RTH glitch? At night?

[pinzmann]

So I thought I’d try a night flight in my small town. RTH was set at 45m in optimal mode. I’m on a hill so I flew out over the town for about 500m.AGL was maybe 80-90m. Got some video and hit RTH. Figured it would cruise back at that altitude. Was watching the aircraft lights and noticed the altitude exceeding window pop up. Dang my altitude was now 160m and climbing. Tried to bring it down but it kept going up. Hit 190m, I took it out of RTH, dropped the altitude back to 40m and landed it manually. Tried it again, did the same thing. Changed the RTH to preset. Then behaved normally. Will try it again in daylight tomorrow. Have used RTH many times with this same setting, no problems in daylight. I just did an update. I’m using the RC pro 2 controller.

 

[msinger]

This is probably obstacle avoidance related, but you'll need to share you TXT flight log if you'd like us to confirm.

 

[mavic3usa]

So I thought I’d try a night flight in my small town. RTH was set at 45m in optimal mode. I’m on a hill so I flew out over the town for about 500m.AGL was maybe 80-90m. Got some video and hit RTH. Figured it would cruise back at that altitude. Was watching the aircraft lights and noticed the altitude exceeding window pop up. Dang my altitude was now 160m and climbing. Tried to bring it down but it kept going up. Hit 190m, I took it out of RTH, dropped the altitude back to 40m and landed it manually. Tried it again, did the same thing. Changed the RTH to preset. Then behaved normally. Will try it again in daylight tomorrow. Have used RTH many times with this same setting, no problems in daylight. I just did an update. I’m using the RC pro 2 controller.

btw, while we are waiting, what does "Tried to bring it down but it kept going up" mean? For me, when my RTH doesn't go like I want it to go, I hit the Pause button (hard button on the controller). I never try to manipulate the control knobs or move the mode switch or even hit the cancel on the display. I am so used to it because I practice it so it's natural to me; no confusion.

 

[GadgetGuy]

So I thought I’d try a night flight in my small town. RTH was set at 45m in optimal mode. I’m on a hill so I flew out over the town for about 500m.AGL was maybe 80-90m. Got some video and hit RTH. Figured it would cruise back at that altitude. Was watching the aircraft lights and noticed the altitude exceeding window pop up. Dang my altitude was now 160m and climbing. Tried to bring it down but it kept going up. Hit 190m, I took it out of RTH, dropped the altitude back to 40m and landed it manually. Tried it again, did the same thing. Changed the RTH to preset. Then behaved normally. Will try it again in daylight tomorrow. Have used RTH many times with this same setting, no problems in daylight. I just did an update. I’m using the RC pro 2 controller.

There's another thread on this behavior where the OA sensors at night during RTH cause the drone to keep ascending until the maximum altitude setting is reached. Either turn off OA at night, or be ready to take over control at night, if you insist upon using RTH. Also lower your maximum altitude setting to the maximum allowable height in your area, so it won't keep ascending to the moon/500m/1000m. Default is 400 feet. It will not ascend above the maximum set altitude. It will just hover at the max, waiting for you to take over control.

O

RTH at night

Oct 26, 2025

My first night flight with my Air 3s went fine except for RTH. I was about 1/4 mile from home at about 200 feet altitude and hit RTH. The drone seemed to be struggling to decide what to do, would fly toward home a short distance then increase altitude multiple times until it was approaching 500 feet. I cancelled RTH, flew to just above home and then hit RTH again and it landed OK. Not sure why it was confused. I had RTH set to "Optimal" and home point was recorded normally at take off. Anybody have a similar experience? I assumed that if visual wouldn't work well due to low light then at...

• oc1doc
• Replies: 68
• Forum: General Discussions

• 

 

[pinzmann]

That’s exactly what mine did. Tried pulling the down stick, kept going up. My max altitude is set high because I had did some mountain flying. I suspect it’s the optimal setting. Going to try my Air 3 tonight,see if that has the same issue. Will also set max altitude to 120.

 

[Meta4]

That’s exactly what mine did. Tried pulling the down stick, kept going up. My max altitude is set high because I had did some mountain flying. I suspect it’s the optimal setting. Going to try my Air 3 tonight,see if that has the same issue. Will also set max altitude to 120.

It's extremely unlikely to have anything to do with the optimal RTH setting.
If you really want to test it properly, try RTH and see if it does it again.
Then disable obstacle avoidance and try again to see what difference that makes.

 

[pinzmann]

So I tried it again. Set max height to 60m, turned off OA, set to optimal. Went out a couple hundred meters at 30m. It came back at 44m. Next I turned on OA left it on optimal, went out same distance and height of 30m. It came back at 30m. Go figure.
For the heck of it I tried my Air 3. Max height of 70m, OA on (for what it’s worth) went out 200 meters at 30m high. Came back at 30m. It was also set on optimal.
Might have tried some more but it was starting to drizzle.