Litchi Problem: Drone Won't Fly Forward To RTH

[Steelgtr]

Second time this has happened. I will post where I'm flying. I fly out over th open area and when I try to return home, I have full connection abut the Air 2 ( previously Air 2S) I stuck and won;t return to home manually or RTH. It will move laterally and up and down but will not fly forward towards home point. The first time this happened, it landed on it's own in an abandoned Golf course and I found it. Today, I did move sideways and it finally let me return to the home point. Using the Fly app, I got warnings but never got locked out of returning!

 

[Steelgtr]

I know the area is a mess but the Fly app never locked me out! This is baylands Park in Sunnyvale, Ca

 

[MS Coast]

Second time this has happened. I will post where I'm flying. I fly out over th open area and when I try to return home, I have full connection abut the Air 2 ( previously Air 2S) I stuck and won;t return to home manually or RTH. It will move laterally and up and down but will not fly forward towards home point. The first time this happened, it landed on it's own in an abandoned Golf course and I found it. Today, I did move sideways and it View attachment 177770finally let me return to the home point. Using the Fly app, I got warnings but never got locked out of returning!

You're confusing things a bit by talking about directions relative to the drone's heading, like "forward" and "sideways" and "up and down." It's not the orientation/heading (where it's pointed) of the drone that's of concern. It's the direction the drone is flying over the ground, regardless of whether it's flying forward, sideways, or backwards.

It's likely that you were trying the fly the drone into an area that the Fly app didn't want you to enter. Does the green arrow represent the home point or the location where the drone stopped? Can you post an image with both points identified and zoomed in so that details are legible?

 

[Steelgtr]

You're confusing things a bit by talking about directions relative to the drone's heading, like "forward" and "sideways" and "up and down." It's not the orientation/heading (where it's pointed) of the drone that's of concern. It's the direction the drone is flying over the ground, regardless of whether it's flying forward, sideways, or backwards.

It's likely that you were trying the fly the drone into an area that the Fly app didn't want you to enter. Does the green arrow represent the home point or the location where the drone stopped? Can you post an image with both points identified and zoomed in so that details are legible?

This is with the Litchi app. The fly app is fine in the same area, gives warnings but has never disabled the drone from coming back! Green arrow is Home point, red is area where I could not RTH.

 

[Steelgtr]

I think when I flew parallel (right) towards the lighter shade that then I could RTH. But WHY would Litchi lock me out of returning anywhere with or without warnings?

 

[Crash Pro]

I had this happen to me recently with my Mavic 3. The DJI Fly app updated on its own on my phone while I was at work. The drone was at home. The next time I went to fly the drone wouldn’t move forward, only side to side or backwards.

I assume if I update both the fly app and the drone simultaneously, the drone should fly normally again.

 

[MS Coast]

I had this happen to me recently with my Mavic 3. The DJI Fly app updated on its own on my phone while I was at work. The drone was at home. The next time I went to fly the drone wouldn’t move forward, only side to side or backwards.

I assume if I update both the fly app and the drone simultaneously, the drone should fly normally again.

The Fly app is software that resides on the phone. Separate updates are done for the firmware on the drone. Updating only the Fly app is not a problem.

The issue of the drone not flying forward may have been related to the obstacle avoidance system detecting something. Are you still seeing the problem?

 

[Steelgtr]

I had this happen to me recently with my Mavic 3. The DJI Fly app updated on its own on my phone while I was at work. The drone was at home. The next time I went to fly the drone wouldn’t move forward, only side to side or backwards.

I assume if I update both the fly app and the drone simultaneously, the drone should fly normally again.

That sounds more like an OA issue?

 

[Steelgtr]

The Fly app is software that resides on the phone. Separate updates are done for the firmware on the drone. Updating only the Fly app is not a problem.

The issue of the drone not flying forward may have been related to the obstacle avoidance system detecting something. Are you still seeing the problem?

OA always turned off and no obstacles out in the open at 200 feet. I think Litchi hit a warning zone and refused to enter it with no warning and no reason.

