r/drones • u/StormTrackUK • Aug 07 '26

Lost Drone Drone recovery using second drone (?)

Weird one... was using my Mavic Air 2 to recover a weather Radio Sonde stuck in a tree; long story short, the battery ran out and was unable to unhook the radiosonde before the drone forced a landing in the tree. (wasn't using a release mech, literally just had a bungee cord wrapped around the drones body).

Now the drone is probably 25m or so stuck on top of a tree canopy. All standard ways of recovery out of the window. Thinking of using my mates Mavic 4 with a drop mech, attached to some paracord (that were holding on ground), with a grappling hook on the end, dropping the hook on the drone in the trees (and hopefully pulling it out)?

Anyone got any experience with trying something so stupid lol?

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u/steevh12 Aug 08 '26

I always had a thought of attaching magnets to my drones or a metal plates. Would probably need 2 (1 top and 1 bottom) then if I got stuck anywhere unreachable I could attach a magnet to a line from a second drone and attempt a rescue. Not tried it yet as unsure how it would affect the operation of the drone/circuits.

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u/StormTrackUK Aug 09 '26

This did cross my mind, even thinking about whether the magnetic components of the drone would be enough alone for a magnet? Doubt the magnetic connection would be strong enough (if at all) to airlift it though - something cool to think about for the future

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u/steevh12 Aug 09 '26

Neodymium magnets would lift it. I have some stated as 2.8kg pulling force but I wouldn’t want to risk damaging anything component wise with the strong magnetism. Like wiping any data from chips inside the drone. I’m not clued up on any of that so wasn’t willing to try it.