Three questions

[Meta4]

i'll humor you even though i don't appreciate the passive-aggressive tone; at the end of the day you are going to be you and I'm going to be me; i make my decisions based on my experience and you do the same for you.

There's no passive-aggressive tone there.
Just a blunt incident investigator tone.
What the flyer thinks is happening is not always what really happened.

-- never once did the drone land fully on the pad (and i have the biggest circular one you can get); my definition of the 'perfect' landing was if it got at least 1 leg on the pad.
-- the 2 satisfactory times it landed within 10 feet of the pad
-- for the 5 unsatisfactory times:
-- twice tried to land on a chain link fence (approx 15ft from the pad)

This complaint is with the precision of the landing rather than the drone's ability to return.
There are a few points to consider here:
1. There's no need to let RTH do the landing, you can cancel and resume control at any time and land where and how you choose.
2. You were relying on GPS for the landing.
Consumer GPS is not pinpoint accurate.
Most times it will put the drone within 6 ft of the target but the error can occasionally be a bit more.
If using GPS only for landing accuracy, be aware of this and allow space around your launch area.
3. If you want the drone to RTH and land accurately on target, it has a Precision Landing Feature that uses optical technology to land it within a couple of inches.
Check the manual for details

-- once flew completely over me NOT at the RTH height setting but fortunately high enough to miss my palm trees and roof, i disabled RTH and hit is again and it did come back

One possible explanation might be that you cancelled the climb by moving the left stick while the drone was starting the climb (mentioned in the manual).
Your recorded flight data should confirm whether this was the case or show what caused the issue.

-- 1 landing was a 'bounce' as if it wasn't aware of the elevation change (my yard is sloped downward to a canal, not significant but probably a total of 6' over a distance of 25')
-- 2 landings were 'drops' where it assumed the ground was there and started power down, again my assumption the slope, the fall wasn't great but still about 6"

If you want the drone to auto-land, you should do this on a level surface.
As previously mentioned, recorded flight data is good to find out what was going on.

lastly the thing i didn't like the most was the drone didn't go straight up to get to RTH height, it angled, almost every time and there was no upwards obstruction and twice it appeared would have flown into a palm tree

This is interesting.
If you initiate RTH with the controller button, it will always climb vertically to RTH height before coming home (unless you cancel the climb as mentioned above).
If RTH initiates because the drone loses signal, the drone will attempt to retrace its path until it finds signal.
Recorded flight data would show what actually happened in these cases.

i do appreciate the warning but this is something i'm convinced is the right thing for me.

Your choice but having a feature that initiates RTH on loss of signal and disabling it sounds like a very good way to unnecessarily lose your drone some day.

 

[Cloudnine]

Then we disagree and you’ve helped me solidify my point.

You’re exactly right about GPS and how RTH should execute but it doesn’t always but in those cases we can blame the pilot.

For me i’m going to rely on something that has the least amount of dependencies to execute, no GPS, no multi-step sub-routine; just sit there and hover and once battery is low, land; as long as i’m Flying within very safe recommendations, reconnecting is just a plausible than hoping RTH works.

People will always push limits hence RTH being the default, it’s better it tries to come home than stops and hovers 2+ miles somewhere, my drone will never get that far from me, heck, I have yet to exceed a mile.

 

[Meta4]

Then we disagree and you’ve helped me solidify my point.

Sounds like you are completely focused on the autolanding rather than the return flight and skipped over the part about the Precision Landing feature which would give you what you want.

You’re exactly right about GPS and how RTH should execute but it doesn’t always but in those cases we can blame the pilot.

GPS and RTH are very reliable and predictable if you understand the limitations they have rather than assuming they are magic.
I wouldn't "blame the pilot' or anything else without looking at flight data to see what actually happened.

For me i’m going to rely on something that has the least amount of dependencies to execute, no GPS, no multi-step sub-routine; just sit there and hover and once battery is low, land; as long as i’m Flying within very safe recommendations, reconnecting is just a plausible than hoping RTH works.

I guess I wasted my effort explaining and typing.
I hope it's of use to someone else anyway.

