RTH Feature......

[BillyDrone]

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?

 

[dirkclod]

Ive used it a lot and think all should at least learn to use it. If you
don’t and need to not knowing how it reacts you could be in a jam.
Just always be sure to have it set high enough not to hit anything
between your drone and you.

 

[StantonZ]

I use it quite a bit (although less lately). As mentioned, it's important to check your altitude setting when changing environments; I keep it as low as I can based on what's in the path (trees/buildings/power lines).

 

[BillyDrone]

Good answers.....I usually have my RTH altitude set at 100 meters......I think thats something like over 300 feet.

 

[DBT_Drone]

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.

 

[011111110]

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.

 

[BillyDrone]

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.

I'm a newbie also and need to get in more practice also so I can be more comfortable flying.

 

[ATW]

I'll use it about 5% of the time.

 

[Lasidora]

Must admit I use it a fair bit, mainly to see how often the Precision Landing does a good job, very satisfiying to see the drone come across, line itself up & then jiggle around as it descends & then lands bang in the middle of the big H.

 

[maggior]

As @dirkclod said, there is value in being very familiar with how the feature works. The last thing you want is needing it and it does something you didn't expect. You want to be familiar with how to take control back if it starts RTH in a less than ideal location, such as under a tree.

I personally like manually taking off and landing. This way I feel like I'm flying it rather than having it do it on its own.

 

[teeroy]

I must admit, I've never used RTH complete to landing. I always cancel it and land manually. Had my device disconnect from the controller a few times but had full control still within VLOS and able to fly it back.

 

[old man mavic]

for me i will test it out once on a days flying ,my return height is set at 40m which is plenty high enough to clear the trees where i mainly fly ,but i mostly like to fly back myself and land ,i will do this even if the drone has gone into RTH itself due to an issue ,then i will stop the RTH as it is coming down and then manually land it myself,its really something that people will have a differing opinion about and its up to each person to decide how much they do or dont use it

 

[Rich QR]

I've probably used it 10% of the time. I certainly believe there is value in using it enough to know how it works. But I kind of like getting stick time, and turning the flying over to the computer isn't as much fun as using the sticks to fly home and land.

 

[Drone Master]

I have not had to use RTH for years, and even when it’s activated, it is due to disconnection from the controller. It is great to know that DJI incorporates this in their aircraft. I believe It is more of a fail safe option feature than anything.

 

[BillyDrone]

Can the Mavic fly home faster when using the stick than the RTH feature?

 

[ATW]

Can the Mavic fly home faster when using the stick than the RTH feature?

Yes. Put it into sport mode, and even while in return home mode, if you push full left stick forward, it will fly faster than if you leave it alone.

 

[BillyDrone]

Yes. Put it into sport mode, and even while in return home mode, if you push full left stick forward, it will fly faster than if you leave it alone.

Nice...I didn't know that.

 

[ATW]

Nice...I didn't know that.

It's a fairly significant speed difference, approximately 10 MPH faster.

 

[Rich QR]

I believe It is more of a fail safe option feature than anything.

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.

 

[dan.utinske]

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 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.