RTH for distance flights

[jamesdc]

Hello,

I am a owner of a Mavic Mini.

A friend of mine lives a about 4 miles away from where I live, however there's a small hill between us, where I lose signal to the drone, preventing me from landing at his house.

It occurred to me that I might be able to use the return to home feature to have the drone fly (and land) at his house without my input.

Can anybody think to why this wouldn't work? (apart from it being not allowed)

Cheers,
James

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Precisely what procedure are you thinking of using to set his house as the home point?
That said I think such a flight unwise.

 

[Lurch003]

No. Just no !!!

 

[dirkclod]

You couldn’t set his house as HP anyway, you can reset HP to your location if you have moved but that’s it unless mistaken.
Plus as posted Is unwise.

 

[Dbez1]

Additionally, in the real world, I think there’s no way a MM will have a 4 mile range. Sorry.

 

[old man mavic]

@jamesdc ,you have already answered you question in your post ,(not allowed),

 

[E90RAW]

Hello,

I am a owner of a Mavic Mini.

A friend of mine lives a about 4 miles away from where I live, however there's a small hill between us, where I lose signal to the drone, preventing me from landing at his house.

It occurred to me that I might be able to use the return to home feature to have the drone fly (and land) at his house without my input.

Can anybody think to why this wouldn't work? (apart from it being not allowed)

Cheers,
James

This breaks all the rules of legal drone flying, VLOS, et cetera. Not a good idea and fraught with potential problems for you. I think the problem with your question is "without my input". That being said if it were an island and no one could be injured, all you have to do is land it at that location and RTH is reset to that point. You cant manually reset the RTH.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Dirk, in the map thing I think you can set the home point anywhere but the question then becomes the accuracy with which you can set it, as in the accuracy of your interpretation of the map and the degree of zoom in.
I have tried it, initially resetting the HP to a random point 'near' me and the drone flew to the approximate area but I didn't let it land. I then tried to reset the HP to my understanding of where I and the controller where but when RTH'd the error was enough to put the drone at risk of coming down on a fence so I cancelled the landing.
I like the anywhere idea but dislike the apparent inaccuaracy, ideally it would be great if the Go app 'tick a box' style options of controller's location or drone's location were also available

 

[jamesdc]

Thanks everyone for the fast replies.

I agree, it is a bad idea. I guess I'm a bit excited by this new (to me) technology

You can update the homepoint to a position on a map. Here's a link to a video to demonstrate that feature

I'll have to give it a test on the disused golf course tonight (in line of sight)

 

[dirkclod]

Dirk, in the map thing I think you can set the home point anywhere but the question then becomes the accuracy with which you can set it, as in the accuracy of your interpretation of the map and the degree of zoom in.
I have tried it, initially resetting the HP to a random point 'near' me and the drone flew to the approximate area but I didn't let it land. I then tried to reset the HP to my understanding of where I and the controller where but when RTH'd the error was enough to out the drone at risk of coming down on a fence so I cancelled the landing

Got ya. Have never reset mine just read about it so thought you could only set it to the controllers location. ??

 

[Deleted member 103366]

James, presuming you fly 'wifi off' etc. look into saving the 'zoomed in as much as possible' map of the golf course before you go there. If you are trying the reset the home point thing with low resolution maps it will be woefully inaccurate.
I am not sure how you "save the map" but have seen something that suggests the following.
In the App, whilst you have a wifi connection, zoom as much as possible to the appropriate location in the App's map. Other articles have suggested caching goggle maps. I do not know which, if either, works as I have not used the feature in anywhere but an area covered by my at home map

 

[jamesdc]

James, presuming you fly 'wifi off' etc. look into saving the 'zoomed in as much as possible' map of the golf course before you go there. If you are trying the reset the home point thing with low resolution maps it will be woefully inaccurate.
I am not sure how you "save the map" but have seen something that suggests the following.
In the App, whilst you have a wifi connection, zoom as much as possible to the appropriate location in the App's map. Other articles have suggested caching goggle maps. I do not know which, if either, works as I have not used the feature in anywhere but an area covered by my at home map

Thanks PhiliusFoggg, will keep that in mind and will let you know the results (or which tree it parks in)

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Just make sure you know the ways of cancelling RTH and keep the RTH height low, unnecessary height is a waste of power (up & down) and could put the drone up into wind.

 

[Zbip57]

In the Fly app menu, under Safety, Update Home Point, it brings up the map where you can click on the symbols on the upper right to choose either the controller's current location, or the aircraft's current location, or drag the map to any desired new location for the Home Point, then click OK.

 

[Zbip57]

A friend of mine lives a about 4 miles away from where I live, however there's a small hill between us, where I lose signal to the drone, preventing me from landing at his house.
It occurred to me that I might be able to use the return to home feature to have the drone fly (and land) at his house without my input.
Can anybody think to why this wouldn't work? (apart from it being not allowed)

Can you fly it to a point high enough overhead of your friend's house without losing signal? Is it losing signal only on the way down, or are you losing signal on the way there because of the hill?

If you do try your RTH idea, can you follow along in a car to maintain VLOS to make it legal?

 

[Deleted member 103366]

In the Fly app menu, under Safety, Update Home Point, it brings up the map where you can click on the symbols on the upper right to choose either the controller's current location, or the aircraft's current location, or drag the map to any desired new location for the Home Point, then click OK.

Well....... I am jiggered!!!!!!
Would you believe I have never noticed those icons before, talk about tunnel vision!!!!!!!!

 

[Zbip57]

you can click on the symbols on the upper right to choose either the controller's current location [...]

Very important, when choosing the controller's current location it will NOT dynamically follow the controller if you move around, for example in a boat or a car. It only resets the Home Point to that particular GPS spot where the controller was located at the moment when you clicked that icon.

Another cool thing, you can actually change the Home Point location while the Mini is already en-route during RTH (assuming you still have a control signal), but apparently not after it has started descending to land.

 

[BadWolf1]

Additionally, in the real world, I think there’s no way a MM will have a 4 mile range. Sorry.

4 miles is 6440 m so at 8 m/sec in RTH mode, it should take 805 seconds, about 13 minutes. I haven't done 6.5 KM but I have flights logged over 5KM in under 20 minutes.

Intentionally flying it away from home, out of sight, and with no connection for >90% of the flight would be "pushing the envelope" to some, and "rank stupidity" to others. I'm curious if it would be possible but really you need a clear corridor to fly between the points to test it.

 

[EyesWideShut]

I have changed the HP by the methods @Zbip57 and @PhiliusFoggg mentioned on the map and used the new positions as "waypoints" to fly towards. For filming, it's a good way to have the mini tracking in the direction you want while you can concentrate more on getting the shot. For example by yawing to the side for a dolly shot etc. The mini is going straight to the HP but remember while Returning To Home, you can change all flight characteristics like, yaw, altitude, speed except for the course. You can cancel the landing and set a new HP and go to that "waypoint".

 

[jamesdc]

Can you fly it to a point high enough overhead of your friend's house without losing signal? Is it losing signal only on the way down, or are you losing signal on the way there because of the hill?

If you do try your RTH idea, can you follow along in a car to maintain VLOS to make it legal?

I've not tried flying over the hill yet. The drone would need to be way over the 120m limit to remain connected, since the hill is much closer to my house than his which I really don't want to do.

Yes I could follow it in a car - good idea! I think if I do that I could also remain connected, which would be a bonus.