Drone crashed after using RTH
- Thread starter KonstantinePhotos
- Start date
Im sure most of us are feeling your frustration and disappointment here (I
Know i am) however the reality is you should take the seconds required to confirm your RTH as part of the pre flight check and note all displayed messages in the app. DJI can’t know, and it would be unreasonable to expect they might, what an appropriate RTH setting is for the flight.
It is also a good practice to check default settings following all FW and app updates.
Also, my opinion anyway, it is preferable to fly home manually when you have a good connection to the AC than to rely on RTH.
Know i am) however the reality is you should take the seconds required to confirm your RTH as part of the pre flight check and note all displayed messages in the app. DJI can’t know, and it would be unreasonable to expect they might, what an appropriate RTH setting is for the flight.
It is also a good practice to check default settings following all FW and app updates.
Also, my opinion anyway, it is preferable to fly home manually when you have a good connection to the AC than to rely on RTH.
I dont know man I mean its in the flight data... This is all too much to me. Not to mention this thing was like a quarter mile away and I lost signal. Just crazy... For something that costs so much I lost signal at 1700 feet distance
Copy that. I just didn't expect my settings to be changed. That's bad business on DJI by auto changing settings on updates especially without notification.
My original settings would have saved this crash and that's also indisputable. Without the help of DJI I'm pretty sure this will be costly which will result in me fixing it, selling it, and buying from another company that has better policies. And they are out there.
That's a different issue. You lost signal because you flew it around the bend in the river out of line of sight, with a hill blocking the signal. Simple physics - these things are not magic.
Good luck with that. All indications seem to point to pilot error. You didn't check and set the RTH height for your surroundings. FYI, obstacle avoidance cannot detect some small tree limbs, assuming you have the OA enabled on RTH. My advice would be to never launch from areas around trees as a beginner, and if your craft does enable RTH, you should always take back control ASAP and watch your return path with both VLOS and FPV in the display. As a beginning you should have fly in areas that risk RTH, and now you know why. If you don't have control of your craft, it's high risk. I get very worried when I lose control and always take back control ASAP, when it get back within range. Hence I always try to ensure I have a direct LOS connection with my craft with NOTHING between it and me, NOTHING. No trees, no mountains, no buildings or other structures, and no HV power lines. I can't remember the last time I've lost a connection with my P4P, but it's easy with my P4 using the stock GL300C controller.
Maybe, but buying from another company is not going to prevent this from happening again if you don't pay more attention to pre-flight checks and flight planning.
I get it but it wasnt a tree limb either. It was a bunch of pines. But I get it. I guess they'll tell me to go screw my self.
Looking online and at the damage this is going to cost half of what I paid for it. Just ridiculous.
That's unfortunate, but, as far as I can tell, this event was due to inattention to detail (failure to check RTH height or notice messages) and pilot error (selecting RTH without checking RTH altitude and failure to monitor aircraft altitude during RTH). It was returning to home for 55 seconds, and not climbing, before it hit the trees, and you did nothing to correct that situation. Why is it ridiculous that you are now facing a repair bill?
Maybe I’m seeing this incorrectly but I think the only pilot error here is not carefully reading the pop up with the RTH altitude of 30m. I suppose that’s enough to show pilot culpability but I’d like to add a few observations. Correct me if I’m wrong....
It looks like the pilot started his flight with the higher RTH altitude set but the APP RESET it on him just as the flight was beginning and notified him with a popup that he missed. I believe I’ve recently seen this once and I find it disconcerting. Why is the app or AC changing it on us last minute like that? You’re taking off. And you need to stop and read this pop up. Then go into settings and reset it to what you want? This is a pretty poor software design. Not very pilot friendly - even if they can say “hey, you were told that we changed it on you.” And what’s the reason for the change?
As an aside, I find it annoying that RTH altitude does not honor the setting for imperial units. Why can’t they make it consistent instead of forcing us to pay attention to the units and doing conversions in our head for SOME things? Not a huge deal. But just a tad sloppy IMHO.
It looks like the pilot started his flight with the higher RTH altitude set but the APP RESET it on him just as the flight was beginning and notified him with a popup that he missed. I believe I’ve recently seen this once and I find it disconcerting. Why is the app or AC changing it on us last minute like that? You’re taking off. And you need to stop and read this pop up. Then go into settings and reset it to what you want? This is a pretty poor software design. Not very pilot friendly - even if they can say “hey, you were told that we changed it on you.” And what’s the reason for the change?
As an aside, I find it annoying that RTH altitude does not honor the setting for imperial units. Why can’t they make it consistent instead of forcing us to pay attention to the units and doing conversions in our head for SOME things? Not a huge deal. But just a tad sloppy IMHO.
Well lets stop for a minute here because plenty of things went against me as well. Its ok for the sensors not to see a giant obstruction in its way???? Ive seen videos online of it stopping in front of a silver chain linked fence yet it won't stop in front of a higher contrast obstruction like a huge dark pine tree. The sensor absolutely failed me at the very minimum. DJI must have reset my settings during the update which IMO is faulty. I lost connection quick, on its way home it stopped, turned and went directly into the tree. So yes it was on its way home for 50 seconds but its stopped turned and went directly into the tree. Why? It was heading straight to me originally like the manual said it would. It would try to take a straighter path of your original one. Instead in stopped and took a 90 degree different direction. Lets not mention that DJI's prices on their website are 4X the cost as genuine parts that can be bought elsewhere. Then on top of it charge you 120-180 in service charges. This is designed to increase profits. Ive had this thing for 7 days. Yes I made mistakes, but in not the only one at fault here.
The RTH/max flight message is the usual one - it's not resetting it - it's just setting the aircraft parameter to the previously set values. For example, here's the same message when the parameters were not the default:
Whether or not a previous upgrade had returned those parameters to default before this flight is not clear, but not the issue either. This is a simple case that demonstrates that flying with no preflight check of parameters, paying not attention to messages, using RTH as a fully independent system without even checking or watching the return heights, and expecting collision avoidance to work in all situations are all recipes for trouble.
In this particular case, if the initial impact were with a thinner top branch, then there should be no confidence that it will be avoided. These aircraft are pretty clever, but not totally foolproof.
Ok. It was not reset at that point but was simply announcing the pre-set value then I agree.
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Two questions come to my mind:
1. When you set the RTH to 120m, was your controller connected to your Phantom or was the Phantom turned off? If off, any settings you change won’t “stick” since that info is stored in the Phantom itself. (Forgive me if you already know that).
2. When the log shows that you changed max altitude or set it to 120m, is it possible you thought you were setting the RTH but instead only changed the max altitude by mistake?
It is true that most of the time, if not all, that the settings revert to default after an update which, as already mentioned, is a pain and to me, quite nonsensical.
1. When you set the RTH to 120m, was your controller connected to your Phantom or was the Phantom turned off? If off, any settings you change won’t “stick” since that info is stored in the Phantom itself. (Forgive me if you already know that).
2. When the log shows that you changed max altitude or set it to 120m, is it possible you thought you were setting the RTH but instead only changed the max altitude by mistake?
It is true that most of the time, if not all, that the settings revert to default after an update which, as already mentioned, is a pain and to me, quite nonsensical.
Absolutely not. I know for a fact because during last flights I was at lower altitudes and when hitting return to home it would rise. I know I changed that setting for 100%. I also set it pre flight right before take off on a previous flight.
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