"Fly Home"

skeyephantom · Mar 2, 2014

I'm not seeing any posts about it. Maybe I missed it. But, has anyone had the situation where their Phantom 2 lost contact with transmitter and the bird flew home and landed safely by itself? I know that's what supposed to happen, but I was curious to here if it's actually happened to anyone and if it did, how did it perform?

I was thinking of testing it by turning off my transmitter with it close to "home" at low altitude, but then I came to my senses. Still curious how and if it worked for those more experienced pilots.

OI Photography · Mar 2, 2014

Many pilots here have tested it successfully (both intentionally and otherwise). The usual term for that function is RTH (return to home)...search for that and you should find plenty of stories.

LeoS · Mar 2, 2014

It's an all-too-common occurrence that no one starts a thread to report that anyway. Especially with those trying to push the distance (check the antenna thread). They can lose signal and trigger RTH repeatedly in a single flight, just to test different antenna configurations... and this happens at great distance too (more than 1km away).

For most of the users, the Phantom is that reliable...

(with proper preventive measures and optimal preparations and good understanding of the phantom.)

2trickpony · Mar 2, 2014

Yep, RTH has been happening a lot me lately as I push range with my P2.

Does as it says on the tin though, stops, rotates towards home and comes back. You only have to wait a few secs and you can regain control again. Brilliant piece of kit.

skeyephantom · Mar 2, 2014

I stand corrected ... RTH. I did find threads and for the most part, it seems to work, as advertised.

Thanks for the responses.

Hold Fast · Mar 2, 2014

I'm a new owner and on my first flight yesterday I had a legitimate need to initiate RTH since I lost visual with the Phantom, so by turning off the controller, Phantom promptly returned to the home location.

goldfishrock · Mar 3, 2014

The P2s RTH feature is also a really nice 'party trick'. A few times when there has been an audience (at a safe distance) I've bought the P2 back to me before turning off the Tx and standing there, hands in pockets, letting it do its thing. It always impresses the onlookers!

poostik · Mar 3, 2014

goldfishrock said:
The P2s RTH feature is also a really nice 'party trick'. A few times when there has been an audience (at a safe distance) I've bought the P2 back to me before turning off the Tx and standing there, hands in pockets, letting it do its thing. It always impresses the onlookers!

Brilliant.
I've gotta try that. I'll tell them I'm using telekinesis.

Fink · Mar 3, 2014

Also a ton of videos on YouTube that show this feature working perfectly well.

The key, as others have said, is to fully understand not only the Phantom itself, but the surroundings in which you are flying. If you feel like you're about to go out of range, give the left stick a push and get some altitude. Should hopefully help avoid it crashing into tall objects that may be between it and "home".

Obviously, another key is to not take off until the indicator lights show strong GPS signal/lock. If you get antsy and take off too soon, you'll regret it pretty quickly.

Fink

goldfishrock · Mar 4, 2014

Fink said:
If you feel like you're about to go out of range, give the left stick a push and get some altitude. Should hopefully help avoid it crashing into tall objects that may be between it and "home".

This is impossible to judge. By far the safest way is to make sure you always operate at a minimum ceiling height which avoids any objects between you and the P2