return to home vs "doesn't like landing spot"

[rockwind1]

usually, i launch on nice short bermuda grass or in my culdesac which is asphalt. most of the time when i hit return to home, the mavic comes down and says it doesn't like the landing spot, which is perfectly flat and clear. so first question is
1) why does it reject perfectly good landing sites?

so it just hovers until i say ok, which is good. but the other day, i was using the drone to follow my daughter and I on bikes, the drone got low and automatically went home, which is good. i realize i can cancel the return to home. but anyway i figured, let it go home, it's pretty safe there and i figured we could ride fast and watch it land, by the time we got back to our house, the drone was just hovering there over it home point but not landing because it didn't like the landing spot. so my question is,

2) if i don't get back before the battery completely runs out, and I don't give it permission to land via the rc, what happens? does it just hover till it drops?

 

[Kilrah]

That landing surface check is pointless and best left disabled IMO.

 

[msinger]

if i don't get back before the battery completely runs out, and I don't give it permission to land via the rc, what happens? does it just hover till it drops?

The Mavic will auto land when the battery reaches the critically low level.

 

[Robbyg]

It works well for me with the landing pad. I was demonstrating the mavic to a friend and in my rush I forgot to rise up 30ft and let it snap proper ground photos. I hit RTH 15 min later and the Mavic came back about 1ft over the edge of the pad right over some 1" stones. It hovered and would not land. I was impressed!

 

[Jenee]

usually, i launch on nice short bermuda grass or in my culdesac which is asphalt. most of the time when i hit return to home, the mavic comes down and says it doesn't like the landing spot, which is perfectly flat and clear. so first question is
1) why does it reject perfectly good landing sites?

so it just hovers until i say ok, which is good. but the other day, i was using the drone to follow my daughter and I on bikes, the drone got low and automatically went home, which is good. i realize i can cancel the return to home. but anyway i figured, let it go home, it's pretty safe there and i figured we could ride fast and watch it land, by the time we got back to our house, the drone was just hovering there over it home point but not landing because it didn't like the landing spot. so my question is,

2) if i don't get back before the battery completely runs out, and I don't give it permission to land via the rc, what happens? does it just hover till it drops?

I think that the problem with grass is that it is hard to detect which was the landing spot and grass is such an uneven medium. You may just have to get a landing mat.

 

[KiterTodd]

I get that regularly, also. Seems to be when the contrast of the landing sight confuses the sensors. If you have the remote, no matter where you can just command it to land.
I have gotten in the habit of pointing my camera straight down on approach (I use the 5D button for this). It is helpful when trying to hit the landing pad, even if you are standing near the drone...sometimes your perspective is different from the drones and you will miss a small landing space. The camera makes for impressive precision landings.