RTH or fly home?

[Rbruz]

Not really. Especially for inexperienced operators most of the time where I read of accidents proper use of RTH would have saved their Mavic. So i'm curious, aside from setting up RTH incorrectly what exactly goes wrong?



This is actually terrible advice. If you are truly trying to optimize the chance that you get your Mavic back probably the single most important thing you can do is set up RTH for the location you are flying in.. It is a must for each new location as far as I am concerned.



Why, that is unessary. Just lift off and let make certain the Mavic sets the correct home point. Seeing how you say you don't set the RTH height for new locations you aren't exactly safe if you lose connection anyway.

You mean to tell me when you travel to locations you go out and measure the height of most objects that might get in the way ??? Come on now, I was just in Panama following a horse ride the terrain varied greatly as did the speed at witch I was flying, I wouldn't have been able to get the footage had I spent time adjusting for hills cliffs and powerlines and so forth. I followed them in a vehicle md would launch in varoius locations to shoot all los manually landing, rth if used would be a crap shoot as I flew 20+ mins often.

In any event I have been flying rc 30yrs and have had 3 crashes, includes the past 5 with multi rotors kk2 boards until the mavic

This vid is one section of the ride alone and a rough cut done at the bar pn my ipad horse riders were so stoked
Torio Panama Horse Beach Run | SkyPixel.com

Lets see what you got ?

O yeah here is some fun spur of moment sup surf footage

Instagram post by Renic ™ • Mar 1, 2017 at 7:43pm UTC

Same story dude was happy !

No time in sayulita to dbl check rth stuff as surf waits for no one!

 

[m0j0]

You mean to tell me when you travel to locations you go out and measure the height of most objects that might get in the way ??? !

Measure the height? Ummm No.. It really isn't that difficult. My first flight at new location involves an in flight checklist. Included in that checklist is checking the surroundings and ensuring that my RTH is set higher than something I might encounter if the bird must RTH on it's own. It takes about 30 seconds to get it right. Most of the time I know where it need to be set before I takeoff. Truly, all you have to do is launch and pan around... I can pretty much tell what might cause an issue and set the RTH accordingly pretty quickly.

In any event I have been flying rc 30yrs and have had 3 crashes, includes the past 5 with multi rotors kk2 boards until the mavic
!

That's fantastic.. not sure that helps when trying to educate someone how to set RTH though. If your advice is to not take time to set up RTH, that's bad advice. I don't care how long you have been flying or how good your videos are..

Lets see what you got ?
!

Really... I'm guessing you are at least 37-38 ish.... I'm guessing...

No time in sayulita to dbl check rth stuff as surf waits for no one!

No worries that is your choice. It is not "best practice" to fly without properly setting up RTH. Failing to properly record a home point and failing to properly setup RTH is how people lose their aircraft.

Fly safe and go catch those waves
Cowabunga Dude

 

[m0j0]

My advice would be to find an alternate landing place, which is easy reachable and set the drone to hover. Then run, drive, cycle to the location and luckly it will still be there waiting for you.
Many times is faster for you to get to the landing location than the quad to go all the way back, but well it all depends.

I like this option. I have been on sketchy return flights before and made it all the way home when it probably would have been better to close the distance by driving toward the Mavic. I don't take those flights anymore but in hindsight I could have really cut down on my anxiety by hoping in the car and closing the distance.

 

[tkinva]

Here's what I do:

Titan Drones, Inc.

--

Will the FAA stop regulating hobby drones? - - Art from the Air - -

 

[stratos]

Here's what I do:

Titan Drones, Inc.

--

Will the FAA stop regulating hobby drones? - - Art from the Air - -

Mate I need that shirt.
That would be my official droning shirt.

 

[m0j0]

The one problem I see with RTH is the reaction time it takes to take it off RTH if an emergency happens like a plane appears or something, manually flying to me feels safer in that I feel like I could make it descend faster than I could turn off RTH.

Probably so but flickin

Here's what I do:

Titan Drones, Inc.

--

Will the FAA stop regulating hobby drones? - - Art from the Air - -

That is a cool shirt.

 

[Rondal]

I am curious on how many people use the RTH to get their mavics home and how many just pilot home? My mate has a mavic as well and he uses the RTH almost every time. Me, I haven't activated my RTH once. Wondering what the % for either are and why to both questions.

 

[Rondal]

I am curious on how many people use the RTH to get their mavics home and how many just pilot home? My mate has a mavic as well and he uses the RTH almost every time. Me, I haven't activated my RTH once. Wondering what the % for either are and why to both questions.

Used it once, my error, low battery - under tree - slow to pause/cancel - $140 error. Did try in open field after repair and Mavic performed as it is supposed to. Just wanted to be sure I could take control after RTH initiated.

 

[dwallersv]

I will often start it to automatically orient and start on the correct course back, then cancel and full-stick it back at top speed in Sport mode.

I know there are other ways to do this easily manually, but they all require being able to see that **** screen, and more often than I'd like sun glare is just too bright for me to see the aircraft symbol on the map or the radar to get orientation.

Much easier to just let the AI (the robots are coming!) take over for a little and point me in the right direction.

Also, when i get back within 500' or so I'll re-initiate RTH and let it precision land. Mostly because I think its really really cool, but also because I am landing on a small elevated deck at the back of my house. While I can manually land on this small target no problem, even in wind, I don't see what the point is in raising my blood pressure when the Mavic (robots!) can do it quite well for me.

 

[m0j0]

Used it once, my error, low battery - under tree - slow to pause/cancel - $140 error. Did try in open field after repair and Mavic performed as it is supposed to. Just wanted to be sure I could take control after RTH initiated.

