Noob mistake resulting in crash

[Don Testme]

When I know my way point mission has nothing to hit above at the last waypoint, I have my RTH set to 390 ft after it clears the last waypoint. Having the drone climb to that height always gets my signal back, if I lost it. Then I can choose to let RTH take it home or do it myself.

 

[Don Testme]

I've had my Mavic 3 going on a year now, flown 152 flights, and never once hit RTH. I always fly my drone back and land it myself. Other than letting the software do the work for you, any real benefit to using the RTH feature?

I use RTH mainly to just land my drone during daytime. But I watch it carefully as it lands on my 3x3 ft piece of wood on my deck railing. It lands within 1 inch of its take off position 95% each time. Will I trust it? No way! I just find it fun to watch it land so perfectly. It doesn't work at night though. The visual sensors can't hit the mark very well at night. And GPS isn't accurate enough.

 

[SethB]

If the OP has any common sense they have the opportunity to learn from the experience of others..... which I think is a major facet of these forums…

Although I agree in general, in this specific case we have such broad acceptance of using the automated flight functions such as take-off, RTH, Orbit, and many more, that a new flyer visiting the forums gets a sense that this is the way to fly.

I feel very much in the minority as someone who values manual flying skills *much* more highly than automation. That the general takeaway from this thread might be “beware of overhanging trees when RTH” is quite different than “fly manually as much as possible.”

It’s certainly OK with me, I’m not going to tell others what to do with or without automation functions. It would be interesting to search the forum on RTH… just how many crashes are there?

 

[twickers14]

I am tempted to say we’ve all done but I have for sure. Very stupid of me and bot does it teach a lesson. lost mine in a tree for 2 weeks even though I hired a cherry picker to look for it! A local tree surgeon saw it and called the number I have left on the tree and £50 later I had my Spark back! Good luck for the future.

 

[Don Testme]

Although I agree in general, in this specific case we have such broad acceptance of using the automated flight functions such as take-off, RTH, Orbit, and many more, that a new flyer visiting the forums gets a sense that this is the way to fly.

I feel very much in the minority as someone who values manual flying skills *much* more highly than automation. That the general takeaway from this thread might be “beware of overhanging trees when RTH” is quite different than “fly manually as much as possible.”

It’s certainly OK with me, I’m not going to tell others what to do with or without automation functions. It would be interesting to search the forum on RTH… just how many crashes are there?

Almost all my crashes occurred when I was a noob and I trusted the automatic functions. That was a mistake as I WAS learning over the first few months of training myself. This automated flying and landing is overrated. It's the same as automated cars. You can't trust these cars to always stay in their lane or stop when supposed to. You have to drive like normal and use the automation only for slight convenience and slight increase in safety. My car stays in it's lane and breaks hard if someone pulls out in front of me or slams their breaks. BUT I AM ALWAYS ON THE ALERT. I DON'T TRUST THE AUTOMATION.

 

[RadioFlyerMan]

On the waypoint mission, I’m fairly certain if “continue” is chosen upon signal loss and “hover” is chosen at the end of mission, the low battery RTH will kick in and the drone with RTH anyways. This is for the Mavic 3.

Excellent point... never thought of that.

I was running an M2P. It was typical that I end a Waypoint mission with hover because I like to take control and decided what I want to do next. Depending on the video I'm producing, I like to run the mission again to get a different exposure, or fly around, or just land. So out of habit I generally did not pay attention and change my settings for waypoints. Then I got burned by a purely vertical waypoint mission a few hundred feet away to drop down into a hole in a thick forest canopy. I lost signal and it did not come back. I knew where it was so I ran after it to reconnect. There it was just hovering, with plenty of battery power, so the low battery RTH did not kick in. I was confused as to why it did not RTH when I lost signal, then I looked at the parameters for the waypoint mission and figured out it was doing what I told it to do.

 

[BobaFut]

I've had my Mavic 3 going on a year now, flown 152 flights, and never once hit RTH. I always fly my drone back and land it myself. Other than letting the software do the work for you, any real benefit to using the RTH feature?

Same. I tried RTH once just to see how it worked, in a very low-risk environment. But seldom am I flying in a situation where I would trust the drone...there's always trees or power lines or whatever. So always manual landings for me.

 

[KD2SSP]

I'm with @SethB above. DO NOT routinely use RTH to bring the craft back. RTH is more of an emergency thing. As you've seen (and learned), it can be costly.

Thanks for the tip. I've been landing manually ever since this incident and I actually enjoy it more!

 

[KD2SSP]

Although I agree in general, in this specific case we have such broad acceptance of using the automated flight functions such as take-off, RTH, Orbit, and many more, that a new flyer visiting the forums gets a sense that this is the way to fly.

I feel very much in the minority as someone who values manual flying skills *much* more highly than automation. That the general takeaway from this thread might be “beware of overhanging trees when RTH” is quite different than “fly manually as much as possible.”

It’s certainly OK with me, I’m not going to tell others what to do with or without automation functions. It would be interesting to search the forum on RTH… just how many crashes are there?

