How do you land?

[Kantcme]

I have never hand caught my drone. If you're alone, how do you shut the props down one-handed?

Only takes one-hand to throttle down (on the P3 at least), left stick full down position for a couple seconds. No need to CSC to shut down the props.

I mostly hand catch, face the bird away, hover around 6 ft, grab with the right hand and cut with the left. Controller on a strap so that helps.

 

[plasrobin]

hand catch 100%

 

[kie1an]

I always hand catch mine, leave it in the hover and just grab it from underneath. Cant see a reason why you wouldn't as it just not that hard or difficult after a couple of go's. Albeit once in a blue moon if I am in a really good flat location and its a calm day I will land manually to keep up my skills.

 

[aburkefl]

I've never hand caught my drone, I'm too worried about hitting my hand with the blades. I touch down each flight, never had an issue and I've landed in 45km+ winds

I'm somewhat torn between the two. Most of the time I land normally. If it's windy enough that I would have questions about how to land, maybe it's a good idea not to fly at all. That said, I have hand-caught my Phantom several times. Most of them were for practice just to see how it's done, but one of them was a semi-emergency. A lady in the park had a dog - unleashed, violating the rules - and her dog was quite excited by the Phantom. I couldn't hover indefinitely, so I finally hand-caught. When I explained the circumstances to the lady, she was apologetic and had never thought about her dog getting thrashed by the blades. She clipped her dog on a leash, thanked me for my patience and information and we both went merrily on our own ways.

 

[m0j0]

I have never hand caught my drone. If you're alone, how do you shut the props down one-handed?

Kevin H.

I always stop the props by holding the left stick down for 3 seconds. I would not suggest either of the csc commands as a means of shutting down the props after a flight.



Phantom 3 Pro / iPad Air 2

 

[Suspended Moments]

If I have a nice level surface and there is little wind, ill tend to land on the ground, however if its a little windy or uneven surface ill hover and physically "catch" the phantom. Just curious to know if others do this, and do you think its dangerous?

Here in the recent snow belt build up, I have resorted to hand catching... I'm wearing snowshoes, and landing it in snow just doesn't work out for me. I bring it in close, stop it and let it hover around six feet up, once it's stable, I just walk under it, hold onto the landing gear with my right hand and use my left hand to shut it down with the controller. And, as of yesterday, I wanted to launch in a snow storm and asked my wife (she's a retired Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer, so pretty darn bold) to hold the P3Pro high over her head and I launched from her hands I think I have found my new launch pad... I think when "catching" the phantom, it's important to get it stable and hovering before getting close, better than dipping your camera in snow, tall grass or "bushes" as someone else mentioned.

 

[ronmcq]

Like many I almost always hand catch.

 

[Muva Bee]

landed on ground once first time i flew. since then hand catch.
just put yourself upwind when doing that. quite important some time

 

[Dan jolliff]

When I have the 4 wheeler out
and the grass is tall I land on the roof of the ranger
I also take off a lot from their. Not a lot of flat clear areas in the backwoods where I use It the most

 

[rulppa]

hand catch, always.

 

[Nick_Wilson]

I always land it. Prop guards keep it from tipping over if on uneven ground. Having the transmitter dangle (with the weight of the iPAD) to me isn't work try to hand catch. TO each their own of course, but my preference is to land where I took off from.

 

[PJ Orlando]

Never hand caught it yet. I bring it in myself and pretty good about hitting my takeoff point. I even fly in atti mode from time to time and land. Unless I'm indoors (I haven't been yet) I disable the VPS.

 

[Bob Dennis]

If I have a nice level surface and there is little wind, ill tend to land on the ground, however if its a little windy or uneven surface ill hover and physically "catch" the phantom. Just curious to know if others do this, and do you think its dangerous?

Hand catch all the time,

 

[ebf]

Never hand caught, I always land it even in Atti mode. No issues


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[Dirty Bird]

I always land manually. The only exception would be extreme wind conditions, lack of suitable landing surface, or an emergency (like grabbing her to get out of a sudden rainstorm). I haven't used auto-land with my P3 but am wary of it from my experience with the Vision+ which tended to touch down then skate across the ground a bit before the motors shut down. I've never experienced a tip over on take-off or landing. As a long-time fixed wing pilot I guess I consider landing part of the entire flight experience since hand catching isn't an option with fixed-wing models.

 

[Solar Deity]

I've never hand caught it yet. I guess if there's a good takeoff spot, there's a good landing spot as well. I would never think of hand catching it. It's so simple to land on the ground, or any clean flat surface. I must admit I come from a 20 year RC heli background, and have been "through" more than a dozen 700 size Nitro and Electric birds in that time. The P3, or any MR is like a trainer compared to a 700 size heli.

SD

 

[NigelJF]

Landing is about concentration and focus. Taking off is easy which is why so many 'drone pilots' screw up the landing (which is more technical) with their enthusiasm for going flying over-ruling their understanding of the whole flight plan. Hand catching is much easier than a touch down on the ground - but you should master landing on the ground first, before getting your face close to fast-moving props.

if you have 2mins take a look at this link

 

[sergekouper]

In a fishnet.

 

[Wibble]

Hand catch always. Even when I am flying off smooth ground there is always a risk of a sudden gust of wind!

 

[snerd]

I've only ever ground landed. Set her down gentle as a feather.