Altitude changes and landing Q

[88lance]

Had an interesting situation today and was wondering if this is normal. I launched from the top of a hill. Lets say this hill is 200' tall. I launched to 100 feet and flew off the hillside. Now I should be at 300'. I began to drop down to check the cows, without noticing the altitude on the screen. The altitude had stayed at 100. When I dropped down to 5' (which is actually 205' at its current location) the drone stopped. It waited a second and then said "Landing" and proceeded to drop automatically. I clicked cancel as soon as I noticed what was happening and brought the drone back up. I assumed the drone would somehow monitor the altitude changes as it flew to keep this from happening? Is this normal, or should it know the difference in altitude at it's location compared to it's homepoint?

 

[boblui]

You must be flying in foggy conditions right ? Anyway, if you can post the flight log, the reason can be identified with better confidence. You may upload the flight log to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help . Instructions are at the bottom of the page

 

[88lance]

You must be flying in foggy conditions right ? Anyway, if you can post the flight log, the reason can be identified with better confidence. You may upload the flight log to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help . Instructions are at the bottom of the page

Today was clear, no fog or low visibility. I have not learned about flight logs, but it looks like a good time to search into that and try to use it

 

[Meta4]

Had an interesting situation today and was wondering if this is normal. I launched from the top of a hill. Lets say this hill is 200' tall. I launched to 100 feet and flew off the hillside. Now I should be at 300'. I began to drop down to check the cows, without noticing the altitude on the screen. The altitude had stayed at 100.

It's a bit hard to follow what happened from your description, but it should be simple with the flight data.
The altitude doesn't stay the same while you descend.
It should give a reasonably accurate indication at any time.

When I dropped down to 5' (which is actually 205' at its current location) the drone stopped. It waited a second and then said "Landing" and proceeded to drop automatically. I clicked cancel as soon as I noticed what was happening and brought the drone back up.

You can land the drone at any height, lower or higher than where you launch.
If you post flight data, it will help explain the incident.

I assumed the drone would somehow monitor the altitude changes as it flew to keep this from happening? Is this normal, or should it know the difference in altitude at it's location compared to it's homepoint?

The drone is constantly monitoring and recording it's altitude (and 100 other things).
It's all in the flight data.

Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
That will give you a detailed report on the flight data.
Come back and post a link to the report it provides.

 

[DanMan32]

At the 200' hill, takeoff altitude is 0'. You go up 100ft which is 100'ft as far as the AC is concerned as altitude is relative to TO. You go to the cows, which I assume is at the bottom of the hill. Altitude should then read -200ft, perhaps less since you're above the ground in the valley. Or perhaps you were 100ft above the cows, which would be -100ft from TO.

When you are within 10 to 30ft above ground, any ground at any barometric altitude, the bottom sensors would be in range where a different altitude would show based on the IR sensor reading.
At least Go would switch display of RC distance to VPS altitude.