Today I lost my Drone. I'm not sure what happend. I changed 1 setting and that's the return to home.

[Lake_Flyer]

The OP did not fully understand the Return to Controller feature, but that did not cause him to loose his MP. It was the strong headwind and low battery that caused it to fail in its attempt to come back.

RTH will be the cause with a strong headwind on the return leg. It doesn't take the headwind in account.

 

[FlashGJ]

RTH will be the cause with a strong headwind on the return leg. It doesn't take the headwind in account.

I disagree, RTH was not the cause. Even if he would have tried returning back manually, flying into a strong wind WITH low battery would have most likely ended up with the same result.

 

[Lake_Flyer]

I disagree, RTH was not the cause. Even if he would have tried returning back manually, flying into a strong wind WITH low battery would have most likely ended up with the same result.

you're right, I meant Smart RTH.

 

[Deleted member 21971]

I lost mine to the ocean yesterday. Soooo sad. The Mavic was flying back to me between trees overhanging the ocean on a 75 foot cliff in one of the most beautiful coastal areas in the US, Neah Bay WA. A nice gust of wind came, blew it about 4 feet to the left, right into a tree and plop! right into the ocean. I also have a Phantom 4 and have never seen it get blown that far off course, but it was a good gust of wind out of nowhere. I like my phantom better, just seems more solid, but still, loosing a Mavic, what a drag! It would have been less of an impact if I could have retrieved the 20 minutes of video, but at least I have the pics I took. Sorry we both lost a couple of good drones.

Phantoms are more "rounded off " than the Mavic. The air flows over them smoother than the squared off body of the Mavic. Mavic is smaller and lighter. More affected by wind.

 

[Frogster]

Phantoms are more "rounded off " than the Mavic. The air flows over them smoother than the squared off body of the Mavic. Mavic is smaller and lighter. More affected by wind.

Hi buddy. I'm sorry for your loss. I really do miss my Mavic.

 

[Vetski]

I lost mine to the ocean yesterday. Soooo sad. The Mavic was flying back to me between trees overhanging the ocean on a 75 foot cliff in one of the most beautiful coastal areas in the US, Neah Bay WA. A nice gust of wind came, blew it about 4 feet to the left, right into a tree and plop! right into the ocean. I also have a Phantom 4 and have never seen it get blown that far off course, but it was a good gust of wind out of nowhere. I like my phantom better, just seems more solid, but still, loosing a Mavic, what a drag! It would have been less of an impact if I could have retrieved the 20 minutes of video, but at least I have the pics I took. Sorry we both lost a couple of good drones.

Gee that sucks =( Hearing this will make me a lot more cautious about flying over water when windy....

 

[Vetski]

sorry to hear.

Read the manual next time guys and keep flying safe.

Mine didn't come with a manual =\ I'm surprised I still even have the drone lol

 

[beachcombing]

Mine didn't come with a manual =\ I'm surprised I still even have the drone lol

Download the manual.

Mavic – Specs, FAQ, Tutorials and Downloads

 

[TTFullTimer]

Well, for some reason my Mavic (.400 firmware, GO4 4.1.0) doesn't behave the way you describe at all.

When I'm in RTH, I can use pitch (Mode 2 right stick forward/back) to speed it up, all the way to 33mph at full stick, without canceling RTH.

I can also change altitude with the left stick, without canceling RTH.

Just did exactly these maneuvers yesterday, precision landed within 2 inches of take-off.

So, somethings different about my Mavic from yours -- radically so.

Further: Turning the controller off to initiate RTH is an exceedingly foolish idea. Perhaps the most important "rule" when flying a remote piloted aircraft:

Do not ever deliberately lose control of the aircraft when you have control; you may not be able to re-establish control​

I'm hard-pressed to think of any worse advice than to completely remove your ability to control the drone while in flight. Autonomous control during RTH is not some sort of sophisticated AI that will avoid dropping on someone's head. No, it will drop the drone into a crowd if it hits critical battery. If you are connected, you can still control the aircraft quite a bit, get it out of the way, and sacrifice IT instead of people.

