(Warning) Avoid this low battery RTH mistake

[lenzwizard]

Thanks for sharing your story. Certainly an odd and scary situation and something to consider. I myself have done this very thing of landing away from where I took off (usually back to where my vehicle is parked). Most times I have shut the drone down after landing although once right after the drone touched down I lost the connection (due to trees & terrain). When I returned the motors were running, however the battery was not critically low (guess I lucked out).

 

[Nothingtodo]

Sorry, perhaps my post wasn't clear. For the example you're referring to, did you know for sure whether or not the blades had stop spinning or not?

If blades stop spinning, no matter how you trottle up, the bird won't take off. Hope that answer the first question in a sure way. Next, the RPM status in the RC shows if the rotor is spinning or not. Finally, the bird will never start its rotor on its own no matter what. If it does, then its faulty unit.

 

[Nothingtodo]

I'm guessing here, as this is not something I want to test - but, yeah - if the rotors are spinning, the Mavic is ready for flight. If the battery is above critical and the RC is turned off ~ then the proper action for it would be to follow the RTH protocol. Without one of the other two RTH options of either landing or hovering being selected - she's heading home.

Yes fully agree. If props is turning, its always ready to take off anytime at command and / or follow protocol. This allows for some flyers who wants to make a take off video from a rock off the coast far from where the flyer is.

 

[RolandW]

I made a video of the tests. I'm disappointed in my camera's location, as you can't see the craft when it's landing at the remote location down field - you know - the reason we're all here. But my narration kinda covers my ars. Thank goodness for wireless mics...

Ah, I'm not the only one who calls them "rotors." To me, airplanes have propellers; copters have rotors.

 

[Nothingtodo]

There's something fishy here, if you landed it, then it shouldn't take off again, period.

The question is are you landing it temporary, or permanent.

 

[ZUCSTA]

Another example of pilot error I'm afraid and another reason why pilots need to Fly drones to Land L.O.S. . It has fail safes for emergency situations. It can't "think" or guess what you want it to do. It doesn't know if you want to do a brief touch down and take off, it knows it's low on battery that's it. It knows where your original RTH was , ...that's it...It can't link to your thought processes. As for no video link , Every pilot should be versed in reading their Remote , LOOK at its revs ,Double check its powered off not just assume, hence why laws are there for operational LOS so you can Visually see your craft Especially while landing .
It's got nothing to do with DJI and fixing anything .it's all in the manual , it's all in the Laws, it's all on the remote, and its "gauges". There were ways to avoid all this and there are ways to take off again even at 2% battery , but by then the battery may well be cactus for your next flight. My suggestion, Carry the very light drone back to the car.(and a variety of other suggestions to avoid ever doing this again)

 

[ElegantBird]

Hi guys,

I had a near miss. I just wanted to alert you of this so nobody loses their Mavic Pro.

I was filming a lake.
I parked my car on one side of the lake and I launched my drone from the opposite side of the lake.

I completed my filming and knew the drone's battery was pretty low at around 18%. Time to wrap things up.
I thought I would be clever and just land my drone near my car, so that I didn't need to carry it back to the car.
I landed it via the video feed and confirmed that it was actually stationary on the ground.

I unplugged my phone and turned off the Mavic controller. I completely packed everything away.

After about 5 minutes, after walking halfway back to the car, I suddenly heard my Mavic in the air!!

Confused and freaking out, I opened my bag and turned on the controller on again (without a smartphone). As soon as it connected to the drone, it immediately starts beeping, indicating that the battery was now very very low (eg, single-digit %)

Because the battery had dropped to a certain level while it sat idle on the ground beside my car, it had autonomously taken off again, climbed to the RTH altitude I previously set (100m) and heading 'home', over the middle of the lake.

It didn't have enough battery to make it home. Mid-way through it's RTH course over the lake, the battery reached the critically-low threshold and it began doing an forced-decent over the middle of the lake.

