That RTH stuff works....It really does! :-)

[Cometstorm]

So, I'm a developing newbie.

Yesterday, I'm out at a Missouri State park (Cuivre River) on a cloudy day.

There's this scenic overlook atop a cliff, where you can look down on many square miles of river, farmland, pastures, etc. An excellent flight point.

This is the next stage of extending my limits, as I know if it goes "down".... I'm likely never to find it given the spanse of the flight area. I do have Marco Polo, but it would have been difficult finding my way around the low lands.

Anyway, I've get Sadie 2 out about 3/4 of a mile at 300 feet or so doing my thing. Some video, some pics.

I decide to bring it back at about 50% battery, so I hit RTH.

Shortly thereafter, the video goes blank and all telemetry is frozen! Enter panic mode!!!

I'm fightling like heck, trying to figure out what went wrong in such a uncomplicated (open) environment. I did get a no cellular warning before takoff, but that didn't worry me. Was it now an issue? I had a ten satellite fix on takeoff.

I"m now fearing the worst of what's about to happen.

Wife standing next to me says: THERE IT IS! STRAIGHT UP!

I'm like, what the heck? My frozen telemetry says its still out at 2500 feet or so.... Now, there's Sadie 2 starting a slow decent straight overhead!

I'm trying to regain control for a soft landing, but she's not responding. Just doing her landing thing.

My helipad was about three feet from my car, and Sadie 2 comes down ontop of the car itself. Bounces around a bit, then lands perfectly near the helipad.

Long story short, you guessed it: I hit the transmitter POWER button instead of the RTH button, turning off the RC!!!

So, she came home on loss of signal...

Are these things the cat's meow, or what?

A few pics, yeah I know... I had the shutter speed set a bit low....

 

[JerryofWV]

RTH was one of the reasons I chose the P4. Less chance of me loosing my expensive toy. Good to hear a positive story instead of a sad ending.

 

[tevek]

Yeah it's an experience of sorts the first time it happens. Being keen to get up and fly my first phantom,P3S, I hadn't practiced the RTH features properly and was flying over the forest and the lake where I live when I lost video downlink. No idea where it was, I ran through the forest screaming like a banshee towards the lake trying to get a signal back. I could hear it but couldn't see it and was starting to panic when suddenly the app fired up with a RTH prompt, I said yes please and forgot that is was heading back to the car park. So there I was running back through the forest as the drone flew overhead, fell over, lost the iPhone in the scrub and had to dig around for it, got covered in mud and eventually made it back to the car. To my embarrassment/amazement it landed exactly where I took off from amongst a group of intrigued people who heard it coming in for a landing and stepped back wondering what the hell just happened.
Needless to say, I have practiced RTH scenarios until it is a reflex response and it has never failed to deliver. My current P4 boosted setup is too valuable to not understand inside out.

 

[Cometstorm]

I would have paid good money to watch all that!