First real flight today.

[wco81]

It was in the Southern coast of France, near San Raphael. The terrain is a rocky coast with red rocky mountains rising above the water.

I went to a rocky headland called Cape Draymont. There is a hiking trail which leads out toward the water but I didn’t head out too far because I wasn’t sure I’d find flat enough terrain to take off and land.

First thing I noticed, didn’t have to recalibrate the compass like I did each time with the Mavic 2 Pro.

Got a lot of footage flying a couple hundred feet to the east of where I was and then I flew south. About 700 meters to the south, it lost the signal when it got beyond the other side of the rocky headland from where I was. I’d estimate the rocky headland rose 200-300 feet so the drone wasn’t too much above the highest point.

My screen showed the last image before signal was lost. I waited a couple of seconds, figured it would RTH. But it didn’t so I hit RTH button and then the signal came back so I canceled RTH and did some more filming. But I didn’t try to get too much further away before signal was lost again and I initiated RTH, then canceled when it regained signal.

Still had 35-40% battery so got the drone above 350 meters from HP and did more filming. Finally did RTH and while it was descending vertically, a seagull flew across its path a couple of times. I dropped it faster and landed without any more issues but I really thought the seagull would take it down.

Swapped battery and tried again, tried to stay close to home. Now two seagulls were aggressively passing by it. Maybe it was trying to scare it. I descended to about 30-40 meters and the seagulls kept aggressively flying towards it. I made it drop fast. Someone said they’re threatened because they have a nest nearby.

Makes sense but it was near parking and there were people on kayaks and small motor boats making noise.

 

[Felix le Chat]

If that'd been me: I'd have chalked that up as three of my nine lives and taken the next one as fair warning to fly somewhere else.

 

[wco81]

Yeah I landed and left, drove down about 4-5 miles where it was only a 50 meter zone and flew without incident.

I could have probably hiked maybe half a mile, though it would have been up and down and again, I wasn't sure if there would be a nice flat terrain from which I could take off.

I actually have rails which raise the propellers by about 1-1.5 inch higher but I forgot to take them with me.

 

[Starz]

each time with the Mavic 2 Pro.

That was an issue created by DJI, not the compass itself. Thankfully they have not made that issue across the board.

 

[wco81]

Are people seeing the same thing when it loses signal with the aircraft?

It doesn't automatically RTH on its own. I had to initiate it with the RTH button on the controller at least twice before it started coming closer enough to home, maybe 25-50 meters from it's previous position, before the signal reconnected?

If signal has been lost, how was I able to trigger the RTH on the controller?

 

[Starz]

There is a time lag for the RTH when signal is truly lost. I can’t remember what that duration of time is. Possibly someone else has that information.

 

[Meta4]

Are people seeing the same thing when it loses signal with the aircraft?

It doesn't automatically RTH on its own. I had to initiate it with the RTH button on the controller at least twice before it started coming closer enough to home, maybe 25-50 meters from it's previous position, before the signal reconnected?

If signal has been lost, how was I able to trigger the RTH on the controller?

Obviously you cannot initiate RTH when signal is lost.
Your drone probably initiated RTH itself, just as it is programmed to.
If in any doubt, you could always check the recorded flight data to see what actually happened.

But RTH is now a lot more sophisticated than it was for your previous model.
The drone might not have behaved the way you expected it to.
Suggest you read the RTH section of the manual, starting on page 4i here:

https://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/DJI_Air_3S/UM/20250324/DJI_Air_3S_User_Manual_v1.0_en.pdf

Particularly the Loss of Signal section on page 44.
Then go and see how this works by flying out >50 metres and switching the controller off.