RIP drone

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My drone malfunctioned on return to home, And crashed into a pine tree and is stuck. Waited 2 hours for fire department to hopefully retrieve it. I think my p4 is permantly RIP. I saved for a year to get that as well when it was brand new.
 
How do you know it "malfunctioned" and it was not due to incorrect RTH Altitude? Did you double check that?
 
I'm sorry for your loss. As mentioned above check your RTH height, the default 30 meters usually won't cut it with larger trees.
 
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My drone malfunctioned on return to home, And crashed into a pine tree and is stuck. Waited 2 hours for fire department to hopefully retrieve it. I think my p4 is permantly RIP. I saved for a year to get that as well when it was brand new.
If you want to learn what happened during your flight, go to DJI Flight Log Viewer
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you.
 
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I only fly manually. I do not trust the auto anything on these drone.

And by manually you mean what, exactly? Ever let go of the sticks? It just hovers. Why? Because of the boatload of tech that automatically keeps it in place. There is nothing “manual” about them.
 
And by manually you mean what, exactly? Ever let go of the sticks? It just hovers. Why? Because of the boatload of tech that automatically keeps it in place. There is nothing “manual” about them.
That "boatload of tech" is easily fooled. Keep it real, broham. And that is all I have to say about that. - Forrest Gump
 
You still didn’t say how you managed to put your drone in manual. I’m genuinely curious what you mean.
 
Phantom 4 Pro P-Mode (Position)

This is your regular flight mode. P-Mode is also the default mode of your Phantom 4. This means it is already in P-Mode straight out of the box. It includes GPS and GLONASS satellite positioning. It is on your remote controller in the P-mode position.

P-Mode allows your quadcopter to use visual positioning and obstacle sensing. It is also the position you need to be in to use all the intelligent flight modes such as Waypoints, ActiveTrack, TapFly and beginner mode etc.”

In other words.p mode is pretty much everything turned on to help you fly. It’s the furthest away from anything manual.
 
I fly in P mode with the sticks. I'm not using auto return or POI or any of the auto modes. Are you able to understand what I mean?
Phantoms haven't had any manual mode for many years now.
Using P-GPS mode is using the "boatload of tech that you are keen to avoid.
 
Early in my first month using my P3P (two years ago) I tested the RTH feature maybe twice, but like Michael S, in general I want to be in control, and do not use the RTH feature to bring it home.
I tested the other features, point of interest and the like, but felt it was wise to learn how to perform all the same moves by my having control of the sticks.

I felt I understood what Michael was talking about in his post, keeping his drone in his control by using the sticks rather than a programmed feature.
 
And by manually you mean what, exactly? Ever let go of the sticks? It just hovers. Why? Because of the boatload of tech that automatically keeps it in place. There is nothing “manual” about them.
Litchi comes to mind as it facilitates autonomous (auto pilot) features. 99% of the crashes I've seen using Litchi can be attributed to mistakes made in programming the mission.
 
I only fly manually. I do not trust the auto anything on these drone.

Now that's too bad! With my P4P it took a while to get the "kinks" out of the Intelligent Flight Modes. Now that all work fine. With my Mavic Air, they all worked fine out of the box and the APAS capability for manual mode is terrific. Have you been updating your software/firmware for all three devices ... drone, controller, DJI Go 4 device? Sounds like you may have joined the bandwagon of condemnation of DJI Updates. As I said ... "that's too bad"!
 
Litchi comes to mind as it facilitates autonomous (auto pilot) features. 99% of the crashes I've seen using Litchi can be attributed to mistakes made in programming the mission.

The issue with pre-programming a mission vs. flying it first and setting waypoints one-by-one leads easily to errors. With my Mavic Air, (not yet with my P4P) there is a TapFly Coordinate mode. This is a great alternative to pre-programming. You fly to a point and stop automatically (vs. TapFly Forward that can keep going), then you look to see your next point and make adjustments for lighting/camera, then you set that point and repeat the process. This is great for video photography because pre-programmed flights (e.g. Litchi) don't allow you to adjust the camera between flight legs.
 
....pre-programmed flights (e.g. Litchi) don't allow you to adjust the camera between flight legs.

Actually, Litchi does allow camera adjustments at each waypoint. I haven’t been using it long, but today, I loaded Litchi Mission Hub on my pc, and positioned the camera differently at each waypoint. I also had the flight pause for 2s and turned the drone several times at a couple of waypoints, while taking photos.
I’m guessing that’s what you were talking about. I couldn’t adjust the light/contrast, but that would be asking too much, I think.
Like I said, I have been using Litchi for a very short time, so this may be a new feature.
 

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