How much non-air contact can the prop/engine take?

I have been unable to land on my hand because it "zooms up" (despite being in Sport mode) so I will need to be landing in 4 inch green grass.
I know it's going to contact the propeller.

Can we reasonably expect the prop/engine to tolerate such contact?

i think it's safe to say it's unsafe in a long run even for the motor even if it will land and stop

I live on a large boat so I hand launch/recover every flight.  I found this video to be really helpful in mastering the technique.

Hand launch/recover saves on prop wear and keeps debris out of the motors.  Hope you'll practice it and master it in no time.

DowntownRDB Posted at 8-2 06:09
I live on a large boat so I hand launch/recover every flight.  I found this video to be really helpful in mastering the technique.

Hand launch/recover saves on prop wear and keeps debris out of the motors.  Hope you'll practice it and master it in non time.

wow I tried that, (@ 2:50) and it would not land.
I've landed many times on a board in the same manner but it does not like my hand.
I will try to catch a video of it and post here later.

DaveInTexas Posted at 8-2 06:20
wow I tried that, (@ 2:50) and it would not land.
I've landed many times on a board in the same manner but it does not like my hand.
I will try to catch a video of it and post here later.

I had a slight problem the first time I tried it but that was because I did not keep my hand perfectly still.  Works like a charm now though.  Anyway, I hope you get it figured out as that will definitely minimize wear and tear on your props and motors.

Hi there. At present, only Spark supports Palm Launch/Palm Land. For the operation, please refer to the User Manual of the Spark. Other Consumer drones don't support Palm Launch/Palm Land. In addition, It is not recommended to land the drone on your hands which is dangerous. Thank you for your understanding.

After finding that a lot of the locations where I was flying had uneven surfaces, grass or dusty tracks to take off or land on I bought a collapsible landing pad. It does the job just about everywhere.

Get the drone to hover near you then reach under and take a grip of the drone and then flip it upside down,    ion flipping the props will get turned off.    See this short for an example - https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gCMJCvATrEM

DAFlys Posted at 8-3 00:03
Get the drone to hover near you then reach under and take a grip of the drone and then flip it upside down,    ion flipping the props will get turned off.    See this short for an example - https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gCMJCvATrEM

Meaning no offence but I would keep the snatch and twist for 'emergency only' or boat landings, I can't see it being good for the motor bearings or air frame.

To DaveinTexas, any damage to a blade that cracks a blade or even removes a chip from one blade should result in the replacement of both blades on that motor.
Why both blades? Answer ....balance.
At the speeds these motors rotate and depending how far away from the centre of rotation the chip is, the material chipped out centrifugally 'weighs' or represents a weight loss of up to thousands of times its actual gravitational weight.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 8-3 01:18
To DaveinTexas, any damage to a blade that cracks a blade or even removes a chip from one blade should result in the replacement of both blades on that motor.
Why both blades? Answer ....balance.
At the speeds these motors rotate and depending how far away from the centre of rotation the chip is, the material chipped out centrifugally 'weighs' or represents a weight loss of up to thousands of times its actual gravitational weight.

I must confess, i have only ever replaced single props at a time, not had to for this Mini 3 Pro, yet...
...I haven't had any balance issues that wasn't caused by myself, not going into all that now though lol

Bashy Posted at 8-3 03:33
I must confess, i have only ever replaced single props at a time, not had to for this Mini 3 Pro, yet.....I haven't had any balance issues that wasn't caused by myself, not going into all that now though lol

You might not have noticed but excess vibration is unneeded wear-and-tear fatigue in the motor bearings and air frame.
A little background,
centripetal / centrifugal acceleration is calculated via
acceleration, in m/s/s/, = ((2 x Pi x rpm / 60) ** 2 ) x distance from the centre of rotation ( in metres)
I can't do mathematical notation without a lot of googling so
= distance x 4 x Pi x Pi x rpm x rpm / 3600
to convert that to "g", divide by 9.81.
At 10,000 rpm and 6cm
= 0.06 x 4 x 9.87 100,000,000 / 3600 m/s/s
= approx 6707g
so a 0.1g chip missing  at 6cm, is an imbalance of 671g.

