RTH altitude from Launch or Altitude when activated?

[DroneJI]

I have a question before I attempt flight , here’s the environment I have to deal with to be successful! There’s a small creek with a waterfall the access is only from a one lane bridge, the stream the feeds the fall ends just past the bridge and the fall starts, it’s all rocky Terrain once the fall starts and it bends to the right as the falls Progress you can’t see the end of the falls decent from the bridge. But it does drop about 75’ 100’ at the point of where the bend will cause me to loose sight of my MPP, if I set the RTH altitude to 100’ from where I launched it! Is that altitude from that point or is it from where the drone is at when I hit RTH? I just want to make sure I will clear the tree line if I run into a problem when I get down to the point I may loose sight of the drone! See the Google satellite view of where I want to fly it’s marked where I plan to launch and where I will fly to about 100’ below the launch site.

The yellow areas are where I want to launch from a bridge and where the limit the drone can be seen from the bridge before it goes around the bend too far. The red is the approximate flight path I want to follow just being carful because access down there is very difficult and treacherous for me being disabled. Thanks here’s the street view link of the bridge it will tell a bit more of the environment the falls are steeper than they look from SV

Google Maps

 

[Simmo]

If you set RTH to say 30 mtrs above TAKE OFF, then thats the altitude the AC will rise to in a RTH situation.
So you are going down 30 mtrs, need RTH the AC should go directly up 60 odd mtrs, than come back overhead to you.

 

[DroneJI]

If you set RTH to say 30 mtrs above TAKE OFF, then thats the altitude the AC will rise to in a RTH situation.
So you are going down 30 mtrs, need RTH the AC should go directly up 60 odd mtrs, than come back overhead to you.

Ok thanks there’s so many tree around that area I only have the center of the bridge to launch and land it. I could hand launch it but the only safe place to land it on the bridge and it’s narrow and has steel beams that rise about 6’ above the pavement.

 

[DroneJI]

If you set RTH to say 30 mtrs above TAKE OFF, then thats the altitude the AC will rise to in a RTH situation.
So you are going down 30 mtrs, need RTH the AC should go directly up 60 odd mtrs, than come back overhead to you.

What’s the safest way to stop the decent once over the landing zone if I happen to get traffic crossing the bridge? I think there a mode to return then hover or is that something else I read about?

 

[Simmo]

Hmmm steel beams has me concerned!! Check compass and stuff!
Do a test VLOS flight first. then go down to the waterfall when you have it sussed..

 

[DroneJI]

Hmmm steel beams has me concerned!! Check compass and stuff!
Do a test VLOS flight first. then go down to the waterfall when you have it sussed..

Yea I forget what they call the type of bridge structure is? I know it’s old reminds me of a Railroad trestle it’s about 15’ wide I’m hoping that’s not gonna mess with the gps if I launch from dead center of the bridge? I can walk off the bridge a bit to launch then tripod it to just above the bridge before decent into the gorge but there’s a lot of limbs hanging over the road so a RTH landing will have to be very precise!

 

[Simmo]

Just press RTH again or the pause button and the process will stop. you can then take over manually..
A concern too, is that if you are down in that valley, can you get GPS, 'coz without it, RTH wont work....

 

[Simmo]

Yea I forget what they call the type of bridge structure is? I know it’s old reminds me of a Railroad trestle it’s about 15’ wide I’m hoping that’s not gonna mess with the gps if I launch from dead center of the bridge? I can walk off the bridge a bit to launch then tripod it to just above the bridge before decent into the gorge but there’s a lot of limbs hanging over the road so a RTH landing will have to be very precise!

Nah GPS you need overhead clarity! The compass needs little or no outside influences from metallic objects!
Bud, every time I have done a precision takeoff, and asked for RTH, the thing has landed on a dime.... not that I rely on it, but thats the truth!

Actually, as an aside, I see a post on here before, where the guy thought that the RTH was going to overshoot, so hit Sports mode, took over manually, and crashed into a tree....
I have done this!!! Looking into the sun, I thought that the AC had passed over the RTH point and I was going to take over, but because I was buggered anyway, from looking into the sun, I just let it go....bang, it landed right on the spot....

 

[DroneJI]

Just press RTH again or the pause button and the process will stop. you can then take over manually..
A concern too, is that if you are down in that valley, can you get GPS, 'coz without it, RTH wont work....

I’m not sure about the gps down there? It’s strange where I live about 3 miles north of that spot I’m on the top of the mountain basically and all maps have my location off by about 75 yards? There nothing around me it’s all wild basically! I will have to be real carful! I wish the land owners could give me permission to go down a access road to the bottom of the falls they have it gated! And it belongs The the DAR School so there’s politics involved to get permission wish me luck it’s my second advanced flight.

 

[DroneJI]

Nah GPS you need overhead clarity! The compass needs little or no outside influences from metallic objects!
Bud, every time I have done a precision takeoff, and asked for RTH, the thing has landed on a dime.... not that I rely on it, but thats the truth!

Actually, as an aside, I see a post on here before, where the guy thought that the RTH was going to overshoot, so hit Sports mode, took over manually, and crashed into a tree....
I have done this!!! Looking into the sun, I thought that the AC had passed over the RTH point and I was going to take over, but because I was buggered anyway, from looking into the sun, I just let it go....bang, it landed right on the spot....