Finally, Failsafe RTH -- initiated from signal loss -- is different from Smart RTH, initiated by pressing the button. The behavior in flight and response to control inputs are not the same.

Please review the details of these features thoroughly, as it seems you have some misunderstanding. And please do not advise people to deliberately disconnect their RC from the aircraft as a means to initiate RTH. This is very risky, and to be blunt, foolish.

You should always be connected to and in control of your aircraft if possible, even when flying autonomously during RTH. You must be able to cancel RTH immediately if necessary for safety, take control and fly the aircraft.

Agreed. I had a return to home while flying with a relatively high altitude set since I was in the mountains and had to clear the uphill stuff as I came back to a downhill launch. I was treed a little directly overhead and could hear but not see the Mavid. It said landing. Since I did not see it I immediately cancelled landing and took over manual control bringing it slowly down and out a bit so I could see it. Then I just landed it with the RC. If I had disconnected, I would not have had an ability to take over control. It came back so fast that I thought it could not possibly be directly overhead. But it was. What if it had gotten a bit confused? I have done a lot of Return to Home and let the Mavic land itself. I had a much better field of view. And yes I always try to have enough battery left that I could fly over half the total mission after landing. Gives me margin for assuring a safe approach and landing. Time to hover and calm down. None of us is immune to adrenaline when we thing our baby is in trouble. With some battery left let it hover, calm down, make a plan, execute the plan. I think the least amount of battery I have had on a flight is 35% after landing. I head home at 50 not less. Do whatever you want if you are flying safely. I consider a safe course and a landing where I choose, as my criteria for completing a safe flight. First safety for others and second safety for my wallet LOL.

 

[Ren57]

Hey guys what would be the right time to change the homepoint when you are on a moving boat? When it hovers from where it took off? Or when it is away from you ??

Best option if you're on a moving boat would to use homelock instead of return to home. Just put it into Homelock and pull the right stick back and whatever direction it's pointing it'll come back to you. You'd still have to land it manually of course.

 

[dwallersv]

I remember it being in one of the DJI training videos during my Phantom 2 days that they said you could just turn off the controller at any time to bring it back home. That's when I started doing that, and it has always worked, but maybe not the best idea, especially in more urban areas. I will take your advice. Thanks....

I started with the P4 generation, and by then they'd removed that training tip from the docs

To soften my lecture a bit , I've turned the RC off while in flight, but only with it a few feet away and maybe 10 ft hovering -- just to see it initiate failsafe RTH.

That was still probably not copacetic, but much less risky than doing it where it has to fly back and may collide with something if you can't get control back. At least in the nearby test, it simply descends and lands -- no horizontal movement.

As for the stick thing, I'll check it again -- I think it's only a "feature" of Smart RTH, which is the manually initiated version.

 

[dwallersv]

My take on this:

Trusting RTH to bring it home, while it is outside of VLOS, and on top of that, heading out with tailwind.
At least 3 pilot errors.

RTH (to HOME or RC) by the way, is a FAILSAFE and only to be used in critical situations, NEVER to be trusted as a standard procedure. Only to be tested in a controlled situation every once in a while, after a firmware update.

Well, I disagree rather strongly with this opinion w.r.t. Smart RTH, and so does DJI apparently.

So long as you are connected to the aircraft with full control, using Smart RTH (and monitoring the flight) is hardly risky or dangerous. Its a useful feature. I use it all the time, and if anything goes awry, I'm easily in control of the aircraft (even without canceling RTH) and can react.

Smart RTH is a regular flight feature, not only for emergencies or crises.

 

[Sencorp]

This has to be the worst feeling in the world . Really sorry mate. I wanted to mention something to this so other may not suffer the same fate.
I have been building uas for nearly five years now, and the ability for the drone to come back on its own in emergency situations has always been a failsafe. The atomonous features have been resulting in fly a ways , crashes and lost drones for as long as I can remember. I ran a thread here asking everyone: do you fly home or do you RTH. Was a mixed bag really but most people like hitting the RTH. This is for a couple of reasons. First is (and most common answer ) it's cool to do. Other responses were , : Because it can, why have it and not use it?
There is a thrill you get when you know that unit is flying it self back home to you, that deep down feeling thinking this is the coolest thing ever.. but I have only had that feeling when my controller has had some type of failure and I know my aircraft is programmed correctly to get home, safely and in one piece.

