Newbie mistake regarding RTH

[Mossiback]

...If your screen goes out look at the controller and see if the distance is getting closer or farther.

The Air RC does not have a display.

 

[Defens]

Aside from the Homepoint confusion, if you land some distance away with the intent to take off again, you need to consider any surface obstacles that might be in the way, once the drone is on the ground. You might activate landing mode, have the drone land, and have your signal blocked and not be able to take off again - at least I believe that to be a potential risk.

 

[Kilrah]

Yup totally correct, and very likely unless you're way above that point and looking down on it since signal propagation drops drastically close to the ground.

 

[deleted member 877]

Thanks all for the extremely helpful information. I must admit that I don't refer to the map and orientation icon, but definitely will be doing so in future. In my country, it's against the rules to fly out of sight so I have not been doing that, at least intentionally.

But a couple of times the drone has been a long way out and I have looked at the screen and then lost sight of the aircraft after looking up again. In those cases, I panicked a little but was able to turn the drone around until the camera was pointing at the general area where I was standing.

BTW - I found the following in regard to iPads and whether or not they have GPS:-

"The iPad does not need a cellular connection for GPS service. It's just that Apple chose not to include a GPS in the wifi only models. The GPS system in iPads and iPhones relies upon the cellular connection. It uses the towers to pinpoint the location."

And this:-

"WiFi-only iPad models (ones without cellular network capability) do NOT have a built-in GPS. Your only option if you have a wi-fi only iPad is to use an external Bluetooth GPS receiver. Note also, that WiFi-only iPads do NOT have a compass sensor built into them."

 

[tcope]

It depends on if you have your homepoint set as your RTH or if you have your controller set as RTH. I always leave it as my controller so it never re establishes a new HP.

Your comment was the OP... that does not have it set that way.

 

[Kilrah]

The GPS system in iPads and iPhones relies upon the cellular connection. It uses the towers to pinpoint the location."

That's completely wrong. The reason is that the cellular modem and GPS receiver are in the same RF chip. No cellular modem = no GPS receiver.

 

[Kilrah]

It depends on if you have your homepoint set as your RTH or if you have your controller set as RTH. I always leave it as my controller so it never re establishes a new HP.

You are not getting what you think you are. You cannot "leave it as your controller". Setting the HP to controller location is a one-time thing aka must be done each and every time after take off, and regularly during flight if you move.

 

[deleted member 877]

That's completely wrong. The reason is that the cellular modem and GPS receiver are in the same RF chip. No cellular modem = no GPS receiver.

Thanks for that. Just goes to show that you can't believe everything you read on the electric internet

But then I found this:-

Why Have a GPS When You Have an iPad?

"The Cellular iPad model not only gives access to 4G LTE data it also includes an Assisted-GPS chip, which means it can pinpoint your location as accurate as most GPS devices. And even without this chip, the Wi-Fi version of the iPad can do a good job of locating where you are at using Wi-Fi triangulation. This isn't quite as accurate as the A-GPS chip, but you might be amazed at just how accurate it can be at detecting your location. "

 

[Kilrah]

WiFi gets you an approximate location in places with lots of wifi networks yes. But it's precisely given to apps as "approximate location" - which is of no use when an app specifically requests only the "precise location" aka real GPS like DJI GO. Can't take the risk to go with the approximate one that may be precise to 10m in the middle of a city but could put you 1km away from the real location in sparsely populated areas.

 

[Chips]

It helps if you familiarise yourself with reading maps and have a general idea of where your drone is going and its relative position to you. As you fly, it's also helpful to look down and take note of features or landmarks that may help you navigate back. In my first month, I lost my drone as I had relied entirely on what I saw through the camera and then got disorientated when the drone got blown off-course by a strong wind. I had not yet learnt to refer to the map and panicked and did the instinctive thing of lowering it instead of hovering it to try to get my bearings. It descended... into a jungle and remains on top of a tree. That was 18 months ago and one day, I will send my drone over the tree and see if it is still stuck there.

 

[NightFox]

If you tap on the small map in the bottom left, the displays will swap so the small bottom left window becomes the video feed and the main display is now the map(still overlaid with the control icons). Much easier if you need to fly by the map.