How far can a standard fly and return home?

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This morning I went 15,500' & returned to land with 9% battery..I was a little concerned to say the least. It was about 38 degrees with no or almost no wind. This is in what I would call an optional location to fly. I NEVER lost signal or video. I manually activated rth at about 52% battery. Talk about sweating bullets
 
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You are very lucky IMHO to have it all way home with final 9%.

My Std with 14% auto-landed into the river. It could not be stopped.

The flight was 5km out and back.

The distance if boosted as I was - is limited by Battery life ...

Nigel
 
I was distracted by a friend who was there with me. I would have not taken the drone that far normally. I was sweating bullets to say the least.
 
You were extremely lucky. I was not. My Std sits there completely ********'d.

The Std is not as controllable in this situation as the Pro / Adv. The manual says you can cancel auto-land when it first kicks in ... and later alter the landing point ...

Well I can say with hand on heart that it did not work for me. Once auto-land kicked in - that was it ... I tried cancelling - I tried to alter landing point ... she went down where she wanted - nothing I could do altered it.

Nigel
 
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You were extremely lucky. I was not. My Std sits there completely ********'d.

The Std is not as controllable in this situation as the Pro / Adv. The manual says you can cancel auto-land when it first kicks in ... and later alter the landing point ...

Well I can say with hand on heart that it did not work for me. Once auto-land kicked in - that was it ... I tried cancelling - I tried to alter landing point ... she went down where she wanted - nothing I could do altered it.

Nigel
I find that extremely odd. I figured it worked just like the P2 series, which means, you can cancel the RTH during RTH, then land it yourself. Or, you can not cancel RTH and still steer it down as it descends.

Not saying yours didn't behave oddly. :-D
 
Your auto RTH should have kickied in or about to, at that distance and battery level. Once the ac senses that distance and battery level are only enough to get home it will then come home. Once it hits 10%( if set to that) it starts to auto land to avoid falling out of the sky. Think I have that right.
I flew out 12,000ft. Had critical battery level at 10%(lowest setting) and it initiated RTH on its own. I had forgotten about getting home. Landed with 12% battery. Flying over marsh and water all the way. Sweating bullets all the way home.
 
RTH should kick in either with loss of signal or hitting the battery level where its minimum required to get home ...

RTH can be cancelled of course ... at your own risk ... it can be better to manually fly home if you can fly straight home and also slowly reduce altitude ... a 'glide slope' which effectively uses less power to get home. RTH works at steady altitude and then vertical descent over Home Point ... two sides of a triangle.

Auto-land due to critical battery is a different matter though ... manual says you can cancel in its early stage and as it carries on affect landing point - but I found the Std in fact does not allow cancelling or changing significantly point of landing out.

I found that Auto-land kicks in BEFORE it hits the 10% mark .. it actually kicked in about 14% ... I could not cancel ... and I could not change the landing point enough to stop going in the water ...

If I could have deflected just 20m - I would have landed out on dry ground - but it refused.

Nigel
 
You were extremely lucky. I was not. My Std sits there completely ********'d.

The Std is not as controllable in this situation as the Pro / Adv. The manual says you can cancel auto-land when it first kicks in ... and later alter the landing point ...

Well I can say with hand on heart that it did not work for me. Once auto-land kicked in - that was it ... I tried cancelling - I tried to alter landing point ... she went down where she wanted - nothing I could do altered it.

Nigel

That's unfortunate. I've had a few RTH and was able to steer/alter the landing point every time. Scary that this could happen.
 
I re watched flight log it initiated auto land at 10%. But since I was already in the process of landing anyway I didn't notice it
I would also add that with the smart rth my max distance was 13,800. I rarely go out of eyesight, this was for my own curiosity. I was very surprised I never lost signal or video.. I had to VERY precisely aim controller though. I did get a few"weak signal" warnings
 
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RTH should kick in either with loss of signal or hitting the battery level where its minimum required to get home ...

RTH can be cancelled of course ... at your own risk ... it can be better to manually fly home if you can fly straight home and also slowly reduce altitude ... a 'glide slope' which effectively uses less power to get home. RTH works at steady altitude and then vertical descent over Home Point ... two sides of a triangle.

Auto-land due to critical battery is a different matter though ... manual says you can cancel in its early stage and as it carries on affect landing point - but I found the Std in fact does not allow cancelling or changing significantly point of landing out.

