I like so sail in my small boat and shoot selfies with my Mavic Pro, The problem is: how to get the Mavic Pro back into the boat.
So I built a device which makes it easy to catch a quadrocopter safely out of the air.




you can watch a video about my solution. Sorry, the text is in German, but Youtube is able to create subtitles with a translation.

Wow, that is ingenious.
But I must say I would never do that with my Mavic.
I prefer hand catching it.

Clever idea - thanks for sharing   

Montfrooij Posted at 2018-6-25 22:19
Wow, that is ingenious.
But I must say I would never do that with my Mavic.
I prefer hand catching it.

Being it is in German, I can not tell why hand catching was rejected.
Perhaps Mavic Pro being semi slippery, thus hard to grab and hold onto?
If that were case, Velcro on sides of Mavic used with Velcro glove.  Which would also protect fingers.

I was hoping that the boat will be moving at speed. But a good idea especially the rope deployment.

Montfrooij Posted at 2018-6-25 22:19
Wow, that is ingenious.
But I must say I would never do that with my Mavic.
I prefer hand catching it.

I tried hand catching, it is really dangerous in a small rocking boat. Once I gave my Mavic a push, it fell down - luckily on the back seat and not into the water, but it  was narrow.

HedgeTrimmer Posted at 2018-6-25 22:43
Being it is in German, I can not tell why hand catching was rejected.
Perhaps Mavic Pro being semi slippery, thus hard to grab and hold onto?
If that were case, Velcro on sides of Mavic used with Velcro glove.  Which would also protect fingers.

It fell once, luckily in the boat.

Paul Lenz Posted at 2018-6-25 22:45
I tried hand catching, it is really dangerous in a small rocking boat. Once I gave my Mavic a push, it fell down - luckily on the back seat and not into the water, but it  was narrow.

Yes, I can imagine.
It is danger from a static surface already.
I just don't like to add things to my Mavic

Thanks for sharing it. Very clever and ingeiuos!

wow nice one! thanks for sharing

Looks like a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.  Reaching up with one hand and using finger and thumb to grab it works well enough.

Wow, very sophisticated, thank you for sharing! Must have been great fun to build this system.

Very good idea.  Thanks for sharing.

Wachtberger Posted at 2018-6-29 08:10
Wow, very sophisticated, thank you for sharing! Must have been great fun to build this system.

Not always. I bought a cheap remote controlled power outlet and used its receiver for my device, it worked very well, but when I switched my Mavic on, it did not work anymore, that was rather frustrating...

gnirtS Posted at 2018-6-29 07:03
Looks like a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.  Reaching up with one hand and using finger and thumb to grab it works well enough.

Yes, if you are lucky. If you sit in a rocking boat, it is very hard to grab, as I explained already.

Montfrooij Posted at 2018-6-25 23:28
Yes, I can imagine.
It is danger from a static surface already.
I just don't like to add things to my Mavic

I don't see any problems to add some small things to my Mavic. It could carry much more than my device.

Paul Lenz Posted at 2018-6-29 08:44
I don't see any problems to add some small things to my Mavic. It could carry much more than my device.

My problem (maybe I am too careful) is that it will change the balance of the drone and therefor put more strain on the engines and the arms trying to work that.
So yes, it can manage, but I would not do that because of that.

Paul Lenz Posted at 2018-6-29 08:42
Yes, if you are lucky. If you sit in a rocking boat, it is very hard to grab, as I explained already.

Rubbish.  Hover it, reach up underneath, use the arms to smooth out and bounces.  Works every time and far easier.

No issue in 3m swells and cross winds yet in 150 or so recoveries using that method.  Any rougher than that im not flying it anyway.

gnirtS Posted at 2018-6-29 16:38
Rubbish.  Hover it, reach up underneath, use the arms to smooth out and bounces.  Works every time and far easier.

No issue in 3m swells and cross winds yet in 150 or so recoveries using that method.  Any rougher than that im not flying it anyway.

One day in summer 2019, I started from my boat and took some videos. Then I discovered a small pier, sailed there and decided to land there. But suddenly there was a low battery warning and my Mavic tried to return to the starting point. Stupid idea because there was only water. I tried to get it down on the pier but it stopped 2 meter above the pier and refused to follow my commands. I was only able to prevent it from returning to the starting point. So I used the remote control for my Copter Catcher, the thin rope came down, I grabbed it and forced my Mavic to come down.
I have no idea why it refused to land and I suppose, without my Copter Catcher it would be lost.

Thanks for sharing