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RTH not work very well

Piper J3

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Admittedly this is only my third flight with Mavic Air 2. However, I’m very experienced RC and full-scale pilot.

Question: RTH isn’t very accurate spot landing. I’m using orange heli landing mat and MA2 misses the mat most of the time. I have tried “Update Home Point” and it sometimes works and sometimes not. Not much happens on the pull-down menu when you touch “Update Home Point”. There is an arrow to the right side but doesn’t do anything. I think I’m locked on to 10 satellites. I’m also using Obstacle Avoidance and APAS.

Any ideas?
 
Admittedly this is only my third flight with Mavic Air 2. However, I’m very experienced RC and full-scale pilot.

Question: RTH isn’t very accurate spot landing. I’m using orange heli landing mat and MA2 misses the mat most of the time. I have tried “Update Home Point” and it sometimes works and sometimes not. Not much happens on the pull-down menu when you touch “Update Home Point”. There is an arrow to the right side but doesn’t do anything. I think I’m locked on to 10 satellites. I’m also using Obstacle Avoidance and APAS.

Any ideas?

Be sure to wait for the home point to be recorded before flight, also turn on precision flight and hover above for a minute for it to take a picture.
The reality is , its never going to be perfect every time no matter what you do, Use the RTH to get it close and than cancel it to bring it into the bulls eye.

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Question: RTH isn’t very accurate spot landing. I’m using orange heli landing mat and MA2 misses the mat most of the time. I have tried “Update Home Point” and it sometimes works and sometimes not. Not much happens on the pull-down menu when you touch “Update Home Point”. There is an arrow to the right side but doesn’t do anything. I think I’m locked on to 10 satellites. I’m also using Obstacle Avoidance and APAS.
What you are seeing is the (in)accuracy of consumer GPS.
It is only accurate to +/- several feet.
Unless you use the Precision landing feature, your drone can only use GPS for landing guidance.
If you want it to land within an inch or two every time, read about Precision Landing in the manual.

Or you can cancel RTh any time and resume control and land wherever you choose.
 
Just go straight up to 7 meters or more before flying horizontally. There is no need for any hover-and-wait . The is my M2P doing precision landing. MA2 should be able to do even better because of it's higher processing power :


Sometimes it works even if I started going horizontal at much lower height :

 
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You have to hover at 7 meters so that is 22 ft 11 inches precisely but i do 25ft feet it ...what I do and what the manual says to do is just take it up to 7 meters, not too fast.... just rise the drone up at a nice steasy pace.. I usually just take it to 25 ft. Let it hover for a second.... and then I fly off and it works every single time
 
Admittedly this is only my third flight with Mavic Air 2. However, I’m very experienced RC and full-scale pilot.

Question: RTH isn’t very accurate spot landing. I’m using orange heli landing mat and MA2 misses the mat most of the time. I have tried “Update Home Point” and it sometimes works and sometimes not. Not much happens on the pull-down menu when you touch “Update Home Point”. There is an arrow to the right side but doesn’t do anything. I think I’m locked on to 10 satellites. I’m also using Obstacle Avoidance and APAS.

Any ideas?
Launch in Normal Mode, checking for 10+ GPS sats, hover for 20 seconds at about a metre AGL and use the crosshairs with F1x to turn the gimbal down and fine tune your pad centre with Tripod Mode. Elevate to about 5 metres, keep checking your pad centre, hover for about another 20 seconds whilst the drone obtains some good ground comparison imagery then fly out in Normal Mode. Ensure you check obstacle height clearances with F1x again to set gimbal horizontal. After hitting RTH, monitor the return again with F1x gimbal down. You should settle within about 200mm of launch, usually better; turn off sensors if there are buildings or similar nearby. If GPS sats drop or the drone looks like drifting, go to manual and fly down on the crosshairs in Tripod Mode. Use F2x to turn on the LED, if in shade. Works for my Air 2, 100%. Good luck! (I use the orange/blue pad, also. Great definition.) ??
 
Launch in Normal Mode, checking for 10+ GPS sats, hover for 20 seconds at about a metre AGL and use the crosshairs with F1x ......
That sounds a lot more complicated and less accurate than using the Precision Landing feature.
Why not just use that?
 
You have to hover at 7 meters so that is 22 ft 11 inches precisely but i do 25ft feet it ...what I do and what the manual says to do is just take it up to 7 meters, not too fast.... just rise the drone up at a nice steasy pace.. I usually just take it to 25 ft. Let it hover for a second.... and then I fly off and it works every single time
Ditto...Works for me every time as you have described. ??
 
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From the Mavic Air 2 User Manual: (page 15)

Landing protection is activated during Precision Landing,
The precision landing performance is subject to the following conditions:
The home point must be recorded upon takeoff and must not be changed during flight. Otherwise, the aircraft will have no record of the Home Point terrain features.
During takeoff, the aircraft must ascend vertically 7 meters before moving horizontally.
The Home Point terrain features must remain largely unchanged.


When I decide to play with the RTH feature it works like magic for me.
My MA2 never misses the landing pad -- is always within about 6 inches of where it started ------ if I go up to about 25 ft and let it hover there for a moment.

Find yourself a large, flat, open area to play in and have some fun with your bird (drone).
The more you use it, the better you will love it.
 
I have over 1000 flights and I've never landed with the RTH. I just thought that was an emergency procedure. Who knew that I was missing so much fun..and frustration ;)
 
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From the Mavic Air 2 User Manual: (page 15)

Landing protection is activated during Precision Landing,
The precision landing performance is subject to the following conditions:
The home point must be recorded upon takeoff and must not be changed during flight. Otherwise, the aircraft will have no record of the Home Point terrain features.
During takeoff, the aircraft must ascend vertically 7 meters before moving horizontally.
The Home Point terrain features must remain largely unchanged.


When I decide to play with the RTH feature it works like magic for me.
My MA2 never misses the landing pad -- is always within about 6 inches of where it started ------ if I go up to about 25 ft and let it hover there for a moment.

Find yourself a large, flat, open area to play in and have some fun with your bird (drone).
The more you use it, the better you will love it.
Ditto...Works for me every time as you have described. ??
this is what I did when testing out RTH in an empty parking lot and the MA2 landed within 6” of its takeoff point three times that I tested.

as others have pointed out this is in the manual but the app should give a better indication if this. Sort of like how it tells you that the home point has been set (in that creepy voice) but it doesn’t give any indication that precision landing has been established leaving you to guess. Hopefully an update will fix?
 
I have a M2P so it may not exactly apply in your case but like most of the folks here I take off and ascend to 25 feet. Difference is I will do a 360 degree spin at that altitude before heading off on my flight. I have hundreds of flights using RTH and it has only been off target by six inches a couple of times (mostly due to wind IMO). Of course I am showing 17 to 20 satellites for GPS connection. I would agree with the statement that GPS is generally good within 5 to six feet but I would point out that with 17 to 20 satellites there is way to much positioning overlap to make that a valid blanket statement.
 
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