Newbie RTH Question

[AIredale1]

Okay I just got my first drone (Mavic Mini) and I have a question regarding RTH settings.

Let's say that I am up at the top of a hill and I look around me and the tallest trees are 100 feet tall, so I set my RTH to150 feet. So, I fly down below the hill and I am now well below the height of where I launched from. If I press RTH while I'm down there; does it go up to the 150 feet above where I set the RTH height from or does it know that 150 feet from the low spot won't get me up over the trees at the top of the hill?

I hope I expressed the question clearly and I hope somebody will know the answer, Thank you.

 

[Thomas B]

It should climb to 150’ above TO altitude with the settings described.

 

[DanMan32]

TO being take off.

If you fly over a cliff and down, your altitude will show negative.

 

[AIredale1]

TO being take off.

If you fly over a cliff and down, your altitude will show negative.

TO being take off.

If you fly over a cliff and down, your altitude will show negative.

TO being take off.

If you fly over a cliff and down, your altitude will show negative.

TO being take off.

If you fly over a cliff and down, your altitude will show negative.

TO being take off.

If you fly over a cliff and down, your altitude will show negative.

It should climb to 150’ above TO altitude with the settings described.

Thank you; understood.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

And as the mini is pretty light, you want to keep your RTH high enough to clear surrounding trees etc by a safe margin of say 20' - 30' , but also low enough not to get up into stronger winds at an unnecessary altitude.
Even on still days, the difference between 100' off the ground and 250' / 300' etc can be quite extreme.

Eg. if you are on that hill, and the tree tops are below you, there is no reason not to set a RTH altitude of say 10', 15'.

I read an account of loss of a MM to wind a couple of days ago, the pilot kept getting overconfident as he gradually raised altitude fly at 30', 50', and he went over a point and it was 'gone with the wind'.
No chance of recovery, or even landing quickly after the signal was lost in less than a minute.

Enjoy the new Mini, but as with all drones just be aware of individual limitations.

 

[Tridiver]

IT will climb back up to the set altitude from TO point!! Practice RTH a few times. It's good to know how it works. Fly out a ways a engage RTH and watch the process. Let it come back and land so you know how accurate it is. But to be honest, if you ever go into RTH due to signal loss or smart RTH, it always best IMO to take over control once you have a visual and good signal, cancel RTH and just take over control. But it is still nice to know how it works and the accuracy it has.

 

[ZX14-R]

Based on your takeoff location as 0 so no matter if you are on top of a hill or bottom of hill....

 

[AIredale1]

IT will climb back up to the set altitude from TO point!! Practice RTH a few times. It's good to know how it works. Fly out a ways a engage RTH and watch the process. Let it come back and land so you know how accurate it is. But to be honest, if you ever go into RTH due to signal loss or smart RTH, it always best IMO to take over control once you have a visual and good signal, cancel RTH and just take over control. But it is still nice to know how it works and the accuracy it has.

Thank you and thank you all for taking the time to share your knowledge. Much appreciated!

 

[msinger]

I fly down below the hill and I am now well below the height of where I launched from. If I press RTH while I'm down there; does it go up to the 150 feet above where I set the RTH height from or does it know that 150 feet from the low spot won't get me up over the trees at the top of the hill?

When RTH is enabled, the drone will ascend from the current altitude displayed at the bottom of DJI Fly (a negative value in this case) up to 0 feet. It will then ascend up to 150 feet (your RTH altitude) before flying back to the home point.