Setting Altitude in RTH

[Meta4]

Not keen on full RTH to land on the boat and it's a bit far off for now,

Don't even think about flying from a boat until you master the use of the drone on land.
Flying from a boat introduces a separate set of problems and techniques, that most land flyers have a poor understanding of.

But I'll mention one important point for boat flying.
Don't ever use RTH to land your drone on a boat.
From a boat, you need to bring the drone in manually and hand catch it.

 

[Crash and Burn]

Don't even think about flying from a boat until you master the use of the drone on land.
Flying from a boat introduces a separate set of problems and techniques, that most land flyers have a poor understanding of.

But I'll mention one important point for boat flying.
Don't ever use RTH to land your drone on a boat.
From a boat, you need to bring the drone in manually and hand catch it.

I wasn't planning to do either.

 

[Crash and Burn]

At some point maybe, but it would likely only be inside a building, or in the depths of a deep gorge etc, where some overhead sats may be 'visible' to the drones receiver, and more lateral ones might be blocked.

But even inside my home, when checking for updates or playing with settings etc, I usually get good satellite reception and home point recorded.

Outside I have never had a problem getting a sat lock almost before I'm ready to fire up the motors, and never lost GPS once locked in, and you probably won't have any issues either.



VLOS is important for staying within CASA rules of course, but to be clear, it's more LOS that will be a possible problem with failsafe RTH being activated, it won't affect GPS function and that side of things.
LOS is similar to VLOS, except of almost all DJI consumer drones LOS is far far further than VLOS.

LOS is related to signal from controller to drone more so.
If nothing between you and the drone, you are facing the drone with antenna orientated properly, you should have great signal and control reliability way out past VLOS, so flying to CASA regs you will never have a problem.

Also staying that close (with strobes maybe up to 1km or so in some places) you avoid interference like trees / foliage, hilly terrain if flying lower down, and if flying behind something briefly you will be less likely to lose that signal for a short period

I've attached a couple of photos of my property, jungle clad mountains and even when I "see" the sky, I think signal can sometimes be blocked. Definitely no reception in my house. I'll take a little time and get comfy with ATTI before attempting too much fly time over the interesting bits around here

 

[umanbean]

I've attached a couple of photos of my property

Nice place you've got there. Looks like a place I could enjoy living

 

[Crash and Burn]

Nice place you've got there. Looks like a place I could enjoy living

Thanks, it's part of the longest east-west tropical rainforest corridor in Australia. Not a great place to lose a drone ?

 

[Meta4]

When I "see" the sky, I think signal can sometimes be blocked.

If you are talking about GPS signal, you should state that.
When flyers mention signal or reception, they usually mean their control signal, between the drone and controller.

GPS sats are spread across the sky and you need to have several in a good spread to get good location data.
The amount of sky your drone has is a good indication of how many sats it can pick up.
If half the sky is blocked, the drone can still usually get enough sats for flying, but with less sky, you'll have trouble.

Definitely no reception in my house. I'll take a little time and get comfy with ATTI before attempting too much fly time over the interesting bits around here

Flying over the scenery there should be no problem.
But trying to fly under rainforest canopy would be quite risky.
Trees are probably the most serious natural enemy of drones.
Be afraid, very afraid of flying near trees.

 

[Crash and Burn]

But trying to fly under rainforest canopy would be quite risky.
Trees are probably the most serious natural enemy of drones.
Be afraid, very afraid of flying near trees.

Yup, I am apprehensive but it's a toy, for fun, and I have refresh and a drone with three lives Eventually (it'll take time) I will be flying up my creek.

If you are talking about GPS signal, you should state that.
When flyers mention signal or reception, they usually mean their control signal, between the drone and controller.

Could be both for all I know. I probably won't know until I'm a more experienced flyer.