Hand retrieve..

n3srj · May 12, 2016

General question... I wonder if the H will be hand retrievable? I'm used to hovering and holding on to the aircraft when i shut the motors off. to me i prefer that over trying to land with ground effect (bouncing).

I know the phantoms like to do that and i always hand landed them.. I see the some q500 folks do to..

what do you guys think.. (trying to pass time as the wait continues.....)

-rich

JoKa · May 12, 2016

Hey Rich,

Yes, it can be done... As Lou Ming has already done it on video. In his video though he comes in Hot! and I certainly wouldn't recommend doing it that fast lol.

He probably does it the right way here though. @ 13:05 mark

glider · May 12, 2016

I think it is is one of the dumbest things to do for anything larger than small toy grade.

JoKa · May 12, 2016

glider said:
I think it is is one of the dumbest things to do for anything larger than small toy grade.

I used to have to do this with my Q500 4K when I was on a boat. There are certain situations that call for it. Just have to be very careful about it.

n3srj · May 12, 2016

JoKa said:
I used to have to do this with my Q500 4K when I was on a boat. There are certain situations that call for it. Just have to be very careful about it.

Agreed..Im not that good landing on my pontoon boat..

yufasa · May 12, 2016

Apart from the obvious dangers I would also be concerned about the stress put on the retract system/servo when you hold it by one leg.

Ereese · May 13, 2016

You have to admit, wise or not, it was still kinda badass.

GlenT · May 13, 2016

Ereese said:
You have to admit, wise or not, it was still kinda badass.

JoKa is right, he definitely came in HOT! Not sure I'd be standing there when something that could mess your face up big time with cutty, spinny blade thingies was doing 20 knots directly at my eye balls.

Ryan Blankenship · May 25, 2016

I don't know if anyone else has tried this, but I was not successful trying to hand catch the H.

I got it in my hand and the motors went into to idle like a P3 does, but as soon as it idled and tilted in my hand the motors came back to life full blast and tried to level itself out and would not go back into idle in my hand. I had to release and land on the ground.

Looks like it's my P3A for flying off my boat this summer.

n3srj · May 25, 2016

Ryan Blankenship said:
I don't know if anyone else has tried this, but I was not successful trying to hand catch the H.

I got it in my hand and the motors went into to idle like a P3 does, but as soon as it idled and tilted in my hand the motors came back to life full blast and tried to level itself out and would not go back into idle in my hand. I had to release and land on the ground.

Looks like it's my P3A for flying off my boat this summer.

GPS was still in control and was trying to level itself.. If you hand catch you better keep it level. Learned this with the dji's If you tilt them they will also try to correct themselves.

Ryan Blankenship · May 25, 2016

n3srj said:
GPS was still in control and was trying to level itself.. If you hand catch you better keep it level. Learned this with the dji's If you tilt them they will also try to correct themselves.

With my dji, while I'm holding in my hand still and pressing the left stick down the motors will shut off and not come back on.

With the H, the motors instead of shutting off go into idle, and since the ST-16 is so big, I am unable to hit the stop button in time before the motors turn back on full blast.

HarveyC · May 25, 2016

I might try it if the conditions required it but probably only if I had second person to grab onto both legs while I controlled it. I like my fingers, eyes, and H too much!

Ryan Blankenship · May 25, 2016

A second person would make this pretty easy, but its a no go solo....

Cristian · May 25, 2016

yufasa said:
Apart from the obvious dangers I would also be concerned about the stress put on the retract system/servo when you hold it by one leg.

This.

Having owned a Q500 4k and hand catching it all but one time I will say even holding the H sideways while stationary leads me to believe there is a lot of stress on the landing gears much less if I tried to snatch it out of the air and had that sudden "drop" once the propellers shut off. It's going to be strictly ground landing for me.

n3srj · May 25, 2016

Ryan Blankenship said:
With my dji, while I'm holding in my hand still and pressing the left stick down the motors will shut off and not come back on.

With the H, the motors instead of shutting off go into idle, and since the ST-16 is so big, I am unable to hit the stop button in time before the motors turn back on full blast.

Understood. I had the same dji you have and a P3P as well. Yes the red button is a bit out there but once your at idle speed you then you can hit the button.. They will stay idling forever unless it thinks its still flying ie hand catching. Catch your dji leave it idle and tilt it.. same thing happens..

n3srj · May 25, 2016

I agree with the others i'm not chancing hand catching this one. Besides the H touches down like a feather compared to the DJI's in my opinion.

CAPTAINDRONE · May 25, 2016

n3srj said:
General question... I wonder if the H will be hand retrievable? I'm used to hovering and holding on to the aircraft when i shut the motors off. to me i prefer that over trying to land with ground effect (bouncing).

I know the phantoms like to do that and i always hand landed them.. I see the some q500 folks do to..

what do you guys think.. (trying to pass time as the wait continues.....)

-rich

I do it all the time with the Phantoms unless of course I'm flying in an open field with just low cut grass with no one around, which pretty much rarely occurs. I tried it twice with the Typhoon on the first flight. Very different to catch than a Phantom but still achievable. The Typhoon puts up a slight fight when you latch onto it, so you have to hit the kill switch immediately. Only advice is to fly it no less than a foot higher than your head (not over your head), grab the landing gear not at the foot but closer to the body (just past half way).

Only time it really is a must to hand catch is when it's just not safe to put it down on the ground (i.e., uneven terrain, over water, bystanders too close, pets/kids running around, etc)