I am pretty sure I have seen rpm of more than 14,000rpm with a Mavic Mini its hover speed is around 10,000rpm. The Mini 3 Pro rpm will be similar and I think the results given by CsvView are, or were, out by a factor of 10, meaning I have seen Mini 3 Pro rpm around 13,000rpm.
If you'd care to give your drone a work out and PM me the url to the DAT I'll have a look or, process the DAT with CsvView yourself and look at "Motor speeds".

It has been suggested that some of the numbers and letters on the props, oops blades, are mould 'numbers' and that props, oops blades, can be weight matched by matching those 'numbers'.
That may be correct but it has just occurred to me that, between production runs, the density of the plastic might vary slightly. If that does happen, then the matching goes out the window andI would guess DJI match blades from one production run at a time.
You might like to check any drones on which you have "mixed" blades. Hover the drone in front of you and touch a finger tip to each arms' outer end and compare the difference in vibrations detected. If there is a noticable difference between arm ends check those numbers on the blades.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 8-3 01:09
Meaning no offence but I would keep the snatch and twist for 'emergency only' or boat landings, I can't see it being good for the motor bearings or air frame.

I use it when I cant land it on the ground or a wall etc which is quite often and never had a problem,   and you see many YouTubers doing it to without issue.

DAFlys Posted at 8-3 06:22
I use it when I cant land it on the ground or a wall etc which is quite often and never had a problem,   and you see many YouTubers doing it to without issue.

The choice is your's but with regards to youtuber's doing it, might they think it looks "cool"?

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 8-3 04:48
You might not have noticed but excess vibration is unneeded wear-and-tear fatigue in the motor bearings and air frame.
A little background,
centripetal / centrifugal acceleration is calculated via

With regards to the Mini 2, i no longer have that one, i saw no point keeping it, DJI just hasn't gotten round to removing it lol but I never noticed any untoward noise or vibrations, and the video was always clear (no jello effect), so if there were any oob props, it wasn't enough for me to pick up on.

With regards to the P4P, if i remember correctly, I always checked the props with my balancer anyway.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 8-3 04:48
You might not have noticed but excess vibration is unneeded wear-and-tear fatigue in the motor bearings and air frame.
A little background,
centripetal / centrifugal acceleration is calculated via

The numbers molded into the blades or props are pitch and diameter.

I think its ok to do it once in a while but eventually the propellers would get damaged.

pagetrip Posted at 8-3 20:38
I think its ok to do it once in a while but eventually the propellers would get damaged.

How long have you had your drone? (Just curious)

Landing in 4" grass wouldnt worry me too much re props, i would be more bothered about the camera/gimbal, thats got to be about the single most expensive part, although, there is a chance of flipping the drone too, if the grass blades or stalks are thick enough, they could collapse the props enough to cause it to flip, seen it happen on a Mavic Pro, mate thought his Mavic Pro could chop down stinging nettles as well as my P4P can, suffice it to say that it couldn't and flipped and did turtle

RE my reply #15, this reply might just explain the last sentence in that one lol ;)

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 8-3 06:26
The choice is your's but with regards to youtuber's doing it, might they think it looks "cool"?

They were shown the trick from DJI at the original Mini launch event.  I dont think they would be showing that off if it was an issue.

DAFlys Posted at 8-4 00:47
They were shown the trick from DJI at the original Mini launch event.  I dont think they would be showing that off if it was an issue.

I guess neither of us is going to change their opinion concerning this.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 8-4 02:10
I guess neither of us is going to change their opinion concerning this.

Ive being doing it for years with no issues,   others are doing.   If I one day feel it caused an issue I may stop but its too useful not to do it especially as I cant hand land it as my right hand cannot go flat.