RTH behavior

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hi all. probably a silly question but so far I have been unable to find the answer;

If I'm flying higher than the set RTH altitude, will the craft descend to the set altitude then travel to the home point or travel to the home point at its current altitude then descend onto the home point?
 
Whatever your RTH altitude is set at is what your phantom will return at. If you're flying at 200', and your RTH is set to 150', your drone will descend to 150' to come back to you.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app
 
hi all. probably a silly question but so far I have been unable to find the answer;

If I'm flying higher than the set RTH altitude, will the craft descend to the set altitude then travel to the home point or travel to the home point at its current altitude then descend onto the home point?
If you are above the RTH altitude, the craft will stay at its current altitude when you RTH.


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app
 
Not a silly question at all.

My understanding is if the current height is higher than the RTH height, the craft will return to you at its given height.
You are correct Mark .
 
Whatever your RTH altitude is set at is what your phantom will return at. If you're flying at 200', and your RTH is set to 150', your drone will descend to 150' to come back to you.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

Will not decend. As stated in the manual.
 
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Whatever your RTH altitude is set at is what your phantom will return at. If you're flying at 200', and your RTH is set to 150', your drone will descend to 150' to come back to you.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

No it won't. It will continue at the higher altitude.
 
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hi all. probably a silly question but so far I have been unable to find the answer;

If I'm flying higher than the set RTH altitude, will the craft descend to the set altitude then travel to the home point or travel to the home point at its current altitude then descend onto the home point?
I'm very surprised that you weren't able to find the answer. It seems I've seen it asked here dozens of times. Even so, it's great that you asked anyway and got the correct answer that it won't descend to your set altitude. Understanding RTH and practicing RTH is important. Don't feel silly asking about something so critical to understand well. Cheers!
 
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I'm very surprised that you weren't able to find the answer. It seems I've seen it asked here dozens of times. Even so, it's great that you asked anyway and got the correct answer that it won't descend to your set altitude. Understanding RTH and practicing RTH is important. Don't feel silly asking about something so critical to understand well. Cheers!


Maybe I wasn't using sensible search terms, I read through a bunch of RTH threads but they were not mentioning it. I haven't tried or have had to try the RTH yet, I'm only on my 4th flight or so. What is the best and most fall-proof way to test? I guess keep it low in a open space etc?
 
If you are below your RTH altitude it will climb to your set height before returning. If you are above your RTH altitude it will maintain & return at your current height. It will NOT descend to your RTH setting.

hi all. probably a silly question but so far I have been unable to find the answer;

If I'm flying higher than the set RTH altitude, will the craft descend to the set altitude then travel to the home point or travel to the home point at its current altitude then descend onto the home point?
 
The very best way to test anything or to understand what is happening is to get out into a big open space, with no distractions and as many batteries as you have fully charged and run through a set routine yourself. So for testing RTH, for example you might want to;

Set RTH at 50m (150') in the app. Then manually fly out to 100m distance (300') and 15m (45') height. Then press the RTH button and see what it does.
Repeat, but this time turn off the TX.

Then repeat but with an original altitude of 65m (200').

Then try it all again, but at a distance of 15m out.

This way you'll have a better understanding of how RTH works. And you'll be better placed to advise those who will ask in future!
 
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Maybe I wasn't using sensible search terms, I read through a bunch of RTH threads but they were not mentioning it. I haven't tried or have had to try the RTH yet, I'm only on my 4th flight or so. What is the best and most fall-proof way to test? I guess keep it low in a open space etc?
Yes, a nice big open space. Practice several emergency scenarios. I did this a bunch in the beginning, but still do it every now and then just to keep it fresh.

I practice a few things.

Manually engaging and disengaging RTH.
Practicing what I can and can't control during RTH.
Getting a feel for the 20m radius in which the phantom will just descend in place so I can estimate it well enough by sight.
Turning off my controller to be sure the loss of control signal RTH works. I am very careful when testing this as I don't like not having control.
Loss of video signal by turning off my tablet to simulate it locking up or overheating.
Sometimes I also manually select a congested channel so that I can hopefully lose video but still have the telemetry.
Certainly ATTI mode flying which I actually do often.

Just realistic issues that can happen out of the blue at any time. I want those situations to feel as routine as flying normally.
 
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Yes, a nice big open space. Practice several emergency scenarios. I did this a bunch in the beginning, but still do it every now and then just to keep it fresh.

I practice a few things.

Manually engaging and disengaging RTH.
Practicing what I can and can't control during RTH.
Getting a feel for the 20m radius in which the phantom will just descend in place so I can estimate it well enough by sight.
Turning off my controller to be sure the loss of control signal RTH works. I am very careful when testing this as I don't like not having control.
Loss of video signal by turning off my tablet to simulate it locking up or overheating.
Sometimes I also manually select a congested channel so that I can hopefully lose video but still have the telemetry.
Certainly ATTI mode flying which I actually do often.

Just realistic issues that can happen out of the blue at any time. I want those situations to feel as routine as flying normally.


Especially the tablet one! It's also good practice to get it away out in the distance, and try to get it back to you using forward and applying a little yaw at a time to see if it's coming back. Simon Newton did a good video on this.

Of course what you're really doing in these situations is practicing not to panic!
 

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