Flying into a ravine

[Mikes]

If am on top of a revine and fly down into the ravine, say 200 feet down and have the RTH at 100 feet will the drone come to home port or crash into the ravine wall?

 

[msinger]

The Phantom will ascend from -200 feet to 0 feet (the home point altitude) and then ascend another 100 feet before returning to the home point. At that point, it'll be 100 feet above the ravine.

 

[Mikes]

The Phantom will ascend from -200 feet to 0 feet (the home point altitude) and then ascend another 100 feet before returning to the home point. At that point, it'll be 100 feet above the ravine.

Thank you I hope it works or I'm hiking down.

 

[msinger]

Keep an eye on the GPS. If the signal is low, the flight mode will switch to ATTI and the Phantom will auto land at its current location if RTH is initiated. It would really be best to fly line of sight and not manually initiate RTH from within the ravine.

 

[John Locke]

Thank you I hope it works or I'm hiking down.

It will work, I do this all the time on the coast of California where the overlooking cliffs to the ocean are 90' to 150' high. I fly off the cliffs and go down to the water level to get closeups of the terrain, caves, rocks, etc. Just make sure you don't wander behind a ravine wall which will trigger RTH. If you are flying FPV and you don't know if you have LOS with the RC, turn the craft and see if you can see yourself. Also, closely watch the controller ICON signal bars. If you see 5 bars go to 4 bars, STOP and reassess your position. You might consider investing in a MARCO POLO tracker, about $225. That tracking system can work in deep ravines where cellular systems may not.