How to recover drones or other things stuck high up in a tree!

Getting your multirotor or water rocket or other project down when they become stuck in trees is difficult and frustrating. We wanted to share our solution with you so that you may benefit from our design, no matter what project you need to rescue from a tree.

More information is located here: http://www.uswaterrockets.com/construction_&_tutorials/Tree_Rescue/tutorial.htm

In this video we will show you how to build and how to use our Tree Recovery System, which is easy and inexpensive to make and works amazingly well.

Stay tuned, that's all coming up next!

To make your own Tree Recovery System you need to obtain a few simple supplies.

Latex Surgical Tubing

Electrical Tape

A fishing reel with line

String

Rope

Some dowels for the projectiles.

A 1" Diameter Pipe about 3 feet in length. We use PVC.

Now we can begin the construction!

The first build step is to fasten the fishing reel to the pipe about a foot from the bottom. Use electrical tape strips to hold it in position and then give it a good tape wrap to make it a permanent joint.

Next, take about 2 feet of the surgical tubing, fold it in half to find the middle and temporarily tape the center over the end of the pipe just below the fishing reel.

Fold the ends of the latex tubing along the sides of the pipe and hold them in position with a strip of tape. Leave 2 to 3 inches of latex protruding past the tape.

Now you permanently tape the latex tube to the sides of the pipe with a firm wrap of electrical tape about 3 to 4 inches wide.

Fold the loose ends of the latex tube back over and apply another tight wrap of tape to cover the folded ends completely.

Remove the temporary tape from the middle of the surgical tubing. The launching device is now finished and we need to make some projectiles for it.

The projectiles are made by cutting the dowels about 2 feet in length.

To improve the range and accuracy of the projectiles you can tape a weight onto the tip. Screws, washers, coins, or a even a small stone will work well for this.

You only need one projectile at a time but make several because they sometimes get lost when using them.

The Tree Recovery System is finished, and now ready for use.

When we were filming our Mobius Tower Camera video, we had the opportunity to put the system to use and show how it works when a large tree decided to grab our Water Rocket, including 3 onboard cameras and our Homebrew Altimeter, which we really wanted back.

Tossing a rope at pull the rocket down proved to be a futile effort, so we had to drive all the way home and fetch out Tree Recovery System.

The overall idea is that with this system we can very accurately place our rope so that we can either hook the rocket directly, or hook the branches supporting it and shake it loose.

Here is a demonstration of how the system is operated.

Take one of the projectiles and tape the line from the fishing reel to the tail end.

The line should be taped firmly but should pull free in the event that the projectile gets stuck in the tree.

The projectile is inserted tail first into the top of the launcher.

Grasp the projectile as it comes out of the bottom of the launcher and pinch it with the latex tube.

Pull back and stretch the latex tube, similar to the way you would arm a slingshot.

Take aim down the barrel of the launcher and release the projectile.

If you miss the shot, you can quickly reel the projectile back in and try again.

Once you have placed your projectile in the desired location, you can let if drop to the ground and pull it off then tie a string to the fishing line.

Then, you tie a rope on the other end of the string.

When you reel in the fishing line, it pulls the string through the branches, then the string is used to pull the rope through the branches last.

When you have the rope where you want it, you can then use it to pull your object or shake your object loose from the tree.

With a little patience and persistence, you can recover just about anything.

We got lucky and our rocket was set free without a lot of violent shaking. But when we did recover it we noticed that one of the onboard cameras had been knocked loose.

We were very fortunate to find it on the ground underneath the tree.

Before the end of this demonstration we just want to remind you to use common sense and be safe when using this device.

Do not use it where the projectile could hurt someone or damage property, and never use it around power lines!

Видео How to recover drones or other things stuck high up in a tree! канала USWaterRockets