Excellent video Gavin. I had this very thought on Friday when I was flying around a lighthouse in Llandudno. I’d taken off from much higher ground and then descended some way down over the cliffs. Really great to see this tested👍👍👍
You’re welcome! I know it’s a popular question and as I maintained from the beginning this channel is all about helping people and answering questions:) thanks for watching and your comment
that's a good test. and eventually you did another proof using a Sport mode it will turn of obstacle avoidance sensor but RTH will turn it on while returning to home on sport mode on
Great video. I love finding this type of information because I had never even considered this before and it's useful because we never know what may or may not happen out there in the field.
Useful video. Talking of altitude it would be useful if you did a video where you define and save a route using Hyoerlapose and waypoints and see if the route altitude is adhered to when you re-run it (preferably under different weather conditions). My experience is that the height that it flies when re-running a saved mission is almost never the same as the original recorded and can vary as much as 10m (my recorded original was at 25m) - would be a good test for you to do and I am sure your subscribers will find it interesting.
I notice this last summer when I was shooting my film. I put my waypoints in and flew a mission then I flew the same mission at night and the route was slightly off. I’m hearing from other pilots this is a known DJI issue.
A little caution on large negative altitudes. Not far from me is the chalk headland of Beachy Head in Sussex. The highest point is 162 m (531 ft) above datum. I have my RTH altitude set at 100m typically. If I take off from Beachy Head and fly over the Channel down to a hundred feet above the water, then hit RTH, the drone will ascend to 100m above its launch point. But that's a problem! At 100m above its launch point, the drone will be at 262 m (860 ft) AGL! This happens even if I keep the drone level with my launch point. Now, as I understand the rules, I need to stay no more than 120 m away from the nearest ground, which is a cliff. So if I fly directly from clifftop level outward of the cliff, does this mean that I can stay at 162 m over the water until I reach 120 m horizontally away from the cliff? Inquiring minds would like to know!!!
The more serious scenario is one that involves the opposite: confronting an elevation increase. Will it maintain that RTH RELATIVE altitude? If not, that will be a serious concern, more so than the video's scenario of flying over a negative altitude change.
My slight anxiety is if I have it take off and hover in the living room. What i it runs out of steam and decides to RTH? Will try to rise up to 80m or whatever I have set at from last flight , and drill its way through the ceiling before dropping back to the floor? I just don't wait for that to happen!🙂
Not gonna happen, precision landing requires downward pointing camera. Mini 2 and 3 series only got VPS Vision Positioning system downward pointing Infrared sensor 😂
Not wanting to be picky, but Height and Altitude are not the same thing.... Altitude is usually stated AMSL (Above Mean Sea Level) or QNH... Height is relative to your start or landing point (QFE)... I see on the DJI screen views you show that the RTH has 'Altitude' stated... whereas the real-time bottom left display has a 'H' for height.
Thanks for this verifying video. But, be aware of the uncertainty of heights calculated from GPS data. Starting at zero but reading meters below zero coming back is usual. Watch the orange or red altitude warnings low in the screen. They use other systems for altitude measuring.
Interesting point but the altitude is not displayed using gps data, DJI drones have a built in barometer which gives us the altitude data :) that is why if the drone ascends and descends quickly ie in sport mode it can put the height out a bit
@@GAVINHR No barometer can give absoloute altitude. It's referensed to some registrerad reading. There are orange and read coloured height data, often hard to read, likely from the landing sensors. My post cancerns obstacles known and their heights. Out "in the nature" there's only the GPS height calculated data. The white coloured datta often varies by meters.
@@Stefan_Boerjesson I wasn't actually aware that DJI drones used a barometer, but barometric derived altitude for a drone surely only needs to give relative altitude given the short drone flight time and limited flight distance. A meteorological barometric pressure change of 1 mb. in 20 minutes is extremely rapid (and unlikely) and equates to an equivalent apparent altitude change of ~9m. I would expect that in >95% of short drone flights, meteorological pressure change influences relative altitude measurements by much less than 2m.
@@jamesleb6962 Interesting. However the drone has come back with an altitude difference, error, of several meters, without any exceptional weather present.
I’ve been flying the new DJI Mavic 3 Pro a few times this week and every time I had it in the air, I tested the RTH. I have it set to 80m in the settings but when I activated a RTH, it never climbed up to 80m. It did climb some but not up to 80m. That makes me wonder if the drone is scanning the area between its current location and the home point and if there is no obstacles in the way it’s not going to climb up to 80m or whatever number you have set for RTH. I tried this test about 5-6 times with the same results. It never climbed to 80m. It did however return and land at the home point but it never climbed to the altitude I have set in the menu.
