Your personal wind maximums

[glen e]

Yup, get it to hover a foot above your head, grab a skid and kill the motors.

 

[Great Pumpkin]

Yup, get it to hover a foot above your head, grab a skid and kill the motors.

Best to have the Phantom pointing away from you or your assistant when you hand catch, so that if for some reason it wants to suddenly run away, it will run away from you, not into you.

 

[stones]

It's not flying in the wind I worry about, it's landing. Even in 10 MPH winds, my P4 has almost tipped over during shutdown.

I have the PolarPro landing gear and believe they are very helpful for this situation. Much better stance on the ground.

 

[Clipper707]

"Hand catching" - how does one do that safely? I'm guessing hands off hover above head height and grab a skid??

1. Have the Phantom facing away from you. Oriented as such, you won't have to adjust for left, right, forward or reverse.

2. Bring the Phantom to a hover a few feet away, about a foot over your head, and downwind from you. If there's a gust, the Phantom will move away from you, not towards you. Go to her. Don't fly her towards you after this point.

3. Grab the rear of right skid with your right hand, as far up as you can. Your thumb and forefinger can grasp the body at the right rear, right where the landing skid attaches. This is more stable than grabbing near the bottom of the skid.

4. Keep the Phantom high above your head (and nowhere near your eyes) as you go full down on the left joystick with your left thumb. When the motor stops, you can slide your thumb over and kill the battery.

There are many advantages to hand-catching.

• You can recover your drone anywhere, regardless of terrain. Actually terrain isn't necessary. I've recovered this way on the sides of ancient temples and on boats.
• Your recovery is free of dust and debris.
• No tip overs from sloped ground or wind.
• Recovery occurs away from dogs and children.

Every Phantom operator should be proficient at this. For me, a hand-catch is the rule and a landing is the exception.

 

[Dave Ryan]

Do you hand launch as well?


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

 

[Kagama]

I do 15 mph max, and sometimes I'll restrict myself further because I'll be flying close to trees and or rocks.

 

[Dave Ryan]

Tried catching- not as daunting as it sounds so long as you follow clipper's tips above - having said that I can see many ways for it to go wrong for the unwary-so be careful and focus if your trying this.


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[Robert P Stenerson PLS]

Good post, (and not because I agree with all its points) thank you. I suggest that it also highlights the unique advantage of the Phantom series form factor. [emoji41]



Sent from my SHIELD Tablet K1 using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[Clipper707]

Do you hand launch as well?

Yes, but not nearly as often as I hand catch. If the ground is dusty, sloped, or wet, etc., I'll hand launch.