Does anyone know how to "catch" a mavic pro when you're in an area that you can't land on?  Everytime I go to grab it the mavic moves away from me.

Turn off downward sensors.

There are a few methods: 1) You can turn off the collision sensors. 2) Hover in place just above and in front of yourself and initiate an auto landing.  It comes down slow enough you can easily catch it.  3) Hover it as before and reach under from the front and hold it just behind the gimbal, that way you don't activate the sensors.  I prefer the third method.

hallmark007 Posted at 2017-5-23 15:08
Turn off downward sensors.

Of course, great, thank you.

BeachDuc Posted at 2017-5-23 15:10
There are a few methods: 1) You can turn off the collision sensors. 2) Hover in place just above and in front of yourself and initiate an auto landing.  It comes down slow enough you can easily catch it.  3) Hover it as before and reach under from the front and hold it just behind the gimbal, that way you don't activate the sensors.  I prefer the third method.

Thanks.  Out of curiosity will the blades stop spinning once it's been caught?

another way would be to put it in front of you and grab it in the bottom front part and IMMEDIATELY push the throttle down and wait for it to shut off. It will try to go higher if you dont do this quickly and you might be scared. It might also try to go up while its in your hand so make sure you grip it tightly.

anthonyb Posted at 2017-5-23 15:12
Thanks.  Out of curiosity will the blades stop spinning once it's been caught?

You must hold left stick down for 3 sec.

hallmark007 Posted at 2017-5-23 15:18
You must hold left stick down for 3 sec.

Great, thanks.

I always catch land at the beach.
I pull the Mavic down to head height with all sensors running and grab from underneath and pull the left stick down until it stops.
You have to grab it firmly as others state it may try to rise above your hand.
Only started this about 2 weeks ago and I dont think i will make another normal landing again.

If you make it descend into your hand, you won't get the runaway RPM of the props, or only a minor runaway.  It is pretty easy to do, but I have nicked a finger doing it, but no blood.  Almost every landing I do is by hand so that my drone crazy dog doesn't try to eat it.

Thanks all.  So many situations where it's been difficult to find a suitable spot to land so this will be immensely helpful.

I just leave the sensors on and initiate the land (left stick down) while it is hovering above my hand. It will come down once, detect my hand and go back up, but keeping my hand there and the stick down, it will then land gently in my open palm and shut off. It is all very gentle with no grabbing or reving  of motors. I always land by hand and 98% of the time I hand launch also.

Going to give that a go.  Doing some small boat landings so need the least complicated method.

Bent Kangaroo Posted at 2017-5-23 15:56
I always catch land at the beach.
I pull the Mavic down to head height with all sensors running and grab from underneath and pull the left stick down until it stops.
You have to grab it firmly as others state it may try to rise above your hand.

this is exactly what I do

BeachDuc Posted at 2017-5-23 15:10
There are a few methods: 1) You can turn off the collision sensors. 2) Hover in place just above and in front of yourself and initiate an auto landing.  It comes down slow enough you can easily catch it.  3) Hover it as before and reach under from the front and hold it just behind the gimbal, that way you don't activate the sensors.  I prefer the third method.

I use method three whenever there's no good spot to land (which is most of the time for me in the mountains). It works great but it's good to practice it a few times in a safe place.

Better practice or chop / chop little...

anthonyb Posted at 2017-5-23 16:58
Going to give that a go.  Doing some small boat landings so need the least complicated method.

Boat landings is a different story, especially if the boat is still moving. There are so many things that can go wrong on a boat-hand-catch-landing, especially if the boat is full of people.
Your best method is to use a large net and fly into it. Worse case would be damaged props.

On terrain, i use the palm landing technique. Bring to hover and place your palm about 30cm under the belly sensors. It will detect and may move up. Then just pull the stick down until it lands on your palm. Keep palm still and it will shut motors off.

I just put my palm below the mavic and hold the throttle down. The mavic will initially go up, then it will back down again right onto my palm. No need to turn off any sensors.

Flip the switch to sport mode and it turns off all the sensors.

I hand launch and catch, grab it from the back end though.

thehippoz Posted at 2017-5-23 19:28
I hand launch and catch, grab it from the back end though.

With 7 meters on the clock it looks like that is all you have done. hehe
Just be aware that Mavic wishes to have flat surface for startup to calibrate gimbal level.

