One of those days I should have stayed home!

[Mocho]

But someone was looking out for me and my bird!

I had another Litchi waypoint flight failure again on Monday and my bird was over the river! Friggin thing did not return along the same path as it was directed to Nothing wrong with the mission, but for whatever reason it just decided to go to the last waypoint and hover. When Maxx didn't return home on time I had some kind words for Litchi and quickly thought of options to get my bird back as I lost my RC signal. The only option was to find higher ground so I jumped into the car drove up a hill and was lucky my RC reconnected and I got home safe and sound.
This is the second time a perfectly good, saved mission failed to return along the same path.
I think there is a bug in the current Android vr. In both cases I changed the last waypoint to return along the same path instead of RTH(RTH was more than 2000m limit) and both times it got confused and hovered at the last waypoint

I used up a lot of luck that Monday. Got my bird back from the Litchi mission gone bad. Then I got hung up in a 50ft. tall tree on the other side of the river 300 ft. away across the river. In DENSE bush and piled up logs and debris from the last high river level. It was a 21 km trip by road and much door knocking before I found the farmer who owned the land. He even took time out of baling hay to take me down to the site with his quad!! We spent 2 hrs. Looking for it until I finally spotted it up in the tree. Came back later that evening with my brother and a ladder so my Bro. could climb the tree.
Low and behold an Angel came along while i was gone and carried my bird from the tree top and placed it under the tree atop a bunch of loose leaves and debris without as much as a scratch on it!! More than I can say about the pilot who was pretty beat up from walking through the dense bush in shorts and a tee shirt lol When I got home I wiped off the tree sap, put in a fresh battery and she fired right up with no errors! Of course I recalibrated everything anyway and she flys just like always, with a crooked horizon most of the time lol
BTW this was my first real incident since I bought my P3P 3 months ago.

Please see post 10, I was wrong about how the Litchi reverse function works. It worked just like it is supposed to. Sorry peeps.

 

[Sagebrush]

I always set my last waypoint near my takeoff point.

SB

 

[fastfed]

May I ask, I've seen a lot of these posts where after the mission tit didn't return home, just stayed at the last waypoint.

Why isn't everyone simply making the last waypoint where you're at?

 

[Avocet]

May I ask, I've seen a lot of these posts where after the mission tit didn't return home, just stayed at the last waypoint.

Why isn't everyone simply making the last waypoint where you're at?

I suspect people are locating their LAST waypoint far from WP#1 and telling the Litchi to finish the missing with the RTH setting. Better have an awful good idea of just how that bird is gonna get back home. Lots of surprises lurking perhaps between WP#1 and the last WP ... Plan the mission so the last WP is a meter or 3 away from WP#1 and tell the bloody thing to hover when its finished!

 

[Mocho]

May I ask, I've seen a lot of these posts where after the mission tit didn't return home, just stayed at the last waypoint.

Why isn't everyone simply making the last waypoint where you're at?

Can't answer for others but in my case Litchi was instructed to return along the path it took.
That would put the last way point in reverse, right in front of me. Maybe the Author of Litchi can tell you why it has a bug that causes it to fail?

 

[HWCM]

I suspect people are locating their LAST waypoint far from WP#1 and telling the Litchi to finish the missing with the RTH setting. Better have an awful good idea of just how that bird is gonna get back home. Lots of surprises lurking perhaps between WP#1 and the last WP ... Plan the mission so the last WP is a meter or 3 away from WP#1 and tell the bloody thing to hover when its finished!

I do not understand...

 

[With The Birds]

I do not understand...

RTH will climb to preset altitude, turn to face home and attempt to fly back in a straight line to home point. Make sure set altitude is above any obstacles.

 

[Mocho]

RTH will climb to preset altitude, turn to face home and attempt to fly back in a straight line to home point. Make sure set altitude is above any obstacles.

In Litchi waypoint mode "go home" is not the same as RTH. So you still need to tell it at what altitude you want to fly home at. It's an important distinction because if your using curved waypoints your bird will not just stop and increase altitude before heading home. It will gain altitude gradually as it flys along. So if you don't plan those last few waypoints properly you may just fly into something.
Take the case of running a winding river at low altitude. You need to gain enough altitude along the river before your bird heads home, else you may not gain enough altitude and fly into something.

 

[With The Birds]

In Litchi waypoint mode "go home" is not the same as RTH. So you still need to tell it at what altitude you want to fly home at. It's an important distinction because if your using curved waypoints your bird will not just stop and increase altitude before heading home. It will gain altitude gradually as it flys along. So if you don't plan those last few waypoints properly you may just fly into something.
Take the case of running a winding river at low altitude. You need to gain enough altitude along the river before your bird heads home, else you may not gain enough altitude and fly into something.

Avocet was referring to litchi mission completion set as "RTH". RTH performs as determined by DJI firmware, that includes climb to reset altitude prior to return (unless already above).

 

[Mocho]

Something didn't seem right so I went to the park for a quick test.
First of all the waypoint function is not autonomous when using the reverse function One needs to use the R/C and use the right stick to fly back from the last waypoint in reverse.
Secondly "Go Home" is the same thing as RTH, the bird will rise to your RTH height and return to the home point you set. I was confusing it with "back to First Waypoint" which follow the height you set for each waypoint.

Thanks for the replies that made me dig deeper!