Thoughts on catching your phantom?

Good idea?


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    15
you grab the landing gear, not the props ;)
You are hilarious. Watch the video of Iglesias. Does it look like he was grabbing the props of the Inspire???
The OP wanted to know what we thought about this practice, have no desire to get into a pointless argument. EOD.
 
You are hilarious. Watch the video of Iglesias. Does it look like he was grabbing the props of the Inspire???
The OP wanted to know what we thought about this practice, have no desire to get into a pointless argument. EOD.

when hand catching, also pay attention to what you are doing and not singing to huge crowd at the same time... ;)
 
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when hand catching, also pay attention to what you are doing and not singing to huge crowd at the same time... ;)

Yeah, it helps if you are the one flying it too.
 
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Iglesias was a totally irrelevant situation to this question. He wasn't controlling it, he wasn't able to fully concentrate on what he was doing, he was attempting to rotate it, not just catch it, and I seriously doubt he knows every square inch of the Inspire that he was catching, the way most of us know our birds. I know EXACTLY where my blades are when I'm reaching up to catch it.

I launch from the case - it gives a good flat solid stable place to do all it's initial GPS searches etc, and it puts me out of harm's way if it goes nuts on take-off for any reason.
I land by nearly always hand catching; these things are so insanely stable under GPS, that I bring it down slightly ahead of me and a good reach above me. Reach up with my right hand while my left is on the throttle control, take a firm hold of the landing leg, and then cut throttle. The inbuilt electronics quickly notice it's stopped descending and cut the motors. It's vastly quicker than a fight with ground effect and prop wash to land on a case that's only slightly larger than the bird, and it keeps flying debris well away from the camera/motors/props/me

I do on occasions refresh my skills - such as just last night - at landing onto the case just for the fun and the challenge. I especially like case landing with FPV only, that takes some really smooth control, as the case in the video feed moves rapidly in and out of the field of view all over the place if you're not really smooth (and with ground effect even if you ARE smooth, it can be moving around a hell of a lot too), and be quite a nice little challenge. Far more risk to the bird of a tip over, or a trip over, doing it that way.
 
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I read all the comments and not a single one mention the proper way to hand catch. (I didn't see any of the videos on here though)
I never hand catch on my own, although it should be fine for others, to me, take-off / landing operations are very risky and where most accidents happen (Yes, I'm a private pilot).
I do have assistance and let someone hand catch it while I keep control of the bird. I usually leave the bird hovering and let the catcher reach out to it. Never lower the bird to the catcher, let the catcher be in control and extend the arms as needed.
Hand take off was explained properly I think.
 
3rd post in msinger's video shows how it is done or one way . Most likely why it wasn't mentioned .
Is like how I do it also .
 
Iglesias was a totally irrelevant situation to this question. He wasn't controlling it, he wasn't able to fully concentrate on what he was doing, he was attempting to rotate it, not just catch it, and I seriously doubt he knows every square inch of the Inspire that he was catching, the way most of us know our birds. I know EXACTLY where my blades are when I'm reaching up to catch it.

I launch from the case - it gives a good flat solid stable place to do all it's initial GPS searches etc, and it puts me out of harm's way if it goes nuts on take-off for any reason.
I land by nearly always hand catching; these things are so insanely stable under GPS, that I bring it down slightly ahead of me and a good reach above me. Reach up with my right hand while my left is on the throttle control, take a firm hold of the landing leg, and then cut throttle. The inbuilt electronics quickly notice it's stopped descending and cut the motors. It's vastly quicker than a fight with ground effect and prop wash to land on a case that's only slightly larger than the bird, and it keeps flying debris well away from the camera/motors/props/me

I do on occasions refresh my skills - such as just last night - at landing onto the case just for the fun and the challenge. I especially like case landing with FPV only, that takes some really smooth control, as the case in the video feed moves rapidly in and out of the field of view all over the place if you're not really smooth (and with ground effect even if you ARE smooth, it can be moving around a hell of a lot too), and be quite a nice little challenge. Far more risk to the bird of a tip over, or a trip over, doing it that way.
"I know EXACTLY where my blades are when I'm reaching up to catch it. " Famous last words...:confused:
 
I tend to always launch from the ground, deck or whatever I'm flying from.
Last few times I've flown I've had my 14yo son hand catch it with both hands above his head and grabbing both landing legs at the same time and keeping it up there until the motors stop.
I haven't tried hand catching it by myself yet but can't see it being too difficult. I have landed on the ground where I took off from plenty of times though without issue.
 
"I know EXACTLY where my blades are when I'm reaching up to catch it. " Famous last words...:confused:

let it go, you aren't changing anyones mind...
 
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8 more hand catches added to the tally today. 8 catches and still have ten fingers (5 of them are in a bag waiting for the surgeon to sew them back on, but I still have them ;) )
I did do one ground landing because some very young kids had come up to watch, so it was safer to land at my alternate LZ a safe distance away.
The reason for 9 landings with only 5 batteries to my name was the constant supply of bystanders wanting to watch, so I kept taking the controller over to them to let them see the monitor, and so kept bringing it in to let them have a look at the bird itself and how the gimbal works etc.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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I hand catch most of the time. Easy to do. But...if your quad is not stable in hover or your control is lacking...maybe it's best you don't try. I also like to land if the surface is good. I have yet to replace a prop. Hand catching is not an award. Learning how to always be in control is. In my fixed wing rc days, I would see people take off, do loops, rolls etc. When it came to landing...many were so lucky just to hit the strip. Anyone can take off with the available power and play in the sky with lots of room for mistakes. Land in a controlled manner on a spot you have chosen and now you can pat youself on the back. Years ago I use to fly my Cessna 150 to a 10000 foot runway. While they were doing resurfacing, it was reduced to 2000 feet.. I could drop my bird in with room to spare. LEARN HOW TO FLY..
 
I couldn't give two s--ts less about changing anyone's mind. The OP asked a question and I answered.
And FWIW - it is discussions exactly like this that have made me change my mind on many things throughout my life. No one should be censored because of a conviction to an opinon.
 
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Not trying to bust your balls but to me an opinion is like a guess. How can you have conviction for anything other than fact. Maybe I just misunderstood your meaning.
 
Not trying to bust your balls but to me an opinion is like a guess. How can you have conviction for anything other than fact. Maybe I just misunderstood your meaning.


You just gave me your opinion now. You have enough conviction regarding your opinion to post it.

Is it fact based?

Fact: Hand catching puts you at greater risk for lacerations than ground landing.
So a conviction/opinion that hand catching is more dangerous than not hand catching is indeed fact based. Does that help?
 
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From sand (beach) I usually launch from top of cooler, case or similar. Beach is often very windy and often impossible to land it on a postage stamp so I just hover and carefully grab it. Trickiest part is coordinating motors off but I can now do that with one hand.

Good skill to know - probably come in handy if/when flying from a boat in open water too.
 

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