Manual. Because during RTH the loud beeping is too annoying.

I use RTH about 75% of the time...too lazy to pilot it in myself.

always manusl

Maveriksam Posted at 2017-6-7 20:39
I always land manually. Two reasons for this.
1. Giving full control to the Mavic scares the hell out of me.
2. Even though I've set my return altitude to 40 meters, I'm still concerned it won't be high enough. (We don't have tall trees where I live)

Hi Maveriksam
Today i flew in a situation where i was at sea level and flew to a hill about 100m above me.
My return to home height is set at 50m.
My radio signal disconnected and i was worried that if it should automatic return to home (as i have programed for when signal is lost) i was worried that if it comes down to 50 m before moving away from the hill that i would crash somewhere on the hill.
Instead of comming down to 50m it maintained 100m and flew over to me - during this time my signal came back and i took over control again.
That was my personal experiance - hope it answers yr question.

40m is pretty high. We have pretty tall blue gums here (tall by SA standards not NZ or Aus standards) and they top out at about 35 - 40  - much taller than that and they probably in forest areas.
Unless there are high rise buildings in yr area 40m should be ok.
as mentioned i use 50m - just a number i am comfortable with.

i voted other because i use both. i guess my internal rule is when it is close to me then i do manual but if it is a distance away and i was flying for the purpose of filming then i am totally focused until i get my first battery warning. By pressing return to home i get to take a breath and relax a bit. I do watch my drone and make sure it is returning home  - i did have situations where it did not return - the first time resulted in a crash and a repair trip back in china:-( and a couple of other times but where i was able to save the situation by taking control again.

i am not advocating that rth is the thing to do but since i had some odd experiances i spent a bit of time concentrating on it. Few things i noticed 1, i must wait for drone to tell me that home point has been updated (in the beginning i would sometimes launch off immediately i was able to and i think that this action prevented home point from being properly updated. 2. also i now take off vertically first to about 10m and sit for just a bit before moving on -  this period seems to let the mavic take its landing site pictures and so far following this launch process it has come home each time.

sorry - one thing to watch for is if you move yr position for yr take off point. Home point is typically where you take off from but you can also set your remote controler to be home point - means if you are moving  the drone tracks you as home point. It is handy to practice accessing this feature. Well practiced takes just a few seconds and has saved me a few times when i moved from home point.

sorry - one thing to watch for is if you move yr position for yr take off point. Home point is typically where you take off from but you can also set your remote controler to be home point - means if you are moving  the drone tracks you as home point. It is handy to practice accessing this feature. Well practiced takes just a few seconds and has saved me a few times when i moved from home point.

sorry - one thing to watch for is if you move yr position from yr take off point. Home point is typically where you take off from but you can also set your remote controler to be home point - means if you are moving  the drone tracks you as home point. It is handy to practice accessing this feature. Well practiced takes just a few seconds and has saved me a few times when i moved from home point.

I do both RTH and manual, depends on what mood I'm in at the time.

Dean - Bekaru T Posted at 2017-6-23 13:30
Hi Maveriksam
Today i flew in a situation where i was at sea level and flew to a hill about 100m above me.
My return to home height is set at 50m.

Thanks Dean

You clarified that point for me.
Since writing the original post, I have tried RTH a couple of times. The first time I tried I was in the middle of nowhere and only 50mtr away with no problem. Second time a little further. Both times a success (phew).

I use both depends on the situation.  

Maveriksam Posted at 2017-6-23 19:38
Thanks Dean

You clarified that point for me.

Hi Maveriksam

today i lost signal totally for the entire time it took my drone to get back to me. Again i was low altitude and sent my drone to about 120m and over a hill distance of about 3km.
Then my signal cut out completely and did not return - also the image on my devise froze comletely the whole time - only way i had any idea that it was comming back to me was that the distance indicator was moving down. The first 30 seconds were quite nerve raking but eventually i trusted that the shortening distance really meant that it was comming home - took a few minutes but eventually it arrived back over my head.
My signal remained disconnected until it was right close to me - but my image stayed gone the whole time.

One thing i did do today was set my return to home alt at 120m -  i am very happy i did this and got to thinking after - why not keep my return to home at 120m - there is less risk of obsticles the higher i am.

Maveriksam Posted at 2017-6-23 19:38
Thanks Dean

You clarified that point for me.

Hi Maveriksam

today i lost signal totally for the entire time it took my drone to get back to me. Again i was low altitude and sent my drone to about 120m and over a hill distance of about 3km.
Then my signal cut out completely and did not return - also the image on my devise froze comletely the whole time - only way i had any idea that it was comming back to me was that the distance indicator was moving down. The first 30 seconds were quite nerve raking but eventually i trusted that the shortening distance really meant that it was comming home - took a few minutes but eventually it arrived back over my head.
My signal remained disconnected until it was right close to me - but my image stayed gone the whole time.

One thing i did do today was set my return to home alt at 120m -  i am very happy i did this and got to thinking after - why not keep my return to home at 120m - there is less risk of obsticles the higher i am.

Maveriksam Posted at 2017-6-23 19:38
Thanks Dean

You clarified that point for me.

i also had a glitch to day with home point recording on take off - so i landed manually and launched again. then i got proper notifications of home point updates and green lights - good to go again.