I could not override this descent - however I was fortunate on this occasion because I had a physical line-of-sight to the drone from where I was standing. I was even more fortunate that I was able to manually roll the drone sideways and steer this forced-descent onto a patch of dirt which happened to be beside this particular section of it's RTH course.
(again, my phone wasn't plugged in to the controller so I had no video feed; it was all manual)

On this occasion the drone wasn't destroyed, but this was a very, very close call.

I understand that the drone will return to home on low battery and lost signal...but I was surprised that it will do this even after the pilot has landed it somewhere else. This seems to be a loop-hole in the RTH algorithm.

If I ever want to land the drone at an alternative site, how can I land it and STAY THERE, even when the battery gets low? (assume I'm flying using just the manual controls, ie, without a smart phone)

Has this happened to anyone else?

Please be careful of this, guys.

EDIT:

Here is the flight log of the flight.
This flight was about 6 weeks ago, with many uneventful flights since. You'll have to forgive me if some of my earlier recollection of the event was inaccurate in my initial post.
I have deliberately removed all the GPS coordinates for confidentiality.
What I can tell you is: the take-off point was also the 'home point'. The landing point was not the home point.

DJIFlightRecord_2018-01-03_(11-39-13) (GPS coordinates removed).xlsx

There's a video on YouTube by a guy who lost his Mavic on the White Cliffs of Dover due to this exact "quirkq". He waswvewa low on battery, so he landed it quickly on a remote grassy area, ran to his car causing a loss of RC signal, and found that it had taken off again, trying and failing to reach the Home point. His advice was

Hi guys,

I had a near miss. I just wanted to alert you of this so nobody loses their Mavic Pro.

I was filming a lake.
I parked my car on one side of the lake and I launched my drone from the opposite side of the lake.

I completed my filming and knew the drone's battery was pretty low at around 18%. Time to wrap things up.
I thought I would be clever and just land my drone near my car, so that I didn't need to carry it back to the car.
I landed it via the video feed and confirmed that it was actually stationary on the ground.

I unplugged my phone and turned off the Mavic controller. I completely packed everything away.

After about 5 minutes, after walking halfway back to the car, I suddenly heard my Mavic in the air!!

Confused and freaking out, I opened my bag and turned on the controller on again (without a smartphone). As soon as it connected to the drone, it immediately starts beeping, indicating that the battery was now very very low (eg, single-digit %)

Because the battery had dropped to a certain level while it sat idle on the ground beside my car, it had autonomously taken off again, climbed to the RTH altitude I previously set (100m) and heading 'home', over the middle of the lake.

It didn't have enough battery to make it home. Mid-way through it's RTH course over the lake, the battery reached the critically-low threshold and it began doing an forced-decent over the middle of the lake.

I could not override this descent - however I was fortunate on this occasion because I had a physical line-of-sight to the drone from where I was standing. I was even more fortunate that I was able to manually roll the drone sideways and steer this forced-descent onto a patch of dirt which happened to be beside this particular section of it's RTH course.
(again, my phone wasn't plugged in to the controller so I had no video feed; it was all manual)

On this occasion the drone wasn't destroyed, but this was a very, very close call.

I understand that the drone will return to home on low battery and lost signal...but I was surprised that it will do this even after the pilot has landed it somewhere else. This seems to be a loop-hole in the RTH algorithm.

If I ever want to land the drone at an alternative site, how can I land it and STAY THERE, even when the battery gets low? (assume I'm flying using just the manual controls, ie, without a smart phone)

Has this happened to anyone else?

Please be careful of this, guys.

EDIT:

Here is the flight log of the flight.
This flight was about 6 weeks ago, with many uneventful flights since. You'll have to forgive me if some of my earlier recollection of the event was inaccurate in my initial post.
I have deliberately removed all the GPS coordinates for confidentiality.
What I can tell you is: the take-off point was also the 'home point'. The landing point was not the home point.