 

[MS Coast]

OA always turned off and no obstacles out in the open at 200 feet. I think Litchi hit a warning zone and refused to enter it with no warning and no reason.

That would just prevent the drone from crossing that line. It would still be able to fly in any direction that didn't take it over the line.

 

[Steelgtr]

That would just prevent the drone from crossing that line. It would still be able to fly in any direction that didn't take it over the line.

I wasn't really clear, I somehow circumvented that "line" by moving laterally probably into the adjacent "safer" zone and did make it back. The real question still is why Litchi did that without warning especially since no nearby zones were restricted. (Check my map above)

bob

 

[artross26]

I am not knocking your choice, but just trying to make one for myself. Why do you use Litchi

 

[Steelgtr]

I am not knocking your choice, but just trying to make one for myself. Why do you use Litchi

A lot of reasons, The map is much more detailed (sat view), I prefer the GUI , actual percentages of sig strengths vs bars, voice notifications for alt, distance, battery, etc and mostly because the screen video feed is sharper and clearer on my ipad minI vs the fly app.

;0

 

[MS Coast]

This is with the Litchi app. The fly app is fine in the same area, gives warnings but has never disabled the drone from coming back! Green arrow is Home point, red is area where I could not RTH.

It appears that you were trying to fly in KJSC (San Jose International Airport) controlled airspace from a sector with a 300' AGL maximum altitude to a sector where the maximum allowed altitude is 0' AGL.

Did you have a LAANC authorization for the flight?

 

[Steelgtr]

It appears that you were trying to fly in KJSC (San Jose International Airport) controlled airspace from a sector with a 300' AGL maximum altitude to a sector where the maximum allowed altitude is 0' AGL.

Did you have a LAANC authorization for the flight?

View attachment 177796

Honestly, I haven't flown out there for a few years. The Fly app didn't even ask me to confirm that I was in a restricted area and I have flown all around the area for a long time in the past without issues. Forgive me but what is a LAANC auth and wouldn't either app have asked or told me? Thanks for your help

 

[Steelgtr]

It appears that you were trying to fly in KJSC (San Jose International Airport) controlled airspace from a sector with a 300' AGL maximum altitude to a sector where the maximum allowed altitude is 0' AGL.

Did you have a LAANC authorization for the flight?

View attachment 177796

What map is this from? From the dji fly safe, this is what I see?

 

[Steelgtr]

Here is another from DJI

 

[MS Coast]

What map is this from? From the dji fly safe, this is what I see?

It's from Air Aware Aloft's web-based page for checking airspace regulations. You can download Air Aware from the iOS App Store or Google Play Store or use it on the web at https://airaware.aloft.ai.

It's not advisable to rely solely on the DJI Fly Safe maps or any other control app. They're not the official source and they can get you into some undesirable situations.

You can also see the controlled airspace in the FAA SUAS Facility Maps.

ArcGIS Web Application

faa.maps.arcgis.com

 

[MS Coast]

Honestly, I haven't flown out there for a few years. The Fly app didn't even ask me to confirm that I was in a restricted area and I have flown all around the area for a long time in the past without issues. Forgive me but what is a LAANC auth and wouldn't either app have asked or told me? Thanks for your help

LAANC, Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (pronounced lance), is an automated system that allows you to get near-instant authorization to fly in controlled airspace via smartphone or web browser. There's a good tutorial on LAANC and one of the apps that provides airspace checking on the Pilot Institute website.

Aloft Air Control Deep Dive - Pilot Institute

pilotinstitute.com

I'm surprised that DJI FLY and Litchi didn't raise a red flag. Anyone else have any ideas about why they didn't?

 

[Steelgtr]

It appears that you were trying to fly in KJSC (San Jose International Airport) controlled airspace from a sector with a 300' AGL maximum altitude to a sector where the maximum allowed altitude is 0' AGL.

Did you have a LAANC authorization for the flight?

View attachment 177796

That doesn't make sense because I took off from the "0" zone (sector)? And I have flown out here for years and again, why would the Fly app be OK with all of it and not Litchi?