Video: Mavic 3 Auto Returns to home point directly over Powerlines. Nail Biting.

[cgmaxed]

My Mavic 3 decides to take a route home directly over powerlines and descends closer and closer as I watch. I did not interfere.

 

[BlairAir]

My Mavic 3 decides to take a route home directly over powerlines and descends closer and closer as I watch. I did not interfere.

That was close, but not razor close. Still,, you have more nerve than I... I have 2 huge, bare limbed trees in front of my house. With conventional RTH (What DJI calls "Straight Line RTH") I always launch drones out further than the trees, so a Failsafe RTH won't try to come back through the tree - a good idea anytime.
But with no way to switch to Straight Line RTH, other than at night when it should do so itself currently. (not sure I have seen anyone confirm this, but this is what the User Manual states), I get a stressful situation when doing any RTH from the south. It literally descends below the tree Line, and attempts to reach the Homepoint THROUGH the tree. Of course it's possible it would take evasive action, but I have seen enough M3 crashes involving small branches- something DJI point blank states are beyond the drones abilities to avoid via OA -to know that "blind trust" in a semi-blind drone is conducive to DJI Care cases, I have opted to hit the well placed "Stop/pause" button when the drone gets under 15 feet from the tree, merrily buzzing along like Santa's sleigh minus Rudolph and his mighty nose. I'll let those with deeper pockets and more trust test that scenario, thank you very much!

PS. Did you launch from the hood of your car? It looked like it wanted to land on it! If not, did you rise 7 meters/21 feet vertically before flying horizontally? This is the advised height in the manual for ground sensors to get a mapping of the launch position with accuracy.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

How did you not hit the brakes or were you able to see that 45 degree line and u saw that it was on track for a perfect landing. ?

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain.

 

[cgmaxed]

How did you not hit the brakes or were you able to see that 45 degree line and u saw that it was on track for a perfect landing. ?

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain.

I was depending on the sensors to take note of that last main power pole, thus keeping the drone above the pole as well as the wires. And, yeah, I could see the angle of attack that the auto RTH was taking. It looked safe enough from my POV, so I let it continue on it's own. I have to say though, I was nervous and ready to hit the pause button.

Also, I had just bought it from Best Buy. They have a no questions asked 45 day return policy on drones. If it did crash, I planned to put it back in it's box and just tell Best Buy that it was defective and just get a replacement. I've done this with an Air2S and an Autel Evo2 over the past 2 years and they never questioned the return replacements.

 

[cgmaxed]

PS. Did you launch from the hood of your car? It looked like it wanted to land on it! If not, did you rise 7 meters/21 feet vertically before flying horizontally? This is the advised height in the manual for ground sensors to get a mapping of the launch position with accuracy.

I launched off the hood of the car. It was just about to land on the hood, but I hand caught it instead. When I launched it, I was next to the power lines. I ascended to about 20 feet above the power lines and crossed over them on my way out. The RTH seemed to follow the exact same pattern as I took when taking off, just in reverse.

 

[BlairAir]

Excellent, and yep, keeping a thumb over the pause button is the move in these scenarios. I've returned a cheap F11 drone with a broken leg to Amazon. Not sure if it would play with an M3. It hurt to spend another 240 bucks on DJI Refresh, but I bit the bullet for a year. Same as with Evo 2 Pro (cheaper though at $179 I think) because of the investment, but I doubt I would renew. By that point you either trust the drone or its been bad enough to move on. These 2 will be keepers, I'm thinking, though M3 has some ways to go yet to prove it was worth it.

 

[Smooth Rhythm]

My Mavic 3 decides to take a route home directly over powerlines and descends closer and closer as I watch. I did not interfere.

Thanks for sharing this video with us. I, too, have a M3 and live 300 ft from power lines which are 130 feet high. I often fly from home but never fly a route in which ARTH would bring me back directly over those power lines. You said that your “Mavic 3 decides to take a route home directly over powerlines” as if you were a surprised of that route. I’m just curious, but since you parked right beside those power lines and flew to the opposite side, you knew the M3 would come back across those lines on ARTH, and drop on a 19° angle to the HP, right? It appears that you were doing a test, or maybe you had done it before. Regardless, I’m glad you shared it with us. Now I’m a little more confident with my situation and using ARTH around my own power lines. It was certainly a little hairy initially but it looks like the M3 performed well! Continue to enjoy safe and happy flying!

 

[cgmaxed]

Thanks for sharing this video with us. I, too, have a M3 and live 300 ft from power lines which are 130 feet high. I often fly from home but never fly a route in which ARTH would bring me back directly over those power lines. You said that your “Mavic 3 decides to take a route home directly over powerlines” as if you were a surprised of that route. I’m just curious, but since you parked right beside those power lines and flew to the opposite side, you knew the M3 would come back across those lines on ARTH, and drop on a 19° angle to the HP, right? It appears that you were doing a test, or maybe you had done it before. Regardless, I’m glad you shared it with us. Now I’m a little more confident with my situation and using ARTH around my own power lines. It was certainly a little hairy initially but it looks like the M3 performed well! Continue to enjoy safe and happy flying!

I just got the M3 2 days before. This was the first time I did an ARTH. I wasn't testing it, I just thought it would return home the old way. When I noticed it descending, I let it do it's thing. I was impressed. I just didn't realize the drone would descend when it got near my take off/ landing point. But, I did feel confident enough in DJIs tech, so I carefully watched the drone ready to stop it, if needed. It's tech, in my opinion, purposely didn't go any lower as it passed over the power lines. It's vision sensors did a great job making sure that the drone didn't descend into the lines next to the car.

 

[hiflyer201]

I've done this with an Air2S and an Autel Evo2 over the past 2 years and they never questioned the return replacements.

Yikes!

