Hi -

I haven't managed to find the answers to these two Qs even though I am sure they are out there.

If signal is lost or the aircraft goes into failsafe and RTH mode is initiated, does the Phantom make a direct line from where it is to RTH altitude? I assume that thi is the case. If it is, it seems like a higher RTH than 20m mioght be a good idea if you are in an area with a lot of trees. Thoughts?

Also, although I'm operating mostly in open areas, in my neighborhood, a Ground Station flight is going to put this out of my view, with trees blocking, maybe a house, etc. How conservative should I be? Can I send this from my backyard, over my house, across the street where it's behind trees, etc and still have it come back in one piece as long as I stay within, say, a 200m range? All the Ground Station flights on YouTube are in wide-open scenarios. What are peoples' experiences?

RTH height is adjustable in assistant software and in the app.

You can also set waypoints with various heights at each waypoint,  Ideally, I wouldn't fly the route you stated, but each to their own....
If I HAD to, I would set my heights well above the highest obstruction and my RTH height to match...  SAFTEY FIRST....

Yes, the Phantom will make a straight line flight from where it lost contact back to it's home point. They just added the adjustable height in the newer versions of the assistant software. The ground station flights should depend on GPS signal, so if it has good signal and is high enough to not hit something you could send it on a pretty long flight, but doubtful you would be able to see the fpv from it until it's in range.

humboldt710@gma Posted at 2014-11-13 09:25
Yes, the Phantom will make a straight line flight from where it lost contact back to it's home point ...

Okay great, thanks on the RTH question. I do see hat RTH alt needs to be set to something pretty "safe" given that it immediately starts toward that point, even though it might be 200ft when it loses sig.

dtburr@rjmail.n Posted at 2014-11-13 09:58
Okay great, thanks on the RTH question. I do see hat RTH alt needs to be set to something pretty " ...

I don't think it will reduce height to set RTH height,  but it will climb to RTH set height.

mixstreme Posted at 2014-11-13 10:00
I don't think it will reduce height to set RTH height,  but it will climb to RTH set height.:victo ...

I don't think it will reduce height to set RTH height,  but it will climb to RTH set height.:victo ...

Thats really the question. Would it stay where it is if it's higher and then descend when it gets to the the home point, or make a beeline to the RTH lat/lon and altitude? My guess is that it is the latter.
If so, it makes sense to set a RTH altitude that clears everything that could possibly be hit on the way "back"

dtburr@rjmail.n Posted at 2014-11-13 11:56
Thats really the question. Would it stay where it is if it's higher and then descend when it gets  ...

If you have a RTH altitude set at 100" and you were only at 60" when RTH was activated, your Phantom would climb to 100" and return home.
If you were at 150", it would RTH at 150" when your RTH is set to 100"

I haven't messed about with settings, but understood that it comes pre-set to climb 20 meters after a few seconds from lost contact and then flies home.  Mine appeared to do this early on when I was a 'virgin' pilot and got too close to trees.  I couldn't risk which way it was pointing as it was far away and couldn't see the android because of bright sunny day.  So I switched off the controller and home she came.

talk2t_c@hotmai Posted at 2014-11-13 21:27
I haven't messed about with settings, but understood that it comes pre-set to climb 20 meters after  ...

By default, it does go to 20 meters on RTH.  When I ventured out past my tree free training area, the "Black River Drive In", I was always above 100 feet or more, so if a RTH was initiated, it would come back at the altitude that I was.  Now with the upgrade, you can set the RTH altitude in the calibration.

Gerry1124 Posted at 2014-11-13 12:06
If you have a RTH altitude set at 100" and you were only at 60" when RTH was activated, your Phant ...

Okay thanks - I didn't realize that the program has it staying at the higher altitude (where it was or the RTH altitude, whichever is higher) until it reached the home point and only then would it descend. That is how I would hope it would behave!

Just bought mine last week and installed vision app, can't change the rth from factory setting, do I also need to updated software?

duckhunter10 Posted at 2014-12-2 00:26
Just bought mine last week and installed vision app, can't change the rth from factory setting, do I ...

You will need the latest upgrade to get the adjustable RTH setting, and do not forget to calibrate everything after you do the upgrades.