DJIFlightRecord_2018-01-03_(11-39-13) (GPS coordinates removed).xlsx

Hi guys,

I had a near miss. I just wanted to alert you of this so nobody loses their Mavic Pro.

I was filming a lake.
I parked my car on one side of the lake and I launched my drone from the opposite side of the lake.

I completed my filming and knew the drone's battery was pretty low at around 18%. Time to wrap things up.
I thought I would be clever and just land my drone near my car, so that I didn't need to carry it back to the car.
I landed it via the video feed and confirmed that it was actually stationary on the ground.

I unplugged my phone and turned off the Mavic controller. I completely packed everything away.

After about 5 minutes, after walking halfway back to the car, I suddenly heard my Mavic in the air!!

Confused and freaking out, I opened my bag and turned on the controller on again (without a smartphone). As soon as it connected to the drone, it immediately starts beeping, indicating that the battery was now very very low (eg, single-digit %)

Because the battery had dropped to a certain level while it sat idle on the ground beside my car, it had autonomously taken off again, climbed to the RTH altitude I previously set (100m) and heading 'home', over the middle of the lake.

It didn't have enough battery to make it home. Mid-way through it's RTH course over the lake, the battery reached the critically-low threshold and it began doing an forced-decent over the middle of the lake.

I could not override this descent - however I was fortunate on this occasion because I had a physical line-of-sight to the drone from where I was standing. I was even more fortunate that I was able to manually roll the drone sideways and steer this forced-descent onto a patch of dirt which happened to be beside this particular section of it's RTH course.
(again, my phone wasn't plugged in to the controller so I had no video feed; it was all manual)

On this occasion the drone wasn't destroyed, but this was a very, very close call.

I understand that the drone will return to home on low battery and lost signal...but I was surprised that it will do this even after the pilot has landed it somewhere else. This seems to be a loop-hole in the RTH algorithm.

If I ever want to land the drone at an alternative site, how can I land it and STAY THERE, even when the battery gets low? (assume I'm flying using just the manual controls, ie, without a smart phone)

Has this happened to anyone else?

Please be careful of this, guys.

EDIT:

Here is the flight log of the flight.
This flight was about 6 weeks ago, with many uneventful flights since. You'll have to forgive me if some of my earlier recollection of the event was inaccurate in my initial post.
I have deliberately removed all the GPS coordinates for confidentiality.
What I can tell you is: the take-off point was also the 'home point'. The landing point was not the home point.

DJIFlightRecord_2018-01-03_(11-39-13) (GPS coordinates removed).xlsx

Hi guys,

I had a near miss. I just wanted to alert you of this so nobody loses their Mavic Pro.

I was filming a lake.
I parked my car on one side of the lake and I launched my drone from the opposite side of the lake.

I completed my filming and knew the drone's battery was pretty low at around 18%. Time to wrap things up.
I thought I would be clever and just land my drone near my car, so that I didn't need to carry it back to the car.
I landed it via the video feed and confirmed that it was actually stationary on the ground.

I unplugged my phone and turned off the Mavic controller. I completely packed everything away.

After about 5 minutes, after walking halfway back to the car, I suddenly heard my Mavic in the air!!

Confused and freaking out, I opened my bag and turned on the controller on again (without a smartphone). As soon as it connected to the drone, it immediately starts beeping, indicating that the battery was now very very low (eg, single-digit %)

Because the battery had dropped to a certain level while it sat idle on the ground beside my car, it had autonomously taken off again, climbed to the RTH altitude I previously set (100m) and heading 'home', over the middle of the lake.

It didn't have enough battery to make it home. Mid-way through it's RTH course over the lake, the battery reached the critically-low threshold and it began doing an forced-decent over the middle of the lake.

