> landing it by catching it using a small hook at the tail of the plane isn't that common I presume.

A lot of military drones have a hook at the end of one wing, and they hang a vertical wire under tension from a boom arm, with a differential gps receiver at the top of the wire. Ends up it's all accurate enough for the drone to catch the wire. I presume zipline went with their more complex approach as wings strong enough to just snag and stop would be past their weight limits.