After I established my home point with a precision take off, I intentionally went straight up and up until I got my weak signal warning and then lost connection. Within about 10 seconds the Air started decending automatically on a return to home route, came back into range and I got control again. This is exactly what I was expecting. All good.

My question: How reliable is this return to home process when you lose connection for complex flights? What stories do you have about epic return to home flights, or failures along the way? How reliable is this when you lose connection? How much can I lean on this?

Hi, Danger, please make sure the GPS is good when you establish a home point and prepare to fly the drone, the aircraft is able to record the home point success, then the return to home process is reliable. Thanks!

what's a "complex flight"? I was flying around in a heavy urban area testing range with stock antennae, got only 400m on 5.8ghz, lost connection, Air automatically initiated return to home, DJI Go 4 then crashed and i had to restart the app, after restart all was good and the Air was still on it's course back home, it landed safely where it originally took of from.  Is that complex flight or is that just a complex story?

Yip DJI is correct, if properly set it unbelievably accurate and reliable.

Acenspades Posted at 2018-3-27 06:41
what's a "complex flight"? I was flying around in a heavy urban area testing range with stock antennae, got only 400m on 5.8ghz, lost connection, Air automatically initiated return to home, DJI Go 4 then crashed and i had to restart the app, after restart all was good and the Air was still on it's course back home, it landed safely where it originally took of from.  Is that complex flight or is that just a complex story?

By "complex flight" I meant something more than straight up and down (what I did).

In your urban flight did you go around some corners or put some tall obstacle in the way that is too tall for the drone to fly over? Is it smart enough to do more than ascend to some altitude from where it is and then make a straight line to your home coordinate? Can it thread between buildings and trees to find a route back if needed?

Danger Lampost Posted at 2018-3-27 09:06
By "complex flight" I meant something more than straight up and down (what I did).

In your urban flight did you go around some corners or put some tall obstacle in the way that is too tall for the drone to fly over? Is it smart enough to do more than ascend to some altitude from where it is and then make a straight line to your home coordinate? Can it thread between buildings and trees to find a route back if needed?

From my understanding if APAS is on the Air is almost smart enough to navigate around some obstacles.  I say "almost" because sometimes it would fly above an obstacle, around an obstacle, or just stop before hitting an obstacle.  I say "some" because it doesn't quite catch small things like wires, electric lines, etc.

In my experience, when RTH is initiated (intended, low battery, RC disconnected, loss of signal) it stops, goes to the pre determined altitude, and makes a b-line straight to it's starting point.  Will it navigate around obstacles during the RTH? Don't know cuz i always set my RTH altitude to 400ft just to be safe.

Acenspades Posted at 2018-3-28 06:51
From my understanding if APAS is on the Air is almost smart enough to navigate around some obstacles.  I say "almost" because sometimes it would fly above an obstacle, around an obstacle, or just stop before hitting an obstacle.  I say "some" because it doesn't quite catch small things like wires, electric lines, etc.

In my experience, when RTH is initiated (intended, low battery, RC disconnected, loss of signal) it stops, goes to the pre determined altitude, and makes a b-line straight to it's starting point.  Will it navigate around obstacles during the RTH? Don't know cuz i always set my RTH altitude to 400ft just to be safe.

I think that's really good advice to set the max RTH altitude - I'm about to do that now. Thanks for that!