the aircraft in the rear right hand corner and simultaneously hit DOWN on the throttle stick (left stick). After about 3 seconds the motors quit and we're good to go.

 

[old man mavic]

i personally have never caught my MPP i always use a take off landing pad, two reasons, at my age my reflexes are not what they used to be ,and i take a blood anticoagulant med so i can not afford to get cut by the blades if it went wrong, and i was miles from medical help.

 

[South-West-Skies]

This video contains all of the most used hand catch methods:

Really useful video

 

[South-West-Skies]

When you grab it come up from below and grasp mid-body. Don’t try to encircle with your hand and half way up the body is enough. Keep it at arm’s length and be aware that the drone will resist this motion. When I was learning the cuts on 3 fingers from my first try took a month to heal.

I am nursing cut finger tips from trying to hand catch first time, wish I had watched the video first, might try and practice at work, I have kevlar gloves which I normally use for work, now being used to hand catch Mavic...

 

[BD0G]

Ive been "bit" so thats part of the reason I went with the leg extenders. The rear extender is more than sturdy enough for hand catch.

 

[Northern_Bob]

Don’t know why, but this thread reminds me of the sport of falconing. Note the protective glove.
NB

 

[Smokieflies]

This is something I thought I would never try (hand catch) after I saw a couple of videos, but after my wife let the dogs out in the backyard when flying, I decided to try it. Dogs we're way to interested in catching that funny bird. 1st time botton sensors saw my hand and lifted up another foot. 2nd attempted I grabbed it fine and left stick down. Motors rev'd up but stopped ok after a few seconds. Dog still was able to lick one the blades before I got in on the table under the porch.

After doing it a couple of times, I don't really think it is that big of a deal. I do like the falconing glove idea (or a grill mitt, but I just bare handed it.

 

[BD0G]

You just have to commit once you have grasped onto the bottom tightly as it will try and rise (gain altitude) if the bottom sensors are on and detect your hand underneath. I'm telling you after using a catch handle I will never go back to bare handed belly catches.

 

[dazzer71]

I hand catch mine all the time with the downward censors on , just back the bird into you hold your hand out flat and pull down on the stick the bird will sense your hand and rise a little then come back down on to your hand no grabbing or turning just wait for it to come to a rest on the palm of your hand that way you dont strain the motors it only raises up a few inches before it comes back down on to your hand i cant see what all the fuss is about

 

[JimSteadman]

This video contains all of the most used hand catch methods:

Thanks for this video.

I've only had to hand catch once and, after watching this video, I was lucky. I was flying inside a church doing a photography project for their website. It occurred to me that turning the lights off (it was daylight outside) would offer some opportunities. But after extinguishing the lights, it was so dark that the drone [Mavic Air] began to zoom aimlessly around. It dove down at one point and hit a pew - no damage to the pew or the drone - and shot right back up. But I was really concerned that it might fly into something more valuable than a pew and I began a somewhat futile effort to gain control. I finally got it near enough to me that I was able to grab it from below, but it fought me until I was able to turn the battery off - not easy, but by that time I had a death grip on that little sucker and was not going to let go. So once I shut it off - and got back to the light switch to turn them on - it flew flawlessly.

 

[BossBob]

I’ve turned off landing protection so that I have a little more control of the drone. If you’ve turned off the tilt to stop motors option, the trick is not to move the drone once you have hold of it and to get the left stick down and held down quickly to stop the motors.
While the motors are running and the propellers are spinning, even with no stick input the drone will do everything in its power to hold its position in 3 dimensions.