I could not override this descent - however I was fortunate on this occasion because I had a physical line-of-sight to the drone from where I was standing. I was even more fortunate that I was able to manually roll the drone sideways and steer this forced-descent onto a patch of dirt which happened to be beside this particular section of it's RTH course.
(again, my phone wasn't plugged in to the controller so I had no video feed; it was all manual)

On this occasion the drone wasn't destroyed, but this was a very, very close call.

I understand that the drone will return to home on low battery and lost signal...but I was surprised that it will do this even after the pilot has landed it somewhere else. This seems to be a loop-hole in the RTH algorithm.

If I ever want to land the drone at an alternative site, how can I land it and STAY THERE, even when the battery gets low? (assume I'm flying using just the manual controls, ie, without a smart phone)

Has this happened to anyone else?

Please be careful of this, guys.

EDIT:

Here is the flight log of the flight.
This flight was about 6 weeks ago, with many uneventful flights since. You'll have to forgive me if some of my earlier recollection of the event was inaccurate in my initial post.
I have deliberately removed all the GPS coordinates for confidentiality.
What I can tell you is: the take-off point was also the 'home point'. The landing point was not the home point.

DJIFlightRecord_2018-01-03_(11-39-13) (GPS coordinates removed).xlsx

Hi guys,

I had a near miss. I just wanted to alert you of this so nobody loses their Mavic Pro.

I was filming a lake.
I parked my car on one side of the lake and I launched my drone from the opposite side of the lake.

I completed my filming and knew the drone's battery was pretty low at around 18%. Time to wrap things up.
I thought I would be clever and just land my drone near my car, so that I didn't need to carry it back to the car.
I landed it via the video feed and confirmed that it was actually stationary on the ground.

I unplugged my phone and turned off the Mavic controller. I completely packed everything away.

After about 5 minutes, after walking halfway back to the car, I suddenly heard my Mavic in the air!!

Confused and freaking out, I opened my bag and turned on the controller on again (without a smartphone). As soon as it connected to the drone, it immediately starts beeping, indicating that the battery was now very very low (eg, single-digit %)

Because the battery had dropped to a certain level while it sat idle on the ground beside my car, it had autonomously taken off again, climbed to the RTH altitude I previously set (100m) and heading 'home', over the middle of the lake.

It didn't have enough battery to make it home. Mid-way through it's RTH course over the lake, the battery reached the critically-low threshold and it began doing an forced-decent over the middle of the lake.

I could not override this descent - however I was fortunate on this occasion because I had a physical line-of-sight to the drone from where I was standing. I was even more fortunate that I was able to manually roll the drone sideways and steer this forced-descent onto a patch of dirt which happened to be beside this particular section of it's RTH course.
(again, my phone wasn't plugged in to the controller so I had no video feed; it was all manual)

On this occasion the drone wasn't destroyed, but this was a very, very close call.

I understand that the drone will return to home on low battery and lost signal...but I was surprised that it will do this even after the pilot has landed it somewhere else. This seems to be a loop-hole in the RTH algorithm.

If I ever want to land the drone at an alternative site, how can I land it and STAY THERE, even when the battery gets low? (assume I'm flying using just the manual controls, ie, without a smart phone)

Has this happened to anyone else?

Please be careful of this, guys.

EDIT:

Here is the flight log of the flight.
This flight was about 6 weeks ago, with many uneventful flights since. You'll have to forgive me if some of my earlier recollection of the event was inaccurate in my initial post.
I have deliberately removed all the GPS coordinates for confidentiality.
What I can tell you is: the take-off point was also the 'home point'. The landing point was not the home point.

DJIFlightRecord_2018-01-03_(11-39-13) (GPS coordinates removed).xlsx

 

[ZUCSTA]

Touché!

Unless they have already stopped ...In which case you will restart them

 

[DAMIANG]

I wonder if in this scenario, the OP even could have sent a 3 second 0-throttle command at all. The RC probably lost LOS anyhow with the MP at the ground at a distance. It probably lost signal a second after touchdown. After 'hovering' a few seconds on the ground, waiting for a control signal, it went into RTH.

