Strange message during RTH

[Paul Harvey]

So there I was, having hit RTH after a flight when, all of a sudden, I got this message pop up in the bottom-middle of the screen:

Surface area too complicated to continue RTH. Land manually.
Not the exact same text, but very close. I know it did use the word "complicated." I should note that the landing area was just a plain, solid, dirt area with nothing else around except my landing pad. Definitely not "complicated!"

I was still at about 50' up when this happened. The 3s froze and wouldn't budge until I cancelled RTH and landed it myself.

I have never seen this on any of my other drones before. Never heard it mentioned by anyone else, either.

Has anyone had this happen to them?

 

[GadgetGuy]

All due respect, but reliance upon RTH for landing your done is a serious failure upon your part. You need to learn how to fly back and manually land your drone without activating RTH. It's a beginner feature rarely ever used by any experienced pilot. Personally, in 10 years of drone flying, I have never used RTH.

 

[Paul Harvey]

All due respect, but reliance upon RTH for landing your done is a serious failure upon your part. You need to learn how to fly back and manually land your drone without activating RTH. It's a beginner feature rarely ever used by any experienced pilot. Personally, in 10 years of drone flying, I have never used RTH.

Well smell you, Princess Grace! I feel humbled in your presence...thank you so much!

 

[GadgetGuy]

Well smell you, Princess Grace! I feel humbled in your presence...thank you so much!

That was not meant as a brag. It's just a fact.
After 4 years of flying yourself, I would assume you have finally learned how.
RTH a failsafe feature for beginning pilots, not seasoned veterans.

 

[Paul Harvey]

After 4 years of flying, I would assume you have finally learned how.
RTH a failsafe feature for beginning pilots, not seasoned veterans.

I've been on this site for four years. I've been flying since the Phantom 1. I am quite good at flying and landing. I use RTH because I just want to sometimes. Is that ok with you?

 

[GadgetGuy]

I've been on this site for four years. I've been flying since the Phantom 1. I am quite good at flying and landing. I use RTH because I just want to sometimes. Is that ok with you?

Of course, but it is fraught with odd, unexpected behaviors, especially at close range, including the one you describe..

 

[a2tomm]

WOW just wow
pay no attention to this GG guy he is so full of it .I live in Pa windy uneven ground and that messege happens often (NOT YOUR FAULT )
you did the right thing ,you landed without any problems

 

[jeff Voigt]

So there I was, having hit RTH after a flight when, all of a sudden, I got this message pop up in the bottom-middle of the screen:

Surface area too complicated to continue RTH. Land manually.
Not the exact same text, but very close. I know it did use the word "complicated." I should note that the landing area was just a plain, solid, dirt area with nothing else around except my landing pad. Definitely not "complicated!"

I was still at about 50' up when this happened. The 3s froze and wouldn't budge until I cancelled RTH and landed it myself.

I have never seen this on any of my other drones before. Never heard it mentioned by anyone else, either.

Has anyone had this happen to them?

Hi Paul. Great post. Thanks for sharing it with us. When flying the Mavic 4 Pro and Mini 5 Pro under RTH, I’ll often get a similar type of message. I think it’s part of the AI to help us remain safe while the drone is airborne. Be well. Jeff/Annapolis

 

[Cafguy]

SORRY ALL BUT...I don't think its bragging at all. RTH has lost more Drones than any other feature LOL.. Did you Know that as the regulations are written, RTH is actually a very grey area and leans more towards violating or Skirting a regulation then any other feature. I would like to know myself how RTH is legal! I guess it is, somehow? but the only time I ever used it was to "show-off" the feature.
My question is WHY use RTH.. Did your hand all of the sudden become too sore to fly? if you are pushing RTH because you lost site of your Drone, Then you were flying illegally in the first place.
Gadget Guy has a great point IMO. SORRY.

What was under the drone when you got this Warning? (It was a downward sensor warning.) uneven surface, obstacle in the way, too bright or dark, too reflective, etc.....

 

[FLDave]

I always liked RTH; it's a great feature. But, you need to make sure your take off point and area within about a 50-foot diameter circle have very clear and distinguishing marking. A clear area without such marking will complicate the landing as the drone can't tell if it over the spot or not. l I make sure to have a well marked landing pad and include other objects I place if necessary. Also, make sure any anyone standing nearby during takeoff remains in place for the landing.

 

[Rchawks]

This thread wasn’t the merits of using RTH only about a problem while using it. I think FLDAVE nailed it. I’ve only used it a few times and it’s good to know that option is there if I need it. I’ve seen where other pilots who have been flying a long time who do use this feature for landing most of the time. I wasn’t aware that RTH might be fraught with problems other than minimum distance. I always thought if the conditions were right (distance, height, ect) it would be a flawless option. I’ve never viewed it otherwise. I’ve hardly ever turned control over to a automated or preprogrammed function such as waypoints. Landing in strong wind is always tricky with very little room for error and I like that. I’ve always used a landing mat for takeoff and landing and is one of my favorite tasks of flying because if you mess up it’s on you.
As far as RTH losing more drones than any other feature is probably because of improper setup of that feature, as well as double checking the conditions whatever they may be.
Before buying the A3S I seen so many videos of people taking off and landing from inside apts and carports using this drone because of everything it can do and hey it you lost connection no problem it would just retrace it’s path and land on it’s own and everything’s hunky dory. It does it all ( the only drone you’ll ever need).

