Adjusting Altitude, is it automatic?

[WNYBill]

Dumb newbie question. My Mini 4 takes off and I set it at 50 feet and fly towards an almost cliff, about a 400 ft change in elevation. The Mini 4 recognizes the obstacle and the avoidance mechanism take over and the drone rises to avoid the cliff. How far from the cliff does the avoidance mechanism take over? How high will it rise and once over the cliff what elevation will it fly at? Or do I have to fly it over the cliff and adjust the elevation with the controller? Same scenario with a tall pine tree?

 

[GFields]

I set it at 50 feet

Are you saying that you have the max altitude set to 50'?

 

[mavic3usa]

Dumb newbie question. My Mini 4 takes off and I set it at 50 feet and fly towards an almost cliff, about a 400 ft change in elevation. The Mini 4 recognizes the obstacle and the avoidance mechanism take over and the drone rises to avoid the cliff. How far from the cliff does the avoidance mechanism take over? How high will it rise and once over the cliff what elevation will it fly at? Or do I have to fly it over the cliff and adjust the elevation with the controller? Same scenario with a tall pine tree?

You will always have to do the flying yourself otherwise if you remove your hands from the remote controller, the drone will pause and stop flying (for the most part).

So most likely this:

Or do I have to fly it over the cliff and adjust the elevation with the controller?

 

[Droning on and on...]

I understand your question to be essentially how high an obstacle above the drone's height will OA automatically ascend and fly over that obstacle with only pitch forward input?

I don't know the exact parameters, but my experience is about 3-4 feet for a vertical obstacle. It can follow a sloping obstacle, like a roof, sometimes.

Otherwise, it brakes.

 

[dart106]

Dumb newbie question. My Mini 4 takes off and I set it at 50 feet and fly towards an almost cliff, about a 400 ft change in elevation. The Mini 4 recognizes the obstacle and the avoidance mechanism take over and the drone rises to avoid the cliff. How far from the cliff does the avoidance mechanism take over? How high will it rise and once over the cliff what elevation will it fly at? Or do I have to fly it over the cliff and adjust the elevation with the controller? Same scenario with a tall pine tree?

It was only a “dumb newbie question”, if it wasn’t asked.

 

[Ed Hurst]

I wouldn't rely on the obstacle avoidance or use it by default like you describe. It's a useful safety feature that works well much of the time, but it's not perfect and you're better off trying to avoid the obstacle yourself - and only letting this help as a back-up or in case of error.

 

[WNYBill]

I understand, fly over the cliff. Do I have to fly it home too? Or will RTH keep it over the 400 foot cliff and then ascend when it returns to take off point?

 

[Droning on and on...]

I understand, fly over the cliff. Do I have to fly it home too? Or will RTH keep it over the 400 foot cliff and then ascend when it returns to take off point?

RTH altitude is relative to the takeoff point. So if you take off above the cliff edge, with RTH set to 150ft, the aircraft will rise to the height of the cliff plus 150ft and easily clear it.

What it won't do is come upon a vertical obstacle and, with OA, ascend until it clears it. It needs to see that it can go over or around the obstacle from the point OA detection kicks in, about 50 feet away.

If, at that distance it looks like a solid wall in all directions, it will simply stop and hover.