RTH, how trust worthy?

[Kilboar]

Was thinking it would be cool to have my Mavic 3 Pro track me out into a bay on my paddle board leaving the controller at the house.

The plan would be that when the drones battery gets low it would just fly itself back to land and the home point leaving me to continue on the water.

Smart or dumb?

 

[akdrone]

It's not an entirely unreasonable plan in terms of the drone getting back but it's clearly illegal as you'd not have the drone in sight and you would not have the controller with you so you would not actually be in command. With a proper crew it could be done legally - I think. One of the considerations, if you simply decided to try this regardless, would be wind direction. The ocean often has predictable onshore and off shore winds. If you flew such that the drone was flying into the wind, then upon low battery warning you'd have a decent chance of the drone making it back. Obviously it's a risky plan and I wouldn't do it without knowing that it may or may not work. If you were alone on a beach in a somewhat isolated area and had the drone flying at 20 feet or some nonsense then it would be quite safe and I could understand somebody deciding to try it. Keep us posted on your decision and how it goes if you give it a try.

 

[eEridani]

Can I just laugh chuckle at the audacity of the idea? As stated before, it is 100% illegal. VLOS not to mention that in-control-at-all-times part.

Just have the controller with you and do a hand catch landing. Take good leather gloves - like motorcycle gloves with gauntlets - and perhaps a few practice catches at home before you go.

ps: there's a guy on here that sells drone flotation, just in case.

pps: there are videos that show how to hand catch and turn the drone off with a quick flip of the wrist. pretty easy to do.

 

[GFields]

Smart or dumb?

Risky for sure!

 

[Bad Santa]

The controller isn't where RTH is housed. The info is inside the drone.
And no laws need to be broken.
Set your RTH location and take off. Keep the controller with you.
Make sure you can see the drone
No law says you can't land it hundreds of feet away from you.
Then when the battery runs out (or you press RTH) you can VLOS it back to your landing pad.

 

[Cafguy]

In so many ways illegal!

 

[sarahb]

dumb?

Very! and as already stated, illegal. Bet you try it anyway

 

[mavic3usa]

FAA is not enforcing petty drone rules.

 

[mavic3usa]

Was thinking it would be cool to have my Mavic 3 Pro track me out into a bay on my paddle board leaving the controller at the house.

The plan would be that when the drones battery gets low it would just fly itself back to land and the home point leaving me to continue on the water.

Smart or dumb?

Don't forget you can keep your controller with you and then re-set your homepoint.

It's not illegal to lose sight of a drone that returns to home on low battery after you have moved; this happened all the time before you could reset your homepoint.

It's not a crime if you drop your controller in the water and the drone flew back to the shore farther than you can see it.

 

[Kilboar]

Thank you akdrone.

All good points. I’m on a quiet bay down in the FL keys.

My wife is here and she could technically be in control of the drone but if something went wrong I don’t think she’d solve it.

What about setting up a way point in the direction I’d be going and just have it fly by me then land itself.
Again, may not be legal.

First world problem

 

[Kilboar]

Don't forget you can keep your controller with you and then re-set your homepoint.

It's not illegal to lose sight of a drone that returns to home on low battery after you have moved; this happened all the time before you could reset your homepoint.

It's not a crime if you drop your controller in the water and the drone flew back to the shore farther than you can see it.

The idea is to leave the home point back on shore so it flys back there high and dry, not stay with me.

 

[eEridani]

I like Bad Santa's approach. Solves all the problems by thinking outside the box.

 

[Bad Santa]

Thank you akdrone.

All good points. I’m on a quiet bay down in the FL keys.

My wife is here and she could technically be in control of the drone but if something went wrong I don’t think she’d solve it.

What about setting up a way point in the direction I’d be going and just have it fly by me then land itself.
Again, may not be legal.