I found that Auto-land kicks in BEFORE it hits the 10% mark .. it actually kicked in about 14% ... I could not cancel ... and I could not change the landing point enough to stop going in the water ...

If I could have deflected just 20m - I would have landed out on dry ground - but it refused.

Nigel
This is interesting and I'm not trying to fight with you, but allow me a few observations.

1) You have a good point that the critical auto landing is different than the RTH auto landing, but I've had both my P2 series' land during critical auto land many times and on that AC, you can definitely steer it down, I promise! I know it's in critical auto land because the lamps in back are flashing RED RED RED very quickly and, brother, it's coming down. But I can steer it down, definitely. So I would assume the P3S is the same. Maybe you had a broken connection.

2) I am sure you are mistaken about the 14% you mentioned above. I am sure the P3S goes into critical at 10% as advertised. The difference is you had either

a) a bad battery (out of balance or slightly swollen), or

b) an aftermarket battery (you have defended aftermarkets with great vigor in many other threads), or

c) a combination of these two (I had an aftermarket critically land at 27%, and yes it was an aftermarket and yes it was a bit swollen, and yes I've been told not to fly aftermarkets and yes I've been told not to fly swollen batteries and yes it seems I always have to learn the hard way - fortunately I was close to home and AC landed safely in my hand [shh, don't tell!]).

Edit: Found the vid, shoot ahead to the 14 min mark and watch it hit critical autoland at 27% - also the battery temp starts shooting upwards which is kind of interesting...

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That's unfortunate. I've had a few RTH and was able to steer/alter the landing point every time. Scary that this could happen.

RTH and "Auto Land with critical battery" are two separate items.

RTH - you can still steer around objects etc. Control input can still affect flight attitude.
Auto Land when battery is at reasonable level - you can steer as well.

Auto Land when critical battery is a different matter - the Flight Controller will act based on FW settings that it MUST land ... you have extremely limited action you can take and even that is for a very short moment ... the battery level is such that voltage is low and amps are high - so battery is going down very fast ...

If you scroll through the video here - you will see exactly what I mean ... (its the video of my P3S going for a swim)...

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Nigel
 
The P3S - if you check the manual has extremely limited action you can take once Auto Land kicks in. It is seriously less than what you can do with Pro / Adv.

I have no idea about P2 or other DJI units as I only talk about P3S and P3P which I personally own and observe.

The battery being DJI or not has nothing to do with the event ... it was over-run when I failed to take into account the wind I had basically flown out 2km, back 0.5km, and then back out to 5km ... even in calm conditions - that is on limit of a P3 battery. Watch the video I posted and you see Auto Land kick in at 14 changing to 13% ... I could not cancel - even though top bar says I can .. as battery goes down more - it changes to Landing - which is a totally committed and nothing you can do but pray situation.

With greatest respect - I know nothing about P2 and others, I am reporting on the P3S and its action. I respect others views and opinions - but facts do not lie and are shown clearly above.

Nigel
 
My critical battery level landing kicks in at 10%. This was with an aftermarket battery.
 
This is interesting and I'm not trying to fight with you, but allow me a few observations.

1) You have a good point that the critical auto landing is different than the RTH auto landing, but I've had both my P2 series' land during critical auto land many times and on that AC, you can definitely steer it down, I promise! I know it's in critical auto land because the lamps in back are flashing RED RED RED very quickly and, brother, it's coming down. But I can steer it down, definitely. So I would assume the P3S is the same. Maybe you had a broken connection.

2) I am sure you are mistaken about the 14% you mentioned above. I am sure the P3S goes into critical at 10% as advertised. The difference is you had either

a) a bad battery (out of balance or slightly swollen), or

b) an aftermarket battery (you have defended aftermarkets with great vigor in many other threads), or

c) a combination of these two (I had an aftermarket critically land at 27%, and yes it was an aftermarket and yes it was a bit swollen, and yes I've been told not to fly aftermarkets and yes I've been told not to fly swollen batteries and yes it seems I always have to learn the hard way - fortunately I was close to home and AC landed safely in my hand [shh, don't tell!]).

Edit: Found the vid, shoot ahead to the 14 min mark and watch it hit critical autoland at 27% - also the battery temp starts shooting upwards which is kind of interesting...

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What app are you using?
 
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MY buddies critical auto land kicked in 13% and had limited control as Solent discussed. Percentage is a not an absolute, just an approx. I would wager.
 

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