 

[Elude]

RTH to me is for emergencies. You should always plan for it and set the height accordingly…

For landings I always recommend hand catching

 

[WWK888]

Meta4 is very knowledgeable and has solved many incidents of so called flyaways and other crashes. Setting your RTH to hover is asking for trouble unless you only fly a few hundred feet away. Who cares if it lands six feet off from where it took off? You take control once the connection is reestablished.

 

[kilomikebravo]

heck, I have yet to exceed a mile.

Cloud: While I disagree with your choice of RTH options, I am with you on distance. Granted, I haven't flown a Litchi or Go4 Waypoint flight yet but even so, just the THOUGHT of having my toy a MILE away gives me the heebie jeebies. Of course, one needs to be Superman to see the darn thing at that distance. <laughing>

 

[Cloudnine]

disagreement is good, it's what makes us, us. you have your reasoning for trusting something (typically based on experience, good or bad) and i have the same.

frankly i don't understand the passion around this, not sure if you truly care about me and my drone or you're trying to protect the brand; i was pretty clear from the start that convincing me otherwise was wasted effort and if i'm going to change my mind it will have to be through personal experience, once again, bad or otherwise.

also don't mistake my decision as a lack of respect for meta4's knowledge, i very much recognize his knowledge in this space (pun intended) and have read a number of his response and employ the tips, tricks and tactics he divulges. it's this single scenario i disagree on, look, you can tell me till your blue in the face that something WILL happen this way and if my experience is different then who/what do you think i'm going to trust? and i don't even want to get started on the 'the pilot is guilty until proven innocent', thats this boards biggest fault. lastly, i don't need pedantic, patronizing responses, i didn't hit the RTH button multiple times, i didn't move the stick and i certainly didn't panic, this was a thoughtful, highly controlled test and RTH didn't perform as i wanted it to, landing or otherwise.

what i like most in when people say "it tries to retrace it's steps..." execution of the subroutine doesn't 'try' it does or it doesn't and your points of potential failure are in environment, technological, mechanical and data and all those are at play when executing RTH, hover mitigates the risk. sure, distance is a risk but how i fly my drone, (i'm not a distance junkie) means it's not a risk, in fact, i'm not sure i've ever lost connection let alone enough for the failsafe routine to kick in.

and i'll say this again as my final statement, i am by no means suggesting/recommending this to anyone else, in fact, i recommend you extensively test the scenario and make your decision based on the results; if i'm the onlly one that has it set to hover, so be it.

 

[kilomikebravo]

disagreement is good, it's what makes us, us.

Cloud9: Spot on statement, I completely agree.

Believe me, I am not a DJI fanboy so there was no intention of "protecting the brand" AT all. My main purpose for responding was for your benefit and the safety of your beloved Mavic.

That said, I get your logic regarding the RTH option decision and I say, if you are the most comfortable with that method, I would be the last person to try and get you to change it. The only reason this has caused some controversy is because it is different from what most folks do. Obviously, that doesn't make it a bad choice, merely a different opinion but one based on tested factual information and a recovery plan with the Marco Polo.

So I say, go for it as long as you're the most comfortable with that specific choice of options.

 

[B1houdini]

Hi there

I am a relatively fresh M2P owner, and now have accumulated some questions:

1. What happens to the drone if my phone gets disconnected/turned off during the flight?
2. What happens to the drone if my remote controller gets disconnected/turned off during the flight?
3. Is it possible to see data flight information overlaid on top of the recorded video? Guess not, but it would be so nice to know the current altitude, or speed etc.

And one more - what is a serious altitude you guys managed to get M2P to - like 500 m, or more? (yes, I am aware of the regulations, but interested purely from the technical standpoint).

Thanks.
E.

Answer for question 3. A program Called DashWare does a nice job overlaying data on a video.
I posted a few on Youtube . Progarm is free and not to hard to use. My Channel: b1houdini

 

[Drgnfli]

Hmm! You've had some lousy RTH trials! My MP lands within 12" of the take off spot every time...