Quick RTH Confirmation

Coach D · Jul 19, 2017

So I am correct in my understanding that the Mavic calculates how much battery it will need to return home, and it will notify you that you need to get your butt home?

msinger · Jul 19, 2017

It tries to if you have the "Smart Return-to-Home" feature enabled. The Mavic doesn't understand weather conditions, so it might not make it back in time if it's flying into a strong headwind (for example).

Plawa · Jul 19, 2017

Not recommended when flying from a moving boat

Coach D · Jul 19, 2017

Thanks....nope wouldn't try it from a boat!!!!
Just want to make sure. I was reading a message where someone said that there are 2 warnings: low battery and critical battery. I was just thinking that you might get a warning if you have flown out a ways and you need to get back before the low battery warning. Am I making sense?

msinger · Jul 19, 2017

Coach D said:
I was just thinking that you might get a warning if you have flown out a ways and you need to get back before the low battery warning. Am I making sense?

You will only see a prompt to initiate RTH if you have the above feature enabled. That feature does not use the low battery warning value. Instead, it calculates the battery power it thinks it needs to get back to the home point and triggers RTH at that point.

Coach D · Jul 19, 2017

Cool. Thanks.... Thumbswayup

jamesw · Jul 19, 2017

If you have an unnecessarily high RTH height set, that also plays into the how much battery you would need to get home, correct?

Does this excessive RTH height also reduce the total flight time?

Plawa · Jul 19, 2017

You would have to be cutting it VERY close for that to play a significant role.. I'd say the difference between flying home at 100ft and 400ft is maybe 1-2 minutes max in climbing/descent.

ThisIsCusel · Jul 19, 2017

jamesw said:
If you have an unnecessarily high RTH height set, that also plays into the how much battery you would need to get home, correct?

Does this excessive RTH height also reduce the total flight time?

This almost crashed my Mavic yesterday. I was flying in tight quarters under tree branches. I was finishing a few shots under low battery warning, but I wasn't concerned as I was only 10-15 feet from the home point. Also I had RTH set to hover (only good for loss of signal) the low battery RTH kicked in before I thought it would as the mavic needed enough battery to ascend from 5 feet to 150 feet and back down again. I quickly reached up and pushed the pause button with inches of clearence to spare above my mav.

Boman49 · Jul 19, 2017

ThisIsCusel said:
This almost crashed my Mavic yesterday. I was flying in tight quarters under tree branches. I was finishing a few shots under low battery warning, but I wasn't concerned as I was only 10-15 feet from the home point. Also I had RTH set to hover (only good for loss of signal) the low battery RTH kicked in before I thought it would as the mavic needed enough battery to ascend from 5 feet to 150 feet and back down again. I quickly reached up and pushed the pause button with inches of clearence to spare above my mav.

Where is the "Pause Button"???

charliesRig · Jul 19, 2017

just inside the left joystick next to the screen on the controller

ThisIsCusel · Jul 19, 2017

Boman49 said:
Where is the "Pause Button"???

Luckily it was only a few feet away, on top of the ladder right next to my "Easy Button."

In all seriousness, this is a perfect example of when to go into battery settings and turn off low battery RTH. Just don't forget to turn it back on for the next flight on that battery.

ThisIsCusel · Jul 19, 2017

Video from "the incident."

msinger · Jul 20, 2017

ThisIsCusel said:
This almost crashed my Mavic yesterday. I was flying in tight quarters under tree branches. I was finishing a few shots under low battery warning, but I wasn't concerned as I was only 10-15 feet from the home point.

Do you mind sharing the flight log from this flight? If not, please upload the TXT flight log here and post a link back here.

ThisIsCusel · Jul 20, 2017

I'll see what I can do. I'm at work and have never uploaded logs of any sort. I can pull it from my phone.

You mind sharing the directions again?

Also, what is it you are looking for, out of curiosity?

msinger · Jul 20, 2017

ThisIsCusel said:
You mind sharing the directions again?

You can find instructions here.

ThisIsCusel said:
what is it you are looking for, out of curiosity?

I'm wondering why it tried to ascend when RTH was initiated.

Mavic_Pete · Jul 20, 2017

msinger said:
You can find instructions here.

I'm wondering why it tried to ascend when RTH was initiated.

My guess is that the forward sensors saw that wire and thought it was going to crash into it so it went back up to avoid the crash?

Also its crazy where people decide to fly a $1000 machine. Between cables, in the garden, by the pool. Way too much to go wrong.