First real RTH

[youyoung21147]

Had to use it following the USB port failure of my phone at more than 3km distance and 500m altitude.

Patiently waited for the drone to come back and took control when it was in visual range. My RTH altitude is set to use current altitude, which was good in this situation.

 

[Jwatts2344]

Note that on signal loss, the M2 will backtrack the last 60 seconds of flight in an attempt to re-aquire signal before returning home.

Ok... this explains a lot.

I have lost the signal and I thought it was in RTH mode.

It would come back on screen because of the found signal but when I look at the attitude indicator, it sometimes shows that it's not pointing directly at the home point.

It may be 45 or 90 degrees going g the wrong way!

Maybe this is was i have experienced in the past.

Thanks for that info!

 

[rolling56]

Had my MP2 about 1000 feet away and my iPhone 6 locked up and froze. Normally I would have it in airplane mode but I was in a very rural area where I had zero coverage and the maps didn't work. Tried backing up to reaquire signal but "no help" as we say in aviation maintenance.
Hit the RTH button and heard my drone returning a couple seconds later. The RC showed distance decreasing the whole time so it was just a phone issue.
I've been playing with the RTH feature since I bought the drone. Still amazed with it. My lesson was mostly learned before this event. Wait for the Home Point to lock in. I takeoff slowly to 30 feet and hover for a few seconds, then slow to 50 feet and hover and yet again slow to 100 feet and hover for a bit.
After that I'm now ready to fly somewhere. Some of this may be useless work but I'll continue to do it until I learn otherwise.

When I get the time I'll start practicing bringing the drone home using just the distance and height info from the RC.

But yeah RTH really works.

Well my name is Bob and i was born in 1956 so you are a ok with me

 

[DanMan32]

Ok... this explains a lot.

I have lost the signal and I thought it was in RTH mode.

It would come back on screen because of the found signal but when I look at the attitude indicator, it sometimes shows that it's not pointing directly at the home point.

It may be 45 or 90 degrees going g the wrong way!

Maybe this is was i have experienced in the past.

Thanks for that info!

Yup. Many of us forgot about that feature when people reported "fly away" on lost signal RTH.

 

[Drgnfli]

After getting the home-point-has-been-registered signal, I like to climb hard then drop down hard a few feet to really test the props. If a prop is going to fail, I'd prefer my MP to do it close to home... IMHO!...

 

[zxcflyer]

After getting the home-point-has-been-registered signal, I like to climb hard then drop down hard a few feet to really test the props. If a prop is going to fail, I'd prefer my MP to do it close to home... IMHO!...

Great idea!

 

[zxcflyer]

Do I need to set RTH altitude to be higher than the highest building nearby? What happens if it flies on the path of a building? It crashes into the building?

There is a video showing Mavic starting RTH on signal loss, coming towards a tower, stopping, raising a few meters, going forwards and catching the side of an antenna and crashing. It is best to set RTH above anything nearby.

 

[zxcflyer]

When I get the time I'll start practicing bringing the drone home using just the distance and height info from the RC.

I did practice this twice.
Both times it was a real loss of video (the app disconnected)and I had to rely only on distance from RC. I pulled the right stick to one side and watched the distance number. Simultaneously I used left stick to turn the AC until no change in distance was observed, which meant it was facing in my direction (or opposite). Then I pushed right stick to fly forwards, back to home.
The lesson was that I had to readjust the direction after some time to avoid flying away, because of the inaccuracy of the initial alignment.
You can bring the AC closer this way until you hear it or see it and make a safe landing.

 

[DanMan32]

I don't see how yaw would stop change in recorded distance no matter which direction you were moving with right stick.

However I have used a similar trick with VLOS. Move forward with right stick. If you then observe AC flying left, yaw left until it appears to have stopped moving left. It is now flying towards you.
If initially you see it fly right, yaw right.
If it isn't appearing to move, it is flying towards or away from you. Pick a yaw and continue until you observe it start to move right or left. Follow above. That or look at distance and see if it is increasing or decreasing.