I fly my Mini 2 SE's a lot. Last evening one was doing a low battery auto return to home as it has done without incident many, many times. But yesterday it got to a critical battery state and did an unprompted auto landing 500 ft. From the home point. Unfortunately that was on top of a large commercial distribution center building near where I always fly. I have submitted a flyaway report because I'm not sure whether I will be able to recover it.

My concern is this. My experience has always been that the DJI drones knew how much battery was needed to return to home and did that automatically when you got the drone will automatically return to home in 10 seconds warning. I always allow them to and they have always returned with a little battery strength remaining. Not yesterday.

I spoke with a tech rep today.  He was hard to understand and kept asking the same questions and stating the same things. So I respectfully terminated the conversation because I could see he was not understanding what I was saying.

Have any of you had a drone not make it all the way home when doing a Return to Home?

Hi,

Best to get help/advice is to share your flightlog for this issue.

Use this link > https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/.
Post the uploaded link on here

cheers
JJB

Have any of you had a drone not make it all the way home when doing a Return to Home?

Yes, this happens, if you fly downwind and fly back against the wind, the drone does not take the wind into account when calculating the return time.

Yes I have experienced a drone not having enough power to make it home.  While RTH is rather conservative in it's estimates, the drone does not calculate wind speed or direction.  If you flew downwind & need to return into the wind, it is very possible for a drone to run out of power before making it home.  It is important that you, as the pilot, observe the wind direction & speed when flying.  When flying far, always fly out into the wind so you have a cushion when returning home.  If you realize your drone cannot make it home you need to quickly devise an alternate plan.  Find a remote but easily accessible place to land for easy recovery.

Part of the flight planning process for manned aircraft pilots is to identify at least one alternate airfield in case you can't land at your intended destination.

When flying a drone close to.its battery limit it would be wise to do something similar and identify emergency landing spots in case you can't get back.

As others have said, observing wind direction and speed can help prevent running out of battery, but even so identifying potential alternative landing spots can be useful if your calculations turn out to be wrong or if, for example, birds attack or another aircraft enters your vicinity.

So I respectfully terminated the conversation because I could see he was not understanding what I was saying.
To be fair, the DJI support person did not have any actual information to tell what happened or why.
If you post your flight data here, you can get a clear explanation of your incident, much better than any DJI support person might be able to guess.

Go to: https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
... where you'll find instructions.
Follow those and you will get a summary report.
You can post a link for the report here.
Or just post the .txt file.

If your controller has a built-in screen, you'll find the file at:
Android\data\dji.go.v5\files\FlightRecord

Labroides Posted at 4-19 13:49
So I respectfully terminated the conversation because I could see he was not understanding what I was saying.
To be fair, the DJI support person did not have any actual information to tell what happened or why.
If you post your flight data here, you can get a clear explanation of your incident, much better than any DJI support person might be able to guess.

I agree with Labroides.  He & others here can decipher your logs & tell you exactly what happened.

Hello, there. Sorry to hear about the incident. Please know that if the battery level reaches the critical battery level warning, the aircraft will be forced to land as the battery will not be sufficient to return to its homepoint. In this case, we recommend immediately landing the aircraft on a suitable surface/area for you to possibly retrieve the aircraft. Furthermore, would it be possible for you to send us a direct message and provide your case number including the phone number that you used when you contacted our support? We're looking forward to hearing from you.

JJB* Posted at 4-19 11:42
Hi,

Best to get help/advice is to share your flightlog for this issue.

Thanks JJB. I can see my flight logs in Flight Reader. Where are you telling me to upload them to?  Not sure I understand what uploading them to a reader software program will tell me much.

Serg SSA Posted at 4-19 12:07
Have any of you had a drone not make it all the way home when doing a Return to Home?

Yes, this happens, if you fly downwind and fly back against the wind, the drone does not take the wind into account when calculating the return time.

That makes sense. But in But in over 500 flights it’s never happened before. And it really wasn’t very windy. But maybe it was just windy enough.

DJI Diana Posted at 4-19 16:40
Hello, there. Sorry to hear about the incident. Please know that if the battery level reaches the critical battery level warning, the aircraft will be forced to land as the battery will not be sufficient to return to its homepoint. In this case, we recommend immediately landing the aircraft on a suitable surface/area for you to possibly retrieve the aircraft. Furthermore, would it be possible for you to send us a direct message and provide your case number including the phone number that you used when you contacted our support? We're looking forward to hearing from you.

Dian:  Thanks.  How do I send you a “direct message?”

Dirty Bird Posted at 4-19 12:48
Yes I have experienced a drone not having enough power to make it home.  While RTH is rather conservative in it's estimates, the drone does not calculate wind speed or direction.  If you flew downwind & need to return into the wind, it is very possible for a drone to run out of power before making it home.  It is important that you, as the pilot, observe the wind direction & speed when flying.  When flying far, always fly out into the wind so you have a cushion when returning home.  If you realize your drone cannot make it home you need to quickly devise an alternate plan.  Find a remote but easily accessible place to land for easy recovery.

Your comment about the wind, etc. is very valid. Whereas I don’t usually think much about that you got me thinking. I use my iPhone with my RC Controller to fly the Mini 2 SE’s. And I routinely do a screen recording of every outing. That being said your reply prompted me to go back and look at that recording. Another thing I do habitually is check my UAV Forecast app prior to taking off. I did that and saw that the winds were minimal with gusts up to 9 mph. Your reply is very valid, but in this case I don’t think wind was a factor. But thanks a lot for your sage remarks.

djiuser_ke2yIDlSvl1l Posted at 4-19 16:57
Thanks JJB. I can see my flight logs in Flight Reader. Where are you telling me to upload them to?  Not sure I understand what uploading them to a reader software program will tell me much.

Where are you telling me to upload them to?  
If you want to get answers, follow the instructions that I posted in my previous post.
What actually happened and the circumstances around the incident is all in the recorded flight data.
Until you post that data, no-one can tell what happened and why.
Any suggestions you get are most likely going to be wrong or irrelevant.

Not sure I understand what uploading them to a reader software program will tell me much.
Maybe it won't tell you anything that you would make sense of.
But for the folks that can read drone data, it will probably solve the mystery of your incident.
Then they can tell you and help you to avoid it happening again in future.
And you'd get a better explanation than JI will give, and much faster too.
I could have helped you hours ago if the data was available.

If you want help ... post the data here.

The title is misleading...

If you don't know what has happened, how do you know that it was an Auto RTH failure???

djiuser_ke2yIDlSvl1l Posted at 4-19 17:01
That makes sense. But in But in over 500 flights it’s never happened before. And it really wasn’t very windy. But maybe it was just windy enough.

And it really wasn’t very windy.
You must understand that at altitude the wind is always stronger than on the ground.

djiuser_ke2yIDlSvl1l Posted at 4-19 17:10
Dian:  Thanks.  How do I send you a “direct message?”

Hi there. You may check my profile, and send me a message. Or, as soon as you receive this, you may check the "Personal Message" just below my avatar. Thank you.

djiuser_ke2yIDlSvl1l Posted at 4-19 19:44
Your comment about the wind, etc. is very valid. Whereas I don’t usually think much about that you got me thinking. I use my iPhone with my RC Controller to fly the Mini 2 SE’s. And I routinely do a screen recording of every outing. That being said your reply prompted me to go back and look at that recording. Another thing I do habitually is check my UAV Forecast app prior to taking off. I did that and saw that the winds were minimal with gusts up to 9 mph. Your reply is very valid, but in this case I don’t think wind was a factor. But thanks a lot for your sage remarks.

Not really interested to find out the explanation ???