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One-fingered approach to hand catches...

Thmoore

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I've recently upgraded from a Mavic Mini to the Mavic Air 2, and am still getting the hang of a lot of it.

Something I've been having some success with is a one-fingered hand-catch, and I wanted to share the technique.

Instead of grabbing the drone with your whole hand, you can raise one finger, drop the drone onto your finger, stop its descent for a moment, and then grab it with a much better feel for how your hand is positioned. If your positioning is disastrously off, it seems like it's easier and faster to get one finger out of harm's way than four or more fingers if you were trying a whole-hand grab.

This video was taken under ideal controlled indoor conditions, but I've had this technique work well for me outside in some wind as well:


One-fingered Mavic Air 2 hand catch (YouTube)

(Please excuse the video's quality -- it was taken with an old iPad front-facing camera. My two much better cameras were either in the air or clipped into the controller at that moment.)
 
Last edited:
I've recently upgraded from a Mavic Mini to the Mavic Air 2, and am still getting the hang of a lot of it.

Something I've been having some success with is a one-fingered hand-catch, and I wanted to share the technique.

Instead of grabbing the drone with your whole hand, you can raise one finger, drop the drone onto your finger, stop its descent for a moment, and then grab it with a much better feel for how your hand is positioned. If your positioning is disastrously off, it seems like it's easier and faster to get one finger out of harm's way than four or more fingers if you were trying a whole-hand grab.

This video was taken under ideal controlled indoor conditions, but I've had this technique work well for me outside in some wind as well: One-fingered Mavic Air 2 hand catch (YouTube)


View attachment 111902

(Please excuse the video's quality -- it was taken with an old iPad front-facing camera. My two much better cameras were either in the air or clipped into the controller at that moment.)
Grab it while it’s facing you and clasp it on the sides of the drone with your fingers encircling but not touching the camera and it won’t activate the bottom sensors so it won’t fly away from you or fight you so you don’t have hold down on the left stick until you have it fully secured
 
Interesting technique! I've also never flown inside before. I actually didn't know that's a thing!
 
Interesting technique! I've also never flown inside before. I actually didn't know that's a thing!
Oh, it flies inside. But I wouldn't have done it without prop guards if the drone were going anywhere but 12 inches down.
 
Grab it while it’s facing you and clasp it on the sides of the drone with your fingers encircling but not touching the camera and it won’t activate the bottom sensors so it won’t fly away from you or fight you so you don’t have hold down on the left stick until you have it fully secured
Oh, that's an interesting approach, too, thanks!

I've been following advice to face it away from you so it responds predictably to the right joystick -- the drone moves left when you push the stick left, etc.
 
Oh, that's an interesting approach, too, thanks!

I've been following advice to face it away from you so it responds predictably to the right joystick -- the drone moves left when you push the stick left, etc.
I've been flying R/C for many years so to me it doesn't matter, but yes, orientation is better when facing away. Thumbswayup
 
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