Hand catching safely

[Joe Boudreault]

I know this is a bit of a touchy subject but many of us live in areas where this really is our only option a good chunk of the time. So I thought I’d share a video that goes over some of the better and safest ways to do so.

Hope this is helpful to at least one person out there.

Happy holidays everyone and happy flying.

3 Ways To Hand Catch Your Mavic Pro Drone

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Great stuff. I forgo about the drone seeing my palm as a landing pad. It took off away from me.

Incidentally, your intro 'music' sucks... how about "Duelling Banjos' or something else..besides that horrible excuse of noise you use? Just sayin'...

 

[peros550]

I catch the body not the legs and keep the stick back and get virtually no 'fight back'. I didn't know people were grabbing the legs.

Hi thanks for your response. I didn't make myself clear.
When I handcatch I always grab the Mavic's body using only two fingers . Two fingers not because I love the other three more, but because in this way I do not trigger the bottom sensors with my palm.

Yes, catching a leg/arm would definitely make it lose balance.

Still, I see too much tension during the hand catch and try to use it only when it is difficult to safely land it.

 

[John Locke]

Guys, especially the moment you hand catch the drone don’t you feel the drone is fighting back to gain altitude ? During that moment I get a feeling that too much force is applied to the legs/arms.

Don’t you think that hand catching the drone on a regularly basis may damage the arms/legs supporting mechanisms?

I don’t really know , just guessing.

To prevent the fight, turn off bottom sensors. Than hover the craft above your head but within reach. Take your fingers of the sticks. Slowly walk over and firmly grab the drone, but hold it in place, don't pull it down. With it held in place, re-engage the left stick, push full down and wait 3 seconds for the motors to stop. Then pull the craft down from above your head.

I take exception to the video the OP posted. I would never recommend catching a moving craft, especially below head level (palm catch style). Too many things can go wrong. If you need to hand catch, always grab a craft that's in a fixed hover, above your head, as described above. Otherwise, make sure to keep band-aids in your backpack.

 

[4wd]

With Mavic 2 it won't fight you if you turn off landing protection, there's no need to fully disable bottom sensors.
You don't even need do that if you let it descend to your hand like it was the ground, rather than reaching up to grab it.
Since my first Phantom (one) in 2014 I have hand caught everything at least 90% of the time - without incident.

Hand launch is more tricky but worth being able to do it in many situations.

 

[FoxhallGH]

Let it move away and keep holding the joystick down, it will move away for a moment and then come back down a 2nd time. The 2nd time it will land and shut the motors off.

What settings do you have on your sensors @lenabanana ???

 

[lenabanana]

What settings do you have on your sensors @lenabanana ???

All sensors on, default settings.
Worked on my MP and confirmed it still works the same on the M2Z

 

[ottodawg]

Great Video, I'll have to practice these skills. I fly mainly in the mountains, so flat spots for takeoff and landing are fairly few and far between.

 

[JDawg]

All sensors on, default settings.
Worked on my MP and confirmed it still works the same on the M2Z

Same here with M2P