Hand catch disadvantage?

[Jester]

Ouch....!

Ouch is right but you should have seen the look on all the faces of the people in the ER waiting room when we walked in. Priceless! She wasn't hurt and only my hand was, but the mess it made out of our faces, hair, and clothing sure got everyone's attention. And hey, I've been to the ER more times than I care to admit, but the VIP treatment on this trip because of the way we looked was awesome. Being the guy that would normally be what you see in the movies where I'm one of the poor fools waiting in the long line behind the velvet ropes at the night club, it was really cool to walk right up to the bouncer, get the cool rock star nod, ropes moved, and strut right in.
Sure, it cost me a great career, but I've made a few bucks with my new parlor trick. Plus, who would ever mess with a guy that can put a cigarette out on his finger without even a flinch? The donor nerves didn't take as well as we hoped but if I ever decide to become a drinker, I will never have to buy my own drinks at the bar.
I've cut the story down quite a bit since I have to tell it a lot now. I don't really get into the details anymore about how it was a battery operated styrofoam little toy with an 8 inch prop, sitting on my counter, or how it happened indoors or anything like that. I figure, why bother everyone with all the details. People are busy and I don't want to take up too much of their time with the unimportant stuff. Now I just tell people I was hit by a plane that lost control, or that it happened in an accident when I rushed over to save my daughter's life by jumping in front of the oncoming, out of control plane. Sure, it makes me sound really Awesome and like a total hero, but it's not about that. I just don't want to bog them down in all the details.

 

[Michael Brown]

Hi, is there any disadvantage whatsoever to hand catch and kill the motors? If you ignore it can be kind of dangerous.

I hand catch my H all the time, it's never been a danger as long as you realize what you're doing.

 

[Trevor869]

I too catch my H most times because of the horror stories I have heard of the H getting really unstable and flipping over.
I always bring my H down close to me and let it hover to make sure it's stable and is above my head. I put my leather work glove on my right hand then slowly bring the H down to where the props would be eye level, so like drop it about a foot or so, before doing so I make sure I keep my head below the prop height, so I crouch down a little then I slowly approach the H and gently put my right hand on the leg of the H and shut the motors down. When placing your hand on the H do not try to pull it down or move it, just be ready to take the weight of it once the motors are shut down.
I definitely use the lanyard so your don't have to worry about dropping your St16. Keep in mind that you are putting a lot of strain on only the one landing leg of the H, so try to get it on the ground or get your other hand to support the H so that you don't hurt the gears or anything of the landing gears motors.
I just thought of this while typing this... If you have a spotter that is always with you, you could team up with the spotter and have him catch it with both his hands while you stop the motors BUT I would never do this just because if something ever happened to another person I would have a hard time forgiving myself for asking them to do it and one could end up in a massive lawsuit if something ever did happen, like someone losing an eye or something really bad...just my opinion for those type of situations.

Be safe out there, happy flying all!

 

[Eagle's Eye Video]

As someone who has discussed this in the past, I will say only that if you choose to do this, just know
what the potential consequences are. As far as discussions on merits or techniques, remember that
you also have the right to remain silent. Anything you post, can and will be used against you.

 

[photis]

I have to say it is a really dangerous proccess, even if you know what you are doing. Sometimes it just isn't up to you. What if there is a wind gust right when you try to catch the drone and the props hit your hands. We've seen the pictures. However for the typhoon H there is another good reason why not to handcatch it. The landing gear is retractable. That means it has a moving and a locking mechanism. These two mechanisms are tested for proper landings. You cannot really tell how much strength they can take when pressure is applied to them the wrong way. Added to that, the typhoon H is a large drone and when you try to catch it from one gear, the time you switch the motors off, the drone has the tendency to drop to the opposite side. This can cause malfunction to the gear. The only proper way for hand catching the typhoon H is using both hands, one in each gear and have someone else use the RC and turn off the engines.

 

[Shaneco]

In my situation I had to make a decision: hand catch it or land on the camera. For some reason both gear failed to deploy when commanded. I elected to hand catch it and probably saved a costly repair to the camera. It was a little sketchy because I caught it with both hands around the center motor arms and the gear. Of course when I went to idle on the motors, the gear began deploying so I had to quickly rearrange my grip to keep from dropping it. I would say it is not a good practice to try and catch it unless necessary, but having watched a video and having an idea how to do it in case it is needed might not be a bad idea.

 

[skydivindronepilot]

In my situation I had to make a decision: hand catch it or land on the camera. For some reason both gear failed to deploy when commanded. I elected to hand catch it and probably saved a costly repair to the camera. It was a little sketchy because I caught it with both hands around the center motor arms and the gear. Of course when I went to idle on the motors, the gear began deploying so I had to quickly rearrange my grip to keep from dropping it. I would say it is not a good practice to try and catch it unless necessary, but having watched a video and having an idea how to do it in case it is needed might not be a bad idea.

In addition to using the landing gear switch, did you try engaging the RTH switch to get the gear down?

 

[Jester]

In my situation I had to make a decision: hand catch it or land on the camera. For some reason both gear failed to deploy when commanded. I elected to hand catch it and probably saved a costly repair to the camera. It was a little sketchy because I caught it with both hands around the center motor arms and the gear. Of course when I went to idle on the motors, the gear began deploying so I had to quickly rearrange my grip to keep from dropping it. I would say it is not a good practice to try and catch it unless necessary, but having watched a video and having an idea how to do it in case it is needed might not be a bad idea.

Yep, I've had to catch mine once to save it from damage as well. It was a little nerve wracking but went well. Not something I'll make a practice of, but that issimply because i know my luck. I've been thinking of a legal name change to Murphy. Pretty sure I co-authored some of his laws.

 

[PatR]

As someone who has discussed this in the past, I will say only that if you choose to do this, just know
what the potential consequences are. As far as discussions on merits or techniques, remember that
you also have the right to remain silent. Anything you post, can and will be used against you.

Indeed

 

[CAPTAINDRONE]

I've been hand catching drones for as long as I've been flying them. Simple reason, I'm not a Sunday flyer and end up in all sorts of lacations where landing is not a good option. Also I'm anal about having the camera touch anything upon landing (hate cleaning the lens).

If people are not comfortable doing it, then they should avoid it. Nervous hands around spinning props are a bad match.

 

[Jester]

I've been hand catching drones for as long as I've been flying them. Simple reason, I'm not a Sunday flyer and end up in all sorts of lacations where landing is not a good option. Also I'm anal about having the camera touch anything upon landing (hate cleaning the lens).

If people are not comfortable doing it, then they should avoid it. Nervous hands around spinning props are a bad match.

That would be me. Definitely nervous hands here. When I have hand caught, they have my undivided attention.

 

[Michael Brown]

I've not had a problem landing the H, except once when it was in smart mode and I tried to approach it just as it was landing. It skipped away and broke the camera mount. It lands very softly from my perspective. However, I have hand caught it many times too. Sometimes, it doesn't want to shut down because it says I'M NOT ON THE GROUND! And will fight shut down. Pretty smart machine. For this reason, I try to always land it if possible.

 

[SkyVidTek]

I hand catch my H about 50% of the time on landings usually because of the landing area being either long grass, uneven ground, or muddy. I lower the gear, get it hovering about 1/2m above me and then reach with my right hand to the left landing gear (always have it facing away from me). Do not try to "pull" it down before the motors are stopped or it will resist, just get a solid grip on the gear, then with my left hand kill the motors. I am fully aware of the danger so my "focus" is at maximum. BTW, a previous post comparing takeoff to landing.... they are completely different. I would never try a hand launch of my H, unless I had a helper.