Hand-catch landing, mixed results

Pogo · Oct 9, 2015

I try to take video in unusual places. This means that while I can take off from the back of my solo back pack, I do not always have a good landing spot. I have been able to do a hand-catch landing into my right hand while I throw the left control stick into down position to kill motors. This has worked for me at least a dozen times. The other day however, the motors would not shut off and the bird was straining to take off. I was not able to press the a-b+pause button with just one hand and luckily remembered to turn the bird over to kill the motors. My question is, what am I doing wrong that the motors did not shut off as I "landed" the solo into my hand.

By the way, this is a very dangerous maneuver and only recommend doing this if you have lots of flying time and in light wind conditions.

PSLJeff · Oct 9, 2015

Pogo said:
I try to take video in unusual places. This means that while I can take off from the back of my solo back pack, I do not always have a good landing spot. I have been able to do a hand-catch landing into my right hand while I throw the left control stick into down position to kill motors. This has worked for me at least a dozen times. The other day however, the motors would not shut off and the bird was straining to take off. I was not able to press the a-b+pause button with just one hand and luckily remembered to turn the bird over to kill the motors. My question is, what am I doing wrong that the motors did not shut off as I "landed" the solo into my hand.

By the way, this is a very dangerous maneuver and only recommend doing this if you have lots of flying time and in light wind conditions.

I'm pretty sure you have to hold the stick down and to the left. That has always worked for me.

Maddog · Oct 10, 2015

There is currently another thread running discussing this exact issue.
Somebody speculated that if you moved Solo down slightly after catching it, it might think it needs to maintain altitude and is trying to overcome your catch. That might cause it to override your throttle command, especially if you were not landing in Manual.

Just pressing "pause" might have helped-not sure though.

KRVer · Oct 10, 2015

Maddog said:
There is currently another thread running discussing this exact issue.
Somebody speculated that if you moved Solo down slightly after catching it, it might think it needs to maintain altitude and is trying to overcome your catch. That might cause it to override your throttle command, especially if you were not landing in Manual.

Just pressing "pause" might have helped-not sure though.

Keeping solo steady after the "catch" and left stick down should do it - if you move before motors are shut down, she'll think she's still in the air and will fight you.

Timmytimetravel · Oct 10, 2015

If you have android you can use the tower (beta I think) to do a menu killswitch with one hand.

Other than that, get it lower so you've no chance of pulling it down when you grab it. I've had this issue

KRVer · Oct 10, 2015

Timmytimetravel said:
If you have android you can use the tower (beta I think) to do a menu killswitch with one hand.

Other than that, get it lower so you've no chance of pulling it down when you grab it. I've had this issue

With Solo, a word of caution: when I've caught it by hand, I've always kept it above the level of my head before approaching close enough to grab in case she decides she wants to all of a sudden drift sideways (known to happen occassionally at low level). (I value my face and eyes).