I've had a busy week! Sunday night I went out to the desert with the intention of doing some night photography, then flying my drone in the morning. I camped out at a spot somewhere between Ocotillo and Dos Cabesas.

When I planned the trip it was supposed to be cloudy along the coast and clear in the desert, but then Tropical Storm Rosa took a turn inland over Baja. As a result, I had cloudy skies and occasional sprinkles at my campsite. No chance to get any time-lapse of the stars, so I tried it with the clouds. These actually turned out to be pretty interesting, with different layers of clouds moving in different directions.

In the morning on Monday, it was still mostly overcast, but I could see sun up in the mountains. So I decided to go there to fly my drone. Found a nice area with a dead-end road going up a canyon, plenty of sun with scattered clouds.






I flew the drone through the canyon, and above the trees, then took it down low and flew between the trees. Unfortunately a strong gust of wind came up just as I was passing close by a large oak, and I didn't react quick enough to keep it from blowing the drone into the tree. It was about 30 feet up from the nearest place I could get underneath it. The arrows in the next two photos show the location of the drone in the tree:






At first I tried tying a rock to the end of a nylon rope, twirling it, and releasing it up towards the tree. A few times I was able to snag a lower branch and shake it, but I could never get the rock/rope high enough. I spent a couple hours doing this until I ended up with an open blister:






So then I drove to the nearest small town and bought some PVC conduit. I thought could use this to create a pole tall enough to knock down the drone. Unfortunately the PVC wasn't stiff enough to do the job, so I had to give up and go home.

I ordered a 24-foot, aluminum extension pole online, and it arrived on Wednesday. I drove back out there Wednesday evening for Round Two. The pole alone wasn't long enough, so I opened up a coat hanger and taped it to the end of the pole, leaving the hook at the top end. But I couldn't maneuver the pole through the lower branches without bending back the wire hanger. By then it was starting to get dark anyway, so I went home again. On the way, I encountered a couple deer which suddenly ran across the road as I came around a bend:




On Friday I returned for Round Three. This time I was armed with a 1/4" fiberglass rod, which I taped to the end of the extension pole. A wire hook was taped to the end of the rod. After just a few tries, I was finally able to get it hooked onto the branch where the drone was, and shook it loose. The lower branches slowed the drone's fall, and a thick layer of dead leaves helped to cushion its impact. No damage at all! Just a little dusty:






This evening I cleaned it up, installed a fresh battery, and gave it a brief test. Everything works fine!

I also got the video from my flights there, and will post something as soon as I get a chance to edit it.
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Persistence pays!!!
Glad you were able to recover it. And, unscathed!!

Glad you recovered your bird.

Yes, glad to hear it worked out for you.

I use a bow and arrow to retrieve models from trees.
The pointy bit of the arrow is replaced with a wrapping of lead tape and a fishing line is attached to the arrow.
Shoot it over the branch. If it's not tough enough then use it to haul up a stouter rope or use the line to haul a cat into the tree and call the fire service to rescue the cat.
When the ladder is in the tree just yell out to the fireman "While you're up there, could you grab my drone"

What a story! - While reading, I think I was more worried about your Mavic than you were - Lol. Wow, you must've been stressed though. About 2 months ago, I crashed my Mavic Pro into a thick, very tall spruce tree. I was trying the intelligent flight mode quickshot "dronie". After adjusting the distance on the touch screen (apparently I'm not good at meters) it flew backward and hit the spruce near it's top, about 70 feet up. It tumbled through the thick branches eventually making it to the ground. Your story made me realize how lucky I was. I think my tree was much taller than yours. I would've been in a serious delema.

Happy ending story except for your finger

Good recovery   

Boffin Posted at 2018-10-6 21:53
I use a bow and arrow to retrieve models from trees.
The pointy bit of the arrow is replaced with a wrapping of lead tape and a fishing line is attached to the arrow.
Shoot it over the branch. If it's not tough enough then use it to haul up a stouter rope or use the line to haul a cat into the tree and call the fire service to rescue the cat.

Good one

Nice one Ray - good save - i also lost my drone in a tree yesterday - i also got lucky (got it back without a scratch) - had to climb a palm tree to get it back though. As a professional tree climber i can offer a good tip regarding your throwline.Perhaps most important thing about throw line is the weight of the throwing weight - your post mentions that yours was too heavy. I can tell you that the ideal weight is 200 grams.
This ideal throw weight does depend very much on your throw line.
The most ideal (the only perfect) cord to be using for a throwline is a 2mm BRAIDED nylon cord. If you have this cord then 200 gram weight is perfect.
If you have other cord then you need other weights and then you will experiance other problems.

For my throw weights i purchase 2 4 ounce teardrop fishing sinkers and tape them back to back with electric tape. The 2mm braided cord is tied to the eye in the sinker. The cord is furled out before throwing. I simply swing with weight round a few times and the release to my target. After years doing this i am pretty good at it - point being the more you practice the better you get at it.

BEWARE: make sure that you are NOT standing on the cord on the ground before releasing the throw weight. This will result in the throw weight shooting forward and then abruptly back at you again.
I did this a few times when i was learning and got lucky a few times it did not smash my face. Finally a month ago i was not so lucky and now i have a neat cranial scar.

Wowowow great job. We love our drones and will do most anything

Happy to see you retrieved your Mavic and it wasn't damaged.  Always remember, beware of the drone eating trees!

Good rescue!

Good save! I wish you safe flights ahead.