Piloting with hand tremors?

[gubagry]

Hello,

To provide some context, I live on horse property in the steep colorado foothills and am considering buying a Mavic Pro 2 (easiest to fly?) primarily so I can find horses that have escaped from the pasture, locate the source of local smoke, etc. However, I have hereditary tremors in both hands that create problems for coordinated/fine motor control.

Does anyone have experience with or know someone with poor motor control who is able to successfully fly a drone for that purpose? If so, what drone do they fly?

Thank you!

 

[microlinux]

It might help to rest your fingers right on the top of the remote and push the bottom of the sticks with the tips of your fingers. I don't have the steadiest of hands, that helps me.

 

[Defens]

You can also tune the sensitivity of the joysticks, so may be able to dampen out fine-scale tremors in that way.

 

[ROBERTNCREST]

You can also plot some way points and just relax while it gets to different areas.

 

[Prismatic]

@gubagry: Check out this thread on longer control sticks; later in it there's a link to manufactured long sticks, vs. my homemade ones.

 

[FlyGuy8675309]

Hello,

To provide some context, I live on horse property in the steep colorado foothills and am considering buying a Mavic Pro 2 (easiest to fly?) primarily so I can find horses that have escaped from the pasture, locate the source of local smoke, etc. However, I have hereditary tremors in both hands that create problems for coordinated/fine motor control.

Does anyone have experience with or know someone with poor motor control who is able to successfully fly a drone for that purpose? If so, what drone do they fly?

Thank you!

Hi and welcome to the Mavic Forum!

I think you'll be fine as long as you stick to an open takeoff/landing area and are super cautious about watching the battery life (in case you run into trouble). Couple more tips:

- The return to home feature will be your best friend so make sure you set the return-to-home altitude high enough to clear the highest obstacles.

- Go with the Zoom model if you haven't decided. It will allow you to see what you need while staying high above obstacles

- Maybe use a small table/ TV tray to put the remote controller on. If you don't need to hold it, you can concentrate on just moving the sticks.

 

[Latenite]

I'm not sure if the MP2 has tri-pod mode like the air. Tri-pod dampens some of the stick input to provide smoother video. The trade off is slower response and more distance needed to stop.

This might solve the problem.

 

[Latenite]

The more I think about this, the more an X-box type of thumb control comes to mind. Maybe not for you Gubagry, but I'm sure someone with a similar condition could thumb press controls and still have steady flight. I'm not an inventor or control designer, but I'm sure someone could rig up a prototype.

 

[Hauptmann]

I met a guy at the shooting range with hand tremors who could outshoot most of us with his S&W .357. He said training is the answer.