Hi there DJI... we have been talking on the forum about RTH behaviour and some of us are happy living with the current system and some of us aren't, however if you don't ask you will never know.
Could you please pass on feedback to your development team to change how RTH is implemented.

As you know if the Drone is 20M from home and you press RTH it will just land where it is, this may be fine or disastrous, it also may be disastrous if you allowed it to rise to RTH altitude then return home i.e inside a building, in a forest.

The point is at the minute if you are an inexperienced or just distracted pilot (there are lots of these flying Mini's) you may not even have the inclination to think about RTH behaviour at all when you launch, the Mini is a beginner drone and should have more built in protections.

My proposal is (either as a default or something you can turn off or on in settings) why not for every launch have a requirement to go through a prompt which forces you to choose RTH behaviour...

• RTH
• HOVER
• LAND
  

and maybe also include max altitude and distance.

These are vital safety settings that can change with EVERY flight so why not make it mandatory to review them. Many drones could have been saved if users were forced to review these settings before they fly.

Before anybody says "It's up to the pilot to check these in settings first" why not just make it harder to forget to do that? Some Drone apps have checklists built in before you fly and given the focus and compliance on drones these days I am surprised this is just not mandatory.

Hopefully you will consider

Many thanks  

It is a silly feature to land within 20m if RTH is activated but honestly, why is anyone hitting RTH at under 20m out anyway?

22340179 Posted at 8-26 12:42
It is a silly feature to land within 20m if RTH is activated but honestly, why is anyone hitting RTH at under 20m out anyway?

I think it's more about if your controller dies or some other unforeseen calamity that forces the drone into RTH. I have had this with Dronelink and Litchi (beta) but could just be as simple as your controller failing/running out of battery. Trouble with those control apps is you are so nervous using them (especially for the mini as beta) that you keep them really close. However really want to make sure DJI understands it's not about them as really our bad if something goes wrong using them but more about if something goes wrong with the controller or if you somehow lose connection at that range (go behind  tree?)

I think many would say it’s going to be a waste of flying time, 99% of time normal default Rth will be used so real up to you to both remember before flying to set to what you need for that mission and reset is probably most important. Most commercial pilots just use written preflight checks, many are required by insurance.

Hi. Thank you for reaching out to DJI Forum. With regards to this concern. I will forward this thread and suggestion to our DJI support team for further attention and evaluation. Thank you.

22340179 Posted at 8-26 12:42
It is a silly feature to land within 20m if RTH is activated but honestly, why is anyone hitting RTH at under 20m out anyway?

Valid point!
I barely use RTH anyway.. Usually I fly it back manually, even if I don´t see the drone anymore I try to fly it to the right direction until I see it and then land it by flying bacwards directed. I don´t know where I read it, but this backward landing thing really saved my a.. sometimes!

sv3n Posted at 8-27 06:38
Valid point!
I barely use RTH anyway.. Usually I fly it back manually, even if I don´t see the drone anymore I try to fly it to the right direction until I see it and then land it by flying bacwards directed. I don´t know where I read it, but this backward landing thing really saved my a.. sometimes!

Good for you. RTH is an emergency procedure and should never be used as the standard way of returning and landing.

I'm the same but one day for whatever reason your controller might fail or run out of battery or in my case lock  up because I was using third party software that hasn't yet been optimised for the mini (dronelink/litchi) and you will watch your mini helplessly descend if within 20m of homepoint possible onto something harmful for the mini. If before I flew I could have chosen my RTH behaviour without  this default behaviour within 20m it would not be an issue.

I have a solid experience when it comes to drones, flying them in many different situations. What is requested in this thread  should be a priority for DJI.
Just force RTH in any case when one presses RTH...

Making pics above water was a major reason why I purchased the MM as I am a realtor, and I sell sea view properties.

Please, and thank you DJI

Discussion have been going on about this feature for many years now, long before the current drones. It was thought some time ago, that the landing inside 20 Metre feature was implemented for people flying indoors, such that if the aircraft went into return mode, it would land safely rather than rise to RTH height first, possibly hitting the ceiling. As such, I would rather is not be changed.

