RTH - How high do you go?

[Aidi]

I read with intruige the posts where pilots have go into difficulty and have lost their mavic due to insufficient height when RTH has kicked in. In many cases, if the height was higher, it would have resulted in the mavic being safely recovered.

personally, i look at where i am going to fly, figure out what height would be above all the surrounding features add 10m more and go fly. I guess pretty much the same approach as many of us do.

So, would it be wrong in the instance when you cant gauge the height of your surroundings. Would it be wise to pretty much give RTH the max allowable altitude? I know it will probably be a trade off as you are going to use more battery power ascending to 120m or so, but would that make the chances of a succesful RTH better?

 

[ed1nh0]

There is an interesting thread right here for this concern. Good tips to set a proper height for RTH.

(How To) Estimate Object Heights

 

[tcope]

I think you are spot on with how you set your RTH. So many people see it as a setting and that once set, it's fine. Personally I think DJI should (re)consider making it a pop up option when starting the motors. However, perhaps that is a bit over-kill. But it should be considered each and every flight. I set mine at 80m. Before I fly I look around and consider the tallest object. I then set it 15m above that.

 

[Vilco]

I think you are spot on with how you set your RTH. So many people see it as a setting and that once set, it's fine. Personally I think DJI should (re)consider making it a pop up option when starting the motors. However, perhaps that is a bit over-kill. But it should be considered each and every flight. I set mine at 80m. Before I fly I look around and consider the tallest object. I then set it 15m above that.

I do pretty much the same with 55 meters as a standard and everytime I'0m starting I do a quick check and modify when needed. Yesterday I had to set it to 90 tu be safe due to a castle. And I always chech that the max altitude is more than RTH, expecially afer firmware updates

 

[ed1nh0]

Personally I think DJI should (re)consider making it a pop up option when starting the motors.

I agree with you.
This concerns to safety and everything regarding safety could and should be alerted exhaustively IMO.

Before I fly I look around and consider the tallest object. I then set it 15m above that.

This attitude should be in every pilots preflight checklist.

 

[baweber]

Advanced vision settings has a Smart RTH function that will avoid obstacles - according to the icon by going over them. That would obviously be the smartest setting regardless of the RTH altitude setting. Secondly if you have a large obstacle between you and your drone, you risk losing the radio control as it is line of sight. As Certified 107 pilot you always have to be within line of site anyway, and I lose sight of it at <200 meters distance. Also I am not clear what those altitudes mean - is it always distance above the ground where the drone is, or distance above the ground where you took off?

 

[ed1nh0]

Also I am not clear what those altitudes mean - is it always distance above the ground where the drone is, or distance above the ground where you took off?

The distance above the ground where you took off.
If you take off on the top of a hill and fly it down it should display negative values.
So when RTH it will climb above 0 plus the value you've set.

 

[mkp2020]

Advanced vision settings has a Smart RTH function that will avoid obstacles - according to the icon by going over them. That would obviously be the smartest setting regardless of the RTH altitude setting. Secondly if you have a large obstacle between you and your drone, you risk losing the radio control as it is line of sight. As Certified 107 pilot you always have to be within line of site anyway, and I lose sight of it at <200 meters distance. Also I am not clear what those altitudes mean - is it always distance above the ground where the drone is, or distance above the ground where you took off?

Just have to remember Smart RTH has been implicated in some Mavic losses where sensors get confused by the sun and it hovers or continues to ascend using up more battery and possibly having to land too soon.

 

[Heavysledz]

My default setting is 40m but if I am in terrain that has hills etc.... I will fly up and scan the area with the camera set on the horizon to make sure I have clearance over anything in the surrounding area and then adjust the RTH altitude if needed. Although I have the Smart RTH setting enabled, I have yet to test it to see if it will really fly over or around an object....

 

[Wombat55]

I normally use a rather high setting of 85 meters or more. In fact, I sometimes wonder about whether I should just set the RTH altitude to the maximum value of about 120 meters and forget about it. The one and only argument against setting the RTH to the maximum value of 120 meters seems to be that the Mavic will need more energy to climb to that altitude, but my gut feeling is that the Mavic doesn't use that much energy in climbing from a low altitude to 120 meters. Maybe something like 2% of the total battery energy?

 

[Cut.Aussie]

I think the only problem with using a very high RTH height is that it will consume more battery just climbing and risk possibly running out and then having a forced low battery land away from home point

 

[ArranEye]

At higher altitude there is also a greater risk of strong wind gusts blowing your MP off course - or, presumably, causing it to crash (I've yet to read of this, but assume excessive wind could flip it?). So I don't think it's necessarily a case of 'the higher the better' for RTH altitude.