Maveriksam Posted at 2017-6-23 19:38
Thanks Dean

You clarified that point for me.

i also had a glitch to day with home point recording on take off - so i landed manually and launched again. then i got proper notifications of home point updates and green lights - good to go again.

I fly the drone, it does not fly me... I only use the RTH as a safety measure if it is ever needed.

Rich

Dean - Bekaru T Posted at 2017-6-24 13:13
Hi Maveriksam

today i lost signal totally for the entire time it took my drone to get back to me. Again i was low altitude and sent my drone to about 120m and over a hill distance of about 3km.

Just be careful if your flying on a windy day, wind can sometimes be a lot higher at 120 than 40 meters.

Like others here, I prefer to land manually.   I did test the RTH feature, and found it wayyyy too slow for me.  Fly up/down to set alt, turn...fly straight, turn, start lowering...pause...confirm...ugh!!  I trust the tech, it's just faster to do it myself!  (Ok that and a decade of flyin' Heli's & quads doesn't help either.)

I manually land more often than RTH. There are a lot of trees in the areas that I fly so having the finite control that RTH doesn't have helps me out. However that didn't help out when I had a crash the other day but you know how that is...

hallmark007 Posted at 2017-6-24 16:07
Just be careful if your flying on a windy day, wind can sometimes be a lot higher at 120 than 40 meters.

U r right - that is a given in my neck of the woods.

Mr2MkII Posted at 2017-6-24 18:58
Like others here, I prefer to land manually.   I did test the RTH feature, and found it wayyyy too slow for me.  Fly up/down to set alt, turn...fly straight, turn, start lowering...pause...confirm...ugh!!  I trust the tech, it's just faster to do it myself!  (Ok that and a decade of flyin' Heli's & quads doesn't help either.)

Thats true for sure - but usually i am filming when flying or at least doing heavy focus on flying, controlling my camera that if my drone is a distance away and my brain is fried then i let RTH function bring it in while i take a little breather - then usually when it is closer i will take over again.

I use RTH and then manually land.

I don't think I've ever used the RTH function....

I used RTH on a few of the first flights, but now always return manually. Good practice relaying RTH to emergencies, such as loss of video feed.

Bradders Posted at 2017-6-20 10:17
I personally fly home and fly it, watched a youtube video the other day and apparently a tip for using RTH is when you take off ascend to 20 or so feet and hover there for 5 seconds, the Mavic will take a picture below it and when you press RTH next time it will remember the exact location it took off from, and if you use one of these http://amzn.to/2tpDrsj it differentiates the surrounding area to the take off spot and will allow the Mavic to return to home point more accurately.

That procedure - ascending to 10m and hovering - is needed for precision landing. It is also a good point in time to double-check the map and the orientation.

Always manually take off and typically use RTH except when landing on a boat.

Adam9997 Posted at 2017-9-9 06:40
Always manually take off and typically use RTH except when landing on a boat.

It does tell you in your manuals to only use RTH in emergency situations.

I generally mix, using both.  I use the RTH until it is above me, and  then I land it my self.

I use both but mainly manual but also show RTH off to friends to demonstrate after i tell them about the RTH feature...how smart the drone is.Its important to set minimum height (i generally use 50 meters setting )according to the environment around u before taking off ie-tallest tree or structure but being ready to take over on the controls just incase and DONT USE RTH AT NIGHT or bad light as that can be disasterous.Like others said when u first take off allow the Mavic to hover few sec so it takes an image and locks in with other sensors,when u use auto-take off there is 2 types RTH image set, one at 1.2m and the other more accurate RTH image set at 5m.I done tests and RTH under average conditions is very spot on we even tested it in windy conditions and as it descended on the way down the Mavic kept making its own adjustments as the wind gusts hit and it landed perfectly spot on the mat.

Beginner with few flights but I've haven't used the RTH yet, I land it "manually"... I put it in quotes because as a RC heli pilot I find the DJI "manual" landing is still quite assisted

I will use either method, depending on where I am flying. Most of the time I land manually so I can control it around any obstacles (power lines, small branches, etc.); things I don't trust the Mavic to "see". If the area is completely open I will use RTH until it gets close to the home-point, then manually land it.

I have only used Auto Take-Off once, and that was on my very first flight. Worked well, but I prefer manual control during take-off.

I frequently use RTH. I always keep my left thumb poised above the STOP button, JIC.
I generally let it come down to head height, hit the STOP and then drift it around manually until I find a spot I like to land on.

I've yet to try a catch. Maybe tomorrow.

Both. In general I prefer RTH, just because it amazes me. If takeoff / landing area is not clear enough, I use manual. Never tried hand-launch or catch-landing though...

Normally manual land but usually test RTH once on each outing.

Return to home and then manually land cuz it's faster

Actually done both. Manual is fun as I'm navigating with map back to home base.

Dj enertia again with bad info....rth at night isnt bad u just wont have sensor assistance. As long as your rth height is good u will clear obstacles and my drones always land in the homepoint. Like i said u wont have obstacle avoidance on rth or precision landing, When landing

Also jetexjim if u want smooth manual landing or hand catch where the drone wont fight u. Turn off "landing protection" super smooth once thats off. Honestly that setting stays off as i like to manually land my mavic unassisted in anyway

Never tested the RTH feature, manual/hand catch-landing for my Mavic.