Hello all,

I am somewhat confused about the newest geo zones.  I live, and have flown a lot over the past several years in Burbank, CA without any issues at all, but now I am unsure what to expect in certain scenarios due to this warning (see attachments).  I made this video about a year ago flying the route shown on the map as a green line (see attachments).  I was using a RTH altitude of 65 meters as I usually when flying in the Burbank area.  But now, the new geo zones place a coridore with a celing of 60 meters at the furthest end of my flight where I reversed course.  What would happen if I tried that same flight now if I lost the link? would the aircraft return home below 60 meters rather than the 65 meter RTH altitude I have specified?  Would it return at all or would it hover?  What if I were to fly to the other side of the area with the celing of 60 meters and then climb to an altitude higher than 60 meters (putting the aricraft on the other side of the altitude limited region and then initiated a RTH?  Would it descend and fly just below the altitude restricted area and return or just stop?  I would really like to understand this better.  As I said I have flown all around Burbank (always several miles from the airport) for years with no problems, but now I am not so sure what could happen. I would appreciate any insight.

--Jim
(Burbank CA)

Good question.  I don't think this scenario has ever been presented before...

I suspect it would hover in place, trying to ascend but bumping into the NFZ, just as it would if you had flown behind a NFZ and then RTH'd into it flying horizontally on the way home.  So I suspect it would hover in place while trying to ascend and then eventually auto-land when battery ran low.  

Ive heard of others hitting this wall from my understanding of what happened to them was the drone just stopped and waited.
In some cases some pilots have been flying within a restricted zone that had been unlocked by dji through authorisation but this unlock only lasted 24 hours exactly, they happened to have been flying within the restricted zone when the 24 hours clicked over i believe in those instances the drones crashed due to flat battery after hovering for some time. The pilots in those cases had no control over their drones.
Your situation is slightly different as you would not actually be within the restricted zone so you should still be able to take over from the rth feature and lower your altitude below 60 mtrs and fly back home.
Or simply reduce your rth altitude to 59 mtrs and rth should work fine.
Rth will not automatically reduce altitude to go under the geo fence.

Hellsgate Posted at 11-18 04:41
Ive heard of others hitting this wall from my understanding of what happened to them was the drone just stopped and waited.
In some cases some pilots have been flying within a restricted zone that had been unlocked by dji through authorisation but this unlock only lasted 24 hours exactly, they happened to have been flying within the restricted zone when the 24 hours clicked over i believe in those instances the drones crashed due to flat battery after hovering for some time. The pilots in those cases had no control over their drones.
Your situation is slightly different as you would not actually be within the restricted zone so you should still be able to take over from the rth feature and lower your altitude below 60 mtrs and fly back home.

What if your RTH is set to an altitude lower than the geo fence area, but you are flying on the opposite side of it at an altitude higher than the geo fence.  Say your RTH is 50 meters but you are flying at 80 meters and initiate a return to home with the geo fence with its 60 meter ceiling between the home point and the aircraft.  Normally the aircraft will return to home at its current altitude, not at the lower RTH designated altitude.  In such a case will it descend to its designated RTH altitude thus permitting it to fly under the geo fence ceiling?

--Jim

Jim Watkins Posted at 11-18 06:08
What if your RTH is set to an altitude lower than the geo fence area, but you are flying on the opposite side of it at an altitude higher than the geo fence.  Say your RTH is 50 meters but you are flying at 80 meters and initiate a return to home with the geo fence with its 60 meter ceiling between the home point and the aircraft.  Normally the aircraft will return to home at its current altitude, not at the lower RTH designated altitude.  In such a case will it descend to its designated RTH altitude thus permitting it to fly under the geo fence ceiling?

--Jim

Nope......

Jim Watkins Posted at 11-18 06:08
What if your RTH is set to an altitude lower than the geo fence area, but you are flying on the opposite side of it at an altitude higher than the geo fence.  Say your RTH is 50 meters but you are flying at 80 meters and initiate a return to home with the geo fence with its 60 meter ceiling between the home point and the aircraft.  Normally the aircraft will return to home at its current altitude, not at the lower RTH designated altitude.  In such a case will it descend to its designated RTH altitude thus permitting it to fly under the geo fence ceiling?

--Jim

No it will hit the fence and stop it will just hover there untill you give it instructions on what to do next.
If you dont do anything or are out of contact with it it will eventually auto land once the battery gets to critical level

Jim Watkins Posted at 11-18 06:08
What if your RTH is set to an altitude lower than the geo fence area, but you are flying on the opposite side of it at an altitude higher than the geo fence.  Say your RTH is 50 meters but you are flying at 80 meters and initiate a return to home with the geo fence with its 60 meter ceiling between the home point and the aircraft.  Normally the aircraft will return to home at its current altitude, not at the lower RTH designated altitude.  In such a case will it descend to its designated RTH altitude thus permitting it to fly under the geo fence ceiling?

--Jim

Put simply, DJI aircraft do not descend to RTH level, ever. All they can do is rise to that level, if lower.

From my understanding it cant go up to a certain height because you are in the Geofence area. Once you clear it you are able to land it. I cant be wrong?

From my understanding it cant go up to a certain height because you are in the Geofence area. Once you clear it you are able to land it. I cant be wrong?

From my understanding it cant go up to a certain height because you are in the Geofence area. Once you clear it you are able to land it. I cant be wrong? I have yet to fly, since they updated the Geofence areas

This just happened to me today with my P4P. I had my RTH set to 100m and didn't realize we were just inside a 60m zone. I tried to RTH, but it just hovered and was getting very low on battery. Eventually, we figured out why and changed the RTH to 59m. At this point, the battery was at 13% and the drone was within sight, but on the other side of a river. It started to emergency land and I couldn't stop it even with full throttle up. I tried steering it between two trees, but the signal suddenly dissappeared completely. We later figured out through the video that it hovered above the tree until it ran out of battery and crash-landed. Even though it would have taken less than 1 second to avoid the tree, the signal output on the P4P is incapable of travelling less than a quarter of mile through a few houses. The frame is toast.