Return to Home... do you trust it?

I use it all the time to come home .. let the Phantom start and get a good course and then I take control back because I can fly faster than RTH does.
This. When I'm lazy and it's a long ways away with plenty of battery, I'll hit RTH and let it do some of the work.
 
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I used the feature yesterday as my fingers was very cold flying at 2deg.. Nice to put my hands in pockets while it flew back home on its own.
 
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RTH is so dependable that I sometime demo its value by flying a mile away and shut off the controller and start packing everything up. No tablet, no controller. No button push to start RTH. I just shut it all down and start packing. Withing a few minute there is a P3 landing close to where it took off. The RTH process is near perfect. The only flaw in it is people not setting a safe RTH altitude, or flying UNDER something and loosing signal, leading to the P3 climbing to RTH altitude and hitting whatever obstacle. To date I don't think I have seen ONE RTH failure that wasnt operator error.
 
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To date I don't think I have seen ONE RTH failure that wasnt operator error.
But that's the biggest operator error there is, and you're doing it. Nothing is 100% guaranteed. Not responsible flying to shut off all control. I'm sure you don't make a habit of it, but relinquishing all pilot control should never be done, imo.
 
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But that's the biggest operator error there is, and you're doing it. Nothing is 100% guaranteed. Not responsible flying to shut off all control. I'm sure you don't make a habit of it, but relinquishing all pilot control should never be done, imo.
You are correct, to a degree. The only way to know something works, to know that you can rely on it, is to see it actually work. What I am ultimately doing is simulating a loss of transmitter signal. It really starts by shutting off and disconnecting the tablet. The bird still flies fine. I just loose FPV. Then the transmitter is shut off.. simulate signal loss. This is rammed home by packing it up. No one can deny that everything beyond that point is automated, and fool proof.

So you are correct.. nothing is 100% But I am willing to invest my trust in that system... willing to potentially invest $1500 to make a point. You cant tell me that after seeing that display that you would have much reservation!
 
You'll want to go to MC Settings/ Advanced Settings/ Failsafe Mode/ and 1st set the aircrafts "Go to Home Altitude". Then back out of Failsafe Mode and the next section is RC Signal Lost. It is there that you will want to select the "Return-to-Home" option.

Now the best part about RTH is you can Yaw the aircraft to point in any direction why the RTH is activated. It's like someone is flying for you allowing you to look at whatever while in route home. Take pic's or video as you go. You can even Yaw the A/C while descending if need be. It's a great tip!
 
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RTH can mist definitely be trusted . Like stated several times already double check your fail safe settings . Make it apart of your precheck flight list along with your sensors . Double check the mod numbers to see that they are within the normal range .
 
You are correct, to a degree. The only way to know something works, to know that you can rely on it, is to see it actually work. What I am ultimately doing is simulating a loss of transmitter signal. It really starts by shutting off and disconnecting the tablet. The bird still flies fine. I just loose FPV. Then the transmitter is shut off.. simulate signal loss. This is rammed home by packing it up. No one can deny that everything beyond that point is automated, and fool proof.

So you are correct.. nothing is 100% But I am willing to invest my trust in that system... willing to potentially invest $1500 to make a point. You cant tell me that after seeing that display that you would have much reservation!

Yeah but isn't auto land kind of rough?
 
RTH is so dependable that I sometime demo its value by flying a mile away and shut off the controller and start packing everything up. No tablet, no controller. No button push to start RTH. I just shut it all down and start packing. Withing a few minute there is a P3 landing close to where it took off.

Lol and people were giving me grief for doing 5 min 100 feet away flights in the middle of nowhere without a tablet! :) :)
 
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Forget the word flyaway, it's something that used to be a fault nearly 2 years ago but is still used today mainly by new pilots to put blame on crashes mainly due to pilot error because they didn't know what they were doing and panicked. Rth is fine and very useful at times. Just test it out in wide open areas first at not too far a distance away so you build up your own confidence in it. Make sure you know your phantom and that it has home lock, sat lock and you know if you are in gps/atti

Well said. I love to RTH. Learn to trust it. :)
 
RTH is like any other feature, you should practice with it and get comfortable with it. To be a good pilot, you should know every aspect of flying the P3.
 
I fully trust RTH. However if you fly far, down into a canyon and are complacent with hitting RTH, you could find yourself without a bird. Happened to me when I casually hit RTH 300 meters down into a canyon to answer questions for a bystander. By the time I realized it needed to rise 350+meters before flying back 3.5km, it was too late....
Of course head wind picked up, but morale of the story is don't allow yourself to be distracted.
Edit: corrected meters vs feet distance/elevation
 
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I've had it land 12 feet away from the takeoff point so it's a good idea to take over manually if you're on a boat dock like I am sometimes.
 
I casually hit RTH 300+ ft down into a canyon to answer questions for a bystander. By the time I realized it needed to rise 400+ ft before flying back 1.5KM, it was too late....
.
I canyon fly a lot too, so this got my attention. So, you were 300 feet down, and 1.5 KM away, busy mixing imperial and metric numbers, and you had RTH set so low it couldn't climb back out of the canyon? Even if you had RTH set at 20 feet, wouldn't it have to totally climb out of a canyon plus 20 feet above ground?
I'm guessing the terrain you are talking about has large hills and such surrounding the canyon rim that got you into trouble?
Sorry for OT.
 
I canyon fly a lot too, so this got my attention. So, you were 300 feet down, and 1.5 KM away, busy mixing imperial and metric numbers, and you had RTH set so low it couldn't climb back out of the canyon? Even if you had RTH set at 20 feet, wouldn't it have to totally climb out of a canyon plus 20 feet above ground?
I'm guessing the terrain you are talking about has large hills and such surrounding the canyon rim that got you into trouble?
Sorry for OT.
Ya... the math is WAY off there! RTH altitude is based on the home point. If it was that far too low then at the point of hitting RTH you would have been 200 feet or so BELOW line of sight. So you would have had no signal.

But yes... RTH altitude is a crazy important!! As is the area around the home point. RTH is NOT perfectly accurate! I find, strangely, that mine is almost always about 9 feet off. Havent figured that one out yet.
 
Ya... the math is WAY off there! RTH altitude is based on the home point. If it was that far too low then at the point of hitting RTH you would have been 200 feet or so BELOW line of sight. So you would have had no signal.

But yes... RTH altitude is a crazy important!! As is the area around the home point. RTH is NOT perfectly accurate! I find, strangely, that mine is almost always about 9 feet off. Havent figured that one out yet.

Maybe it's already 9 feet off from when the Home Point was recorded??? Isn't civilian GPS not as accurate as military and therefore the accuracy will be off by some???
 
Maybe it's already 9 feet off from when the Home Point was recorded??? Isn't civilian GPS not as accurate as military and therefore the accuracy will be off by some???
Yes.. civ GPS is accurate to 3 meters.. about 9 feet. Its just strange that some are nearly always dead on.. some are 12 feet off, and mine is always 9 feet.
 
RTH works everytime, EXCEPT if it's fighting high wind. It travel more slowly in RTH mode, so you're better off manually fly it back home (if u can see it, visually or fpv).
 

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