I believe Lake_Flyer hit it on the nose for the most likely scenario. Being that low to the ground and far away from the Mavic, you barely touched down the motors did not shut off, then it either lost signal or it hit critical battery level and triggered the RTH. I have not gone through your flight log yet

 

[BudWalker]

I discovered that it is computer dependent. I have 3 PC's and DJI A2 wouldn't/couldn't get the dat files from my MP. Then I tried my Surface Pro 3 tablet and wah-la - it worked.
I have no idea what on earth could be the issue.
We know that the "app" is based on or uses javascript so likely depends on a web engine it assumes is installed. Which one is anybody's guess since different browsers use different web engines.

Comparison of web browser engines - Wikipedia.

Are you describing a all or none scenario. For me, sometimes none of the .DATs show up. But, that will be fixed by rebooting or uninstalling and reinstalling the driver. Seems like the driver just got wedged.

The real issue for me is that some of the .DATs that I know should be there never show up. I've been doing some investigating and looking at the internal file system and it seems that the missing .DATs never got recorded.

 

[Qoncussion]

I have been reading all the posts and nobody has said the obvious thing to do when you decide to land in a far away location :
You should change the default action to perform upon signal loss from "Return to home" to "Landing".
In the same way should be disabled the RTH action on low battery.
Changing the home point is instead inappropriate for that purpose.

Check post #41... I was surprised that this side of the conversation didn't get tossed around more ~but it has been mentioned.

(Warning) Avoid this low battery RTH mistake

 

[Qoncussion]

The question is are you landing it temporary, or permanent.

Actually, if you intend to land it temporarily ~you had better make sure that you're not using landing protection, or shut off the bottom sensors entirely. Landing protection detects the landing and automatically kills the rotors. Once the rotors have shut down, they won't automatically restart. But, you could, of course, restart them remotely. With the sensors off, even after you land the craft still thinks it's flying. Mine lifted off of the ground after landing w/o sensors, to reposition itself (GPS) in 3D space. If the GPS coordinates were really off, this action could have flown it into rock, tree or other obstacle.

 

[DAMIANG]

Hi guys,

I had a near miss. I just wanted to alert you of this so nobody loses their Mavic Pro.

I was filming a lake.
I parked my car on one side of the lake and I launched my drone from the opposite side of the lake.

I completed my filming and knew the drone's battery was pretty low at around 18%. Time to wrap things up.
I thought I would be clever and just land my drone near my car, so that I didn't need to carry it back to the car.
I landed it via the video feed and confirmed that it was actually stationary on the ground.

I unplugged my phone and turned off the Mavic controller. I completely packed everything away.

After about 5 minutes, after walking halfway back to the car, I suddenly heard my Mavic in the air!!

Confused and freaking out, I opened my bag and turned on the controller on again (without a smartphone). As soon as it connected to the drone, it immediately starts beeping, indicating that the battery was now very very low (eg, single-digit %)

Because the battery had dropped to a certain level while it sat idle on the ground beside my car, it had autonomously taken off again, climbed to the RTH altitude I previously set (100m) and heading 'home', over the middle of the lake.

It didn't have enough battery to make it home. Mid-way through it's RTH course over the lake, the battery reached the critically-low threshold and it began doing an forced-decent over the middle of the lake.

I could not override this descent - however I was fortunate on this occasion because I had a physical line-of-sight to the drone from where I was standing. I was even more fortunate that I was able to manually roll the drone sideways and steer this forced-descent onto a patch of dirt which happened to be beside this particular section of it's RTH course.
(again, my phone wasn't plugged in to the controller so I had no video feed; it was all manual)

On this occasion the drone wasn't destroyed, but this was a very, very close call.

I understand that the drone will return to home on low battery and lost signal...but I was surprised that it will do this even after the pilot has landed it somewhere else. This seems to be a loop-hole in the RTH algorithm.

