Finally got to FLY this evening.

[Hillbilly Pilot]

Haven't been on this site in awhile. Got to fly for about an hour this evening. Wx has been either rainy or windy here and life gets in the way sometimes too. My P3s flew well and the new Lenovo tablet worked well and gave me no issues, connected right away and had good, clear video. One question though, when I used the RTH feature(12 sats.), the bird would land 10-12ft. from it's takeoff spot, is this normal? Other than that, all went and ended well. Hope to get more flight time, which means...more batteries!! H.B.

 

[PhantomWetSuits]

Haven't been on this site in awhile. Got to fly for about an hour this evening. Wx has been either rainy or windy here and life gets in the way sometimes too. My P3s flew well and the new Lenovo tablet worked well and gave me no issues, connected right away and had good, clear video. One question though, when I used the RTH feature(12 sats.), the bird would land 10-12 from it's takeoff spot, is this normal? Other than that, all went and ended well. Hope to get more flight time, which means...more batteries!! H.B.

Do you remember if the home point got recorded before you took off ?

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Phantom in the rain.
coal

 

[Meta4]

when I used the RTH feature(12 sats.), the bird would land 10-12 from it's takeoff spot, is this normal? Other than that, all went and ended well.

RTH autoland is only as accurate as GPS which means that it will usually be within 2 metres but can sometimes be a little more.
But you can choose a landing spot better than the drone can so it's easy to cancel the RTH, resume control and land where you want to.

 

[umanbean]

Congrats on finally getting to fly!... these days weather gets in my way more than 'life' does... lol

On the rare occasions I use rth, when the bird gets overhead I always cancel rth and take control. I keep the crosshairs in DJI GO turned on, so I then point the camera straight down and can see exactly where it's going to land.

And don't forget - it has to be at least 20 meters away from the take-off point or else it'll land right where it is.

 

[msinger]

One question though, when I used the RTH feature(12 sats.), the bird would land 10-12 from it's takeoff spot, is this normal?

It's normal and this is a perfect example of why it makes sense to always choose a takeoff location that has some extra room. If you get into a situation where you really do need to let the aircraft auto land, you want to make sure it has enough room to safely do so.

Like @Meta4 mentioned above, cancel RTH when the aircraft is in view and manually land it. With practice, the automated features should never be more accurate than what you're able to do when manually controlling the aircraft.

 

[David_Cambridge]

Civilian GPS accuracy is specced as being within a 16 foot radius circle 95% of the time, so what you are experiencing is the overall accuracy of the GPS system, not a Phantom problem

 

[ishboo4343]

I also fly a P3S and use a Lenovo tab 8. No problems with either.

 

[Hillbilly Pilot]

Do you remember if the home point got recorded before you took off ?

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Phantom in the rain.
coal

No I did not notice. I thought it was automatically saved when you took off?? Mac

 

[Hillbilly Pilot]

RTH autoland is only as accurate as GPS which means that it will usually be within 2 metres but can sometimes be a little more.
But you can choose a landing spot better than the drone can so it's easy to cancel the RTH, resume control and land where you want to.

When I have used GPS for traveling purposes, like Garmin, they "claim" 6 feet accuracy. So I guess I'm in the realm of things. Mac

 

[Hillbilly Pilot]

Congrats on finally getting to fly!... these days weather gets in my way more than 'life' does... lol

On the rare occasions I use rth, when the bird gets overhead I always cancel rth and take control. I keep the crosshairs in DJI GO turned on, so I then point the camera straight down and can see exactly where it's going to land.

And don't forget - it has to be at least 20 meters away from the take-off point or else it'll land right where it is.

That's what I was doing to get more practice controlling the bird, since I don't have a lot of flight time yet. Yes I seen that prompt come up on my tablet twice during my flights. Mac

 

[Hillbilly Pilot]

Civilian GPS accuracy is specced as being within a 16 foot radius circle 95% of the time, so what you are experiencing is the overall accuracy of the GPS system, not a Phantom problem

It appears you are correct with the GPS accuracy of these drones. Thanx! Mac

 

[Hillbilly Pilot]

I also fly a P3S and use a Lenovo tab 8. No problems with either.

At this point in time, I'm happy with the performance of this device. Mac

 

[PhantomWetSuits]

At this point in time, I'm happy with the performance of this device. Mac

Good to hear, but be aware of exactly where your home point is recorded, and my GPS has never been off more than about 2 ft when landing .

Phantomrain.org
Coal

 

[Capt KO]

Good to hear, but be aware of exactly where your home point is recorded, and my GPS has never been off more than about 2 ft when landing .

Phantomrain.org
Coal

Same here. Once recorded (about 5 seconds after take off) hovering at 5ft. Always returns within 2ft.

 

[Hillbilly Pilot]

Good to hear, but be aware of exactly where your home point is recorded, and my GPS has never been off more than about 2 ft when landing .

Phantomrain.org
Coal

Same here. Once recorded (about 5 seconds after take off) hovering at 5ft. Always returns within 2ft.

I thought that's how the "home point" was recorded (compass & IMU were calib.), because I used "auto take-off" and let the bird hoover for what I felt was long enough, then went about flying. Then when I decided to land and hit the RTH prompt, the bird would land within a 10 ft. area from my actual take-off point. Maybe I d/n fly it far enough away from me or the controller (not the req. 20 meters)? Have to fly more and experiment/test. Maybe I'm just being to critical of my equipment and expecting too much, it is only a P3s? Thanx for all the replies and happy flying. Mac

 

[Capt KO]

I thought that's how the "home point" was recorded (compass & IMU were calib.), because I used "auto take-off" and let the bird hoover for what I felt was long enough, then went about flying. Then when I decided to land and hit the RTH prompt, the bird would land within a 10 ft. area from my actual take-off point. Maybe I d/n fly it far enough away from me or the controller (not the req. 20 meters)? Have to fly more and experiment/test. Maybe I'm just being to critical of my equipment and expecting too much, it is only a P3s? Thanx for all the replies and happy flying. Mac

On auto takeoff (I use it also) wait untill you hear it tell you home point fixed. It should land very close to home point. In GPS mode mine lands well with only 9 sats. As stated, RTH only works as programed, when far enough away. Fly high.

 

[Hillbilly Pilot]

On auto takeoff (I use it also) wait untill you hear it tell you home point fixed. It should land very close to home point. In GPS mode mine lands well with only 9 sats. As stated, RTH only works as programed, when far enough away. Fly high.

Ok, I'll check/listen for that prompt next time. I may of had the volume turned down on my tablet, so I wasn't able to hear it. I also d/n see any screen prompts either. I guess I'll have to pay more attention the next time I go flying. Thanx! Mac

 

[Capt KO]

Ok, I'll check/listen for that prompt next time. I may of had the volume turned down on my tablet, so I wasn't able to hear it. I also d/n see any screen prompts either. I guess I'll have to pay more attention the next time I go flying. Thanx! Mac

I am using p4 hope it's same on yours.

 

[David_Cambridge]

While it is possible to get closer than 16 feet to the home position, the system itself doesn’t always yield that accuracy. All the GPS system is designed to provide is within 16 feet 95% of the time. No anecdotal evidence of being closer provides anything other than it happening once or several times.

Understand the statistics behind the specification.

 

[Hillbilly Pilot]

I am using p4 hope it's same on yours.

I'm using a Lenovo Tab4 (8") device and my bird is a P3s. Mac