Geebax but as there are cases where landing within 20m is fine and safe there are cases where it isn't so why not force the user to choose for ever flight and just have the choice? If it was something you really really needed to keep like it is then surely how hard would it be to turn it off in settings and keep everybody happy. Little Johnny who gets his drone for xmas probably doesn't even think to look at rth behaviour so why not force him to choose on his flights so he has to make a conscious decision to suit his surroundrings?

Bussty Posted at 8-27 13:54
I'm the same but one day for whatever reason your controller might fail or run out of battery or in my case lock  up because I was using third party software that hasn't yet been optimised for the mini (dronelink/litchi) and you will watch your mini helplessly descend if within 20m of homepoint possible onto something harmful for the mini. If before I flew I could have chosen my RTH behaviour without  this default behaviour within 20m it would not be an issue.

Yes it’s strange the mini just lands if Rth kicks in within 5/20m , an easy way of insuring this won’t be a problem is to take off a safe ground with safe radius of 20m. Not all dji drones are like this, phantom 4 pro can rise to 5m and fly directly home or if above 5m fly at this height or just land. Other mavics offer similar and the new Air 2 flying within 5/20 m “ will just fly to homepoint, you don’t have option to just land. So different strokes for different folks. Sometimes it would be nice to get djis opinion on why , because there may be simple explanations as to why, or they’re just making it up as they go.

From Air2 manual.

A J Posted at 8-27 07:52
Good for you. RTH is an emergency procedure and should never be used as the standard way of returning and landing.

This statement can be a matter of discussion. Although RTH is an emergency solution indeed, it's also a very convenient way of efficiently flying back after far away mission is accomplished. I'm employing RTH button often, gradually descending during flight home, canceling landing part above Home Point at 20-25m and finishing the flight manually. Lucky me, I've never experienced emergency RTH. Forced by the distance RTH perhaps, once or twice since 2015, but I'll hardly call it emergency procedure in my case. The system reported enough power left only for returning home just seconds before I was about to do it, and I said "OK, OK, do your thing, I need a cigarette!" ...

Dirty Bird Posted at 8-27 19:30
I agree with you.  I regularly use RTH as a matter of convenience returning from a long flight.  If RTH doesn't work when you engage it manually, then it can't be counted on in an emergency.   Fortunately, RTH is extremely reliable.  Manual use inspires confidence it will be there in a pinch.

Further, RTH can be a convenient tool.  Fly out past an interesting subject then engage RTH.  With the Mini you can do the following anytime, but you can do it with any DJI drone if you disable obstacle avoidance:

Oh, I totally forgot about this cable cam thing! It's a great option indeed ...

Seems to me there are enough people loving the idea and enough hating it so why not just give the people the choice either way and DJI has improved it's customer experience for everyone by making this a user s selectable option. I do notice though generally the more experienced pilots are opposed and that is totally understandable but as Hallmark says "different folks different strokes"

Matthew Dobrski Posted at 8-27 15:57
This statement can be a matter of discussion. Although RTH is an emergency solution indeed, it's also a very convenient way of efficiently flying back after far away mission is accomplished. I'm employing RTH button often, gradually descending during flight home, canceling landing part above Home Point at 20-25m and finishing the flight manually. Lucky me, I've never experienced emergency RTH. Forced by the distance RTH perhaps, once or twice since 2015, but I'll hardly call it emergency procedure in my case. The system reported enough power left only for returning home just seconds before I was about to do it, and I said "OK, OK, do your thing, I need a cigarette!" ...

Oh I often just press that H button TBH - it is very convenient especially after flying for a long period at the same location. I've never experienced a case of any drone flying back to anywhere other than the home point whether smart, low battery or failsafe and I like to test precision landing now and again.

Though as a general rule it is deemed to be an emergency procedure and I'd always be an advocate of that when advising new drone pilots on best practices - especially after a reading a thread on here where someone initiated RTH as they didn't know how to land manually then turned off the RC and packed up while the drone was still flying back only to complain why they lost the drone.