RTH in wind

[Samuaw]

Hi guys ,

New Mavic owner here and rather cautious about every little thing - especially reading on multiple MPs falling from the sky.

Anyway, I have a question about what happens with the mavic in high winds and RTH kicks in.
I was just flying around my area and I noticed that on my return journey that my MP wasn't decreasing in distance (coming back to me). I simply flicked onto sport mode to over come that and had the extra speed to come back.

I got thinking and was wondering what would happen if the same happened but I lost connection and RTH would kick in. Would the MP know how to fly in sports mode or a faster speed than what is limited on P mode to over come the wind to get back to my location?

Coming from a P3A- where there is not a sports mode function. My assumption with the P3A is that it would have flown back at its set RTH speed.
But as the mavic splits the "turbo" mode with P mode- would the same be true where it would come back with the agreed RTH speed regardless of which mode and wind interference?

Thanks all

 

[AlanTheBeast]

One "wise" thing in RTH is to have Obstacle Awareness turned off (within RTH settings).

That prevents the sunward facing sensor pair from thinking the setting (or rising) sun is a near obstacle which would result in a hover until battery exhaustion (landing at that location) in the case of RC loss of control.

So, even in P-mode, that would allow RTH to occur at a higher speed than with OA engaged which is usually the mode where wind is a PITA.

I haven't tested the speeds that RTH occurs at - but that strikes me as a good exercise - perhaps this evening if the weather holds.

Of course another wise thing to do is arrange the takeoff point such that returns are always downwind.

My RTH Setup Checklist.

 

[blackcamo]

I had an opposite situation. I was flying and the wind kept blowing mavic away and to the side as well, even sport mode didn't help. I started to feel uneasy. I came up with the plan that I would engage RTH to get mavic to point precisely towards home position, then I would disengage and lower the altitude to beat the high wind. But in rth mavic was doing slow but steady 13km/h so I let it finish. I wonder though what would it do if it couldn't beat the wind...

 

[AlanTheBeast]

I had an opposite situation. I was flying and the wind kept blowing mavic away and to the side as well, even sport mode didn't help. I started to feel uneasy. I came up with the plan that I would engage RTH to get mavic to point precisely towards home position, then I would disengage and lower the altitude to beat the high wind. But in rth mavic was doing slow but steady 13km/h so I let it finish. I wonder though what would it do if it couldn't beat the wind...

Lowering altitude is indeed a useful means of increasing groundspeed as long as you're sure of obstacles along the way...

But I can't see how "sports mode couldn't help" unless the wind was so high you really should not have been flying in it.

 

[Gray_seagull]

Well this is what happened to me this afternoon. First of all I am not an experienced Mavic pilot I flew only a few times and today it was kind of windy but I decided to fly my Mavic anyway. My house is facing the beach and the beach is curved like a semi circle so I took off from my terrace and sent the drone towards the sea then along the beach then I noticed that the battery was down to about 50% so I decided to use the return home feature I flip the switch and it started to come home but I noticed that the speed was between one ‏ and two km/h and was not coming home fast enough no matter what I did even in sport mode due to very strong wind. Then I panicked and tried to throttle the Mavic to come home faster but speed did not increase. The battery went down very low and I lost connection with my Mavic. While panicking I made a big mistake. My left thumb pushed the left joystick making the drone fly up high all the way to 499 meters. I gave up trying to regain control and my screen was black with no connection. I used the find my drone feature and followed the last location shown on the map. I searched the area for about an hour but I couldn't find it. Then I checked my flight record and it was fantastic. It showed me exactly were the Mavic has landed. It landed on top of eight story building. Amazingly, it found a small empty concrete square to land on. Check the picture

 

[CC Rider]

Well this is what happened to me this afternoon. First of all I am not an experienced Mavic pilot I flew only a few times and today it was kind of windy but I decided to fly my Mavic anyway. My house is facing the beach and the beach is curved like a semi circle so I took off from my terrace and sent the drone towards the sea then along the beach then I noticed that the battery was down to about 50% so I decided to use the return home feature I flip the switch and it started to come home but I noticed that the speed was between one ‏ and two km/h and was not coming home fast enough no matter what I did even in sport mode due to very strong wind. Then I panicked and tried to throttle the Mavic to come home faster but speed did not increase. The battery went down very low and I lost connection with my Mavic. While panicking I made a big mistake. My left thumb pushed the left joystick making the drone fly up high all the way to 499 meters. I gave up trying to regain control and my screen was black with no connection. I used the find my drone feature and followed the last location shown on the map. I searched the area for about an hour but I couldn't find it. Then I checked my flight record and it was fantastic. It showed me exactly were the Mavic has landed. It landed on top of eight story building. Amazingly, it found a small empty concrete square to land on. Check the picture

You are one lucky dude! Things could have ended up so much worse for you. Very lucky you found it in one piece.

Just a suggestion: think about lowering your max altitude to 122 meters, the FAA legal limit. If your Mavic zoomed up to 499 meters then you are up WAY to high and are violating FAA regs, assuming you are in the States, as well as roaming in the airspace strictly reserved for manned aircraft, which is dangerous for the living people flying in those aircraft whose lives matter.

 

[Gray_seagull]

You are one lucky dude! Things could have ended up so much worse for you. Very lucky you found it in one piece.

Just a suggestion: think about lowering your max altitude to 122 meters, the FAA legal limit. If your Mavic zoomed up to 499 meters then you are up WAY to high and are violating FAA regs, assuming you are in the States, as well as roaming in the airspace strictly reserved for manned aircraft, which is dangerous for the living people flying in those aircraft whose lives matter.

Many thanks for the advice, just set my altitude to 120 meters