Feet ain't Meters

[Walt Rush]

I stumbled on something today that could have resulted in a crashed Mavic. I live in a home surrounded by large trees but I can launch my Quads straight up from my driveway and at about 100' I can maneuver them in any direction. I have had my RTH altitude set at 45 ever since I've owned my quads. This, I thought would allow them to clear the trees in the event of a RTH. When I fly near the house I am usually at about 200'-250' AGL so invoking RTH isn't an issue since the Quad will head to the Home Point and descend.

Today I was flying my Mavic and taking some shots of a building near my town. The building is about 50' high and surrounded by a parking lot so there was lots of open space to maneuver. Except for my truck, the lot was empty.

Suddenly, the wind began gusting so, since I had all of the video I needed, I hit the RTH button just to see how close to the take-off point it would land. The Mavic climbed about 10', moved laterally to the Home Point, descended and landed. It only climbed to 45', not 45 Meters, as advertised (20-500m). My Remote Controller is set for "Imperial" but historically the RTH and Max Altitudes have always been in Meters. Perhaps others should check this matter out on their equipment. It might explain some yet unexplained crashes and/or lost birds.

 

[Bunny Too]

I stumbled on something today that could have resulted in a crashed Mavic. I live in a home surrounded by large trees but I can launch my Quads straight up from my driveway and at about 100' I can maneuver them in any direction. I have had my RTH altitude set at 45 ever since I've owned my quads. This, I thought would allow them to clear the trees in the event of a RTH. When I fly near the house I am usually at about 200'-250' AGL so invoking RTH isn't an issue since the Quad will head to the Home Point and descend.

Today I was flying my Mavic and taking some shots of a building near my town. The building is about 50' high and surrounded by a parking lot so there was lots of open space to maneuver. Except for my truck, the lot was empty.

Suddenly, the wind began gusting so, since I had all of the video I needed, I hit the RTH button just to see how close to the take-off point it would land. The Mavic climbed about 10', moved laterally to the Home Point, descended and landed. It only climbed to 45', not 45 Meters, as advertised (20-500m). My Remote Controller is set for "Imperial" but historically the RTH and Max Altitudes have always been in Meters. Perhaps others should check this matter out on their equipment. It might explain some yet unexplained crashes and/or lost birds.

How close to your home point were you when you hit RTH?

 

[Robbyg]

Someone with the latest firmware would have to check that out. I know my RTH is set to 120M with Ver .400 and it comes back at that height. They might have introduced a bug in the later firmware by trying to convert the settings into imperial and forgot to change the label.

Rob

 

[dsmpampis]

Someone with the latest firmware would have to check that out. I know my RTH is set to 120M with Ver .400 and it comes back at that height. They might have introduced a bug in the later firmware by trying to convert the settings into imperial and forgot to change the label.

Rob

Mine is at 50m and it's coming to that height with the .600 Ver.

 

[Walt Rush]

How close to your home point were you when you hit RTH?

The Mavic was about 90-100 Meters from the Home Point. Since my original posting I tried it again near home with the RTH altitude set to 60. I sent the Mavic about 1/4 mile away and descended to about 40' AGL and then did a RTH. The Mavic climbed to 60' and turned for home. I cancelled RTH and flew home and landed manually. I am running all of the latest apps and firmware FWIW.

 

[msinger]

@Walt Rush, can you upload your TXT flight log here and post a link back here so we can check it out?

 

[dewster]

Man...this is a life saver. I'll have to test RTH to see if it's in meters or imperial.

 

[patricblues]

Check this...Meter Conversions

 

[Kenneth Coe]

My software (4.3.14) shows the RTH altitude both ways, marked M and ft. I keep it set around 130 ft (well above all the pine trees in the area), and when I hit RTH, it goes to that altitude, unless it was higher prior to executing RTH. I always use RTH when the light is sufficient because I enjoy watching it do the precision landing (and because frankly, it does a better job of landing than I do).

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Someone with the latest firmware would have to check that out. I know my RTH is set to 120M with Ver .400 and it comes back at that height.
Rob

120m Rob ?
That is 400'.

I am just inquisitive about this, maybe you meant 120' feet ?
Just not sure why you'd need to go to 120m for RTH, when the wind can be much more of a problem, not to mention wasting battery power climbing up there, and a slower descent form that altitude.
Excuse my question if you live and fly near Sequoia sempervirens forest !!

I leave mine set at default 30m (about 100'), but always adjust to each flight if needed.
Eg, if flying from a peak or high ground, clear around, or cliff out over the sea, I might reset to 10m . . . if in forest I look to set RTH at highest treetop plus a safe buffer. 30m there is usually ample.

Hardly ever use RTH now, it works great, but I like coming home with ~ 20% battery and enjoy flying it back with FPV, then better VLOS as it gets closer.

 

[Meta4]

The Mavic climbed about 10', moved laterally to the Home Point, descended and landed. It only climbed to 45', not 45 Meters, as advertised (20-500m). My Remote Controller is set for "Imperial" but historically the RTH and Max Altitudes have always been in Meters. Perhaps others should check this matter out on their equipment. It might explain some yet unexplained crashes and/or lost birds.

It could be that you ran into this ... (flight data would confirm)
From p15 of your manual: