Although for quite some time I had been able to hand grab/tilt to shut off the Mavic Air lately the Mavic Air just refuses to shut off even when upside down. The last time I was turning it level and tilting it almost upside down for more than 4 times and it still would not shut off. I finally resorted to pressing the land icon with my nose, since I had no more hands left to use!!!! I also felt sad about the motors speeding so much. In the app I just got a strong wind warning!! Compass is calibrated. I am on 0.400 firmware and the latest DJI Go app for Android. Any suggestions?

Try turn it slowly.

Although I think I already tried that, I will the next time.

Do some testing by remove the props. Try different speed to till. Hold the drone at 90 degrees position after till.

Hold the base of the drone, tilt to a 90 degree angle quite fast and hold - the motors should just cut after one-second. If not, you have a fault.

Not using auto landing?

Land on hand?

even if this dosnt work. why would u want to do this? puts hella strain on the motors flighting to keep it upright. its a safety feature incase the mavic rolls over after a crash, not a shut off feature for hand catching

Hi, sorry for the inconvenience. Did you try to reset the factory defaults and refresh your firmware using DJI Assistant 2? May I know if the drone is overheating? What is the weather  condition that time?

Kevinab Posted at 2018-7-6 02:50
even if this dosnt work. why would u want to do this? puts hella strain on the motors flighting to keep it upright. its a safety feature incase the mavic rolls over after a crash, not a shut off feature for hand catching

Well it not like I am spoiled by landing choices. It's either that or no footage at all. ...eg. inside a canyon or on a mountain trail. Hand launching would also be welcome ala Tello but at least you can choose the takeoff spot with greater accuracy.

DJI Paladin Posted at 2018-7-6 04:56
Hi, sorry for the inconvenience. Did you try to reset the factory defaults and refresh your firmware using DJI Assistant 2? May I know if the drone is overheating? What is the weather  condition that time?

Unfortunately I am away from a computer to do all that...the weather here is quite hot indeed....35 Celcius (inthe mountains a bit less) but the sun is relentless but the drone is not overheating. I will also try the tilt and hold procedure....

ggeorgis Posted at 2018-7-6 05:09
Well it not like I am spoiled by landing choices. It's either that or no footage at all. ...eg. inside a canyon or on a mountain trail. Hand launching would also be welcome ala Tello but at least you can choose the takeoff spot with greater accuracy.

It’s not a feature or recommended. You can’t also know if this is not helping your Mavic Air, if you take off from a safe location then with some limited skill you should be able to land in this spot.
You can also develop technique for just landing on your palm and just slide landing, there are you tube videos which will show you how.

Yeah, Land it the way you're supposed to. Throttle stick all the way down for a few seconds. Don't hand catch it. sets a bad example and proves Darwin was wrong.

ggeorgis Posted at 2018-7-6 05:09
Well it not like I am spoiled by landing choices. It's either that or no footage at all. ...eg. inside a canyon or on a mountain trail. Hand launching would also be welcome ala Tello but at least you can choose the takeoff spot with greater accuracy.

iv had no issues hand launching/landing(catching). ur already doing it why not just wait the extra 3 seconds while holding the throttle stick down to shut the motors off, instead of tilting

Are you in Sport Mode?

KerryG Posted at 2018-7-8 14:25
Are you in Sport Mode?

No...normal gps navigation mode.

Will try the throttle down procedure....if I remember correctly there is also an emergency shutoff procedure.

ggeorgis Posted at 2018-7-8 22:18
No...normal gps navigation mode.

Will try the throttle down procedure....if I remember correctly there is also an emergency shutoff procedure.

Hi, this process is not recommended and it might lead to an accident, I would suggest flying your aircraft in an open area and avoid flying in a hazardous environment then ensure the IMU and compass are well calibrated.

ggeorgis Posted at 2018-7-8 22:18
No...normal gps navigation mode.

Will try the throttle down procedure....if I remember correctly there is also an emergency shutoff procedure.

Hold on, please. Hand catching and tilting to turn off is not recommended, even though quite a few YouTube folks (ahem, Casey Neistat) do it. This can cause your motors to max out as it attempts to right itself on the horizon. And an Emergency Shut down is absolutely not recommended either; that feature is for if the drone crashes and the automatic motor stop fails.   

The reason the propellers suddenly stop when the aircraft is rolled over is the drone thinking it has crashed. You'll often see a warning on your app that says "Aircraft Rolled Over: Check for damage" because it thinks it has crashed during flight.


While hand launching and landing can be done, it needs to be done very carefully and all aspects should be controlled on the controller.

To hand catch your drone:
Manually lower the altitude to a "catchable" height, hold your hand open and flat under the aircraft (watch your fingers!) and hold down on the stick until the drone sets down in your hand. Only firmly grasp it once the propellers have completely stopped.

The aircraft will essentially detect your hand as being the "ground" and go into its forced landing mode with the stick held down. Once it senses it is no longer descending the propellers will turn off automatically.

Fly carefully.

Its a save way to shut the drone off, i dont know what you are talking about mate. As to the issue, same for me until i started to turn it slower, works now every time.

ggeorgis Posted at 2018-7-8 22:18
No...normal gps navigation mode.

Will try the throttle down procedure....if I remember correctly there is also an emergency shutoff procedure.

Im having takeoff and hover and shutoff issues. Take off usually goes up @6feet and hovers. Now it goes up 2 feet then slowly goes back down and will throttle up but will not hold altitude. Then trying to do emergency shutoff and nothing.keeps spinning. Intermittent issue

Hand catching is okay, if you have shut off issues, then use the controller to land it onto your hand instead of catching it and then flipping it. Flipping-shutoff is just a safety feature, and it's 100% bad for your motors. I usually land my drone onto my hand.

However, if you're on a tiny boat that swings, I'd suggest you to buy a controller neck strap for your controller, and shut off the motors using the controller with one hand, and catch the drone with the other hand.