RTH

[Mavicrazor]

Hi all first and only time I used RTH after getting footage of castle, showing my brother in law its capabilities(mini3pro).
Pushed button and showed him it returning home on its own only to glance at screen to see it spiraling down to a stop.
OA or I had not seen the flag pole, needless to say wont be using RTH again.

On a plus side sent to DJI without refresh and paid £170 for repairs and got new sealed drone in return.

 

[AMann]

Not only does it depend on your surroundings, but also, how do you use RTH? Are you using it as an auto pilot when you know you have enough batteries to fly home? If that was the case, I would set it higher than anything around you.

If you’re just using it as an emergency measure to have it autonomously fly if it has a low battery, then you definitely want to set it as low as possible but also keeping in mind the characteristics of the site. If it is set too high and has to climb unnecessarily while doing the return, it might hit strong headwinds aloft and not make it back if it underestimates the power necessary for the RTH.

One should be thoroughly familiar with their surroundings anyway while they’re flying, and noticing that there’s headwinds aloft should be a part of the preflight check and one of the first things to check at the beginning of the flight.

 

[Max Headroom]

Are you using it as an auto pilot when you know you have enough batteries to fly home? If that was the case, I would set it higher than anything around you.

Basically for peace of mind when i start out.

 

[Meta4]

OA or I had not seen the flag pole, needless to say wont be using RTH again.

The fault was shared by OA and whoever chose the RTH height setting.
But you blamed RTH?

 

[3rdof5]

All my aircraft are set to 30m.

 

[Droning on and on...]

All my aircraft are set to 30m.

Just be sure and remember that's 30m minus whatever gain in elevation you may incur if you fly over rising terrain.

 

[3rdof5]

Just be sure and remember that's 30m minus whatever gain in elevation you may incur if you fly over rising terrain.

Oh absolutely. I'm always very careful to plan and set my RTH behavior based on terrain and obstacles, particularly overhead obstacles in case I'm flying in tight quarters. Usually I'm well above 30m when I manually activate RTH. I've never had an RTH issue with any of my aircraft, even going back to my P3P. I've always found 30m to be a generally safe height for everyday use.

 

[Droning on and on...]

Oh absolutely. I'm always very careful to plan and set my RTH behavior based on terrain and obstacles, particularly overhead obstacles in case I'm flying in tight quarters. Usually I'm well above 30m when I manually activate RTH. I've never had an RTH issue with any of my aircraft, even going back to my P3P. I've always found 30m to be a generally safe height for everyday use.

Sounds good. All this caution is for the dreaded LOS RTH, which at that point we're at the mercy of DJI technology

 

[Mavicrazor]

The fault was shared by OA and whoever chose the RTH height setting.
But you blamed RTH?

No I blamed myself for using RTH and not spotting the flag pole dead centre of camera. Pilot error all the way unfortunately and technology did its best to help my stupidity

 

[Droning on and on...]

This video, an Avata 2 range test, shows perfectly how risky it is to ignore low-battery RTH, and instead think you know better than the DJI engineers.

It's long, you don't have to watch the whole thing:

11:25: Here we see the main idiocy on display. This is where RTH signals it's going to kick in in 10 seconds... He cancels it on the apparent understanding that all you need is 50% battery to make it back

Fast forward to 19:00. Here's where it gets fun. Down to 10%, over 3300 feet still short of home, the drone shortly force-lands, around 7%. Further idiocy, he was completely unprepared for what to do then.

The rest of the video is a bit entertaining, and very very lucky. He was able to easily recover the drone, unharmed. However, given where this was done it could have had a far more tragic outcome.

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Some advice that comes from this:

• Do not use low battery RTH as your signal to start coming back. Start reducing your range (heading toward home) rather than increasing it when the little battery circle still has a little green left. Ideally you want to give yourself 2-3 minutes margin.
• Learn what control you do have during critical battery forced-landing, and practice in that condition a few times so it's not a complete surprise if you have this happen. You can safely practice this close by, no farther than 25-50 feet, with an already exhausted battery. Use one that's down to 15-20%, has had a chance to cool. With the DJI Intelligent Batteries, it's safe to take it down to 7% a few times over it's life without damaging it.
• When returning home, every flight, develop the habit of looking for good places to land that you can get to and recover your drone if you are forced to. That road that appears a few times on his way back is a great example.
• When returning, if you don't think you're going to have enough battery to make it, even if you did everything right, start looking for a good, safe, accessible place to land around 15% and go do it while you still have full control of the drone, and can climb if necessary.

 

[Meta4]

No I blamed myself for using RTH and not spotting the flag pole dead centre of camera. Pilot error all the way unfortunately and technology did its best to help my stupidity

If you were flying at night, expecting obstacle avoidance to work properly was another mistake.

 

[Max Headroom]

Do not use low battery RTH as your signal to start coming back.

What % do you take your batteries to before RTH?

 

[Meta4]

What % do you take your batteries to before RTH?

Just like the first question in this thread, there is no simple single answer.
It's going to depend on how far away your drone is and what kind of wind it will have to deal with on the return flight.

 

[Max Headroom]

Just like the first question in this thread, there is no simple single answer.
It's going to depend on how far away your drone is and what kind of wind it will have to deal with on the return flight.

I should have explained better, say you are filming close to you and it would only take a minute to get the drone down is there a ball park figure (battery %) to stay above to help the longevity of the battery packs, obviously running it into the red every time is not what you should do.

 

[marcosvc]

I live in a city with tall buildings, and have mountains around. So i set my RTH to 210m (690ft) to avoid the mountains and buildings. I rarely need that, but I use it as the last resource.
I change this setup if i fly in other places to set the RTH higher than the tallest obstacle around my flight plan.

 

[Droning on and on...]

I live in a city with tall buildings, and have mountains around. So i set my RTH to 210m (690ft) to avoid the mountains and buildings. I rarely need that, but I use it as the last resource.
I change this setup if i fly in other places to set the RTH higher than the tallest obstacle around my flight plan.

You do realize this exceeds the legal ceiling by 90m in the UK and EU and puts manned aircraft at risk?

 

[jephoto]

When I get to new locations, first thing I do after Home Point is set, is to go up and do a 360° rotation and note the highest tree/building or hill, and how high my center point needs to clear it with some space. Set my RTH for that.
Then fly…