RTH Feature......

[DickD’Flyer]

RTH is a useful asset, but make sure you’re above the trees before you hit the button. I destroyed a spark when I hit RTH while flying around my yard. The drone tore itself up trying to climb to 200 feet through tree branches. A costly lesson!

 

[MARK (LI)]

Many of my flights involve takeoffs from my back yard, and there are trees to navigate around on the way up. RTH is risky in that environment, since it will try to land when it gets home, and landing requires manual control to avoid the trees. So I've learned to live without it mostly, and on the rare occasions when I do use it, I watch the sky carefully and bring it down myself once it gets close.

X 2....same situation....I have not been able to get into an open area to take off where I would not be afraid of it hitting trees in the return path...besides I have not let it out of my sight...if I ever get to send it far away and I can't see it...I will definitely be trying it

 

[A.O.]

I do not usually use mine except to test it out on occasion , nice to know it is working properly and how to turn it off on the way back incase you need to avoid an obstacle to bring it down safely .
Make sure you set the parameters correctly, high enough to miss stuff on its return, or in my case I fly in the woods a lot and not over them so in that case I set it to hover in case of signal loss or some such. Just remember which you need for the kind of flying you are doing.

 

[John235]

I use it almost every time, but often cancel when it is overhead to land manually, but see next paragraph.. Sometimes I use it simply to bring it back close, then cancel to continue flying.
I find landing manually can be difficult sometimes. It must be the downwash that causes me to drift around when near the ground. Rth is usually very close to spot on.

 

[DickD’Flyer]

RTH is a useful feature, but take care that your drone is above the trees before you punch the button. I destroyed a Spark when I hit RTH while flying in my yard. Obediently, the drone tried to climb to 200 feet through the branches of a Poplar tree. The tree survived. The drone did not.

 

[dkuhne]

In two years of flying ive never used it once.
I don’t understand the requirement for it?

 

[Squidinc]

I found I used it a lot when I first started flying my MA2. I usually fly home manually now with a little help from the map to line me up in the right direction.

 

[Dave Maine]

It is handy to have if you understand how it works and what some of it’s limitations are. In open flat areas with little wind there are no problems.

in situations where there are trees, buildings, and slopes to the ground, you need to be sure that the RTH altitude is set to a height to clear the highest obstacle you will be flying over. Note clearly that the drone uses altitude defined by the point of power up of the drone as the 0 point, not anything from a topographical map or Google Earth. If you change home point locations via the controller, you will have a new home point altitude as well.

Strong winds are another consideration. Almost always wind speed increases with altitude, often quite a bit. If you fly downwind on the outbound leg, and hit RTH to come back, the drone will rise up to it’s programmed altitude and start coming home. This is all fine and good, unless the amount of altitude gained takes it into a stronger opposing wind flow. In a significant number of reported cases, fighting this strong wind results in the drone being blown further away, or failing to make it back because there wasn’t enough battery left to buck the wind and get home.

 

[ehje]

I'm pretty new at drone flying, so I use RTH quite a bit. I'm going to practice flying it back without RTH to get more comfortable with flying. I saw a YouTube vid that railed against using RTH all the time.......it did make some sense so I'll try to use it less.

For me one should learn both flying back home and using the RTH. And to make every drone flying exciting and challenging, better fly back home in non-RTH. It adds the beauty of drone flying.

 

[JimWest]

Many of my flights involve takeoffs from my back yard, and there are trees to navigate around on the way up. RTH is risky in that environment, since it will try to land when it gets home, and landing requires manual control to avoid the trees. So I've learned to live without it mostly, and on the rare occasions when I do use it, I watch the sky carefully and bring it down myself once it gets close.

Yes, same issue, but also because of wires in the city.

 

[Meta4]

If you change home point locations via the controller, you will have a new home point altitude as well.

That was all good information except this ^^^^^
The zero height is not associated with the homepoint, it is established at power up, before the home point is recorded.
Resetting the home point in flight doesn't change the zero altitude reference.

