Hello,

I've owned a Mavic Mini 2 for just over a month now and I'm having a blast with it.   The only real flying problems I've experienced so far is landing, which should normally be one of the easiest manuevers to accomplish considering the Mini 2's automatic landing protection system.   However, it's the automatic landing feature that I'm having a hard time interfacing with, unfortunately.   

Specficially, I fly frequently in moderately breezy conditions that are within the Mini 2's design speficiations.   Actual flight is no problem for me whatsoever, but when I come back to land above my landing pad, the auto landing system sometimes gives me grief in the aforementioned breezy conditions (10-15 mph winds).   What happens is that I manually manuever the Mini2 over the landing pad in a perfect setdown position, then press down on the vertical controller joystick and let the auto land system take over (as it always does by design).   The problem arises when a gust of wind happens during the autoland phase and blows the drone off course before it completes the landing.   It's not off course by much in this situation, but with a typical sized landing pad the drone's landing trajectory gets skewed just enough to one side of the landing pad for a propellor blade to snag a leaf, piece of grass, etc.   This is just plain annoying since I have no control after the autoland system takes over at about two feet above the ground.   

I am surmising that the autoland system has no capacity to correct for wind drift in this situation, even with the down vision sensors doing their thing?   The Mini 2 simply seems to go into a damped vertical speed mode to land but has no ability to maintain a precise horizontal position in a breeze to land centered on the the landing pad.  Again, I always manually set up a landing in a perfect position prior to letting the autoland engage.  I  always fly with full GPS lock and both the compass and MMU properly calibrated.   Normal flight is smooth and precise in a hover.   In calm winds by contrast, precise landings on a pad are effortless and consistent.   

Is my only solution just rigging up a huge landing pad when flying in breezy conditions or might there be a trick to this?   

Thanks so much for any insight or advice you can offer.       

Hand catch it. Search YouTube for how to videos.

In autolanding you can still use the RC sticks to manual control/assist the landing.

+1 for Hand catching in these situations.

Couple of options come to mind.  One being to hand recover.  Since I live on a boat I always hand launch and recover.  The other option you have is to manually control the landing using the RC sticks.  I love my Mini 2 and glad you are enjoying yours.  

Another one saying hand catch but, as JJB said, both sticks remain fully functional during the landing phase, just use them carefully.

I hand catch 99% of the time, this is favourable to me because of the gimbal, to me it seems far too flimsy, therefore i want to reduce any sort of knock to it as i can, plus its easier to adjust your hand below the drone and very easy to pull your hand out of the way giving you plenty of room to cancel the landing if needed (not happened yet mind), if landing on a pad, there is normally a reason for the pad, uneven ground etc, you're much closer to the ground with far less wiggle room to abort at the last second. I don't know, i just feel safer for the drone catching it than I do landing it on the ground, that's just me though, YMMV

+1 for hand catching. I would recommend hand launches as well. If it is very windy, just go straight under the drone and catch it an arms length above your head.

I too hand catch.  Just seems to me to be a better way of retrieving rather than watch the thing flop onto a hard surface.  Plus it looks pretty cool to any bystanders who are watching!   

Hi get a set of leg extensions which will keep the propellers out of the grass, I use them all the time on my original Mavic Pro. If you try to hand catch (which I never have) have a  box of band aids handy!!

UKMoose Posted at 12-6 03:52
Hi get a set of leg extensions which will keep the propellers out of the grass, I use them all the time on my original Mavic Pro. If you try to hand catch (which I never have) have a  box of band aids handy!!

If ya cut ya self hand catching a drone then youre doing something wrong ;)

Bashy Posted at 12-6 04:30
If ya cut ya self hand catching a drone then youre doing something wrong ;)

I agree totally, that's why I've never tried, seems to be asking for trouble.

UKMoose Posted at 12-6 08:02
I agree totally, that's why I've never tried, seems to be asking for trouble.

I hand catch my P4P and 99% of the time i hand catch the Mini 2, so easy and safe to be honest with you, far safer than the P4P

Bashy Posted at 12-7 07:49
I hand catch my P4P and 99% of the time i hand catch the Mini 2, so easy and safe to be honest with you, far safer than the P4P

it is indeed easier to catch the mini2 than a bigger drone and less risky.

Handcatching the mini 2 for another reason. Had some gimbal problems when sand particles got around my gimbal. After blowing the dust/sand out, the problem was solved. Since then I handlaunch / handcatch the mini2 every single time.
The gimbal is more sensitive to dust and sand than the bigger models.

The M2P I only handcatch if the landing surface is being the problem. Being in a bushy place and only 1 rock in the open to launch from. The rock seemed to contain iron particles. The drone's compass went haywire. No other option than handlaunch and handcatch.