Return to home feature failed and decided to go sky high

[LukeD_]

Hey! So today is my first day with my drone, to be honest, it's my first day with a proper drone ever. I got the DJI Air 2s.

I have spent a good few hours researching everything before I got the drone so I had the basic idea of flying and the system's settings. So as far as I know I didn't do anything obviously wrong, I started it up and flew it around (maybe 30 feet in the air) just testing everything and getting a feel for it all before going high or fast.

I wanted to test the return home feature specifically. So the drone is like 20 feet away and 20 feet high give or take. I pressed and held the button and it just took off like a rocket, it went like 550 feet in the air before I could hit the cancel button? The max height setting was set to 300 I think (now set to 200) nothing happened really bar losing my life haha. I cancelled the return home and slowly flew it back down. When I looked at the phone I did see some error but I cannot remember what it said off the top of my head.

Before this everything was working fine, it was smooth and responsive (I did only have 15 mins of experience) but it seemed good. I did a few test runs of the return feature before it from like 5 foot away and it was fine. I did some after it (against every fiber in my body) but I did, I needed to test but it was all good no issues at all.

Honestly, if this happened after maybe half a dozen or more attempts I don't think it would have bothered me too much but as it was my first go and no experience it scared the crap out of me, and if I'm honest I was already scared flying it before (THERE SO SCARY) Its an amazing experience but defo need a lot of practice haha

 

[Repaid1]

Return to home engaged at that distance would not work, auto land or hover would engage depending on your settings, It would not climb out...your going to need to submit logs for the gurus on here to see what caused your issue. See this thread for instruction to submit to the gang here.

Mavic Flight Log Retrieval and Analysis Guide

With the introduction of the Mavic Mini there has been a noticeable uptick in the number of posts requesting help with lost or crashed aircraft. While there is plenty of help and advice available on this forum, and detailed guidance and options on several other websites, I thought that perhaps a...

mavicpilots.com

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Test runs at 5 Ft away on the Return to home are not going to be the same for those further out , its going to climb to whatever height you had set it at. Sounds like you might have just panicked as the drone climbed up .

A good test to do is fly out 3oo ft climb to 200 ft set your RTH to 200 ft and you should see very quickly if your RTH is working . You dont want to be scared of the RTH feature as you can use it several times during a flight,

It can provide you with quick orientation of the drone.
Allow you to pay attention to the camera as your flying back
As well as for emergencies such as low battery and loss of Visual line of sight to get the drone back to you.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your AIR 2/S in the Rain and Land on Water.

 

[GFields]

Always check the RTH altitude before each flight. This is on my pre-flight checklist. If you don't have a pre-flight checklist, I encourage you to create one.

 

[hiflyer201]

doesn't sound like you read the manual carefully enough

 

[hiflyer201]

Welcome to the forum from California.

 

[tlswift58]

Hey! So today is my first day with my drone, to be honest, it's my first day with a proper drone ever. I got the DJI Air 2s.

I have spent a good few hours researching everything before I got the drone so I had the basic idea of flying and the system's settings. So as far as I know I didn't do anything obviously wrong, I started it up and flew it around (maybe 30 feet in the air) just testing everything and getting a feel for it all before going high or fast.

I wanted to test the return home feature specifically. So the drone is like 20 feet away and 20 feet high give or take. I pressed and held the button and it just took off like a rocket, it went like 550 feet in the air before I could hit the cancel button? The max height setting was set to 300 I think (now set to 200) nothing happened really bar losing my life haha. I cancelled the return home and slowly flew it back down. When I looked at the phone I did see some error but I cannot remember what it said off the top of my head.

Before this everything was working fine, it was smooth and responsive (I did only have 15 mins of experience) but it seemed good. I did a few test runs of the return feature before it from like 5 foot away and it was fine. I did some after it (against every fiber in my body) but I did, I needed to test but it was all good no issues at all.

Honestly, if this happened after maybe half a dozen or more attempts I don't think it would have bothered me too much but as it was my first go and no experience it scared the crap out of me, and if I'm honest I was already scared flying it before (THERE SO SCARY) Its an amazing experience but defo need a lot of practice haha

What are your settings in the FlyApp? That is key - you need to set all parameters from the out of the box DJI settings to FIT YOUR FLYING.

Understanding RTH is great, but don't use it consistently - it to me is simply a failsafe should / when something may go awry. Most of my flying is in really congested (bushes / trees / water / etc.) so RTH is something I don't want to use do to those obstacles. I do have it set to go high - about 300 ft - just in case. Yet, again where I tend to fly - HOME - is not where I am, so RTH is just there in case.

I prefer to fly the drone at all times, never know what you may see and go take a pic / video instead of letting the drone do it's thing. If you plan on using RTH a lot - then review the many posts / video's on how to RESET RTH to your real home point should it not be set to where you / the remote is. GPS / sat lock depending on your location can make HOME close by or far away. Some people who follow boats have found out that need to update RTH location since they are on the move and if the drone RTH's - likely will incur a splashdown / loss of drone as it's nowhere near their "current" location.

