RTH: Which Function Is Best to Use

[Mossiback]

...I use RTH to hover over water so it doesn’t land in the drink if disconnected. Home point RTH if over land.

...Very smart to have it hover over water as you mentioned with the RTH over land...

Unless you have a boat handy, RTH set to hover over water is a mistake. It will hover until the battery gets drained to the point of a forced landing in the water. If disconnected over water you want it to return to solid ground.

 

[Logger]

...I cannot understand the reason for turning off the RTH in favor of Hover when flying out over water. I presume your home point is over dry land, so why not leave well enough alone? If it loses contact won’t it just hover over the water until it runs out of battery then drop into the drink?

I suspect the guy who said that, was taking off from a boat on the water and did not want the MA to RTH to the spot where the boat was and has moved on from, when he took off. As you suggest when taking off from land and overflying water it makes much more sense to not have hover set or you will end up in the drink if signal loss occurs over the water segment.

Or, does it always RTH when losing contact regardless of setting it to hover in place? .

No, it will indeed hover at signal loss provided Failsafe RTH > RC signal loss is set to = Hover.

In the other hand if I were flying in APAS through the woods it would seem hover in place may make more sense than RTH where it might try to go to an unsafe elevation from within the woods.

Exactly.

 

[Qoncussion]

I'll just throw this out there, as I've not seen it discussed in this thread... The Critical Battery function, which causes the craft to auto-land is often (and fatally) misunderstood. Most people have the critical battery function set to 10%, and believe that the craft will begin descending when the battery reaches 10%. In fact, 10% is the target for landing. The craft does its calculations and starts the auto-landing process so that it is ON THE GROUND at 10%. Some poor guy who posted here a few months ago, lost his craft - by not understanding this (along with not understanding pretty much everything else there is to know). Flying more than 2,000 feet out, and over 1,200 feet up, the craft started auto-landing at around 21%. He had canceled low battery RTH, thinking he had more time. It takes a while for these things to descend from those kind of heights. The good news is, even during a critical battery descent (which cannot be canceled), you still have horizontal control - to keep the bird moving in a particular direction. But it triggers when it calculates that it has just enough juice to make it to the ground by the time the battery reaches the set value. So, fly low when you're running low on juice, to extend the time you have before the critical battery function kicks in.

 

[Jameslavis]

I never use RTH as it’s a perp of a Tom of crashes. I do change it’s settings from return to hover if launching and landing from a boat. Otherwise I manually fly back every time

 

[Ray&Paula]

In the manual it states;
"Smart RTH can be exited by tapping in the DJI GO 4 app or by pressing the RTH button on the remote controller. I'm assuming I can do this during flight leaving me to fly manually to my home point.
Also and please correct me if I'm wrong, if I want the MA to return to its home point while flying in Precision Take Off Mode or Smart Mode RTH all I need to do is press the RC RTH button once? Thanks, Ray

 

[Mossiback]

... all I need to do is press the RC RTH button once? Thanks, Ray

Press and hold the remote RTH button until the remote starts beeping.

 

[Ray&Paula]

Press and hold the remote RTH button until the remote starts beeping.

Thank you for enlightening me on how to return to the home point while flying in Precision Take Off Mode and/or Smart Mode RTH. I'm assuming that once the RC starts beeping i can let go of the button. Thanks again, Ray

 

[Mossiback]

... I'm assuming that once the RC starts beeping i can let go of the button...

Correct. Let go once the beeping starts. You can also push the cancel button once to cancel RTH and take control of your return.

You are welcome.

 

[Ray&Paula]

Correct. Let go once the beeping starts. You can also push the cancel button once to cancel RTH and take control of your return.

You are welcome.

Awesome!! This is exactly what I needed to know. I received the MA last week and just making sure of some things before I get in the field. I sincerely appreciate you taking the time in helping me out. Thanks, Ray