For those, like me, who have looked at p.16 of the MP Manual (2017-12 edition) numerous times and are still not sure they fully understand the contents, I found the following text in the link that follows the text. Note: for increased clarity, I've reordered the text a bit and added the bold emphases.
Misunderstanding RTH
A lot of users don’t understand how exactly RTH works and wonder why their drone landed instead of returning to the home point, or why their drone flew up into some tree branches when they initiated RTH.
First of all, if you command the Mavic to return to home within 5 meters [radius] of the home point, the aircraft will land right where it is instead of rising up to the RTH height and returning to the home point.***
20 meters is the lowest RTH height you can set [this important fact is not stated on p.16]
If RTH is triggered within 5 and 20 meters altitude of the home point and the Forward Vision System is active, it will ascend to 10 meters, if you’re flying lower than 10 meters, and return to the home point. If it’s above 10 meters, it will return at the current altitude. If the Forward Vision System isn’t active, the aircraft will land automatically.
Finally, if the aircraft is further than 20 meters altitude away, it will rise to the RTH height you set in the app if it’s lower than that height before the function is triggered. Just remember that you can press the pause button on the RC to stop the RTH process at any time!
10 Common Mistakes Mavic Pro Pilots Make
***Confession: only now do I understand why it only rarely happens that my AC lands precisely where I set the RTH point, despite the fact that I always verify that a) I have at least 4 bars and >10 satellites of GPS before launching b) neither of my two compasses is red.
The reason for the failure is that I almost never allow the AC to travel to a radius greater than 5m from where I am sitting/standing -- if it's going to come down from its altitude of 120m, I want it to do so close to me, so it will qualify for DJI Care/Refresh!
But what I now understand is that -- if I choose to trigger RTH instead of landing it with the joy sticks -- the AC is going to try to land directly below its current position in the air rather than on the helipad.
On the bright side, what that also means is that I've gotten plenty of practice landing with the joy sticks.
Misunderstanding RTH
A lot of users don’t understand how exactly RTH works and wonder why their drone landed instead of returning to the home point, or why their drone flew up into some tree branches when they initiated RTH.
First of all, if you command the Mavic to return to home within 5 meters [radius] of the home point, the aircraft will land right where it is instead of rising up to the RTH height and returning to the home point.***
20 meters is the lowest RTH height you can set [this important fact is not stated on p.16]
If RTH is triggered within 5 and 20 meters altitude of the home point and the Forward Vision System is active, it will ascend to 10 meters, if you’re flying lower than 10 meters, and return to the home point. If it’s above 10 meters, it will return at the current altitude. If the Forward Vision System isn’t active, the aircraft will land automatically.
Finally, if the aircraft is further than 20 meters altitude away, it will rise to the RTH height you set in the app if it’s lower than that height before the function is triggered. Just remember that you can press the pause button on the RC to stop the RTH process at any time!
10 Common Mistakes Mavic Pro Pilots Make
***Confession: only now do I understand why it only rarely happens that my AC lands precisely where I set the RTH point, despite the fact that I always verify that a) I have at least 4 bars and >10 satellites of GPS before launching b) neither of my two compasses is red.
The reason for the failure is that I almost never allow the AC to travel to a radius greater than 5m from where I am sitting/standing -- if it's going to come down from its altitude of 120m, I want it to do so close to me, so it will qualify for DJI Care/Refresh!
But what I now understand is that -- if I choose to trigger RTH instead of landing it with the joy sticks -- the AC is going to try to land directly below its current position in the air rather than on the helipad.
On the bright side, what that also means is that I've gotten plenty of practice landing with the joy sticks.
Last edited:
