Can Home Point 3' Above Ground?

[jlarcher]

I use a wooden TV tray as my heliport and it stands about 3 feet off the ground. I can adjust to have a level take off on un-level ground. Can the home point still be set using this setup? I use it so I don't have to bend over, upon return I always hand catch. Not sure if RTH would work with this set-up. Thanks for your responses.

 

[Wibble]

No problem at all. Just turn RTH off when you get it back in sight.
I sometimes take off on concrete outside my house - there are powerlines right overhead. I hover at 10' and walk down the lane a little to clear the lines. The lane is too rough to take off from. Obviously a full RTH would take me back and hit the lines so I turn RTH off when I get within range.

 

[Dronason]

I use a wooden TV tray as my heliport and it stands about 3 feet off the ground. I can adjust to have a level take off on un-level ground. Can the home point still be set using this setup? I use it so I don't have to bend over, upon return I always hand catch. Not sure if RTH would work with this set-up. Thanks for your responses.

You will get your home point recorded, should not be an issue.
The RTH will have some tolerance where it will come back so probably it will not land by itself on your heliport or you are really lucky. Typically it is 10 feet from the recorded home point. As Wibble indicate, when it come back, if you want it to land on your heliport, you will have to take manual control.

 

[bobmyers]

You will get your home point recorded, should not be an issue.
The RTH will have some tolerance where it will come back so probably it will not land by itself on your heliport or you are really lucky. Typically it is 10 feet from the recorded home point. As Wibble indicate, when it come back, if you want it to land on your heliport, you will have to take manual control.

I would suggest that you don't try to land on a wooden TV table as you drop one leg on the edge when you are landing and you will probably loose a prop or something worse.

 

[jryser]

I had an odd glitch once when I hand launched and the home point was 4' off the ground. I settled back down and it just stopped thrust and had a hard - non damaging thankfully - hit to the ground. Coulda been my error too. But it was when my home point was established in the air.


Sent from my PT beating heart

 

[N017RW]

Home point does not contain elevation data.
It is an X-Y only.

OSD altitude is set to zero at take-off but during auto-land or RTH it continues to descend until it no longer detects it is lowering.

It must be something else you experienced to cause this.

 

[AerialPhotos]

I haven't landed on the ground in over a year. Always hand catch, landing on my TV tray is not a good idea. Thank you for your responses

 

[Dronason]

I would suggest that you don't try to land on a wooden TV table as you drop one leg on the edge when you are landing and you will probably loose a prop or something worse.

Yes, fully agree. Would be possible if there is no wind at all. Hand catching is more easy when there is some wind up to some limit.
Maybe a plate of wood can be added on top of the TV tray to extend its size.

 

[brianb87]

Yes, fully agree. Would be possible if there is no wind at all. Hand catching is more easy when there is some wind up to some limit.
Maybe a plate of wood can be added on top of the TV tray to extend its size.

I land on a shoe box, no issues minus the prop wash pushing the shoe box. I don't see how people have issues with tip overs when landing.

 

[Dronason]

I land on a shoe box, no issues minus the prop wash pushing the shoe box. I don't see how people have issues with tip overs when landing.

That's an option, like the net at the end of a carrier.
I was in vacation this summer on the coast and get the use to catch it in the air as it seems to be more reasonable, there was always wind, but it was nicely constant. Recently I get some flights in a mountain area with some more strong wind and it was more a dilemma. Landing directly would result in some issue for sure, catching it in the air was also not an easy choice but finally seems to be the less risky. As battery was not a 10% for landing, I had time to decide for best option.
If there would not be the compass in the P3, we could have strong magnet on the landing gear and have always nice landing on a steel plate.