True story.
Not even in little league baseball did I make a catch like this!!
After a very successful flight over the reservoir earlier in the day I decided to fly again since I had plenty of battery left.
I did my normal routine of checking on everything and no problems. I decided to take off a short way from my home but in my neighborhood. It went up and immediately started to fly off in a direction without even hovering like it normally would after take off. At this point there were no warnings yet. Since there were trees nearby I thought it would be best to get above the trees before it got close. BAD idea!!!!! I was not able to clear the trees and I then saw a warning but I was already trying to bring it down out of the trees. To keep this very long story short it got stuck in a tree about 40 ft from the ground and the flight mode was disabled. I was able to bother a neighbor that had a expandable 30 ft latter on the top of his truck and leaned it up against the tree. My guess is that the Mavic was about 40 feet up in the tree. It was hanging on a branch by the front leg. I went up the tree with a long collapsible pole used for cleaning ceilings. It was about 15 ft long. There was NO chance to grab with the pole. I just had to move it enough so it would fall. I put a thick blanket out and a few other things to help break the fall if it went straight to the ground. So with the pole in one hand and the other hand wrapped around the ladder, I was able to maneuver enough to dislodge it from the tree with the pole. As it was falling I reached out with the hand that was holding the ladder (another bad idea!!!) and actually caught it in the midsection of the Mavic. I was amazed and how lucky I was that it came down close enough to me for me to grab it. Even my neighbor who is holding the ladder said he couldn't believe that I caught it. Believe it or not, there was no damage to the Mavic other than propellers. I already replaced the propellers and took a very successful test flight!!! I was so relived!!
After going over the flight log, I received a interference notice. Then the GPS lost signal!! I have NO IDEA why the GPS signal would fail. My guess is that it was the trees but it lost signal before the trees so I'm confused. I learned a lot of lessons and learned that I should consider playing outfield in this years softball league.
. I am very thankful to have been able to get her down safely. I don't want to think about losing a $1,000 drone. 
Not even in little league baseball did I make a catch like this!!
After a very successful flight over the reservoir earlier in the day I decided to fly again since I had plenty of battery left.
I did my normal routine of checking on everything and no problems. I decided to take off a short way from my home but in my neighborhood. It went up and immediately started to fly off in a direction without even hovering like it normally would after take off. At this point there were no warnings yet. Since there were trees nearby I thought it would be best to get above the trees before it got close. BAD idea!!!!! I was not able to clear the trees and I then saw a warning but I was already trying to bring it down out of the trees. To keep this very long story short it got stuck in a tree about 40 ft from the ground and the flight mode was disabled. I was able to bother a neighbor that had a expandable 30 ft latter on the top of his truck and leaned it up against the tree. My guess is that the Mavic was about 40 feet up in the tree. It was hanging on a branch by the front leg. I went up the tree with a long collapsible pole used for cleaning ceilings. It was about 15 ft long. There was NO chance to grab with the pole. I just had to move it enough so it would fall. I put a thick blanket out and a few other things to help break the fall if it went straight to the ground. So with the pole in one hand and the other hand wrapped around the ladder, I was able to maneuver enough to dislodge it from the tree with the pole. As it was falling I reached out with the hand that was holding the ladder (another bad idea!!!) and actually caught it in the midsection of the Mavic. I was amazed and how lucky I was that it came down close enough to me for me to grab it. Even my neighbor who is holding the ladder said he couldn't believe that I caught it. Believe it or not, there was no damage to the Mavic other than propellers. I already replaced the propellers and took a very successful test flight!!! I was so relived!!
After going over the flight log, I received a interference notice. Then the GPS lost signal!! I have NO IDEA why the GPS signal would fail. My guess is that it was the trees but it lost signal before the trees so I'm confused. I learned a lot of lessons and learned that I should consider playing outfield in this years softball league.
. I am very thankful to have been able to get her down safely. I don't want to think about losing a $1,000 drone. 