If I ever want to land the drone at an alternative site, how can I land it and STAY THERE, even when the battery gets low? (assume I'm flying using just the manual controls, ie, without a smart phone)

Has this happened to anyone else?

Please be careful of this, guys.

EDIT:

Here is the flight log of the flight.
This flight was about 6 weeks ago, with many uneventful flights since. You'll have to forgive me if some of my earlier recollection of the event was inaccurate in my initial post.
I have deliberately removed all the GPS coordinates for confidentiality.
What I can tell you is: the take-off point was also the 'home point'. The landing point was not the home point.

DJIFlightRecord_2018-01-03_(11-39-13) (GPS coordinates removed).xlsx

Your log does not correlate to what you are stating. Your battery % on your log never was under 29% also does not show that it engaged a RTH or that it lost signal?? The log shows it lost signal once briefly early in the flight but only for 1.2 seconds , not longer than the 3 seconds it takes to engage the RTH.

 

[Petike1007]

I descended until it was 30cm off the ground. I gimballed down to check the ground was safe. I then pointed the gimbal to the horizon for the final landing phase (as I usually do, to reduce the chance that something on the ground scratches the front of the camera). I then further descended it completely down to the ground. Thus, I wasn't able to see whether dirt was still blowing around when I knew the drone was on the ground. I didn't pay attention to the rpm of the motors. The drone was not in the air and the altitude was 0, at the time I turned off the controller. I thought that would be the end of the story...

I have no idea why the blades would still spin when it knows it's on the ground...why would they keep spinning when it is on the ground?

You should check the motors rpm on the controller...if it's 0 you are good...

 

[Nothingtodo]

Actually, if you intend to land it temporarily ~you had better make sure that you're not using landing protection, or shut off the bottom sensors entirely. Landing protection detects the landing and automatically kills the rotors. Once the rotors have shut down, they won't automatically restart. But, you could, of course, restart them remotely. With the sensors off, even after you land the craft still thinks it's flying. Mine lifted off of the ground after landing w/o sensors, to reposition itself (GPS) in 3D space. If the GPS coordinates were really off, this action could have flown it into rock, tree or other obstacle.

I had a situation where I did a tracking flight, had my Mavic follow me. Not wanting to return to my original start off point "also home point for Mavic", I manually land my mavic close to me. After landing, the rotors did not turn off but continue turning. At the same time I approach the bird, only to my surprise, the rotors sped up and start to take off again to try move away from me. However, by shear luck, I manage to hold it down, pressing the bird in between the 4 blades without getting myself cut. I then realise I had triggered the front sensors when I move too near to it and and Mavic was just trying to fly backwards to avoid me. I reckon that if your Mavic did not land close or on the home point, it will take it that its a temporary landing. Not sure by switching off the bottom sensors will stop the rotors automatically after landing.

 

[Qoncussion]

I reckon that if your Mavic did not land close or on the home point, it will take it that its a temporary landing. Not sure by switching off the bottom sensors will stop the rotors automatically after landing.

The Mavic doesn't do "temporary" landings ~so I'm not sure what that means. If you review a few of my posts above, you can see that, with the bottom sensors off, the craft does not know that it is on the ground. It still thinks it is in flight. I posted a video above, testing this. With the bottom sensors on (and frankly I think this really came down to having landing protection on), the motors automatically disengage, as the craft "knows" it has landed - even when landing far away from its home point. With the sensors off, it has no idea that it has landed, and will continue to behave the same as in flight - obstacle avoidance and all.

 

[FLYBOYJ]

This happened to me with a P3P, it popped up and went into a tree, luckily no damage

 

[spwalker]

Since you turned the controller back on to regain control, I assume it had been turned off. Doesn't this action tell the aircraft it has lost signal and trigger RTH when it's powered up regardless if it's sitting on the ground resting? This is the third time the same action caused the same result I've heard about. I think the answer may be just leave your controller on until the craft is turned off - or - reset the RTH location once you land.

