Landing protection

borislip · Mar 23, 2017

What does landind protection really do, other than not letting the Mavic go closer to about half a meter to the ground unless you let off the stick and then pull it all the way down again?

Are there any true disadvantages to turning it off, assuming one isn't crazy enoug to just try and hit the ground at max vertical velocity?

The obvious advantage is that it doesn't try to fly away from you like some wild pterodactyl while hand catching it!

msinger · Mar 23, 2017

borislip said:
What does landind protection really do

It tries to determine if it's safe for the Mavic to auto land when it's near the ground. Here's what the Mavic manual says about it:

borislip said:
Are there any true disadvantages to turning it off

When disabled, your Mavic will not auto land after manually initiating RTH or using the auto land feature. Instead, it'll hover when it descends below 0.5 meters and wait for you to confirm that it's okay to land.

JLane · Mar 23, 2017

msinger said:
When disabled, your Mavic will not auto land after manually initiating RTH or using the auto land feature. Instead, it'll hover when it descends below 0.5 meters and wait for you to confirm that it's okay to land.

I thought it was kinda the opposite. With Landing Protection disabled, the Mavic doesn't pause and wait for confirmation, but just proceeds all the way down to the ground. Isn't that how it works?

msinger · Mar 23, 2017

Are you referring to manually landing or using the auto landing features that I mentioned above?

JLane · Mar 23, 2017

msinger said:
Are you referring to manually landing or using the auto landing features that I mentioned above?

Well I've almost never used the auto landing initiated by tapping the on-screen button, so I'm not sure about that, but I have used the RTH button many times, and I thought it would go directly down to the ground when Landing Protection was off. Although, to be fair, it has been several weeks since I've let an RTH fully complete a landing, so I may be mis-remembering.

AlanTheBeast · Mar 23, 2017

As an aside, using on screen take-off and landing "buttons and sliders" is poor airmanship IMO.

I don't look at the a/c "green" tail light to see what's up. I see the drone, the landing spot and decide whether or not to land there and do it with the stick.

Occasionally I'll do a full RTH. 1 time out of 2 it will not land. Possibly because I often test this at the end of the day and rapidly changing light conditions make the post-take-off imagery too different from the pre-landing imagery.

JLane · Mar 23, 2017

Another important thing to note thats related to Landing Protection: In the current firmware v01.03.0500 the only way to cancel an auto-landing (started by holding down the left stick) is by using the Sport mode switch. The old method of throttling up doesn't work, and the Pause button never worked. This can actually be quite dangerous.

Forum member @Logger can tell you all about it, as he just had his Mavic end up in the sea due to this (see his post here: Landing).

I've also posted about it in the DJI forums: Tip: How to Cancel Auto Landing in v01.03.0500

borislip · Mar 23, 2017

All this, including the quote from the manual, still doesn't do a good job explaining what landing protection does.

Disabling it allows one to truly manually land, but probably also allows one to slam the bird into the ground, ok, i get that. But other than that, what does it really look for, how would a full RTH change with landing protection disabled? What about emergency landing (on a critically low battery)?

msinger · Mar 23, 2017

borislip said:
All this, including the quote from the manual, still doesn't do a good job explaining what landing protection does.

Agreed. It's best to actually read the manual in its entirety.

Per the manual, landing protection will activate when using Smart RTH, Precision Landing, or Auto Landing. If landing protection is disabled, the Mavic will hover above the ground and wait for you to land it. If the critically low battery level is reached, the Mavic will auto land at its current location.

borislip · Mar 23, 2017

Not a single mention what does it protect against, specifically.

msinger · Mar 23, 2017

As shown in my screenshot of the manual above, it protects against landing on unsuitable ground. If you choose not to use that feature, then you will often have to determine whether or not it's okay to land.

JLane · Mar 23, 2017

borislip said:
Not a single mention what does it protect against, specifically.

I know what you mean. I'm not sure if anybody knows the answer of what it specifically looks at to determine whether or not a spot is safe for landing. I've heard people talk of Mavics not wanting to land on a paved carpark surface, claiming it unsafe to land... So, who knows!

borislip · Mar 23, 2017

msinger said:
...unsuitable ground.

Which doesn't explain what an "unsuitable ground" is.

msinger · Mar 23, 2017

JLane said:
I've heard people talk of Mavics not wanting to land on a paved carpark surface, claiming it unsafe to land...

I'm assuming DJI errs on the side of caution. Imagine the warranty claims that would come rolling in if the Mavic routinely landed in unsafe locations when using landing protection.

borislip · Mar 23, 2017

Lets put it this way - do you all have landing protection enabled? Or did you turn it off and keeping it off?

msinger · Mar 23, 2017

If you want your Mavic to auto land when it deems the landing location is safe, then you should enable that feature. If you always want to choose whether or not it's safe, then you should disable that feature.

What does the Mavic think is safe? You'll need to contact DJI directly for that information. I doubt it's documented in detail anywhere.

JLane · Mar 23, 2017

borislip said:
Lets put it this way - do you all have landing protection enabled? Or did you turn it off and keeping it off?

I've pretty much kept mine off since the day I discovered the option.

Strafe1 · Mar 23, 2017

borislip said:
Lets put it this way - do you all have landing protection enabled? Or did you turn it off and keeping it off?

I'm not sure if you mean this, but an earlier post of yours you stated that with the feature turned off, the Mavic would slam into the ground? I believe that the Mavic will still land at it's normal slow pace. Was that your concern?

borislip · Mar 23, 2017

I always decide myself if its safe to land, what i am afraid about is somehow causing it to land on trees or water during emergency RTH by disabling this.