Funny the RTH chapter in the manual is 6 pages long. It's a great feature and I'll definitely practice with it to be familiar with it, but now I bring the drone back manually 9/10. I certainly don't blame the feature for my crash.

 

[Jug's Life]

Failure can be the best teacher.

 

[Matrix64]

You can use the sticks to adjust the location of the drone's landing spot without cancelling RTH

…and/or, you can press the emergency pause and hover button

 

[shawgod]

I find RTH is worthless. If you think about it, it does not even land directly on the spot where it took off anyway. I find controlling the drone from taking off to landing is the only way to fly. I don't know if it is the pilot in me that feels this way? I have tried RTH many times and not once has it ever been accurate. I have tried this on many different models as well. The only safe way of flying the aircraft is flying it yourself. Now I am not saying there isn't a place for it. If you lose communication, or VLOS or some other emergency that only requires it, there may be a case for it. But in everyday flight, fly your own drone, get to know it, and enjoy it.

 

[Jug's Life]

I find RTH is worthless. If you think about it, it does not even land directly on the spot where it took off anyway. I find controlling the drone from taking off to landing is the only way to fly. I don't know if it is the pilot in me that feels this way? I have tried RTH many times and not once has it ever been accurate. I have tried this on many different models as well. The only safe way of flying the aircraft is flying it yourself. Now I am not saying there isn't a place for it. If you lose communication, or VLOS or some other emergency that only requires it, there may be a case for it. But in everyday flight, fly your own drone, get to know it, and enjoy it.

It has saved me. Straight up. It has saved me. One time I was doing a range test. I live by the ocean. I went out 10,000 feet. When I turned around. All the coast line looked the same. I headed back for what I thought but then I was so nearing 50% battery. I hit the return to home and it change direction 45 degree, and it brought it right back over my landing pad. I took over at that point. But this is just one instance. Its as accurate as I need it to be to save my *** a few times, as always, I got the pics to prove my point.

 

[BobaFut]

It has saved me. Straight up. It has saved me. One time I was doing a range test. I live by the ocean. I went out 10,000 feet. When I turned around. All the coast line looked the same. I headed back for what I thought but then I was so nearing 50% battery. I hit the return to home and it change direction 45 degree, and it brought it right back over my landing pad. I took over at that point. But this is just one instance. Its as accurate as I need it to be to save my *** a few times, as always, I got the pics to prove my point.
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Sure, but you can see the drone position and orientation, track history, and home point right there in the corner map that you can navigate with without using RTH. That's not meant to be a "don't use RTH" comment, it's just to say that the tools are there on the controller to do it all manually, even if you can't do it visually from the drone feed.

 

[Matrix64]

Sure, but you can see the drone position and orientation, track history, and home point right there in the corner map that you can navigate with without using RTH. That's not meant to be a "don't use RTH" comment, it's just to say that the tools are there on the controller to do it all manually, even if you can't do it visually from the drone feed.

Here’s the thing… A personal noobie experience from me. The radar map does not show up by default. Only after reading/watching various information and videos from others are you aware that it’s there as an option. I only turned mine on after watch a video by 51Drones, I think it was.
All that said, 8 of 10 times I will use the RTH function, simply for convenience. I’ll also use the radar at times to track back home. It just depends…. Each of these functions is a backup, a redundancy to the other, almost a fail safe if you will and I like the fact that if one’s not available for some reason, the other can be used.

This is my very first drone (Mini 3 Pro) and I’m 58. It’s so much fun and can be put to so many practical purposes.

 

[Xitor]

The community friendly response: Sorry to hear about your drone, glad it was fixed, hopefully sharing the experience helps others here avoid a similar issue.

What I was really thinking: I always get disappointed when I see a post about a crash and there's no video. (hoping that someday this statement doesn't come back to haunt me)

 

[PinkNFurry]

I use RTH on signal lost setting. I find the most use for RTH function in this case to bring the drone back into signal range. Once I get the signal back, I will cancel RTH and bring the drone in manually.

Also use RTH on last waypoint, but mostly as an alarm to tell me that the route is completed. I will cancel RTH and fly manually home. My last waypoint is usually set next to my first waypoint. I can just sit back, chill and relax while watch the drone do its stuff.

 

[Jamesz]

As others have said, RTH is good for emergencies and practicing its use is a sound idea, but it should not be used as a routine way of landing your drone. Always fly home manually and practise setting up your approach consistently, with due note of any obstructions or restrictions, so that you train muscle memory. It will take a lot of stress away if you have to deal with something unexpected.

 

[Yogi053]

Glad I'm a wuss! 2miles out to sea and then worry about getting back in time before going down. Not for me.
Comment was meant for Jambca's post.

 

[Hermey]

It has saved me. Straight up. It has saved me. One time I was doing a range test. I live by the ocean. I went out 10,000 feet. When I turned around. All the coast line looked the same. I headed back for what I thought but then I was so nearing 50% battery. I hit the return to home and it change direction 45 degree, and it brought it right back over my landing pad. I took over at that point. But this is just one instance. Its as accurate as I need it to be to save my *** a few times, as always, I got the pics to prove my point.
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You could have used the map or the compass to find your way back instead of RTH....