It usually does perform exactly as designed.

 

[vk2fro]

My buddy has a phantom 4 and always uses the automated take off and landing, along with quite often using RTH. I have used automatic takeoff on my first flight, just so I could get the bird in the air and get a feel for the controls. Rest of my flights have been manual, but then again I haven't had the drone out of VLOS and am new to flying a mavic, coming from a syma, so keep it fairly close, so can see its behaviour and orient it the way I need it to avoid obstacles, and perform a manual landing with stick down for 3 seconds. I know it has obstacle avoidance, but I consider that the last ditch effort to avoid a collision.

My friend let me fly his phantom 4, and I armed it with the CSC method and he said "what did you do, its not taking off", at which point I gave it a little throttle to lift off about 5 metres into the air. "your not in sport mode are you - hell that took off quick!!". My reply: "no, the automated takeoff is quite lazy " I might have to give him a little flight instruction on flying without the automation, so if he gets into trouble, aviate, navigate, land.

My favourite party trick of late is to land it on the carry box or on a park bench manually. Haven't missed... yet.

 

[TTFullTimer]

I do both. If I do use RTH I let it get right above me at altitude then turn it off and bring the Mavic down and land it manually.

 

[tkinva]

I will often start it to automatically orient and start on the correct course back, then cancel and full-stick it back at top speed in Sport mode.

I think you can do this without cancelling RTH.

I sometimes lean on the right stick to speed things up and pull down on the left stick to lose altitude, all the while in RTH.

If you switch to Sport mode before starting RTH, I think this will work as well.

I'm often at 1500 feet when I start RTH, so dumping altitude while flying forward can yield a speed boost. Watch the tachometer and you will see it drop when you do this.

And, yes, I almost always use RTH. Why not? It's a lot safer than flying back and landing manually.

It's like watching one of those Spacex rockets landing back on the drone ship. (I'll bet Elon Musk uses RTH for this.)

--
Here's a panorama from my Mavic, and two more - - Art from the Air - -

 

[dwallersv]

It's like watching one of those Spacex rockets landing back on the drone ship. (I'll bet Elon Musk uses RTH for this.)

Actually, word is he requires the engineers at Mission Control to manually land every time. He walks around mumbling something about a self-driving Tesla accident and a semi...

 

[namja]

I used both actively. I only have 8 flights so far, and every time, RTH was used to some extent. I'll take the MP about 1/2 mile to 1 mile out. At this point, I cannot see the MP and am flying via the video feed. When I'm ready to bring it back, I'll hit the RTH button. And when it gets close enough that I can see it, then I'll typically take over manually. When I get really lazy, then I'll let it come down to about 10-20 feet above ground then take over from there.

BTW, does RTH actually bring the MP all the way to the ground? I have never let it touch down so I don't know. I should try that tomorrow.

 

[dewster]

I do both. The automation still amazes me. It's also fun to get behind the sticks and improve your skills.

 

[limbows]

I always take off / land manually, and only rth once when my phone sudenly goes to black screen.. it came home and land safely..
Btw @tkinva i like the rth shirt are you selling them?

 

[namja]

I always take off / land manually, and only rth once when my phone sudenly goes to black screen.. it came home and land safely..
Btw @tkinva i like the rth shirt are you selling them?

They sell those t-shirts here:
Titan Drones, Inc.

 

[Rbruz]

Measure the height? Ummm No.. It really isn't that difficult. My first flight at new location involves an in flight checklist. Included in that checklist is checking the surroundings and ensuring that my RTH is set higher than something I might encounter if the bird must RTH on it's own. It takes about 30 seconds to get it right. Most of the time I know where it need to be set before I takeoff. Truly, all you have to do is launch and pan around... I can pretty much tell what might cause an issue and set the RTH accordingly pretty quickly.



That's fantastic.. not sure that helps when trying to educate someone how to set RTH though. If your advice is to not take time to set up RTH, that's bad advice. I don't care how long you have been flying or how good your videos are..


Really... I'm guessing you are at least 37-38 ish.... I'm guessing...


No worries that is your choice. It is not "best practice" to fly without properly setting up RTH. Failing to properly record a home point and failing to properly setup RTH is how people lose their aircraft.

Fly safe and go catch those waves
Cowabunga Dude

Nope not 30secs ie: in Panama I was flyin in very varied terrain chasing horses on hills cliff etc also flying 23mins and rth after capturing footage wouldn't be worthy, anyhow again this bird has 100 flights and captured amazing stuff and not hit rth always manual and shes fine. As far as age lets say this I helped pioneer lots of sports like back in 80's inline then wakeboard and then snowboard owned the first ever longboard skateboard online store along with razor store even produced the firtst ever line of longboards that carved ( not using crappy rollerskate type trucks) also pioneered the electric skateboard movement, also been making multi rotor stuff for past 5 yrs Yes rth is good for many, me not at all I fly on the edge to the edge of battery life and rth won't get ya back when ya at 20% and 3,000' out I do haw ever always use the takeoff and get the hp recorded but in the end for what I do rth isn't gonna save me 90% of the time. I will add that this last trip there were birds that were ver territorial and had I used rth my mav would have been knocked out flying manually let me dodge them on the way back as I was jamming in sport mode

 

[Turnerm]

I use both. I like the RTH simply to view the technology in action. I've had RTH land in some incredibly tight spots and within a few inches of where it took off.

I hand fly it back home as well. Just really depends on what I've got going on. But let's be honest... flying a Mavic isn't any huge thrill. Point her towards home and hold the right stick full up until you get there. It's only exciting if you want to flirt with danger. Not sure why you'd do that.