Registering a crash when grabbing out of air

[Rocky the FS]

I have started just grabbing the Anafi at the end of a flight and turning it quickly on its side to shut off. The flight log registers this as a crash.....I'm not sure I want Parrot to think I crash my bird on every flight. Am I being too quick or is there a better way to hand land it? When I just grabbed it without turning it, it went to full power....that isn't what I want either.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

A lot of my records will show a crash at the end of flight because I do the same as you. Now when my Anafi #1 went missing last winter as a FLYAWAY Anafi Parrot never mentioned the crash logs at all. So my thought is they really do not check each log to see how you fly. Even if they did they are not that dumb to think you crashed your Anafi 50 times LOL

 

[PascalG]

I always grab and flip so every flight ends as a crash...

 

[Rocky the FS]

That makes me feel better! I may try the land in your palm, but I'm more comfortable just grabbing it in case it does something unexpected.

 

[CraigCam]

You don’t need to flip it. It’s not a DJI drone. Let it come to rest in your palm and don’t grab, pull, move, or twist and it will land on your outstretched hand and stop itself. If for some reason it misbehaves then you can do the grab and turn to shut it down but as you have observed, it’s shutting down in crash mode which is a fail safe. Try just trusting it and learn how it’s an awesome easy hand land drone and you don’t so much catch it but rather provide a proper flat landing area that it knows how to settle down on.


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[SMOk3]

Have a look at this vid:

 

[CraigCam]

Yeah...like that.


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[Rocky the FS]

.... Try just trusting it

I'm learning to do that.......slowly.....it's probably a lot smarter than I am. So far it has done everything I asked it to do perfectly and I haven't hit anything.....but I came REAL close once when I lost awareness of which way it was pointing. I put some orange DayGlo stickers on the front legs in lieu of a skin, that helps.

 

[MrDosa]

I just tried launching from hand and landing back on my palm.
While launching the propellers are already spinning, and when it recognises that small lift what you have to give when you want it to launch, it immediately lifts off without problem.
Hand landing replaces the precise return to home obviously. It will still return to the rough location it launched from, but you'll have to go under, hold out your palm and when it's below, just press land. As soon as it gets like about 1cm fat from the palm (or less), it stops. You don't need to grab and turn it, it just plans on your palm.
No crashes were registered when I was experimenting with this yesterday.

I think I'm going to use it more often. It happened to me before couple of times, that I tried to land on a landing pad (orange-white high contrast) and the drone was stuck trying to land. Lifting itself up by few cm, then trying to land again, moving up and down for about 1 minute, even moving sideways slightly and missing the pad, and it was not reacting to the controller at all.

 

[Rocky the FS]

Yes, I tried it yesterday and it works just as advertised in the video. You have to be slow in bringing your hand up beneath it or it gets a bit nervous. You only have to give it a gentle shove into the air, not throw it. Although I have not had any weirdness landing on my orange pad, I think I will use the hand launch/retrieve a lot more from now on. Certainly anytime I move from the launch location or in rough terrain. Friendly little bugger!

 

[Reconnaissance Squadron]

I too was concerned that it registered it as a crash, but what of it? Nobody's going to call you a bad pilot because of it. Hand catching it flat on your palm is possible but tricky. You have to hold your palm out really flat so the body can settle on it and block the sensors. It is easy to hold your hand too curled or to flinch because the drone is close to your face, in which case the drone is a bit skittish and dances around a little which doesn't help with your confidence. I do the palm landing if I am feeling confident and there is no wind, otherwise, I just catch it and twist it smartly (90 + degrees of roll, and I am right?) and the motors cut out. The slicker and quicker you do it the less drama there is, just a quarter of a second of increased noise then it cuts out.

 

[Rocky the FS]

..Hand catching it flat on your palm is possible but tricky. You have to hold your palm out really flat so the body can settle on it and block the sensors. It is easy to hold your hand too curled or to flinch because the drone is close to your face, in which case the drone is a bit skittish and dances around a little which doesn't help with your confidence. ........

That is exactly what I did and it worked perfectly. I do believe that the wind would have a distinct effect but when I tried it was in a stable hover at chest level and settled straight down into my flat hand and shut off in 1 second.

I think the drone behavior in the hover is key to whether or not to attempt this. If it acted skittish in the wind or as above I would just grab it.

