How to Get a Drone Out of a Tree? Best Ways

Getting your new drone stuck in a tree is a thing that is increasingly happening to new drone pilots and can be extremely frustrating. Those trees really manage to find themselves at the wrong place at the wrong time, don’t they? Situations like these can be very frustrating. So, we will cover ways to get a drone out of a tree, using simple everyday items and untroublesome techniques. Additionally, we will introduce to you more costly options and of course what not to when trying to get a drone out of a tree.

How to Get a Drone Out of a Tree?

How to Get a Drone Out of a Tree? The best and safest way to get a drone out of a tree is to try to climb the tree and take it down. If the tree is more than 20 feet in height, use the ladders. Other methods that you can use to get back your drone is by using a long pole, dart gun, or by using a fishing rod and hook.

Below we will explain all the methods in detail and help you get your drone off the tree safely. Here is the summary of best methods that I use to get my drone out of a tree.

Flying a Drone into a Tree is Stressful

Flying a drone into a tree is not rare. It happens to the best! The reason why this happens to brand new drones is that the owner gets very excited and overwhelmed during its first flight. The thrill of the thought of flying your drone through the limitless blue sky, taking some marvelous shots and videos, and showing them to everyone can mess with a person’s concentration.

Additionally, the person might not be very experienced in flying so things like this happen. It can get very stressful. Other than the excitement and happiness this drone has given you it probably cost quite a buck so getting it back is then a number one priority. Sadly because of an accident, a day you were looking forward to so much can become quite irksome. So, here are steps on how to get your drone back safe and sound.

Best Ways To Get Drone Out of a Tree

Step 1: Climb the Tree

If the tree is not higher than 20 feet, it should not be that difficult to climb it. Another way is to grab onto the branches and use your feet to push off or, if that option seems unimaginable, use a ladder. Set the ladder against the tree and make sure it is sitting stable on the ground. You could even ask a friend to hold it for you at the bottom.  Climb up as high as you can.

If you are now close enough to the drone to grab it with your hands, do that, if not use a pole or a broomstick and bat it down. It would be good to place something soft on the ground so the drone does not break while landing on a hard surface. 

Step 2: Get a Long Pole

If you want to avoid climbing the tree, the other simplest way to get a drone down from a tree is to poke, beat, or bat it down with a long pole or any other long and flat object. Just as mentioned above, lay a soft layer on the ground for the drone to land on. You do not want to get it down and then face disappointment again because the drone broke while hitting the ground. Also, be careful that you do not hit yourself with the pole and that the drone doesn’t hit you while tumbling down.

Step 3: The Throw Weight

So, if you came to this part of the article, you probably tried the first two options. Don’t lose hope yet, there are more solutions! This is a great trick that many use when they want to rescue their drones. 

The first part is preparing. Take the following steps:

1. Take a large heavy object (make sure you can throw it quite far)
2. Tie some light fishing line to it (Make sure it’s well connected and won’t detach from one another. It should be snug enough. To make sure everything is working well, give it a test throw)
3. Walk about 100ft down the area the tree is under.
4. Unwind the line as you walk away from the tree.
5. Go back to your starting point.

The second part is more entertaining. These are the following steps:

1. Throw the line over the part of the tree where the drone is stuck on, mostly over a branch. Be sure you overshoot a little bit, a bit to the left or right so the heavy object does not smash the drone. It should push it just enough, so it falls.
2. Try to shake it. Make sure to keep cycling the part of the line that is rubbing on the tree, otherwise you will have to repeat the whole process.
3. Shake the line until the drone drops down. You may have to cut the line and repeat the process until you’ve found a good angle.
4. Congratulations, you have rescued your aircraft all by yourself!

Step 4: Dart Gun

If the previous step didn’t work, this may be the solution. Another good way to get the drone off a tree is using a cheap foam dart gun such as a Nerf N-Strike Elite Retaliator, for example (link).  It can help bump your drone down a few branches, hopefully putting it within range of your ladder or long pole. It might even push it completely down if the branches are not densely placed.

Step 5: Water Hose

Water should only be used when NOTHING ELSE previously listed worked. Using a hose to push the drone down with high water pressure is a good way, but chances are, unless you have waterproof drone, it isn’t going to be flying anytime soon. Large amounts of water and electronics never worked very well together. If this does not work, then try the next step, but proceed with caution.

Step 6: Calling Fire Department

Remember that calling the fire department should be used as a last resort. This option should be used very cautiously. It is important for everyone’s safety that emergency services’ time and energy are spent where they are really needed. So, calling for help in situations like this one could be taken as not urgent enough and you could get fined. The penalty fine usually amounts around 2,500 USD which is often more than getting a completely new drone. In some countries, calling any type of emergency service such as the fire department, police, emergency ambulance, etc. can even be punished with actual jail time.

Step 7: Know When to Give Up

Unless your drone was incredibly expensive, give up when you have had enough. Even if it does not eventually fall pushed by wind or rain or if some friend of yours does not manage to take it down, you can at least proudly say you gave it your all to get it back. The disappointment you felt the moment it got stuck will by then fade away. Remember, your peace is more important than a drone or in fact any other electronical equipment.

What NOT to Do When Your Drone’s Stuck In A Tree

Googling information can be very helpful but can also give you false and unreliable information. In this case, these are some common wrong advice people read while trying to find a way to get their drone of a tree.

First and most common advice: “try to knock the drone out of the tree by force” Do NOT do this. Throwing something heavy with no preparation or plan usually causes horrible outcomes. The weight of the heavy object will probably damage the drone and the rough landing on the ground will not do it any good either. Instead, try using the fishing line or foam dart gun technique. The fishing line technique operates in similar principle but its gentler and the chances of damage are much lower.

Another one: “flood the drone out with a hose”. Websites often suggest this as a first thought solution. Even though we listed it here as well, it is crucial to point out this is used only as a last resort and with awareness that the drone probably will not work afterwards. Moreover, if your hose doesn’t have extremely high-water pressure it might not even work, and it will still harm the aircraft. So, as this idea might seem witty at first, its actually quite harmful and often useless.  

Finally: “try rescuing your drone with another drone”. Just like the other two ideas, AVOID this one as well. Unless you have an actual heavy lifting drone on hand and the stuck drone is at the very top of the tree with barely any branches and leaves covering it, do not attempt this method. In all other cases, sending another drone into the tree is risking that drone to get stuck too.

Final Thoughts

We sincerely hope that after reading through this article you have an idea what to do in this type of situation. Whether you are in this situation right now or not, our goal was to give you good quality and well thought out advice that you can either use now or in the future. Drones getting stuck and tangled up is a common issue for many flyers so do not feel like an odd bird! 

If the previous step didn’t work, this may be the solution. Another good way to get the drone off a tree is using a cheap foam dart gun such as a Nerf N-Strike Elite Retaliator, for example (link).  It can help bump your drone down a few branches, hopefully putting it within range of your ladder or long pole. It might even push it completely down if the branches are not densely placed.