Yes, the guidance is always to leave the rc on until you turn the drone off, just in case something strange happens. This is an excellent demonstration of the wisdom of that recommendation

 

[garethshaw]

There is only one way to turn any UAV on and one way to turn it off.

Turning ON
Controller on, wait until it’s ready to receive a signal THEN the drone.

Turning OFF
Drone off, wait until the controller registers this THEN turn the controller off.

Any other way and you risk the UAV thinking it’s lost a signal and going rogue, sorry this completely user error and a newbie mistake! This isn’t really a warning more a tail of how not to do things. Never turn the controller off unless you have confirmed that the UAV is completely off.

G

Hi guys,

I had a near miss. I just wanted to alert you of this so nobody loses their Mavic Pro.

I was filming a lake.
I parked my car on one side of the lake and I launched my drone from the opposite side of the lake.

I completed my filming and knew the drone's battery was pretty low at around 18%. Time to wrap things up.
I thought I would be clever and just land my drone near my car, so that I didn't need to carry it back to the car.
I landed it via the video feed and confirmed that it was actually stationary on the ground.

I unplugged my phone and turned off the Mavic controller. I completely packed everything away.

After about 5 minutes, after walking halfway back to the car, I suddenly heard my Mavic in the air!!

Confused and freaking out, I opened my bag and turned on the controller on again (without a smartphone). As soon as it connected to the drone, it immediately starts beeping, indicating that the battery was now very very low (eg, single-digit %)

Because the battery had dropped to a certain level while it sat idle on the ground beside my car, it had autonomously taken off again, climbed to the RTH altitude I previously set (100m) and heading 'home', over the middle of the lake.

It didn't have enough battery to make it home. Mid-way through it's RTH course over the lake, the battery reached the critically-low threshold and it began doing an forced-decent over the middle of the lake.

I could not override this descent - however I was fortunate on this occasion because I had a physical line-of-sight to the drone from where I was standing. I was even more fortunate that I was able to manually roll the drone sideways and steer this forced-descent onto a patch of dirt which happened to be beside this particular section of it's RTH course.
(again, my phone wasn't plugged in to the controller so I had no video feed; it was all manual)

On this occasion the drone wasn't destroyed, but this was a very, very close call.

I understand that the drone will return to home on low battery and lost signal...but I was surprised that it will do this even after the pilot has landed it somewhere else. This seems to be a loop-hole in the RTH algorithm.

If I ever want to land the drone at an alternative site, how can I land it and STAY THERE, even when the battery gets low? (assume I'm flying using just the manual controls, ie, without a smart phone)

Has this happened to anyone else?

Please be careful of this, guys.

EDIT:

Here is the flight log of the flight.
This flight was about 6 weeks ago, with many uneventful flights since. You'll have to forgive me if some of my earlier recollection of the event was inaccurate in my initial post.
I have deliberately removed all the GPS coordinates for confidentiality.
What I can tell you is: the take-off point was also the 'home point'. The landing point was not the home point.

DJIFlightRecord_2018-01-03_(11-39-13) (GPS coordinates removed).xlsx

 

[Qoncussion]

There is only one way to turn any UAV on and one way to turn it off.

Turning ON
Controller on, wait until it’s ready to receive a signal THEN the drone.

Turning OFF
Drone off, wait until the controller registers this THEN turn the controller off.

Any other way and you risk the UAV thinking it’s lost a signal and going rogue, sorry this completely user error and a newbie mistake! This isn’t really a warning more a tail of how not to do things. Never turn the controller off unless you have confirmed that the UAV is completely off.

G

Yet, we've discovered in this thread through numerous tests that nothing will fire up the motors, except for a deliberate user action, once the motors have been disengaged. So you can safely turn off your RC, if you have verified (check RPMs on RC screen) that the motors have been shut down. The drone will not move an inch - even when left on.