Another flight I would have never knew. Thanks for another great experiment. Would you know if Litchi works with the mini3Pro? I haven’t had a chance to test it out.
what happen if we do update home point about the altitute? If the new home point is -20m lower than the the home point that the drone took off? The drone is able to recognize the difference of altitude? In you example, seems like to take off the drone from the hill and to landing the drone to the beach for update home point. Then, If we have setup the altitude to go back the 20m and the update home point is lower 20m, what will happen? In my test that I have done I recognize that the update home point is able to recognize the new point but NOT the altitude of this.
Am I right in saying that if you’d taken off from the beach with Rth altitude of, say, 30m then flown up over the cliffs and then lost signal, the drone would stay at it’s current height and doesn’t drop to 30m?
Hi there! You are correct, during a return to home situation the drone will never descend, if blow the RTH setting it will rise up, if it is already above the RTH it will stay at that height
What you have to be careful of is exceeding the 400ft limit. If you take off from cliffs say that are 200ft high with a return to home height of 90 metres then you can easily exceed 400ft above ground or sea level. Let’s assume you climb to 20ft the fly over the sea, so you are now 220ft above sea level. You then hit RTH whereupon the aircraft climbs to 90 metres (295ft) above the take off height, but the aircraft is already 220ft above the surface so it ends up at over 500ft above the surface. Of course as it come closer to the cliffs it will come within 400ft so you then become legal again.
Hey, i was on a hill a time and i was flying along the shore and trying to go as low as possible but the drone hit a negative ceiling and was not responding to decreases in altitude requests, it could only come back up or fly in any horizontal direction. Any idea why? I took off from maybe 300 ft asl and i couldnt go lower than what appears to be -150 ft or so. I have both the video and the airdata flight log if you want to check
Thanks for posting this video! I do quite a lot of hiking and a bit of mountain climbing in remote areas. I haven't had a chance to take my Mini 3 Pro with me on an excursion yet, but I will be doing so soon. I'm concerned about how it will behave. If I am on a steep-sided mountain that is 1.5 kilometres above the surrounding terrain (and 2.5 kilometres above sea level), will there be any issues launching it? Are the height limitations relative to the launch point, the home point, or the current location of the drone? (Please note that where I will be flying, I am permitted to fly to 500m). Thanks again.
No need to justify to me my friend you fly where you want I’m not one of “those” people :) no there will be no issues launching it, the drone won’t know your altitude and will just take its reference height from the take off point
If the drone didn't rise to the proper RTH height, it would mean that they had the most incompetent programmers in the history of programming, And also that they had the worst testing procedures in the history of testing procedures. But the drone functioned properly, exactly as any good developer would have predicted.
Nice, clean, gave exactly the information you said you were giving. Excellent.
Thank you very kindly !
A good question demonstrably answered. Ta very much. The number of "heated debates" around this topic on groups and forums, jeez!
Exactly why I made the video, puts the question to bed once and for all
Another great test Gav, thanks for your time its appreciated
Youre very welcome! thanks for watching and the comment :)
No that drone needs to have a positive attitude if it wants to get home safely.. 😊 haha I read it wrong at first but went with it.
haha yes, From :P
Excellent video Gavin. I had this very thought on Friday when I was flying around a lighthouse in Llandudno. I’d taken off from much higher ground and then descended some way down over the cliffs. Really great to see this tested👍👍👍
You’re welcome! I know it’s a popular question and as I maintained from the beginning this channel is all about helping people and answering questions:) thanks for watching and your comment
I mean as long as the Barometer and height readings and RTH height are all correct being in Negative should not make one iota of difference.
that's a good test. and eventually you did another proof using a Sport mode it will turn of obstacle avoidance sensor but RTH will turn it on while returning to home on sport mode on
Indeed! I always try to do useful test videos :)
I once flew into a quarry at minus 40 metres and it lost signal. It ascended to the pre-set RTH level with no problem
Great video. I love finding this type of information because I had never even considered this before and it's useful because we never know what may or may not happen out there in the field.
I appreciate the kind words, glad you enjoyed it
Useful video. Talking of altitude it would be useful if you did a video where you define and save a route using Hyoerlapose and waypoints and see if the route altitude is adhered to when you re-run it (preferably under different weather conditions). My experience is that the height that it flies when re-running a saved mission is almost never the same as the original recorded and can vary as much as 10m (my recorded original was at 25m) - would be a good test for you to do and I am sure your subscribers will find it interesting.
