Air 2 Return-to-Home Example

[AZDave]

I thought that a video of a typical return-to-home example might be reassuring for new drone owners, or those considering buying one, and since a search didn't show a recent video I decided to post my own.

I took off from a launch pad with a distinct pattern, hovered at about 20 feet up to let the visual sensors on the bottom of the drone lock onto the pattern, and then manually flew up a hillside some distance away from the takeoff point until it reached the legal limit of 400 feet elevation. I didn't try to be particularly smooth with the climb. At 1:15 in the video, after pausing just a couple of seconds, I initiated a Return-to-Home and the drone flew itself all the way back to a landing completely on its own. The ONLY manual action I took after 1:15 was to point the camera gimbal down for the video. The landing was within about three inches of the center of the pattern in spite of the wind that is evident from the swaying tree branches.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Good video.
One point, might I suggest that you browse and read some of the threads dealing wind, angles of gimbal tilt and maximum available flight speed.
Some of the fly app using drones have severe speed restrictions imposed when the camera is pointing down,

 

[tck444]

I thought RTH was based on GPS location?

 

[Deleted member 103366]

It is but some drones, MA2, M2P/Z suppliment that when in the landing phase with an optical map of the take off point PROVIDING the take off itself permitted recording the map.

 

[AZDave]

I thought RTH was based on GPS location?

The drone uses GPS until (and if) it can spot a pattern that was hopefully saved at takeoff. If it spots that pattern, the visual sensors on the bottom of the drone take over from the GPS. Check out this snippet from a different RTH I did. Because I had been flying up a steep hillside, the drone actually flew back under RTH at 650 feet high above the original takeoff point and descended vertically from that height. At about 10 seconds into this excerpt you can clearly see the lateral shift as the visual sensors lock on to the launch pad pattern and override the GPS.

 

[eaglesurfing]

Nice and thanks for sharing.

I test it at least once a week but hardly use it even when it is activated.

I prefer to fly the drone myself.

 

[AZDave]

Nice and thanks for sharing.

I test it at least once a week but hardly use it even when it is activated.

I prefer to fly the drone myself.

I'm the same. With one exception (where I lost track of where I was while flying back), the only times I've ever used RTH were for test purposes. I do think it is reassuring to have that capability, though.