 

[Alienatrix]

RTH does NOT 100% guarantee the safe return of your drone.

Example..last month I was flying my AIR 3s BVLOS (beyond visual line of sight) using the 4G Dongle.

Unfortunately, 4G isn't always 100% reliable, and when it completely loses the signal, it would RTH automatically.

This time, it didn't. After 10mins passed and without a successful reconnection with the RC2 to indicate RTH, I decided to take action.

Luckily, I was able to locate it based on the last location, and found that it had stayed hovering when it disconnected and never RTH. Once the RC2 reconnected I was able to get it down manually.

I sent the flight logs to DJI, who reviewed them but were unable to find a reason as to why RTH failed to engage on that day.

Lesson of the day..RTH will bring the drone back 8/10 times.

However, it is imperative to be proactive and not to hang about when it looks like trouble is brewing.

Had I simply just relied on the RTH alone on that day, I'd still be waiting for it to return until today.

If you ever get any abnormal messages/notification when trying to land/RTH, abort and do it manually.

 

[FLDave]

It's important to identify the problem. Is the RTM that failed or precision landing that failed. In the case of the OP I believe that RTH functioned properly; it was precision landing that failed as the landing area was not well identified. RTH is really so convenient and easy.

 

[Paul Harvey]

SORRY ALL BUT...I don't think its bragging at all. RTH has lost more Drones than any other feature LOL..

You'll excuse me if I don't believe a word of that.

My question is WHY use RTH.. Did your hand all of the sudden become too sore to fly? if you are pushing RTH because you lost site of your Drone, Then you were flying illegally in the first place.
Gadget Guy has a great point IMO. SORRY.

Why I use RTH is because I just like pushing buttons.

What was under the drone when you got this Warning? (It was a downward sensor warning.) uneven surface, obstacle in the way, too bright or dark, too reflective, etc.....

Like I said in my OP: The ground was all hard brown dirt and my bright green landing pad, nothing else. Trust me, I am quite an experienced pilot and know what I'm doing and I know there was no reason for the drone to do this. I've landed in much more "complicated" areas without a problem and I had never seen this message before with any drone.

 

[Paul Harvey]

Of course, but it is fraught with odd, unexpected behaviors, especially at close range, including the one you describe..

Never had a problem with it, 'til now that is. And I've never seen any message from a DJI controller stating that something was "too complicated."

 

[Paul Harvey]

I always liked RTH; it's a great feature. But, you need to make sure your take off point and area within about a 50-foot diameter circle have very clear and distinguishing marking. A clear area without such marking will complicate the landing as the drone can't tell if it over the spot or not. l I make sure to have a well marked landing pad and include other objects I place if necessary. Also, make sure any anyone standing nearby during takeoff remains in place for the landing.

From my original post:

the landing area was just a plain, solid, dirt area with nothing else around except my landing pad

I should add the area was level, too.

Thanks.

 

[mavic3usa]

It's probably an FPV thing. On my FPV drones (DJI FPV and Avata) while using goggles and the motion controller, I'm not even sure exactly how to initiate a RTH. You flew the drone out, you fly it back and often you come in "hard" since no FPV drone should go straight down unless it's nose first. Even when the low battery warning kicks in and your aggressive flying is interrupted, hit the Pause and then go back to flying hard and just make your way home since it's no fun flying FPV at 250 feet. That's 99.9% of my FPV flying experience; camera drone is another story.

 

[VanP]

So there I was, having hit RTH after a flight when, all of a sudden, I got this message pop up in the bottom-middle of the screen:

Surface area too complicated to continue RTH. Land manually.
Not the exact same text, but very close. I know it did use the word "complicated." I should note that the landing area was just a plain, solid, dirt area with nothing else around except my landing pad. Definitely not "complicated!"

I was still at about 50' up when this happened. The 3s froze and wouldn't budge until I cancelled RTH and landed it myself.

I have never seen this on any of my other drones before. Never heard it mentioned by anyone else, either.

Has anyone had this happen to them?

I have never had this message myself. I wonder if canceling the RTH to reset it and again trying the RTH would have worked? Also, i always wipe all of my sensors before launch, camera also. Happy flying!

 

[FLDave]

From my original post:

the landing area was just a plain, solid, dirt area with nothing else around except my landing pad

I should add the area was level, too.

Thanks.

I believe it was the plain, solid, dirt area that was the problem with no strong identifying marks to show how the align the drone for landing. It arrived overhead like it was supposed to do but the area was not identifiable as unique.
My suggestion is for you to do some tests to find out what happened and what is needed for the landing to be successful. Try again with the same plain landing, with landing pad, with yourself standing within the takeoff circle and then removing yourself before precision landing, with and without some other identifying objects in the circle. It should be easy enough to do multiple tests and then you'll know and also be a better RTH pilot.

 

[MS Coast]

I tend to agree with @FLDave that the problem was with precision landing rather than RTH. But having it occur at 50' AGL is odd. Isn't that beyond the typical range of the VPS system?

I've never read about nor heard that error message mentioned by anyone else. Just for fun, I've tinkered with precision landing in some ridiculously complex surroundings having small openings between trees, and obstacles like buildings, patio furniture, and myself. No problems.

Did you happen to look at the VPS sensor immediately after landing? An obstruction might create a problem - dirt, debris, spider web, condensed moisture, ...

Is there an opportunity to fly in that same location to see if the error reoccurs?