I notice this last summer when I was shooting my film. I put my waypoints in and flew a mission then I flew the same mission at night and the route was slightly off. I’m hearing from other pilots this is a known DJI issue.
Always great to watch your experiments Gavin 😃👍
Thank you very kindly !
Well done, Gavin. Right to the point. I appreciate all the time and effort it takes to put your videos together. Cheers from Wisconsin, U.S.A.
Thank you very kindly :)
I like to see more rth videos with more obstructions cuze it so cool to watch this amazing drone
I can look into that :)
Great video Gavin. Always good for you to test out what we're thinking about but daren't try ourselves 😉👍
Kinds of stuff stuff I enjoy :)
Very good. Nice thing to know. Keep up the informative videos. Thanks.
A little caution on large negative altitudes. Not far from me is the chalk headland of Beachy Head in Sussex. The highest point is 162 m (531 ft) above datum. I have my RTH altitude set at 100m typically. If I take off from Beachy Head and fly over the Channel down to a hundred feet above the water, then hit RTH, the drone will ascend to 100m above its launch point. But that's a problem! At 100m above its launch point, the drone will be at 262 m (860 ft) AGL! This happens even if I keep the drone level with my launch point.
Now, as I understand the rules, I need to stay no more than 120 m away from the nearest ground, which is a cliff. So if I fly directly from clifftop level outward of the cliff, does this mean that I can stay at 162 m over the water until I reach 120 m horizontally away from the cliff? Inquiring minds would like to know!!!
The more serious scenario is one that involves the opposite: confronting an elevation increase. Will it maintain that RTH RELATIVE altitude? If not, that will be a serious concern, more so than the video's scenario of flying over a negative altitude change.
Nice video Gavin. Keep up the good work
My slight anxiety is if I have it take off and hover in the living room. What i it runs out of steam and decides to RTH? Will try to rise up to 80m or whatever I have set at from last flight , and drill its way through the ceiling before dropping back to the floor? I just don't wait for that to happen!🙂
Great video thanks
Will DJI release a PRECISION LANDING Firmware Update for the Mini 3 Pro do you think
it would be nice but unfortunatly I do not think it will happen
Not gonna happen, precision landing requires downward pointing camera. Mini 2 and 3 series only got VPS Vision Positioning system downward pointing Infrared sensor 😂
Thanks for the test
I always wondered about this, great testing. And thanks for sharing.
You’re very welcome! I know a lot of people ask about this so wanted to make the video
Thanks for the test, really helps!
As always, excellent video. Well done
Thank you very kindly!
Not wanting to be picky, but Height and Altitude are not the same thing.... Altitude is usually stated AMSL (Above Mean Sea Level) or QNH... Height is relative to your start or landing point (QFE)... I see on the DJI screen views you show that the RTH has 'Altitude' stated... whereas the real-time bottom left display has a 'H' for height.
Great Test Gavin Cheers
Perfect I had this question !
I descended my drone off of Beachy head yesterday and lost signal. Luckily it flew up and home. I did sh*t my pants for a sec 😂
Thanks for this verifying video. But, be aware of the uncertainty of heights calculated from GPS data. Starting at zero but reading meters below zero coming back is usual. Watch the orange or red altitude warnings low in the screen. They use other systems for altitude measuring.
Interesting point but the altitude is not displayed using gps data, DJI drones have a built in barometer which gives us the altitude data :) that is why if the drone ascends and descends quickly ie in sport mode it can put the height out a bit
@@GAVINHR No barometer can give absoloute altitude. It's referensed to some registrerad reading. There are orange and read coloured height data, often hard to read, likely from the landing sensors.
My post cancerns obstacles known and their heights. Out "in the nature" there's only the GPS height calculated data. The white coloured datta often varies by meters.
@@Stefan_Boerjesson I wasn't actually aware that DJI drones used a barometer, but barometric derived altitude for a drone surely only needs to give relative altitude given the short drone flight time and limited flight distance. A meteorological barometric pressure change of 1 mb. in 20 minutes is extremely rapid (and unlikely) and equates to an equivalent apparent altitude change of ~9m. I would expect that in >95% of short drone flights, meteorological pressure change influences relative altitude measurements by much less than 2m.
@@jamesleb6962 Interesting. However the drone has come back with an altitude difference, error, of several meters, without any exceptional weather present.
