Obstacle Avoidance Saved me during RTH

[dougiefresh27]

We had 3" of snow a bit early for the season and I found a great place to fly. It showed snow on one side of the valley and fall trees on the other.
I was careful to stay away from traffic and was flying around 100' AGL.
Hit RTH (Return to Home) and forgot that the drone will take a straight bee line to me. Since my original flight path was out and around I almost lost my Mavic Air.
But Obstacle Avoidance saved me as shown in the second picture. This tree was maybe 105' tall. The top of the trees in this valley were closer to 200' AGL (my level)
What a scare!
So point to be made.
Be aware of using RTH, I have never had an issue but with these hills and different elevations, it created a challenge.
Part of the automation got me into trouble but only due to my ignorance and lack of attention to detail.
Part of the automation saved my drone.
Overall, thanks DJI !!!!

 

[DanMan32]

Can you post a video of it avoiding the tree?

A while back someone posted a video of RTH where a tree was encountered. Was interesting to see how it was trying to deal with it.

 

[dougiefresh27]

We had 3" of snow a bit early for the season and I found a great place to fly. It showed snow on one side of the valley and fall trees on the other.
I was careful to stay away from traffic and was flying around 100' AGL.
Hit RTH (Return to Home) and forgot that the drone will take a straight bee line to me. Since my original flight path was out and around I almost lost my Mavic Air.
But Obstacle Avoidance saved me as shown in the second picture. This tree was maybe 105' tall. The top of the trees in this valley were closer to 200' AGL (my level)
What a scare!
So point to be made.
Be aware of using RTH, I have never had an issue but with these hills and different elevations, it created a challenge.
Part of the automation got me into trouble but only due to my ignorance and lack of attention to detail.
Part of the automation saved my drone.
Overall, thanks DJI !!!!

Here is a video link

 

[Radio]

Thanks for the reminder to check return to home height.

 

[DanMan32]

Too bad you didn't give it time to figure things out.

 

[Neil Reid]

A sketchy flight that ends with the safe return of the drone is one from which we can take a lesson. Great to hear this story and thanks for posting.

 

[dougiefresh27]

Too bad you didn't give it time to figure things out.

I thought that too later. At the time I was in panic mode

 

[jimlips]

Your message doesn't say exactly what happened after RTH was initiated. From the video, it looks like it either hit the tree slightly, then stopped, or stopped then raised up (by itself?), quite a ways. Or did you abort the RTH and take manual control? If you did not take manual control, did it eventually continue the RTH?

It would be good to know if the aircraft is "smart" enough to go around objects during RTH.

 

[dougiefresh27]

Your message doesn't say exactly what happened after RTH was initiated. From the video, it looks like it either hit the tree slightly, then stopped, or stopped then raised up (by itself?), quite a ways. Or did you abort the RTH and take manual control? If you did not take manual control, did it eventually continue the RTH?

It would be good to know if the aircraft is "smart" enough to go around objects during RTH.

I was watching on my screen as the Mavic went towards the tree. The Mavic stopped and I took over control and just went up to get way out of the way.

 

[PointJoe]

Good story. So what is the default RTH height? Had you modified it to below 200'?

 

[dougiefresh27]

I believe the default was 100'
That will be doubling

 

[DanMan32]

RTH OA is supposed to raise altitude above RTH height to clear the obstacle, but not past maximum height. That's why I said I was disappointed OP didn't give it more time to figure things out. I was hoping to see it rise up to clear the tree.