 

[Arnold LeVine]

What is wrong with the old style RTH on my P4s and M2s that DJI decided to do a descending slope angle return? I like my RTH set to an altitude above everything (like the 130 ft power poles mentioned above). Then it simply returns to directly above home point and lands straight down. What am I missing?

 

[Defens]

What is wrong with the old style RTH on my P4s and M2s that DJI decided to do a descending slope angle return? I like my RTH set to an altitude above everything (like the 130 ft power poles mentioned above). Then it simply returns to directly above home point and lands straight down. What am I missing?

I agree! My newest drone is a Spark (Air 2S arrives tomorrow!) With either of those, the UAS maintains the set RTH altitude until over the home point, then descends vertically. Considering that my front yard landing pad is about 50 feet in diameter, surrounded by 100-foot hemlock trees, I sure hope that glide path style RTH can be disabled!

 

[PinpointUAVS]

I launched off the hood of the car. It was just about to land on the hood, but I hand caught it instead. When I launched it, I was next to the power lines. I ascended to about 20 feet above the power lines and crossed over them on my way out. The RTH seemed to follow the exact same pattern as I took when taking off, just in reverse.

No GPS error when you launched from a metal surface? (Assuming the hood is metal)

 

[cgmaxed]

No GPS error when you launched from a metal surface? (Assuming the hood is metal)

No GPS or compass errors every time. I've launched drones from the hood, roof and trunk of my car often. I've never had compass or GPS issues doing it. Most of my RTH landings would also land exactly on the same part of the car. I usually hand catch them because I worry the drone might slide off the car's slippery paint. 3 years of launches off cars and no problems. I don't like launching off the ground because of the debris, so I use my car. I think this whole idea of magnetic or metallic interference is a little over rated.

 

[PinpointUAVS]

No GPS or compass errors every time. I've launched drones from the hood, roof and trunk of my car often. I've never had compass or GPS issues doing it. Most of my RTH landings would also land exactly on the same part of the car. I usually hand catch them because I worry the drone might slide off the car's slippery paint. 3 years of launches off cars and no problems. I don't like launching off the ground because of the debris, so I use my car. I think this whole idea of magnetic or metallic interference is a little over rated.

Interesting. I’ve tried to launch from my truck tailgate multiple times with my M2Z and got a compass error EVERY time.

 

[cgmaxed]

I agree! My newest drone is a Spark (Air 2S arrives tomorrow!) With either of those, the UAS maintains the set RTH altitude until over the home point, then descends vertically. Considering that my front yard landing pad is about 50 feet in diameter, surrounded by 100-foot hemlock trees, I sure hope that glide path style RTH can be disabled!

Just make sure you are watching the drone come in and land for now. Be ready to pause or cancel if needed. I hope they give us more RTH options in their Jan 2022 firmware update. This descent near home point makes me nervous. I let this RTH happen because I had good visibility and was able to see the drone relative to the power lines very well. I had no idea that this RTH sequence was about to happen. It made me pretty nervous.

 

[cgmaxed]

Interesting. I’ve tried to launch from my truck tailgate multiple times with my M2Z and got a compass error EVERY time.

Come to think of it though, I have had small magnetic lights attached to a few of my drones. They caused compass errors and I wasn't able to launch. Maybe there are magnets in the metal of your truck's tailgate or bed. I don't know.

 

[twickers14]

I was depending on the sensors to take note of that last main power pole, thus keeping the drone above the pole as well as the wires. And, yeah, I could see the angle of attack that the auto RTH was taking. It looked safe enough from my POV, so I let it continue on it's own. I have to say though, I was nervous and ready to hit the pause button.

Also, I had just bought it from Best Buy. They have a no questions asked 45 day return policy on drones. If it did crash, I planned to put it back in it's box and just tell Best Buy that it was defective and just get a replacement. I've done this with an Air2S and an Autel Evo2 over the past 2 years and they never questioned the return replacements.

Were you out by Marco Island? Only asking as we are Naples fanatics and have been to stay for the last 15 years at least (not in the last two!). I bought my Spark at Best Buy, Naples Bvd in ‘19 and wish I could have got my MA2 there for 2/3rds of the price in Blighty! Glad all safe with your drone.

 

[cgmaxed]

Yes. That was the Marco Island Bridge. Marco is a beautiful place for filming. I also go to the Naples Downtown and the Pier sometimes or go into the everglades. At least the parts that aren't restricted. Flying around the Naples Marco area is always a little stressful, because of the numerous canals and water filled marshes. If the drone malfunctions while flying over water, which is about 60% of the time it would be a lost cause. Not a bad price to pay though, for living in a year round paradise.

Here's an interesting factoid you may not be aware of. The Naples Pier is on the Edge of the Naples international Airport. I am only allowed to fly at 200ft AGL because of this. I don't mind, but flying at 200ft makes the beach goers a little nervous.

The Mavic 3 is a godsend for my type of hobby filming. I like taking my time and looking around. Now I don't have to make a plan to go get a shot and come back quickly. With it's speed, battery life, agility, quiet flight, low light filming and zoom, I am able to just view or film things I wasn't able to before.

My only negative about the MAV3 is it's poor filming of details relative to the Air2S and the Evo2 6k and 8K during the day. The Mav 3 Camera system outperforms them at night, but not during the day. However, I don't mind this, due the Mav3 's extreme performance. It's like a race car. In the future, If the Autel Evo 3 series drones outperform the DJI Mav 3, I may switch. We will see.

 

[Lets Fly]

My Mavic 3 decides to take a route home directly over powerlines and descends closer and closer as I watch. I did not interfere.

I agree with post #10, it makes no sense to decend when you have RTH set to a specific height. That takes away the intended protection of running into anything. My M2Z stays at the set height and drops straight down. Another flaw for M3?