The unit has a GPS map, with a flight trail. I always just bring up the GPS screen and follow the path home. Then land. All of my customers that ever come to me that are just learning , I can never stress to them the critical importance of learning to pilot your aircraft over any of the atomonous features. Because if they fail, it's you that needs to fly.
Again my deepest sympathies for the loss. And a urging plea to others out there. Avoid your RTH as a "feature" and think of it as your "backup"

 

[dwallersv]

And again I must disagree.

Automated return is simply a flight feature. Like altitude hold. Or GPS positioning.

Every single problem I've seen here with RTH flyaways, where the logs could be retrieved, were the result of well-known conditions related to either positioning or obstacle avoidance errors.

In terms of learning to pilot one's aircraft, what do you think people are doing up until the point they invoke Smart RTH to bring it home? Is that not piloting?

I use Smart RTH to come home most times I'm flying for two reasons: I'm lazy, and I really appreciate Precision Landing, as I fly out of tight spaces regularly.

Lazy: Yeah, I can hold the right stick forward, and adjust yaw constantly to fly that straight green line back. It's not like it "challenges" my piloting skills in any meaningful way, and frankly, I'd really like to know what you "learn" doing that again and again and again and again. I got it down pretty quick.

So, I prefer to let it fly itself back and just watch. I'm ready to step in if necessary, and some times -- rarely -- I need to. Most of the time, though, it's fun to just watch it come home and land within an inch or two of where it took off.

 

[Alex ROV]

I don't use RTH... I did it maybe be 3 of 4 times only to test and to see how wonderful she flies and precisely lands... But other than that, no...

Let's think... I love to fly, that's the reason I bought her, so... What's the point of pressing a button and just watch when I have the opportunity to keep enjoying my flight up to 50% (battery) more???

 

[Sencorp]

And again I must disagree.

Automated return is simply a flight feature. Like altitude hold. Or GPS positioning.

Every single problem I've seen here with RTH flyaways, where the logs could be retrieved, were the result of well-known conditions related to either positioning or obstacle avoidance errors.

In terms of learning to pilot one's aircraft, what do you think people are doing up until the point they invoke Smart RTH to bring it home? Is that not piloting?

I use Smart RTH to come home most times I'm flying for two reasons: I'm lazy, and I really appreciate Precision Landing, as I fly out of tight spaces regularly.

Lazy: Yeah, I can hold the right stick forward, and adjust yaw constantly to fly that straight green line back. It's not like it "challenges" my piloting skills in any meaningful way, and frankly, I'd really like to know what you "learn" doing that again and again and again and again. I got it down pretty quick.

So, I prefer to let it fly itself back and just watch. I'm ready to step in if necessary, and some times -- rarely -- I need to. Most of the time, though, it's fun to just watch it come home and land within an inch or two of where it took off.

Hey good on you. To each their own I suppose, and frankly you own the fact that your lazy and that sums it up. Hats off to you for owning that. Not going to debate with you or try to Sway you.
Again the only thing I can suggest to others, don't be lazy. Because if you are your chances of losing your bird, crashing your bird or causing damage to something or someone else is higher then if your a skilled pilot that can fly under all circumstances. We can only administer advice, it's up to others to accept it or reject it. I think the saying goes "a wise man accepts good council."

 

[dwallersv]

Let's think... I love to fly, that's the reason I bought her, so... What's the point of pressing a button and just watch when I have the opportunity to keep enjoying my flight up to 50% (battery) more???

Me too. It just works out different in my reasoning.

Because I love to fly (and capture cool video and images), I usually run things down to the wire (well, my "wire" which includes a safety margin), so when it's time to come back and land, it's always a straight-line return, at constant speed.

