How to get your Drone / RC plane out of a tree

A bad end to a good day.

Time to stress

A plane/drone  in a tree is a stressful situation. It happens to the best of pilots and nearly everybody has at least one plane in tree story to tell.  If you aren't fortunate enough to live close to where the plane is stuck you may end up losing the plane forever.   So, drastic action is required if you want to save it. The battery will wear down and the plane/drone will suffer the effects of weather.

Height is an issue

Planes 30 feet and under are much easier to recover than when they are up over 40 feet and up.  Even with good tools you'll need leverage.    You will also have to be careful how you get the plane/drone  out of the tree so that you do as little damage as possible.   When it comes to getting planes/drones out of trees there are good ideas and bad ideas.  I'll start with the bad ones.

Climb up the tree and get it yourself.

When I was growing up, a family a couple of blocks over lost their father one afternoon.  He was trimming the trees himself and hit a power line by mistake.  They aren't certain if the shock killed him or the 40-foot drop.  I can't tell you how sad the kids were and how the loss really hurt the entire family.    If you are an experienced tree climber and the plane/drone is well within your wheelhouse then don't let me talk you out of it.   If not the medical bills you're risking will outpace the cost of your entire RC plane/drone collection.   Broken arms and legs are one thing, a broken back can never really be repaired.   You'll never be the same.   So please, safety first.

Throw rocks at your plane/drone

It's going to come apart in pieces which is fine if you just want the motor and speed controller and other goodies. Perhaps you won't have to resort to this.

Better ideas

Get some leverage on it from the ground.

If you can get a stick under it and push it out the way it came in  that will be helpful.   When I landed my plane in a tree 60 feet up, this is what I did.  I'll tell you the story.

My plane was acting funny, pulling to the right so I tried to compensate with trim.  This caused me to put the plane in a spiral about 100 feet up. It landed perfectly in a tree, 60 feet up.  The plane was perfectly wedged in between branches.   Since it was FM the radio would keep the plane calm. When it was off the servos started twitching nervously.   Since the tree was near my house I put the radio under a bush and started to look for solutions.

Solution #1  Pull rods

I used these to pull electrical in my attic.  I've had a few too many desserts in my life and the thought of my fat ass squeezing between narrow beams while stepping on studs didn't work for me.   These rods worked great.  I got the electrical wires pulled without a problem.   However, that was a horizontal pull and the plane is up vertically.  By the time I screwed five rods together it wouldn't stand up straight, it just bent.  For the record that was 15'.

Home Depot PVC Pipe

Someone posted on a forum that they used 3/4" PVC pipe and that they could get it to up o 60' in the air.  I tried this, after a few pieces, it also bent.  However, discussing the issue with a buddy he said he had success by putting a piece within a piece.  He had 1" tubing and put in half inch PVC tubing on the used a half inch tube inside of an inch tubing inside, when they overlapped he would tape it with duct tape. My buddy said he could get up to 60 feet this way.   I haven't tried it, but if you're desperate then this doesn't sound like a bad solution   The inner tube braces the outer tubing.  Buy the longest lengths you can get such as 16'.  You can easily find ten feet.  Push the smaller pipe at least a few inches in the bigger one, put tape on the areas they overlap. This is going to get heavy once you get four lengths in so you may need someone to help you get it up.   My buddy said he did this and it worked fine up to 60'

What worked for me.

 The single PVC pipe idea didn't work.  What did work was tying the extension pole from Home Depot as seen above taped with duct tape  to another extension pole.  The second one was lighter.  I stood on a ladder and barely touched it nearly 60 feet up.  It took about 10 minutes to position the pole within the right area.  I was able to give it a light push.  It moved.  The with the breeze I was able to give it a second push.  The question I had was how it would fall out of the tree?  The answer was straight down, right in the middle of my forehead.   Good thing it hit something soft! The plane was fine, except the battery was dead and not recoverable.  I kept the new pole because I know I will doing this again.

Other options

Tree trimming

Perhaps you can reach a branch 20 feet up on the tree or lower with a pole saw and cut the branch down?  It's probably going to be fairly thick so plan on having this take a while.  The branches may help protect the plane/drone as it falls to the ground.   If this is on private property you, of course, want to get the permission from the property owner before you do this.  If it's in a park or land where the property owner can't be identified easily then it's up to you.  My thinking is that branches grow back.  Just be certain to clean up the tree branches when you're done.

Baseball and rope

"Take me out to the ball game. . ."  Remember those years playing high school baseball?  No?  Well it's time to live your glory days as you throw a baseball that is taped to a nylon rope up a tree.    It sounds easier than it is I'm sure.  The secret they say is to lay the rope out in a zig-zag pattern on the ground.  You take the rope to the ball with duct-tape and stand there throwing the ball up the tree.  Heck, have fun with it, offer $10 for the first person to make it over the branch.  When it comes down the other side you're supposed to grab both ends  of the rope and aggressively shake the branch so the  plane /drone falls out of the tree.

Wait for it to fall out of the tree.

If this is stuck in someone's backyard this may be  your only option. Sooner or later it may fall from the tree with a good stiff wind and if you leave them your phone number they'll call you.  It may take hours, days or months.

Call a tree trimmer

If you have a balsa wood plane or one that is delicate or perhaps loaded down with a lot of FPV gear the notion of it falling 60 feet to the ground can mean the plane/drone will get damaged beyond repair or the equipment onboard will suffer too much damage. This is when you get your smartphone out and start calling all the local tree trimmers in the area.  Most likely you'll hear "I can get to you sometime next week, or the week after, I don't know, let me look at my schedule."   Since batteries will die and never will be able to be charged again someone who can get to it today is more desirable.   This is a 15-minute job for them in most cases, and an extra $50 will be plenty persuasive.

Flying Clubs

Many flying clubs know of guys who have skills climbing trees to get planes/drone out.  Some people have little side businesses doing this.   You may want to call your local club and ask a question or two. They may take a few days getting back to you however.

The last resort

It may be too late for this for this plane/drone but in all of your builds put your name and phone number on your plane/drone.   I've found 3 RC planes on my morning walks over the years.  None have had phone numbers. The last one belonged to a friend of mine, months later I told him I had it in my garage.  He was happy to get it back.    Chances are very good that someone will find it and return it to you if they know how to contact you.  If it never comes back to you, well, write it off and move on. I'm sorry to say sometimes that's all you can do.   You can attach a note to the tree stating your name and phone number and the plane/drone  in the tree above belongs to you.  If an honest person finds it they will be in contact with you.