ABOVE ALL - have fun, fly the dickens out of the drone, and post those great Ireland pics /videos.

 

[tlswift58]

Always check the RTH altitude before each flight. This is on my pre-flight checklist. If you don't have a pre-flight checklist, I encourage you to create one.

If they set it in FlyApp - why would they need to check it in the App? Yes, different flight locations "can" require a reset of RTH to fit that specific locale, but on the whole - setting it in the App and letting it do it's thing is fine.

I "prefer" NOT to use RTH, as my flight locations would end up with a crashed drone - due to tree cover / etc. It is simply a "failsafe" just in case.

 

[[email protected].]

I have a Mavic Pro 2 and have used RTH on several occasions, no problems. Landing accuracy has varied from as little as 5 inches to 10 feet

 

[colorado kid]

Always check the RTH altitude before each flight. This is on my pre-flight checklist. If you don't have a pre-flight checklist, I encourage you to create one.

can you show your preflight check list here? am curious of what, if anything, i am forgetting. thanks!

 

[GFields]

can you show your preflight check list here? am curious of what, if anything, i am forgetting. thanks!

I use the Kittyhawk app for this. You may neet to log in to see it, here's the link, Sign In To Kittyhawk

 

[CGWYl1]

I wanted to test the return home feature specifically. So the drone is like 20 feet away and 20 feet high give or take. I pressed and held the button and it just took off like a rocket, it went like 550 feet in the air before I could hit the cancel button? The max height setting was set to 300 I think (now set to 200) nothing happened really bar losing my life haha. I cancelled the return home and slowly flew it back down. When I looked at the phone I did see some error but I cannot remember what it said off the top of my head.

I suggest watching a youtube vid or 3 on the mavic mini's flight capabilities. The drone can go up to (and past in some instances) 3000 feet (max allowed is 400 without permit AND license) which it may default to. Mine was the same way when I bought it and your error message was for being the over legal height.

 

[rsquare64]

Hey! So today is my first day with my drone, to be honest, it's my first day with a proper drone ever. I got the DJI Air 2s.

I have spent a good few hours researching everything before I got the drone so I had the basic idea of flying and the system's settings. So as far as I know I didn't do anything obviously wrong, I started it up and flew it around (maybe 30 feet in the air) just testing everything and getting a feel for it all before going high or fast.

I wanted to test the return home feature specifically. So the drone is like 20 feet away and 20 feet high give or take. I pressed and held the button and it just took off like a rocket, it went like 550 feet in the air before I could hit the cancel button? The max height setting was set to 300 I think (now set to 200) nothing happened really bar losing my life haha. I cancelled the return home and slowly flew it back down. When I looked at the phone I did see some error but I cannot remember what it said off the top of my head.

Before this everything was working fine, it was smooth and responsive (I did only have 15 mins of experience) but it seemed good. I did a few test runs of the return feature before it from like 5 foot away and it was fine. I did some after it (against every fiber in my body) but I did, I needed to test but it was all good no issues at all.

Honestly, if this happened after maybe half a dozen or more attempts I don't think it would have bothered me too much but as it was my first go and no experience it scared the crap out of me, and if I'm honest I was already scared flying it before (THERE SO SCARY) Its an amazing experience but defo need a lot of practice haha

I had a similar problem earlier today. I am a new pilot using my new Air 2S for the 2nd day. I was flying the drone at a youth baseball diamond, and I was the only person there. The flight started at home plate, and I flew the drone over the fence in right field and continued toward the field beyond the fence. It was no more than 225 feet away when I hit the RTH button. My drone went straight up at least 300-400 feet. I had used RTH successfully several times yesterday and today. My RTH maximum altitude was set at 15 meters, or about 45-50 feet. I started to panic when the drone shot straight up. I immediately canceled the RTH and clicked on "Land" instead. Once the drone got back down to around 30 feet, I flew it back to me.

Since my RTH maximum altitude is still set at 15 meters, why would the RTH button cause my drone to shoot straight up? What should I do now to ensure that doesn't happen again?

 

[Meta4]

Since my RTH maximum altitude is still set at 15 meters, why would the RTH button cause my drone to shoot straight up? What should I do now to ensure that doesn't happen again?

You could start by posting the recorded flight data which might help explain the incident.

 

[rsquare64]

You could start by posting the recorded flight data which might help explain the incident.

Meta4 - Thank you for the response. I'm very new to drones, and the Air 2S is my first one. The runaway RTH scenario happened at the end of my 2nd flight. The scary part is that a fog was starting to roll in, and when the drone shot straight up, it went into the fog/cloud where I lost sight of it. I canceled the RTH and chose Land instead, and then the drone came back down where I could see it.

How do I post the flight data? I have not done that yet. Also - I've completed 1 short flight after the runaway situation. Will the runaway data still be available? TIA!

 

[Meta4]

How do I post the flight data?

All I'd need is the .txt file which is in your phone or tablet.
Here are the instructions I'd normally give:
Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
That will give you a detailed report of the flight.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you.

But there was a problem with the Phantomhelp site just a while ago, so I'd suggest using the instructions to find the correct .txt file and just posting that.