I find that "flying" to be exceedingly boring. As I said in my post before yours, yeah, I'm pretty good at flying that green line back to home. Doesn't give me any thrill or excitement. I can land on a dime under all sorts of conditions, done it a zillion times (used to fly RC helis, now THAT'S excitement landing every time) so it's no real fun there.

Not saying you're wrong -- this isn't one of those things that has a right answer, when it comes to what's "fun" and what's not. Just wanted to point out that, for people that fly like me, coming back to land isn't that exciting.

 

[dwallersv]

Again the only thing I can suggest to others, don't be lazy. Because if you are your chances of losing your bird, crashing your bird or causing damage to something or someone else is higher then if your a skilled pilot that can fly under all circumstances.

Again the only thing I can suggest to others, don't be hyper-nervous about perfectly reasonable flight aids like Smart RTH. The idea that using RTH will degrade your piloting skills is silly unfounded nonsense. In fact, the positioning stability and navigation provided by GPS is far more threatening to loss of your bird should you have little or no skills flying and navigating in ATTI mode.

Use RTH for the tiny percentage of your flying to conveniently come home if you want to. You will actually be a more skilled pilot, having gained experience dealing with RTH exceptions (which happen from time to time) than the pilot that is only confronted with RTH behavior in the rare failure or problem.

How many threads have we read here where people crashed or lost their drone because they were unexperienced flying it in RTH mode?

And, of course, avoiding developing skills operating the drone while in RTH mode -- which takes more than just trying it out a few times -- seems rather inconsistent with the advice one be a "skilled pilot that can fly under all circumstances", but I digress.

We can only administer advice, it's up to others to accept it or reject it. I think the saying goes "a wise man accepts good council."

Yes, and you're administering bad council. Arrogantly.

 

[Lake_Flyer]

Again the only thing I can suggest to others, don't be hyper-nervous about perfectly reasonable flight aids like Smart RTH. The idea that using RTH will degrade your piloting skills is silly unfounded nonsense. In fact, the positioning stability and navigation provided by GPS is far more threatening to loss of your bird should you have little or no skills flying and navigating in ATTI mode.

Use RTH for the tiny percentage of your flying to conveniently come home if you want to. You will actually be a more skilled pilot, having gained experience dealing with RTH exceptions (which happen from time to time) than the pilot that is only confronted with RTH behavior in the rare failure or problem.

How many threads have we read here where people crashed or lost their drone because they were unexperienced flying it in RTH mode?

And, of course, avoiding developing skills operating the drone while in RTH mode -- which takes more than just trying it out a few times -- seems rather inconsistent with the advice one be a "skilled pilot that can fly under all circumstances", but I digress.Yes, and you're administering bad council. Arrogantly.

You sir, don't seem to grasp the meaning of Smart RTH.

Smart RTH means that the drone is deciding for itself when it is time to come home, based on the battery status and the distance to the homepoint. NOT when you press RTH yourself. If Smart RTH kicks in, it means you as a pilot did not take the precautions for a safe return. The copter itself determines it should head home straight away. If there's a strong headwind on the home leg it will have to land before it reaches home.

Now not everybody has 40 years of RC flying fixed wing and CP heli's behind the belt. I have, and you make it sound like you are also extremely experienced. But for anyone not having any experience or flight school training I would strongly suggest not to follow your advice.

My advice to those people:
RTH is fine to invoke manually as long as you have it in sight so you can disengage when you SEE that it is heading the wrong way or acting strangely. Don't trust too much on your app screen.

 

[Lake_Flyer]

Well, I disagree rather strongly with this opinion w.r.t. Smart RTH, and so does DJI apparently.

So long as you are connected to the aircraft with full control, using Smart RTH (and monitoring the flight) is hardly risky or dangerous. Its a useful feature. I use it all the time, and if anything goes awry, I'm easily in control of the aircraft (even without canceling RTH) and can react.

Smart RTH is a regular flight feature, not only for emergencies or crises.

See my reply to your other statement about RTH and smart RTH. What your stating here is not true at all. You don't understand Smart RTH at all. Read the manual.

Not that I'm in for a discussion specifically with you, but to rookies this should be made very clear. Never wait until Smart RTH kicks in.