 

[Peterson]

Not using RTH is like buying a Tesla and not ever using the self driving feature. I use it most of the time because I have already flown out and around and like to watch it come back and descend making corrections as it does and hitting the mark each and every time. But that's just me. To each their own.

 

[michael boeren]

I use it most of the time simply because I like to test the Precision Landing abilities. I always take off and climb to between 30' & 40' so the drone gets good positioning data. I find accuracy is greatly improved and is usually within inches of take off point. I also use the H pad to keep my blades out of the grass and other debris.

I use it maybe 15% of the time and less and less as time and experience builds. I too love the stick time. I practice almost every day orbiting things of interest. Keeping the camera on subject. I to like it for a fail safe. And I live to fly!

 

[Beerhunter341]

I use RTH most, if not all of the time. I am fully confident on flying home without it but I think everyone should be very familiar with how RTH works. It is important to know how it should be setup, how it operates during RTH and knowing how to cancel.

 

[Photo Beaty]

Several times I have been watching my Mavic 2 Pro and then glance down at the monitor to check what the camera is recording and then can not see the drone again when I look up. In that case I will hit return home to bring it closer.

 

[ehje]

Once in a while, for me I do use RTH mode just to check its functionality, much more the recent firmware update wherein we can now pan our gimbal while enroute back home. Personally I am an avid enthusiast in rc flying so that I use more often manual flying back home, there is really a challenge and excitement, if we are familiar with the MS Flight Simulator, the excitements are there like flying IFR going back home, where you just look at the instruments. Ours is just licated at the lower left corner and of course you can refer the map too. Good day to all and enjoy purposely flying our drone!

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Nothing wrong with using it that way, but it can be a bit more than just an emergency measure. On the Mavic Mini at least (and probably some other DJI drones), while the drone is executing RTH, you can use the yaw stick to yaw the drone in any direction, and the drone will always continue flying straight toward its home point, flying sideways, backwards, or at whatever angle is necessary. With a little planning, you can use this trick to do a straight-line flyby of an interesting object while yawing to continuously point the camera at your subject.

Nice hack for a proxy Home Lock
Very easy way to get smooth filming with a strafing maneuver.

 

[howard.allum]

I quite often fly missions using the Maven app, it gives me the confidence to fly a bit more ambitiously, perhaps a bit further away. A mission can often end with plenty of battery time left so I sometimes fly around out where the mission ended just for the sake of having a look round. This, of course, can sometimes lead to losing track of the position and orientation of the drone. Hitting RTH (as long as you're confident about your settings, particularly altitude) is the best way of bringing it back to where you can clearly see it and then either carry on flying or land it at your home point. Yes, I know you're supposed to have sight of your drone at all times but at my advanced age my eyesight is perhaps not what it was earlier in my life...

 

[LA 2020]

How many people use the RTH feature?
I use it every time...
To be a good drone pilot is it better to practice flying the drone back home without using RTH?

I use the RTH feature about 50/50 just depends on the circumstances. It's very convenient and accurate but of course it is always good to be able to pilot your drone manually under any circumstances

 

[DJFPhoto45]

There have been times where I've lost sight of my drone (MA2) because of the sun, or other reasons. I can always see what the camera's looking at, and the relative location shown on the app, but can't always see the drone itself. So, I press RTH and within a minute I see it coming home. I sometimes let it land if I'm done shooting, or now that I see it, abort RTH and continue flying with it in sight. It's a great feature. I always have the altitude set higher than anything in the area. My guess is that I use it about 80% of the time. There just doesn't seem to be a good reason not to use it. But, I keep it in sight and will take over control if it looks like it isn't going to land where it's supposed to.

When I take off, I stop at about 10 feet altitude and test all the controls while the drone hovers close by. That prevents surprises when it's high up, but also gives it time to get a really good lock on its "home" location.