DRONE STUCK IN 100' TREE

The only guys I know that will scale a tree that high, I;m assuming its big/strong enough to climb?
Are the climbing wall guys, Here in a town close to me, I found a climbing wall center
Willing & able to scale any tree, Quote- "If I can climb Mt.Everest, I can climb that tree"!
 
I was thinking using a Frisbee with strong fishing wire, don't need to get it directly over the tree, just enough get the Frisbee in the tree, it will act as an anchor then use the fishing line that's attached to the Frisbee to move the branches so they bend, snap and free your drone. Long shot, but only costs £2 to make

Neon Euc
 
If you have ever seen bow and arrow fishing, (popular in the southern U.S.) the setup they use would be ideal for getting a line to 100' accurately. Google it.

Tobby
 
What about using one of those ball throwing things for dogs. Practice over and over again first then attach line. Or I have seen cheap cO2 ball launchers you can do yourself. Grab some friends and first one to get it gets some cash.

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thats a pretty good idea! you think it'll hold together up to 100 feet up??
Even schedule 40 PVC gets pretty flexible at 3 or 4 sections, 100 feet would not be do-able and it would get heavier than you would think. I have tried something similar drilling shallow wells in this Flor-I-Duh sand with PVC and a garden hose and even 20 feet is a hand full.
 
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20 feet of 1 1/2" pvc pipe will flex a good bit. As you add length and weight the flex will increase exponentially and you will have very little control of the other end.

Tobby
 
No, no, no......PVC us NOT they way to go! You need bamboo, its very light and strong. I've done 80ft to get an expensive kit out of a tree. It works
 
I think the drone sky hook is the way to go. Try to find someone else with a powerful drone
 
And as far as rain damage goes.....there is no guarantee that there is no damage, BUT there have been too many threads to count where a Phantom was fully submerged in either fresh or salt water, then fully rinsed, dried properly, and back in the air.


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Had one stuck high in a tee on my brothers property. Took a limb saw and climbed as high as I could and then cut the limb. Got it down...cleaned up the mess,,,, and all was good.
 
I think the drone sky hook is the way to go. Try to find someone else with a powerful drone

Agreed that would be the safest method.

On the other hand, I have watched a friend shoot slugs out of his shotgun and cut the limb until it drooped and the AC fell into the soft snow. Of course that was in the wild state of Wisconsin. Might come off as unseemly among the polite gentry of the UK.

Tobby
 
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I have had one stuck about 80 feet up in a tree. I use my climbing tree stand to climb up about 60 feet and used a pole saw to teach the last 20 feet. But the climber is expensive, I just had one already. Don't give up.
 
I think the drone sky hook is the way to go. Try to find someone else with a powerful drone
Depending how "deep" in the branches the drone is, I find risky using another drone with a hook to rescue it. If the hook get stuck in a branch, there will be two drones stuck at the same tree.
The guy that rescue the drone from the roof house has nothing around the drone, there was no risk to get stuck.
Just my opinion
 
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Depending how "deep" in the branches the drone is, I find risky using another drone with a hook to rescue it. If the hook get stuck in a branch, there will be two drones stuck at the same tree.
The guy that rescue the drone from the roof house has nothing around the drone, there was no risk to get stuck.
Just my opinion
Good point. Well, at least you could fly up and get a look at it. Maybe fly a hook up there, held with a break away and get a line onto it. There has got to be a way!
 
Mine was stuck 60ft up a tree. TAKE CARE. I managed to dislodge mine but it broke when it hit the ground so I had to buy a new drone.
 
I was flying my P3A over a tree line that was approximately 120 feet tall. I was flying at 160 feet but failed to take into account a small area of trees that were growing on a small hill 40 feet higher than my Home Point. Needless to say, doing a bit of math reveals a disaster waiting to happen. I was flying backwards (for video shot) so never saw the tree coming on the display. All I saw was an abrupt lack of motion, then a bunch of sticks and "Gimbal Motor Overload" on the screen before the screen went black. I had a rough idea of the flight path so I hiked through the woods looking for the tallest trees and never spotted anything. 4 days of rain and snow later, it occurred to me to see if I could get data from the flight recorder. I did see the point of "no return" and saw the altitude fall from 160 feet to 40 feet. This made me realize that the P3 was actually on the ground somewhere and not stuck in a tree. More than anything (figuring the P3 was destroyed at this point) I wanted the SD card for the video. Using the trace on the flight data I stumbled around in thick woods and found the P3. The camera and gimbal had broken off and was no where in sight (so no SD card). The P3 shell had several cracks but otherwise looked to be ok. The battery was swollen beyond usability. The next day, I figured that the camera and gimbal had to be somewhere in the vicinity so I hiked back up the hill and found it after all. Turns out, the SD card hadn't finalized or something when the connector broke loose so the video file was corrupted. I sold the body to a guy who needed two motors, a mother board and a compass (for $60). The gimbal seemed to work smoothly, all pivots rotated normally but I had no idea as to the actual function of it or the camera after sitting outside in the rain and snow for 4 days. I sold it to another guy for $85 (full disclosure) and he messaged me two days later saying that everything worked just fine. I sold the RC for $200 so I recouped $345 which I applied to a new P4 which I got for $899. The lesson cost me $554 but at least I got a better drone and camera out of the ordeal :rolleyes:
 
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Find some wannabe 5 year old actress at your local thespian's theater and take her to the local fire station and tell the fireman with the hook and ladder truck that she flew her Xmas drone into a tree and asked if they'd get it down for her. Make sure she has the tears flowing too. Makes for good PR for them too. Mentioning this because I read where a small boy had his drone rescued by the fire department here: Basalt firefighters salvage boy’s holidays by retrieving stranded drone | AspenTimes.com

Back when I was into RC helicopters, and could fly them legally at the local park before the ordinances against them appeared, a couple of park maintenance guys watched me from their truck. When I was done they drove over and applauded and said they had a bet I'd land it in a tree and they'd call their tree trimmer guys on the radio to come fish it out. Seems they've taken a lot of stuff out of the trees over time.
 
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Dude, my post is mostly to add to the "I've done this too" to help you feel better about that. Newbie, flying backwards, no spotter ... it's not hard to do.

Long story short: mine was about 100' feet up, but next to a large water tower. In summer, so no rains. I was able to get it down after 3 days with a bow & arrow and strong fishing line. But I was able to do so from about the same elevation, not from the ground.

It's still worth getting down even if it never flies again for: battery, SD card, and parts.

Parts: if you buy a new drone (same model) and later crash it, you might find that one of the easier parts to break on a Phantom is the gimbal assembly (the arm and ribbon, etc.). Those are relatively easy to replace, but the cost of the assembly from DJI is about $350US, probably more if you don't have a DJI service center in your country that inventories the part. So if you can get it down with this assembly intact, that makes it worth it over and above the battery and SD card.

Bonus: you would also have a new charger with the new model, so having 2 means charging 2 batteries at once. Also, you would have a spare remote then, so you could sell the old one.

Good luck!
Chris
 

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