RTH Clarification

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Hi everyone,

Apologies if something like this is already posted somewhere. Just picked up my P4P a few weeks ago and so far things have been great, no major issues. This is my first DJI drone and I'm super impressed with the ease of use of the aircraft and the software. While I've read the manual quite thoroughly at this point, I realized that it behooves me to make sure I truly understand the way return to home works on the P4P (disregarding any possible bugs that some users have encounter, which I have not, in my limited testing).

So, after going back through the manual, I found that, at least to me, the section on RTH is worded extremely strangely, to the point where I had some difficulty making sure I completely understood everything.

So I decided I'd write down my understanding of the three instances of RTH that are cited in the manual, in the hopes that someone here on the forums could correct or clarify anything I've misinterpreted. Again, this all assumes everything on the aircraft is working normally, good GPS, home point set properly, etc. Thanks to everyone in advance!

Failsafe:

After 3 seconds of signal loss, aircraft will ascend to RTH altitude (if not already at or above it). It will then retrace original flight route and attempt to regain signal. It will wait at the last place it had signal for 10 seconds. If it can’t reconnect it will return to home point and land.

Smart:

Manually initiated return to home function. Ascends to RTH altitude and then returns home in a straight line. Landing protection will initiate if it determines the ground is not safe. Otherwise it will land. In this mode, you can control speed and altitude.

Low battery:

At low battery warning aircraft will begin RTH process that can be canceled within 10 seconds. If not canceled, will ascend to RTH altitude, return home in a straight line and land.

GENERAL BEHAVIOR:

-RTH will always ascend to 65 feet (20 m) (if under this threshold) before any stick input control is granted. At that point, moving the left stick will immediately cause the aircraft to return to the home point, even if the RTH altitude is higher than 65 feet.

-In any instance, if RTH is triggered within 65 horizontal feet (20m) of home point, the aircraft will land immediately.

-With OA on, during any RTH operation aircraft will use the main camera to identify obstacles as far as 984 feet (300 m) in front, in order to plan a safe route home. Aircraft decelerates when the obstacle is 49 feet (15 m) ahead. It will ascend vertically to avoid the obstacle. It will stop climbing when it’s a least 15 feet (5m) above the obstacle. Continues home at current altitude and then lands.

-In any circumstance, as long as there is a connection between the controller the aircraft, RTH can be aborted with a press of the RTH button.
 
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I'm not certain, but under there's a kind of hidden setting under "MC Settings' - 'Advanced' and the option 'RTH Remote Obstacle Avoidance', which says:

'When enabled, aircraft will adjust the aircraft RTH route in remote to avoid obstacles, and aircraft will not respond to stick commands'

I think that this must be enabled for Smart RTH (where the aircraft actually backtracks), but again not sure. DJI's documentation on this subject is very confusing.
 
Could be worse. Have you ever watched the videos on banggood.com? Any of them?
 

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