Little story about using RTH.
So yesterday I'm out looking for wildflowers to shoot. I arrived at Diamond Valley Lake, Hemet CA, where there have been reports of nice wildflower growth on the hills. I'm driving to the marina and wham, I reach a huge 1/2 mile long line of cars, people obviously there to see the flowers, not towing any boats. The line is moving extremely slow, so I pull over to the curb with plenty of room for cars to pass. Signs said NO PARKING, clearly, but I'm thinking, who's going to care with so much room to pass? So I park and get the drone backpack and my lawn chair and hike up a small hill from which I can see the marina, about 1/2mi away. Great launch site, I can see the flowers on the hills next to the marina on the other side. Everything is going fine, I'm flying my P3P about a mile away relaxed in my chair, capturing some nice shots away from the masses of people walking around in the area. Then I hear this honk. I turn around and look at my car and a ranger yells out his window, "is that your car illegally parked?" I said yes. He said "You need to get it out of there". I said YES SIR! So I enabled RTH, zipped up my backpack, folded my lawn chair, grabbed everything and walked down the incline to chat with the ranger, trying to be nice and friendly, saying I was only going to be there 15min, didn't think it caused a problem since I'm out of the traffic. He was nice enough, said we can't make exceptions, need to move it out. He never asked what I was doing sitting up on the hill in the chair. So I walked over to the car, opened the SUV hatch, put my chair and backpack in the car while the ranger drives off. Looking at my controller I see the craft is 400' away, so I pushed the RTH button again, took back control and flew it down to the back of my car, hand caught it, put it in the car and closed the hatch. Of course, dozens of cars waiting in the long line saw the whole thing happen. I got several comments, smiles, how cool that was, asking if I got any good photos, video, etc. I got in my car, got back in line, made a U Turn and left. Successful capture, so I moved on to the next site, Lake Matthews. Timing is everything, this time it wasn't ideal. I needed another 10min, but it all worked out.
RTH can be very handy, as long as you have it set to the right height for the surrounding area.
Has anyone else used RTH in this manner?
So yesterday I'm out looking for wildflowers to shoot. I arrived at Diamond Valley Lake, Hemet CA, where there have been reports of nice wildflower growth on the hills. I'm driving to the marina and wham, I reach a huge 1/2 mile long line of cars, people obviously there to see the flowers, not towing any boats. The line is moving extremely slow, so I pull over to the curb with plenty of room for cars to pass. Signs said NO PARKING, clearly, but I'm thinking, who's going to care with so much room to pass? So I park and get the drone backpack and my lawn chair and hike up a small hill from which I can see the marina, about 1/2mi away. Great launch site, I can see the flowers on the hills next to the marina on the other side. Everything is going fine, I'm flying my P3P about a mile away relaxed in my chair, capturing some nice shots away from the masses of people walking around in the area. Then I hear this honk. I turn around and look at my car and a ranger yells out his window, "is that your car illegally parked?" I said yes. He said "You need to get it out of there". I said YES SIR! So I enabled RTH, zipped up my backpack, folded my lawn chair, grabbed everything and walked down the incline to chat with the ranger, trying to be nice and friendly, saying I was only going to be there 15min, didn't think it caused a problem since I'm out of the traffic. He was nice enough, said we can't make exceptions, need to move it out. He never asked what I was doing sitting up on the hill in the chair. So I walked over to the car, opened the SUV hatch, put my chair and backpack in the car while the ranger drives off. Looking at my controller I see the craft is 400' away, so I pushed the RTH button again, took back control and flew it down to the back of my car, hand caught it, put it in the car and closed the hatch. Of course, dozens of cars waiting in the long line saw the whole thing happen. I got several comments, smiles, how cool that was, asking if I got any good photos, video, etc. I got in my car, got back in line, made a U Turn and left. Successful capture, so I moved on to the next site, Lake Matthews. Timing is everything, this time it wasn't ideal. I needed another 10min, but it all worked out.
RTH can be very handy, as long as you have it set to the right height for the surrounding area.
Has anyone else used RTH in this manner?
