Yes, but it only started an autoland after it bypassed the RTH point, and that part is still a mystery to me. I did make the fatal error of fighting the autoland and didn't trust the AC to land itself, a fatal mistake I won't make again.
That is incorrect according to the data. The autoland started before it ever reached the home point. Notice in the image the slow descent that was probably not noticed by you. After the Phantom got lower in altitude, then it came basically straight down. This is why I stated it was fighting the wind. And possibly your stick inputs as well.
This is what I suspected, but in almost all my past flights, I always push the throttle up to speed up the RTH, and in every case the AC has started to slow down as it reaches the RTH, and I then pull off the throttle and look up to make sure it's where it's supposed to be, and then land if so.
Right, that sounds like a plan that would work in those other cases. In this case though, your Phantom was trying to auto land. Moving the elevator to the full up position at that point made it fly forward at full speed.
I'm going to double check this, but I'm fairly certain the AC first overflew the original RTH, and then established a new RTH point after it calculated that there was not enough battery to make it back to the original RTH. I could be in error, bur I clearly remember starting to worry when it approached the original RTH, and then kept going. If the flight logs and records say otherwise, then I must have gotten confused.
Check out my image above to see when your Phantom started to auto land. A new home point was not established at that point.
Thank you, that makes sense, as I was trying to elevate the AC to avoid the trees, and then land.
I may have been trying to fight the autoland at that point, in order to get closer to the original RTH point. In any case, I reacted poorly, and it cost me the AC.
I can't argue with the flight data, but I was certain it overflew the RTH, and then I got it turned around to come back, and it started to autoland, which I fought in order to get it closer to the original RTH, and then after that didn't work, I tried to control the autoland myself, rather than trust the AC to land itself safely, which it most likely would have, if I had just let it.
During Autoland, OA is automatically disabled and turned off, so the aircraft at full right stick throttle will quickly exceed 30mph, reaching 37-40mph, where overshooting the desired landing point (HP) will be the likely result. You need to back off on the throttle to optimize remaining battery consumption, and better control the landing, while adding elevation with the left stick as necessary. During Autoland, you still have limited ascension capability, combined with the ability to slow the rate of descent as needed, to safely land the aircraft, or hand catch (preferred).
I almost always go full throttle on the RTH, but this is the only time the AC has overshot the RTH point. I don't specifically recall doing it, but apparently I used the left stick to ascend to avoid trees according to how my flight records were interpreted, and that is what caused the AC to overshoot the RTH. To this day, I still almost always give the AC full throttle on the RTH, and I've never overshot the RTH point because of it, it always slows down as it approaches the RTH point, and I then let off and let the AC position itself for landing.
RTH, in combination with Autoland, acts differently. RTH by default is set speed of roughly 20mph, and with OA turned on, will not exceed 30mph at full throttle. As soon as Autoland kicks in, OA gets turned off, and your full throttle speed becomes close to 40mph. I usually am already in Autoland when landing at less than 10% remaining battery, and, unless I reduce the throttle, I will overshoot my Home Point, too! Be safe, and learn how these festures work together. It isn't always as you would expect.
