Hi there,
I'm hand-launching and landing a Mavic 3 as I work on a large yacht and I'm regularly putting our drones up to capture the places where we navigate. I've been flying the Mavic 2 Pro and Zoom models for a few years and somewhat recently got the Mavic 3 aboard. I'm finding that when hand-landing while underway after a flight where I bring the drone close to be grabbed by a crew member that the Mavic 3 surges dangerously forward without my input. This does not happen with our Mavic 2 models and appears to be a new bug with the Mavic 3.

I have Obstacle Avoidance turned off completely (as I need it off so it doesn't avoid my crew member's hands who are about to catch it). The surging doesn't happen if we aren't moving so it must be something to do with the sensors seing a fixed surface with the world around it moving. The surging happens when in Normal, Sport, or Cine mode. Surprisingly, in Cine mode, even when we slow the boat to where it can just barely approach the vessel's speed, it still jumps forward at a faster speed than Cine mode is supposed to allow. This also happens in Sport mode where it specifically tells me that the obstacle avoidance is turned off in addition to the Safety setting where I've already turned it off. This is dangerous behavior and it seems that when the obstacle avoidance is turned off with the Mavic 3, it is NOT truly "off". I'm an experienced pilot with a few hundred hours with all sorts of DJI drones in extreme weather conditions and I essentially just want the drone to fly in manual mode, letting me do the hard work of bringing it home.

Below are my firmware versions:
Aircraft Firmware: 01.00.0800
RC Firmware: 03.01.0800

I'm running the DJI RC Pro remote as well if that matters. Happy to provide flight logs if anyone can assist in helping me export them as my initial search didn't turn up many results.

Thanks!
Lars

Even though you turn off OA the bottom sensors will remain on, this maybe causing the jumping. It’s a tricky catch but you need to be in brake mode and choose to pluck out of the air or just offer up crew members flat palm and lower the craft into it. A tricky move if boat is moving. I would suggest practicing the first method on dry land you can get fairly good at this method .

hallmark007 Posted at 9-15 03:51
Even though you turn off OA the bottom sensors will remain on, this maybe causing the jumping. It’s a tricky catch but you need to be in brake mode and choose to pluck out of the air or just offer up crew members flat palm and lower the craft into it. A tricky move if boat is moving. I would suggest practicing the first method on dry land you can get fairly good at this method .

Thanks for the reply. You unfortunately can't really land on someone's palm with it doing the jumpy behavior as it essentially "lunges" at you with no input from myself.

I didn't realize the bottom sensors would stay on even with Obstacle Avoidance off. I would have thought it would disable all of them as if you press the sensors icon in the top right it normally says "FWD and BKWD, LEFT/RIGHT, and UP/DOWN unavailable". I haven't checked this during landing but I'll put eyes on it next flight. If you're right then they could certainly be the cause of this funky behavior. I haven't yet tried it with obstacle avoidance on Brake but I can test this later. I'd honestly think this would make it worse rather than better.

One option to narrow it down would be to tape over the bottom sensors completely next time we're underway. I'm hand-launching and hand-landing 95% of my flights anyway so these sensors aren't necessary. As long as it lets me launch with them covered then this might be the quickest (though obviously not so elegant) solution.

No need to practice on dry land as it lands fine if we're not moving and I've played around with the Brake and Avoidance modes plenty with hand-launches and landings. I've done sketchy launches and landings like this with the Mavic 2 Pro and Zoom models for years without issue and I'm comfortable launching and landing in 2-3 meters of ocean swell with sails up.

Thanks for your input though

MTengineer Posted at 9-15 04:37
Thanks for the reply. You unfortunately can't really land on someone's palm with it doing the jumpy behavior as it essentially "lunges" at you with no input from myself.

I didn't realize the bottom sensors would stay on even with Obstacle Avoidance off. I would have thought it would disable all of them as if you press the sensors icon in the top right it normally says "FWD and BKWD, LEFT/RIGHT, and UP/DOWN unavailable". I haven't checked this during landing but I'll put eyes on it next flight. If you're right then they could certainly be the cause of this funky behavior. I haven't yet tried it with obstacle avoidance on Brake but I can test this later. I'd honestly think this would make it worse rather than better.

Yes bottom sensors stay on as landing protection to stop craft crash landing. There have been man requesting this to be disabled but nothing yet.. Brake will cause the drone to stop if an obstacle is in front behind or left right so should eliminate it lunging at someone .
It may be worth looking to see if there is a third party grab handle etc for the Mavic 3 Ive seen one or two posted here but I’m not sure how reliable they are. Covering up the sensors , yes that might work, but the risk is if any light is detected by the sensors “IE if tape unravels while flying this will cause all sorts of problems with the stability of the craft.

Below grab handle, so they are available and I would be interested to know if anyone has tried these and how successful they are.

MTengineer Posted at 9-15 04:37
Thanks for the reply. You unfortunately can't really land on someone's palm with it doing the jumpy behavior as it essentially "lunges" at you with no input from myself.

I didn't realize the bottom sensors would stay on even with Obstacle Avoidance off. I would have thought it would disable all of them as if you press the sensors icon in the top right it normally says "FWD and BKWD, LEFT/RIGHT, and UP/DOWN unavailable". I haven't checked this during landing but I'll put eyes on it next flight. If you're right then they could certainly be the cause of this funky behavior. I haven't yet tried it with obstacle avoidance on Brake but I can test this later. I'd honestly think this would make it worse rather than better.

I didn't realize the bottom sensors would stay on even with Obstacle Avoidance off. I would have thought it would disable all of them
The downward facing VPS sensors are not obstacle avoidance sensors.
The DJI Fly app is a big step backwards and lacks several options that users had with the DJI Go 4 app.
The inability to disable the VPS sensors is just one.
DJI don't seem to care that the Mavic 3 has an entry level app and it's hard to understand what their reasoning is for such an expensive and otherwise capable drone..

A cargo net makes for a nice soft landing.  Just add a tailhook to the drone maybe?  : )

Hello there MTengineer. Thank you for reaching out and for giving out these information. Just a reminder that it DJI does not recommended hand catching your DJI Mavic 3 or any DJI drone for safety purposes. Please do not stop the drone by hand, it could be dangerous and please land the said drone and stop the motors by sticks, or use the auto landing function if possible. Thank you for your kind understanding and have a nice day.

DJI Stephen Posted at 9-15 19:53
Hello there MTengineer. Thank you for reaching out and for giving out these information. Just a reminder that it DJI does not recommended hand catching your DJI Mavic 3 or any DJI drone for safety purposes. Please do not stop the drone by hand, it could be dangerous and please land the said drone and stop the motors by sticks, or use the auto landing function if possible. Thank you for your kind understanding and have a nice day.

Hi Stephen,
Thanks for the reply. I understand that I take all responsibility for hand-catching my Mavic 3. However, the lunging or surging that the Mavic 3 does is dangerous and is doubtfully expected behavior for the drone. I am flying it back to be retrieved but I could just as well just be flying close to any moving object and this surging forward could easily cause it to hit something and sink or hurt an individual.

As I've mentioned in my earlier post, this does not happen in the exact same scenario with both the Mavic 2 Pro or Mavic 2 Zoom. I'm also concerned that the bug causes the drone to surge forward faster than should be allowed when in Cinematic mode.

Can I provide flight logs so it can be investigated?

Thanks,
Lars

Having the same issue with my air 2S when hand catching from a boat. Very frustrating and dangerous! At least now I know what the problem is. Thanks to your thread.