I had just finished my flight and was coming in to land with 2 bars on the battery blinking solid green. I was within 10-20 feet of the Home position where I took off and I brought it to land. I literally set it down on the ground and not even 2 seconds after it landed the Return to Home function took over, I'm guessing because my battery was getting low.
It took off straight up - I tried to control it and the sticks wouldn't respond. Next thing I know it flew straight up into a tree branch.
I'm so mad. It of course came tumbling out of the sky after bouncing it's way down multiple tree branches, damaged my H4-3D Gimbal, scratched up my Go Pro Hero 4 and then of course bounced into a small pond where it damaged my video transmitter.

I took off from an open area, I had plenty of space around me open to take off and safely return to home. Unfortunately my RTH settings must be for it be at 60ft before it drops straight down? I still don't understand why it didn't just land when I landed it. Shouldn't it have detected that it was at 0 ft in altitute and just shut down the rotars? I also don't know why it wouldn't let me take control of it and steer it away from the tree branch back into the open space? I have the latest firmware and I thought that was an issue they resolved?
Should I change my RTH settings to something else? I have flown at least 90 times now without a single issue because I'm always careful. I always land well before my battery gets too low.

Any thoughts for future settings of RTH?

Thanks!

Haven't heard of that happening before, especially if the transmitter was still turned on. Normally low battery causes an autoland and not a RTH or Failsafe function. It's especially puzzling as you couldn't take control back when it took off. If it hadn't hit the branch no telling where it was headed.  At you 20 or 30 percent. Battery is where you get a change in the led's and a warning on,themOSD that battery is getting low. It's not till it get real low that the autoland feature kicks in. Can't sunder stand why it went back up. Did you get anything on the display.?

If he has RTH on low battery then yes it would In theory take off from a landing, you see you have to actually power the rotors fully down using either CSC or left stick down for 5 seconds, if you just land then it will auto power up as the cheap naza unit cant tell its at zero altitude and will sense either a lowering or raising of its altitude and thus power the quad up, have a read round this is the cause of many a tip over.

Turn off RTH on low battery in the assistant, it will still however auto descend on low battery, this function cant be turned off.

Yes! Don't assume the Phantom knows it is on the ground. When I fire everything up and get ready to take off, it tells me I'm already 3-6 feet in the air. The RTH function, while a lifesaver, is usually off by 10-20 feet from where it took off from (or calls home). and will rarely land exactly where it took off from. You should have been able to regain control though. That is odd. I've been in the process of landing it where the low battery hit RTH and it starts climbing back to my set altitude (200' due to a lot of trees around). I was able to toggle S1 and regain control though.

Sorry to hear about your damage. Hope it's not too pricey getting it back up and running.

Barney

Whenever your Phantom goes into a "auto" mode whether its RTH or In middle of waypoint flight.. FLIP THE S1 SWITCH down to middle and back up.. IT WILL GIVE CONTROL BACK..

it happened to me as well but I was lucky and catch it in the air. S1 to the middle and the then up again maybe it helps next time.

Not the first time I have heard this after a Phantom had actually landed, the fact it was still running, even though stationery, maybe only a fraction of a second difference to when it might have otherwise shut down and when RTH engaged is all it took...It has to be landed for a few seconds before it will auto shut down due to no detection of movement., as a rule I just pull the left stick down and keep it there until the motors have stopped completely...
S1 to position 2 and back as others have stated is what I use when RTH engages when I otherwise want to take control...and for the record I have nearly had the same thing happen a few times, ran the battery to the limit and had nearly landed when up, up and away it went from an RTH..just S1 down and up and back in control...
As to why you could not control it when it went into RTH, it is only after it has started its descent in RTH that you can control it, not durin its ascent to its RTH height...For the record, my RTH height is 165' due to many tall trees in my area...
Curious as to where you landed that tree branches were overhead!..as a rule, I never land under anything or take off from under anything and my home point is always in a wide open area as I am pretty sure yours must be as per the norm with the number of flights you logged..
We have been dog sitting three Austrailian Sheppards for the past month including having our own...trying to land with a bunch of herders is not an easy task, as a result I am now hand landing..Though initially not a proponent of this it has saved me countless concerns with the dogs,,,even though they are pretty well heeled, all it takes is one bad situation with a prop to mame one and one I am not prepared to endure.
Hope you get it back up soon!