I got the compass and gps mixed up I know the compass has issues in my RV and it’s fiberglass the only metal is the frame under the floor maybe the roof ac and microwave and such throw it off? Plus there’s 4 speakers in the ceiling with big magnets that might be its problem!

 

[Simmo]

I do wish you luck from DownUnder Brother, please post the video, pass or fail!!!!!

 

[DroneJI]

I got the compass and gps mixed up I know the compass has issues in my RV and it’s fiberglass the only metal is the frame under the floor maybe the roof ac and microwave and such throw it off? Plus there’s 4 speakers in the ceiling with big magnets that might be its problem!

I saw a post where someone’s drone went nutty and flew into a stationary plane because he got to close! I had something like that happen (without incident) I flew upto about 300’ to get a shot but there were power lines along the road that I had to be 10’ from when the mavic got close it started spinning! It didn’t drift it came straight down but it was like it was caught in a vortex and didn’t know it’s orientation.

 

[DroneJI]

I do wish you luck from DownUnder Brother, please post the video, pass or fail!!!!!

I will it’s a difficult place to see except from that bridge the school doesn’t let people down there for some reason I hope I don’t have to trespass to recover my bird

 

[DroneJI]

Shot the video but there must have been strong updrafts? It was shifting a lot so I ended the flight early here’s the video

the Gimble was still acting strange I managed to fix it after the flight so the hard tilts were a bad something? I refreshed the firmware and reset the imu and it’s ok now! Dji couldn’t tell me what was wrong even after they watched the earlier video of the issue

 

[Lake_Flyer]

Shot the video but there must have been strong updrafts? It was shifting a lot so I ended the flight early here’s the video

the Gimble was still acting strange I managed to fix it after the flight so the hard tilts were a bad something? I refreshed the firmware and reset the imu and it’s ok now! Dji couldn’t tell me what was wrong even after they watched the earlier video of the issue

Beautiful place. You got some nice shots there. Sure looked challenging. I understand your concern before the flight.
Bummer that the gimbal acted up. It looked like it was set to FPV mode instead of Follow.

 

[DroneJI]

Beautiful place. You got some nice shots there. Sure looked challenging. I understand your concern before the flight.
Bummer that the gimbal acted up. It looked like it was set to FPV mode instead of Follow.

No something was off in the firmware I had to refresh the firmware to get it working right again! Dji could not tell me what was wrong after 1 hour on the phone with them they wanted it back but after I reset it it’s good as new! Everyone said fpv also but it was definitely off weird glitch maybe one of the updates messed it up?

 

[DroneJI]

Now that the Gimble is working right I’m gonna probably shoot again Saturday (If my Polar Pro filters are delivered early enough) then again in a few months when the trees are out of hibernation! Fall will be spectacular only issue when the trees are in full bloom is my visibility will be limited most of the trees are various Oaks and there plumage is very dense! My camper is surrounded by oaks! This part of South Carolina is not what most think of I’m right near the southern tip of the Appalachian trail about 1700’ above sea level, it’s almost like living in Pennsylvania without the harsh cold! Don’t get me wrong it gets cold but never below 20f and the water is much cleaner they never had any industry around here like Pa did no coal mines or steel plants! It’s pretty clean except for some locals that don’t believe in trash pickup they are the original Hillbilly’s most of them are nice people but they are set in there ways as close as you can get to the Outsiders tv show that was on WGN, if you live down here don’t take offense I don’t mean to offend anyone! People are entitled to there ways!

 

[DroneJI]

I just found out the natural stone dam was the sight of a Generation Station years ago for the DAR School I can actually see that because of how rural the area is!
If you’re not familiar with DAR! It’s a private school founded in 1919 by the Daughters of the American Revolution to serve the underprivileged children of Appalachia. The campus buildings remind me of The old buildings on the Campus of Lehigh University in Bethlehem PA.

 

[survivor711]

That is a beautiful place. I think you can get some awesome footage there as you get more familiar with you Mavic Pro Platinum. A suggestion I have is to look at videos where the Gamble speed can be slowed down in the settings allowing smooth transition. You are definitely on the right track as far as spotting a gorgeous location. Best of luck sir!

 

[DroneJI]

That is a beautiful place. I think you can get some awesome footage there as you get more familiar with you Mavic Pro Platinum. A suggestion I have is to look at videos where the Gamble speed can be slowed down in the settings allowing smooth transition. You are definitely on the right track as far as spotting a gorgeous location. Best of luck sir!

There a little touchy about being on the land, it’s a private school the road is as far as I know Public there’s a post office on the school property, I was yelling at for fishing when I first started setting up? Until I told the guy who stopped the drone was for photography not fishing lol I guess there are still people that don’t know what a drone is? He let me shoot I’m trying to find contact information for someone that can give me permission to go into the woods, There’s a bunch of other falls down there that can only be seen by satellite if you can’t legally go back there! I won’t fly back there because I don’t want to loose Vlos , yea the settings are something I’m working on just got the filters for the drone so I guess next I work on the fine tuning, it’s been a rainy pretty constantly for a few weeks so my flight time has been limited. The MPP was experiencing a drunken horizon issue I did fix it, i was in tripod mode and it should not have done what it did, I did eventually reshoot this place I posted it somewhere on this site and had a Polor Pro filter on it.