I’ve got a few issues

[msinger]

Here's the uploaded flight log in case anyone else wants to review it:
DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

 

[msinger]

when you press RTH you were within a 5-20 meter (16-66ft) radius. in that case, when below 10m altitude, the drone will climb to 10m and then go home.

I'm assuming the manual is saying that only applies to Smart RTH and Low Battery RTH since the Mavic ascended to 20 meters before it started returning to the home point.

I brought the plane down about 10' off the ground but far enough away that it should be able to determine its position from home. When I hit RTH, it went straight up.

It appears that the remote controller signal was lost and Failsafe RTH was initiated. You'd be able to tell whether you initiated RTH or it was automatically initiated (due to a lost remote controller signal) if you check out your DAT flight log. The DAT flight log records data the entire time the Mavic is powered on.

See these instructions if you'd like to retrieve your DAT flight log. If you'd like other people to review it, please upload it to dropbox.com (or another file sharing website) and post the download link here.

But then it started flying away from home. I could not get control back, other than backward and down.

According to your flight log, your Mavic was only flying away from the home point while you were manually steering it away from the home point. Each time you let go of the right stick, it then started flying back to the home point again.

And while I was backing up and coming down, every time I let go of handles, it would go back up and forward again.

Your Mavic was attempting to avoid an obstacle a few times. That caused it to auto ascend during those times while it was returning to the home point.

There was simply no option to cancel RTH.

You could have cancelled RTH by quickly pressing and releasing the RTH button on the Mavic remote controller.

 

[maigesheng]

ok I had a look at the log

1: when your phone disconnects, no data is recorded in the .txt log. So there is a gap in the data. so you did not just lose the video, you lost all connection i.e. the map display, distance etc. on the phone screen also don't work anymore correct?

iPhones usually work fine some common causes of phone disconnects are:
cable issue: (try different cable and try both side port of bottom USB port)
phone too slow: make sure to close unnecessary stuff on your phone
DJI Go 4 app issue: reinstall the app and try again

2: The following is just speculation on my part based on the log file. it looks like it did record the homepoint correctly. when you press RTH you were within a 5-20 meter (16-66ft) radius. in that case, when below 10m altitude, the drone will climb to 10m and then go home. You were flying very low, so it would have gone up. When the drone goes up it will appear to also go further away because it will appear to be smaller. Maybe this visual caused you to think it was flying away. Because of missing data we cannot see what happens next for 170 seconds. Then there are some jerky control inputs and finally some motor and speed warnings when it hits the tree.

here is the relevant part in the manual:

Assuming the remote is connected to the drone, pressing the pause button on the remote should stop the drone form RTH and make it hover, but in the log I did not see an indication this was done.

3: as a general tip: your flying is very "jerky". (A lot of quickly jamming the stick to one direction or another). I would try to fly more smooth, the sticks are not on/off switches, use more proportional control and use more aileron (roll).

THanks for your input.
There are a couple of obstacle avoids in there. Those were me showing a kid that I cant hit myself lol. I wasnt filming but, just cruising around. That might have been some of the jerkiness.
I did try RTH when it was pretty close so im sure that was why it went up. I thought that at the time. But then, it started literally flying away. like, the home point was in the back yard and it was flying away from the backyard. It achieved the altitude that it was going for and then began flying forward.
I'll look for the pause button in the future.

 

[MavicCF]

THanks for your input.
There are a couple of obstacle avoids in there. Those were me showing a kid that I cant hit myself lol. I wasnt filming but, just cruising around. That might have been some of the jerkiness.
I did try RTH when it was pretty close so im sure that was why it went up. I thought that at the time. But then, it started literally flying away. like, the home point was in the back yard and it was flying away from the backyard. It achieved the altitude that it was going for and then began flying forward.
I'll look for the pause button in the future.

I can't really add to what @msinger said, but I can at least confirm his reading. When RTH was initiated, it was trying to return to the home point but was struggling due to random stick imputs. You are correct that when it was assending, it was trying to reach its RTH altitude of 30', however, it again had a hard time reaching that altitude because of the amount of negative throttle being applied.
It's easy to get confused and think that the AC is flying away when, in reality it is merely increasing altitude. I don't know if that's what you did here or not, but the Mavic appears to have done its job. -CF

 

[Cimriver]

Don't calibrate every flight. If it's good, you can leave it for months, unless you travel hundreds of miles. Or after your next firmware update. If the compass was off that much that it would also show during normal flying. It would not even fly straight line.
Did you fly in the same spot as the other flight?

I believe I read that DJI recommends a compass calibration if you are more than 10 km from where you last flew the aircraft.

 

[daasmangi]

Don't calibrate every flight. If it's good, you can leave it for months, unless you travel hundreds of miles. Or after your next firmware update. If the compass was off that much that it would also show during normal flying. It would not even fly straight line.
Did you fly in the same spot as the other flight?

Your Mavic will tell you if you have to calibrate the compass. If The Mavic asks you. just do it or you will regret it. Because one day I didn’t calibrate when I was told to. My Mavic just flew off. But luckily I was able to see from the camera where I was and flew it back because it just did not know where it was. RTH did not work also!

 

[maigesheng]

Well folks. I replaced my cable and haven’t had a dc issue since, for multiple 5-10 minute flights. Still a little nervous to take it out of LOS but, having a great time.

 

[JohnnyD913]

Hi Ya'll. I finally figured out how to dowload flight records to my pc. (I HATE apple!!)

Here it is.

I manually selected RTH by hitting the RTH button.

I HATE ANDROID