I'm a drone newbie and I've had a few times where I press return to home and it says "return to home failed". This has so far only happened when the drone is far away but still within sightline, or when I can still see the fpv on my phone, so it hasn't resulted in a flyaway or a crash yet, but if return to home fails and I've lost connection I'm fairly certain I'd lose my drone.
What causes this return to home failure? What happens when it fails, does the drone drop or hover or fly in my direction or what? Most importantly, how can I avoid this return to home failure in the future?


Any information is interesting and useful, thanks.

Perhaps you need to reset your home point, and you might also want to reset the RTH height. Delete and set it again.
Something like those may help trigger your RTH to respond correctly. If those won't help, you may try reinstalling the app.

I couldn't suggest anything beyond those "guesses".


RedHotPoker

Good thing you are asking why now and not later after it flew away. Well it makes sense to me if GPS mode isn't available. That means not enough GPS satellites, compass error, or some other sensor error.

I always wished it was smart enough to figure out ok we can't trust this or that and attempt to limp back on less inputs. But of course ask the pilot first and tell what its plan was and if it is ok? And if out of radio range, just try on its own anyway and hope for the best.

Before any takeoffs, make sure that your RTH point is set.  Many people make the mistake of trying to lift off right away the second they turn the bird on.

If pressing return to home on your tablet/phone doesn't work for whatever reason then you need to activate it from your transmitter, not knowing how to do this will end up costly if the P3 flies away.

Also: Turn the volume up on your device, to loud, so you can clearly hear the voice commands, relating important info to you, the pilot.


RedHotPoker

All we have so far is the error message but noinformation.
It's an uncommon error (I've never heard of it before).
We need some data to have some idea beyond guesses that are probably wrong.

Go to http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
Follow the instructions to upload your flight record.
Come back and post a link to the report it provides and have something to work with.

And for the suggestions that something like this might cause the Phantom to "flyaway"
No it wouldn't.
If the pilot in this situation doesn't bring the Phantom back, it's not because the Phantom flys away.

Reset home point. Reset height. Make sure you have enough GPS. Or just fly it back yourself. It is faster and safer. I can't tell you how many drones I have lost because they crashed on the way back.

I've had the same error message also.  You can activate the Return home manually buy toggling the S2 switch (little switch top left on the controller) a few times.  That will return your Drone  back to the home point.  If i were you i would watch alot of YouTube videos and learn as much as you can before you fly.  There are alot of settings of the phantom that will set your mind at ease when flying and if you loose control will allow it to return to you safely.

if you have FPV and or LOS why not simply fly it home?  
did you try using the RC switch to initiate RTH?

RTH is nice but it is not a fail safe button!


if you are unaware of how to do so, please reread manual or videos before using automated functions.

I am glad you did not lose it but your posts suggests you have a lot to learn and as others said , better now than thanlatter!

good luck and have fun flying.

Microcyb Posted at 2017-1-5 12:50
Before any takeoffs, make sure that your RTH point is set.  Many people make the mistake of trying to lift off right away the second they turn the bird on.

Very good point !! Something I overlooked.