RTH From Under An Overhang?

[JustMe33]

Just curious, if I take off from under some sort of overhang like a canopy or a balcony or something like that, is the automatic RTH able to get me back to that same spot? Say I were to launch my drone from a 3rd floor balcony on a 10 story building, is the Return To Home button able to get me back to the same spot that I launched from? Just wondering what happens if the Home Point is blocked from coming straight down to it?

 

[Olav van Gerven]

On RTH, the drone will get to the set altitude (30 meters standard, I changed it to 50 meters) and fly back in a straight line untill it is above the recorded takeoff point, just to land in a straight line. If you had to move in one or the other direction at the start to get into the flight, it probably will land on the roof/balcony or what ever is above you.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

A 3rd floor balcony takeoff is probably a BAD idea.
Obstacles aside, the likely nearby steelwork may well mess up the compass.
The accuracy of the return may not be good enough to land it on the balcony but the error could also put it into the wall or 'drop it to the ground.
I also think it may be questionable as to whether or not the drone will 'see' enough GPS satellites to get a homepoint lock ON the balcony. If it doesn't, then, if it behaves like mine sometimes does, it will set or reset the homepoint to the location were it first gets sight of sufficient satellites, in my case that is generally about 3m away from my at home take off point and 5m up. The height is irrelevant and has no effect but the distance would in your case most likely put the 'landing point' on the ground outside your building.
If you are determined to fly from the balcony and use RTH I would suggest that you only allow RTH to bring it roughly overhead and then take manual control

 

[JustMe33]

Thank you for the replies. I was just curious if RTH was able to make sideways corrections, or if it could only come down in a straight line once it reached the Home Point. Sounds like it's only able to come down in a straight line then.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

That I know of, the only DJI RTH's that can, automatically, make lateral adjustments are the precision ones and not all models are cpapable of it. Those that are capable of it rely on a pure vertical climb from take off to somewhere around 7 to 10m above the takeoff point to fix the location of the homepoint. ( if your drone is capable of this you'd need to check the figure). Any lateral movement below that threshold 'breaks' the process. I doubt you have the clear vertical flight path to permit this.
The remaining automatic RTH's are, left to their own devices, vertical.....but you can make lateral adjustments with the joystick.

 

[old man mavic]

as previously stated taking off from a balcony at any height is a really bad idea, not only from the compass being off from the metal in the building ,but the chances of getting the drone back in the event of a RTH also there is the issue of keeping the drone in VLOS if there are other high rise buildings around you

 

[RoarRoar]

Ill be honest I use my spark off my balcony all the time. My MPP is too big to launch from there. I do use return to home at times. I make sure to cancel when I am about 50 feet from home and then manually bring it back to palm land.

I do find there to be more signal interference flying from the balcony.

 

[jimlips]

Just curious, if I take off from under some sort of overhang like a canopy or a balcony or something like that, is the automatic RTH able to get me back to that same spot? Say I were to launch my drone from a 3rd floor balcony on a 10 story building, is the Return To Home button able to get me back to the same spot that I launched from? Just wondering what happens if the Home Point is blocked from coming straight down to it?

I would recommend reading this info from DJI regarding RTH:

How to use DJI’s Return to Home (RTH) Safely - DJI Guides

Keep in mind that if your drone is less than 20 meters away when you press the RTH button, then it will land just where it is. Many people use RTH as the default (lazy) way to bring the drone back, rather than fly it back. I've heard so many stories on here about people crashing their drones by doing this. Avoid the problem by not using the RTH unless it is an emergency.

 

[Juggler]

I t/o from my front balcony all the time. It isnt a issue, the only thing is to get a gps lock is a bit longer as half the field of vision is gone. If I lose signal it will rth but once its near you can cancel the rth and manual land it....a tip is to go into sport mode for landing as the sensors can cause a bit of an issue in a confined space

 

[Dakarenduro]

That I know of, the only DJI RTH's that can, automatically, make lateral adjustments are the precision ones and not all models are cpapable of it.

There are a few different RTH scenarios. I know the thread is about pressing the RTH manually. But some drones do have the lateral movement in a RTH feature. The Mavic Air, when a loss of signal occurs, will retrace its flight path backwards to the homepoint. However, when RTH is activated manually, it will do the same as all others- fly up to the RTH altitude and move in a straight line towards the homepoint and then attempt to land.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Sorry, let me rephrase that to possibly avoid misunderstandings

That I know of, the only DJI RTH's that can, automatically, make lateral adjustments during 'vertical' descents to landing are the precision ones and not all models are capable of precision landing.

I would however appreciate correction if this is wrong.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Keep in mind that if your drone is less than 20 meters away when you press the RTH button, then it will land just where it is

Meaning no offense but that is not necessarily correct, as I recently discovered and alarmingly so.

An M2P or Zoom (I have been playing with both) was around 18m from its home point and below the homepoint which was on the opposite side of my house.
I triggered an RTH fully expecting the drone to land where it was ( due to being within 20m of the homepoint). It didn't! instead it climbed until it was about 1m above the roof and then started to move towards the home point, instant panic because at that height and position there's a tree in the way.
I had let the RTH run during the climb as I was 'expecting' the drone to go up to the proper RTH height, 25m or so, and well above the house's roof and above of the offending tree. I cancelled the RTH as the drone was over the roof and sent it UP well away from that tree.
Going through the manual.....again..... it turns out two other things were going on. Firstly "RTH at current Altitude" was on, it causes the following behaviour
"If the aircraft is between 5 m and 20 m from the Home Point when the RTH procedure begins: i. If the RTH at Current Altitude option is enabled the aircraft flies to the Home Point at the current altitude, unless the current altitude is less than 2 m, in which case the aircraft ascends to 2 m and then flies to the Home Point at a speed of 3 m/s ".

The second thing was, I think, that the obstacle sensing was triggered by the RTH and since the house blocked the flight path the drone climbed until it had a clear path over the 'obstacle'. It is worth noting that with the slope on the roof the 'clear path' across the roof was below the roof's ridge, I find that quite impressive in a way but scarily close to the roof below the drone.

Do these things ever stop teaching us or catching us out???????

 

[Lets Fly]

Just curious, if I take off from under some sort of overhang like a canopy or a balcony or something like that, is the automatic RTH able to get me back to that same spot? Say I were to launch my drone from a 3rd floor balcony on a 10 story building, is the Return To Home button able to get me back to the same spot that I launched from? Just wondering what happens if the Home Point is blocked from coming straight down to it?

All this explanation for the OPs question if RTH is engaged it will go to its height setting and come straight down from there. If a roof or anything else is in the way it will land on it.
Isn't that common sense, or am I wrong?

 

[BushWacker]

I had a bad experience taking off from a balcony in San Francisco. It said to calibrate compass (bad idea) before I took of which I did. The mini flew across the street and crashed onto the roof of the building across the street. Trying to get the mini to come back it came back full speed and crashed into the building I took off from. I was able to get it replaced under warranty from DJI when I sent the flight log to them. I won't do that again...

Back to the original post, I would use the Hover option in the RTH setting if I was in the situation where the aircraft can't land properly coming straight down.