Your drone is stuck in a tall tree, now what?! This can be an issue! But it’s extremely important that you stop and think before you try to do anything in a hurry.
Once you have composed yourself, here are the 10 most effective methods that WILL get your drone out of the tree, GUARANTEED!
Before you start reading the details of the methods above, STOP AND READ THIS first or you’ll break your drone into pieces.
Now that you’re prepared, let’s get that drone out of the tree once and for all before it starts to rain.
I wanted to mention this tip first because a lot of people might think that this is “wasting” government resources, however, hear me out. There are a lot of people who get desperate and put themselves in dangerous positions by attempting to climb tall trees. The fire department would much rather have you ask for their help than putting yourself or others at risk.
How do I know that they would prefer it? Well, let’s see what a fire Lt. had to say about this in a forum here;
“As a carrier fire Lt. in the US I can say I have been asked to get a drone out of a tree. I understand people’s reaction to it being a waste of resources. And in my department, it’s on a case by case basis. For example, the non-emergency fire alarm bucket truck retrieved a drone from a tree so as not to tie up an emergency ladder truck. One of the reasons for the Fire department doing it is. If people get creative/desperate to get the drone back they can easily hurt themselves or others. Also, I would never use water to get one out of a tree.”
Lt. in a fire department.
If your drone is stuck in a tree, and you feel like attempting to climb it night put yourself or others in dangers way, then make sure you call them and explain your situation, this is 100% legal! And, they don’t charge you a dime. In the United States, the only emergency service you’ll get charged for is an ambulance, (even more of a reason not to put yourself in danger.)
Here are some important tips you need to read before calling the fire department.
Follow these steps and they’ll be more than happy to help!
Call a tree trimmer and offer them $50 or so to just swing by for a minute and grab your drone out of the tree. Who doesn’t need the extra work?
This will save you a ton of time and money. Most of the tips you’ll find online will need you to buy something. And generally, it will cost you around $50 of material anyways. And the methods aren’t even guaranteed to work. So save yourself the headache, and make a few calls instead.
Tree trimmers already have all the equipment that they’ll need, on top of that because they won’t need to do tree trimming, it’s an easy job. Who knows, you might get lucky they’ll offer to do it for a beer.
Here’s are some tips when you do make that call.
People generally want to be good and help wherever they can. Especially on Facebook! Try posting a drone rescue plea out on Facebook and ask for someone that has the climbing gear or for someone that works for a tree or roofing service. Someone is bound to know someone who can help. Try it! You’ll be surprised at how many people offer help.
You don’t even need to think of what you need to write. I’ve taken the liberty and written the post for you, so all you need to do is copy and paste the post below into your Facebook news feed, and wait for someone to offer help.
Here’s the Facebook plea post you can use:
PLEASE HELP! I’ve just gotten my drone stuck in a tall tree. I’ve tried everything that I can think of and I just can’t manage to get it down. My last option is to try and climb the tree, but it’s extremely high and I don’t want to put myself or others in danger. If anyone here works for a tree scaping business, or has the professional climbing gear and knows how to climb really tall trees safely please can you help me out. The drone costs an arm and a leg so I would forever be grateful!
This method works pretty well according to a drone pilot that tried it on this forum. He managed to get his drone stuck in a 50-foot tree and this was his solution. Everything you’ll need can be bought from Walmart for less than $20 apparently.
Important items that you’ll need for this:
Here’s how this trick works:
That should do it. If not then you could try it again, or move on to the next tip.
This is another neat trick that worked for a drone enthusiast named Velospinner on this forum. All he did was duct tape three rakes together, which gave him a total of 12 meters or 39 feet. So if your drone isn’t that high up, this might be a method that will work for you.
Now keep in mind that any long poles will work. If you have an old broom, rake and a pool pole, then go ahead and tape all three of them together. The point of this trick is to use what you have. A little bit of ingenuity will go a long way.
Important items that you’ll need for this:
Here’s how you can perform this:
If you have a roof rake then this might save you some time. Roof rakes can easily extend up to 21 feet. So if the branch that your drone is stuck on is lower than that, then a roof rake could work pretty well.
What you’ll need:
How to do it:
This smart idea came from Tomtopping on phatompilots.com. I haven’t tried it personally, but it’s a clever way to reach drones that are REALLY high up there. Each section of pipe is 10 feet, so but as many as you need to reach the desired height. The only downside is this will cost you around $100 to setup. so if you don’t have the money to spend then move on to a different tip.
Here’s what you’ll need:
If you’re not really sure how to glue these together, ask someone at home depot to give you a quick crash course.
Here’s how to do it:
Bamboo is strong and long! The perfect material to use when trying to reach places that are high…like a tall tree.
The only problem is finding them. I managed to find 6 foot long poles for around $68 for a pack of 25 at Lowes.com. These will work, however you’ll need to buy some duct tape to tape them all together. Taped together they could easily get you around 100 feet in height.
Here’s what you’ll need:
Here’s how to do it:
This is another interesting hack that seems to work for a lot of unfortunate drone pilots. A bag of beans works great because they are soft enough to throw at your drone, but still heavy enough to throw them at a decent distance.
For this hack you’ll need:
Here’s how to do it:
This is a popular method that a lot of people turn to. Nerf guns work great because the bullets are big and soft. If you don’t have a Nerf gun already, you can pick one up from Walmart. But make sure you do it as soon as possible, you can’t afford to leave your drone in the tree over night.
At the end of the say you also want to ask yourself how much your drone is worth to you. If it’s a $50 drone, then the best thing to do is probably just walk away and get a new one. Most tree rescues will cost you more than $50 of at-least your time and efforts. However, if its an expensive drone always keep your safety as a number one priority. If you sense any kind of danger during your drone rescue attempt, then call the police department!
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