How to hand catch

[bigswifty]

I've never liked hand landing - flying a drone toward you (ie flying down to your hand) under power always seemed like a bad idea to me. But I do a hand grab on every flight. In my opinion moving your hand to the drone is a much safer idea than flying the drone down to you.

For a right handed person:

Hover just above head height (if there's a rogue gust or a system failure, the drone is less likely to hit you in the head). Have the drone positioned downwind of you (ditto, less likely to hit you), and facing at 90 degrees from you with the nose of the drone facing right. So you're approaching the drone by walking in from the side.

Bring your hand to the drone from below (duh) and from the nose (more prop clearance). Grab the drone with thumb and forefinger just behind the front arms. Doing this prevents tripping the sensor and making the drone climb up out of reach. Likewise, doing it this way you don't need to disable VPS.

When you grab it, fully close throttle. The motors will rev up briefly then stop.

I've done this hundreds of times and just IMO I think it's the safest way for yourself, for the drone, and you don't have to fiddle with VPS.

 

[Ian in London]

I hand catch almost every time, and have been for over 4 years, primarily becasue my dog goes nuts and would try to dive at the drone as it lands and that could cause serious injusris to him.
I've spoken at length with people on this subject as you get some (who don't usually do it) who are convinced it's sheer lunacy and an accident is only a matter of time. And then you get the opposite view (from those who do it regularly) who genuinely can't see what the fuss is about. Of course there are pictures and videos everywhere of people getting it wrong, just like almost everything you do in life like driving or chopping veg with a knife, you can do it wrong and hurt yourself.
The Mini, Air and Air 2 are all small enough to land on a flat hand. If you hold your hand flat and steady, and keep the left stick down, they will land perfectly and as long as you keep your hand still, the motors will shut down a second or so after landing. Defo don't recommend the sharp twist to shut down; unnecessary stress on motors.
The Pro 1, the 2 Pro and Zoom are a little large for flat hand landing and I tend to catch them between thumb and forefingers. And of course the Phantoms are the easiest, with the magnificent giant frame to hold as they come into land.