Drone Rescue uses VHS tape and careful planning

If you regularly fly your drones outdoors, you've probably dreaded getting your pride and joy stuck in a tall tree at some point. But flying indoors doesn't guarantee you'll be safe either, as [Scott Williamson] found out. He once jammed his tiny 65mm Mobula 6HD quadcopter into a beam in the roof of an indoor sports complex and had to launch into a daring rescue.

The first job was reconnaissance, with [Scott] sending another drone to survey the situation. From there, he set about trying to free the stuck quadcopter with an improvised spear mounted on the front of a larger drone. But it ended up getting the bigger bird stuck as well. He was finally able to free himself, although he was badly damaged when [Scott] caught him as he was falling. As told to Hackaday, [Scott] therefore decided that he needed to build a model of the situation at home, to help him devise a rescue technique.

In the end, [Scott] settled on a grappling hook made out of paperclips. A drone projected a long length of VHS tape onto the roof beam, then attached the grappling hook at ground level. The VHS tape was then used to wrap the hook to the rafters and trap the drone, bringing it back to Earth.

It took a bit of perseverance, but [Scott] ended up saving his little drone from its high prison. The part we love the most about this story, however, is that [Scott] planned the recovery as a heist or a cave rescue.