First world problem

Let's look at this from a legal standpoint.
Is it legal to fly your drone there?
Is it legal to set a RTH?
Is it legal to do a follow you on the bay?
Is it legal to fly a drone from one point and land in another?
Let's say you have VLOS and you launch your drone from the boat, in the bay, and then land it in your driveway on shore? Is that legal?

I'd like someone to explain how any of this is illegal without adding "ifs".

 

[Kilboar]

Can I just laugh chuckle at the audacity of the idea? As stated before, it is 100% illegal. VLOS not to mention that in-control-at-all-times part.

Just have the controller with you and do a hand catch landing. Take good leather gloves - like motorcycle gloves with gauntlets - and perhaps a few practice catches at home before you go.

ps: there's a guy on here that sells drone flotation, just in case.

pps: there are videos that show how to hand catch and turn the drone off with a quick flip of the wrist. pretty easy to do.

Gotcha.

Being on a paddle board I didn’t really want my $4k drone out with me.

 

[Droning on and on...]

Legal issues aside, how risky is it?

Risky if RTH is unreliable, and fails a significant number of times it operates (to me, "significant" would be >1%).

It's my belief it is much more reliable than this. I have no evidence other than my own experience with 100% success over 10 years and a dozen DJI drones of various models, and the very very rare failure reported by others.

I use "Smart RTH" all the time to bring my drones back, as I find flying back exceedingly boring. Has never failed. More flights than I can count have been out over the ocean.

The fact it's over water, and the remote is not in the pilot's hands is emotionally uncomfortable, but makes absolutely no difference to RTH functionality. The RC can be turned off and RTH will execute exactly the same.

I think people have mistaken your question with the VLOS objections. In order for Focus Track to work, it will be plenty close to meet VLOS requirements.

It's your lack of control that's the problem, and it's a big one. So don't do this. Not being able to respond and control the drone is a much bigger risk of catastrophe than being BVLOS, were that an issue.

 

[Kilboar]

Let's look at this from a legal standpoint.
Is it legal to fly your drone there?
Is it legal to set a RTH?
Is it legal to do a follow you on the bay?
Is it legal to fly a drone from one point and land in another?
Let's say you have VLOS and you launch your drone from the boat, in the bay, and then land it in your driveway on shore? Is that legal?

I'd like someone to explain how any of this is illegal without adding "ifs".

Yes. All legal.

It would always be in line of sight of me but I wouldn’t have the controller with.

 

[Cafguy]

FAA is not enforcing petty drone rules.

VERY TRUE You fly on the honor system in the U.S. but just keep in mind if someone gets hurt and someone else sees and reports it, well.................
There are some that would suggest that RTH is not exactly legal either.
Put the wife on the beach in site of the drone and let her fly it.

 

[eEridani]

Let's look at this from a legal standpoint.
Is it legal to fly your drone there?
Is it legal to set a RTH?
Is it legal to do a follow you on the bay?
Is it legal to fly a drone from one point and land in another?
Let's say you have VLOS and you launch your drone from the boat, in the bay, and then land it in your driveway on shore? Is that legal?

I'd like someone to explain how any of this is illegal without adding "ifs".

A controller sitting on a table at home means no one is operating the drone - thus, operation is illegal. Why? The operator must ensure the drone does not overfly people, vehicles, and must yield to other aircraft. And, as Cafguy said: RTH is probably illegal flight if on its own devices, but since it is a failsafe for emergency conditions, probably overlooked until something bad happens. But, having used RTH many times, you CAN tell the drone to stop, turn, and avoid. So is the drone really flying on it's own?

 

[Kilboar]

If it’s illegal I wouldn’t do it.
It’s not that important. Just an idea.

 

[Bad Santa]

A controller sitting on a table at home means no one is operating the drone - thus, operation is illegal. Why? The operator must ensure the drone does not overfly people, vehicles, and must yield to other aircraft.

That's an if.

The only illegal part would be to not have the drone controller in hand.
One must be able to control the drone at all times (unless there is a failure where the drone would do droney things).