 

[Vegasrobbi]

I wonder if a hand catch/flip is logged the same as a crash? Anafi senses the difference between a hand and ground launch. I always hand launch and catch with nearly 200 flights.

I mention this because when I crash into a tree motors stopped or some such warning appears on the app and Anafi's motors beep as a locating beacon. I do not recall this behavior with a quick grab and flip, I'll pay more attention next flight.

 

[Reconnaissance Squadron]

I wonder if a hand catch/flip is logged the same as a crash? Anafi senses the difference between a hand and ground launch. I always hand launch and catch with nearly 200 flights.

I mention this because when I crash into a tree motors stopped or some such warning appears on the app and Anafi's motors beep as a locating beacon. I do not recall this behavior with a quick grab and flip, I'll pay more attention next flight.

That is two different definitions of a crash. Yes, a proper crash does result in the motors cutting off and the drone emitting a small plaintiff bleep which helps you find it on the ground if you can get to within a couple of metres. But this is about the flight record. A hand landing, on your palm, does not register as a crash. But if you snatch the drone out of the air it is registered as a crash in your flight summary but it doesn't start bleeping. I wonder if it assumes that if it is being moved after the motors cut out it is probably not lost and should keep quiet. If you always hand catch/snatch your flight summaries would register a lot of crashes.

 

[Vegasrobbi]

Well it appears Parrot has warrantied Anafi"s that had many hand catches.

Parrot may be able to differentiate between a crash with a motor stop and a hand catch with a flip.

 

[AnafiPilot]

My Anafi is being replaced largely because it developed a twitch when attempting to hover in the same spot for a whole-battery hyper lapse. When examining the logs, Parrot noted that many flights ended in crashes. I wrote back that it should be every single flight with two exceptions, because I always hand launch and hand land, since rough and dusty terrain is the norm where I usually fly. My habit was to grab and flip, or twist. They ended up covering the drone under warranty, but stated that I should never hand land it.

It seems possible that my 'grab and quick twist' approach damaged the gimbal over time. So, once the new one arrives, I'll be practicing this flat-hand-land approach.

 

[Reconnaissance Squadron]

My Anafi is being replaced largely because it developed a twitch when attempting to hover in the same spot for a whole-battery hyper lapse. When examining the logs, Parrot noted that many flights ended in crashes. I wrote back that it should be every single flight with two exceptions, because I always hand launch and hand land, since rough and dusty terrain is the norm where I usually fly. My habit was to grab and flip, or twist. They ended up covering the drone under warranty, but stated that I should never hand land it.

It seems possible that my 'grab and quick twist' approach damaged the gimbal over time. So, once the new one arrives, I'll be practicing this flat-hand-land approach.

Interesting. It seems that the twist-of-death landing is not encouraged, which makes sense. It works as an emergency procedure but shouldn't be your default.

I did a whole session of hand launches and hand landings to practice and found that the simplest way to hand catch is to get the drone in front of you at about chest height facing away (so you're not distracted by looking into or following the camera) and press the landing button then intercept the Anafi from below with your flat palm. I hold the controller in my left hand, press the landing button with my right index finger then move my right palm out under the drone just as it is starting to go down. This way usually results in a short, slow and smooth descent and no awkwardness at all. The flatter you hold your hand the better the results will be. Starting the descent with your hand already under the drone can cause it to be skittish. If you are starting from chest height you should have plenty of time to intercept it before you have to reach down in any way.

 

[Rocky the FS]

....Starting the descent with your hand already under the drone can cause it to be skittish. If you are starting from chest height you should have plenty of time to intercept it before you have to reach down in any way.

Very interesting. A bit different from that video I watched. I'll try that next flight. Also using the land button on the controller instead of the virtual one on the screen, since I have to reach inside my shade to do that.

 

[Vegasrobbi]

It seems possible that my 'grab and quick twist' approach damaged the gimbal over time. So, once the new one arrives, I'll be practicing this flat-hand-land approach.

Possible, I feel the same way about a compass calibration with gimbal attached.

My Anafi has about 250 flights now mostly hand caught and flipped. I notice no difference in gimbal performance, if anything it's better now.

I'd like to flat catch it if it would power down immediately. What I find is when you press the land button the lower VPS sensor is ignored so flight will not be affected by objects below. I like the idea of pressing the land button then place your hand underneath but you only have one shot. It would be nice if Parrot allowed us to turn off the lower sensors.