QuanthonyTrang Posted at 2017-5-23 18:52
Boat landings is a different story, especially if the boat is still moving. There are so many things that can go wrong on a boat-hand-catch-landing, especially if the boat is full of people.
Your best method is to use a large net and fly into it. Worse case would be damaged props.

Just me and one other and the boat will be at idle.

Bent Kangaroo Posted at 2017-5-23 19:44
With 7 meters on the clock it looks like that is all you have done. hehe
Just be aware that Mavic wishes to have flat surface for startup to calibrate gimbal level.

Oh it's no problem. The imu takes a little while to warm up anyway. I never let it touch the ground, just hold it till it gets gps, csc start and she's up. Oh you talkin the flight distance. Yeah I only fly litchi, and go been reduced to calibrations only since december. Think synced once when it was new, Dji don't need to know.

Lucas775 Posted at 2017-5-23 19:23
Flip the switch to sport mode and it turns off all the sensors.

Sport mode doesn't disable the bottom sensors, or the Landing Protection (which is what causes the Mavic to try to rise away).

Put it in sport mode which it shuts off all the sensors then you can easily catch it.  

Managed to do my first hand take off and landing this afternoon thanks to this thread, cheers to all that posted.

I come in from behind and instead of reaching up to grab it. Hold your right hand out and then pull the left stick down to have the Mavic land in your hand. No need to turn sensors off.

Good luck and fly safe.

Might I suggest tying one of these to the legs:

https://www.getterback.com/

Insurance policy if you screw up.

carlosbsantana Posted at 2017-5-23 15:11
another way would be to put it in front of you and grab it in the bottom front part and IMMEDIATELY push the throttle down and wait for it to shut off. It will try to go higher if you dont do this quickly and you might be scared. It might also try to go up while its in your hand so make sure you grip it tightly.

Had the Mavic trying to lift off after catching it because my palm triggered the sensor when I was trying to turn the props off; made for an interesting few seconds holding a Mavic trying to lift at full trust (have to say it does put out a lot of trust), as I was under cover, so it would have hit the ceiling.

Yeah I made the mistake of forgetting to turn off the landing sensor and still manage to catch but the whole fly away RPM spin up scared me at first because I was the top of a mountain....was like oh no its going to fly away and crash lol. you would have thought with travel drone in mind that would have given us a way to catch it more safely like the Phantoms since hiking and other areas don't always provide the best
launch/landing pad.

After much practice it seems easier to grab it from the rear and immediately pull down left stick.  Starting to wonder why I never did this before, so much easier.

I uploaded a video about it on YouTube.
Click Here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GtpnzW71lXg

Hope I helped!

There are a few methods, my favorite though is as follow.  Fly the Mavic to just above head height facing forward away from you.  Grab the Mavic bottom and hold on while it tries to pull away.  At the same time keep the left stick held all the way down.  After about 3 seconds the motors will shut down and you are good to go.  If you don't like the grab and hold method, turn off the sensors as others have already said.

Broken Deviant  Posted at 2017-5-27 08:51
I come in from behind and instead of reaching up to grab it. Hold your right hand out and then pull the left stick down to have the Mavic land in your hand. No need to turn sensors off.

Good luck and fly safe.

Almost sounds like a Mavic mating ritual.

What about moderate to heavy wind? Could that be a problem?

I landed my Mavic once at the beach with a homemade plastic landing pad from a tote lid. Still kicked up a lot of sand and I could hear that a few grains of sand that got caught in the arm linkage. I was anxious about hand launching and landing but the feedback in this thread is helpful and I will practice doing so.

I fly to a hover at about shoulder height, initiate auto landing feature and slide my hand underneath from behind. No issues at all.

Tried grabbing from the rear. Same thing, it tried to fly away for a few seconds until the stick command cuts in. I was ready this time, so no problems.
The Mavic is so stable, catching it is easy.

fansbd6c4db5 Posted at 2017-5-23 19:20
I just put my palm below the mavic and hold the throttle down. The mavic will initially go up, then it will back down again right onto my palm. No need to turn off any sensors.

Thank you very much for this.

I had tried the grab bottom method and really didn't like it: I didn't like the Mavic revving up in my hand and trying to fly back up. It's like I'm forcing it to do something it's not supposed to do.

But just sticking my hand underneath and holding throttle down initiate landing, and it gently comes down and automatically stops in my hand, without having to do anything extra - like the Spark

Thumbs up!