Thanks i was curious about that
Amazing video Gavin great explanation 🤝👍🏻
Thanks mate I appreciate that
I’ve been flying the new DJI Mavic 3 Pro a few times this week and every time I had it in the air, I tested the RTH. I have it set to 80m in the settings but when I activated a RTH, it never climbed up to 80m. It did climb some but not up to 80m. That makes me wonder if the drone is scanning the area between its current location and the home point and if there is no obstacles in the way it’s not going to climb up to 80m or whatever number you have set for RTH. I tried this test about 5-6 times with the same results. It never climbed to 80m. It did however return and land at the home point but it never climbed to the altitude I have set in the menu.
Another flight I would have never knew. Thanks for another great experiment. Would you know if Litchi works with the mini3Pro? I haven’t had a chance to test it out.
Hi there, unfortunately right now litchi does not work with the mini 3 pro :( thanks for watching !
what happen if we do update home point about the altitute?
If the new home point is -20m lower than the the home point that the drone took off? The drone is able to recognize the difference of altitude? In you example, seems like to take off the drone from the hill and to landing the drone to the beach for update home point. Then, If we have setup the altitude to go back the 20m and the update home point is lower 20m, what will happen?
In my test that I have done I recognize that the update home point is able to recognize the new point but NOT the altitude of this.
Am I right in saying that if you’d taken off from the beach with Rth altitude of, say, 30m then flown up over the cliffs and then lost signal, the drone would stay at it’s current height and doesn’t drop to 30m?
Hi there! You are correct, during a return to home situation the drone will never descend, if blow the RTH setting it will rise up, if it is already above the RTH it will stay at that height
More interesting, launch it by hand and note the altitude, then fly over calm water and try to maintain 1 meter altitude.
nice one mate
What you have to be careful of is exceeding the 400ft limit. If you take off from cliffs say that are 200ft high with a return to home height of 90 metres then you can easily exceed 400ft above ground or sea level. Let’s assume you climb to 20ft the fly over the sea, so you are now 220ft above sea level. You then hit RTH whereupon the aircraft climbs to 90 metres (295ft) above the take off height, but the aircraft is already 220ft above the surface so it ends up at over 500ft above the surface. Of course as it come closer to the cliffs it will come within 400ft so you then become legal again.
Doesn’t matter don’t hit a plane
Hey, i was on a hill a time and i was flying along the shore and trying to go as low as possible but the drone hit a negative ceiling and was not responding to decreases in altitude requests, it could only come back up or fly in any horizontal direction. Any idea why?
I took off from maybe 300 ft asl and i couldnt go lower than what appears to be -150 ft or so. I have both the video and the airdata flight log if you want to check
Nice
I have the mini 3 pro is the best drone 👍
Thanks. Am curious what would have happened if you were less than 50M Distance, and well below the starting altitude, and pressed RTH?
The drone would just land :)
@@GAVINHR Would it rise first?
Not if it’s less than 30/50 meters I can’t remember which distance it is now but yeah if it’s within a close range the drone just lands
@@GAVINHR And not at Home?
It’s such a shame that DJI use the term altitude correctly. That was always bound to cause confusion.
Thanks for posting this video! I do quite a lot of hiking and a bit of mountain climbing in remote areas. I haven't had a chance to take my Mini 3 Pro with me on an excursion yet, but I will be doing so soon. I'm concerned about how it will behave. If I am on a steep-sided mountain that is 1.5 kilometres above the surrounding terrain (and 2.5 kilometres above sea level), will there be any issues launching it? Are the height limitations relative to the launch point, the home point, or the current location of the drone? (Please note that where I will be flying, I am permitted to fly to 500m). Thanks again.
No need to justify to me my friend you fly where you want I’m not one of “those” people :) no there will be no issues launching it, the drone won’t know your altitude and will just take its reference height from the take off point
Ofcourse it will rise to 90 meter, while -5 + 95 = 90. What if you'd start from an 0 altitude and move the homepoint to a higher level????
If you moved and changed the home point to a higher level it would still have the original take off point as the 0 reference point
Great....
I have flown it at negative 150 meters 😂. It came back
haha! so it should ;)
Florida is flat, luckily I do not have to worry about this. The only obstacles are cell towers which are defeated by obstacle avoidance 😁
If the drone didn't rise to the proper RTH height, it would mean that they had the most incompetent programmers in the history of programming, And also that they had the worst testing procedures in the history of testing procedures. But the drone functioned properly, exactly as any good developer would have predicted.
what is your instagram ?