Once my craft gets a couple of hundred feet away from me, determining the direction it's facing is daunting. In my early testing, I can't rely on the Fly app's indicators at the bottom center of the screen. Last night the app had it pointed 90 degrees in the wrong direction. That makes it very problematic to fly the craft back home. Which leads me to my question.

When I want to fly my craft back home, would starting a Return To Home action be a good choice to get it started? My thought is, the craft will make a b-line to my position, and therefore, once I cancel the action, I can easily, manually, fly it back to me knowing it's in the right orientation.

Before you answer, I do understand that a b-line to my position may be a potential problem, and depending on how I got to my destination, the RTH altitude could be an issue. My point is this. I just want to get the craft pointed correctly and then I'll take it from there.

Which begs the second question, when it issues a RTH, does the craft face me (camera looking at me) vs. flying backward? Unfortunately, I don't have too many huge open spaces immediately close to me to test this first, so I figure I can ask the question before I try it out.

My recommendation is to look at the map in the bottom left corner. It is hidden by default.  Just click on it and will get a bit bigger so that you can see it.  It will show the aircraft's orientation, where the home point is at as well as a line that leads you back to the home point.

KlooGee Posted at 9-4 08:23
My recommendation is to look at the map in the bottom left corner. It is hidden by default.  Just click on it and will get a bit bigger so that you can see it.  It will show the aircraft's orientation, where the home point is at as well as a line that leads you back to the home point.

Thanks, KlooGee. I am aware of the map and I was looking at it. I think the problem is I haven't been far enough away to actually have a line! I hope to get out this weekend do push it out a bit and I will definitely look at the feature and see how it works now that you tell me about it.

To answer your other question, at least on my Mini, the aircraft points itself towards me if I (or it) initiates RTH.

Hiya,

If your drone compass is oke than the arrow of the aircraft orientation indicator is pointing oke.
Only the position of the arrow on the 180 degree forward scale can be wrong, to put the arrow on the correct place on the AOI the mobile device compass info is used.

So when craft is far away you can use this arrow to finf the way to home, ofcourse only is arrow is in the forward section.  Just give it a try.

But agree woth KG, use of map view and yaw left right to align craft on the line to home is another good way of finding home.

AND ofcourse press RTH, caft will turn towards home...wait to see distance decreasing and if you like cancel RTH and fly just forward to reach home.

cheers
JJB

K6CCC Posted at 9-4 10:08
To answer your other question, at least on my Mini, the aircraft points itself towards me if I (or it) initiates RTH.

Thank you K6CCC. Very helpful.

JJB* Posted at 9-4 10:11
Hiya,

If your drone compass is oke than the arrow of the aircraft orientation indicator is pointing oke.

Thank you JJB. I did some research last night and I learned that the 180 uses the phone compass. I'll attempt to recalibrate that and see how that fares. It is sounding like the line to home is very useful. I can't wait to try it out!

InsaneDiego Posted at 9-4 10:18
Thank you JJB. I did some research last night and I learned that the 180 uses the phone compass. I'll attempt to recalibrate that and see how that fares. It is sounding like the line to home is very useful. I can't wait to try it out!

i had to swap my mobile device the other way around in the clamps, so top of my phone is to the right now for correct indication.

cheers
JJB

Thanks again everyone. I had a chance to go out this afternoon and push it out a couple hundred feet. The flight line definitely helped. I have lots more confidence now.

I posted a short video in this topic that shows the MA2 camera view during RTH. The downturn of the camera at the end was done manually: https://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=218580

if you are only going a couple of hundred feet, you can strap one white strobe light facing towards the front of the drone.  when you see a flashing white light (even in the daytime), the drone is pointing at you.  guaranteed you won't see it flashing when the drone is facing away from you or to the side.

GaryDoug Posted at 9-4 18:48
I posted a short video in this topic that shows the MA2 camera view during RTH. The downturn of the camera at the end was done manually: https://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=218580

That was awesome GaryDoug! Exactly what I was looking for. That precision was amazing.

The Saint Posted at 9-4 19:06
if you are only going a couple of hundred feet, you can strap one white strobe light facing towards the front of the drone.  when you see a flashing white light (even in the daytime), the drone is pointing at you.  guaranteed you won't see it flashing when the drone is facing away from you or to the side.

I'm (now) aware of those blinkers and generally, you put them on the top which doesn't help us. Your idea would be very interesting except I don't see how it would fit given there is no room on the front. I saw a video using a Phantom and of course, they have those nice long legs you can put it on. No such luck with the Air. Do you have any pictures and products you suggest?

InsaneDiego Posted at 9-4 19:12
I'm (now) aware of those blinkers and generally, you put them on the top which doesn't help us. Your idea would be very interesting except I don't see how it would fit given there is no room on the front. I saw a video using a Phantom and of course, they have those nice long legs you can put it on. No such luck with the Air. Do you have any pictures and products you suggest?

https://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=221266

All the posts about the aircraft orientation indicator, the map mode, and gadgets are great information and should help in your situation.  But the most basic solution is to push forward on the right control stick (pitch).  If visually your drone starts to move laterally to the right, you need to yaw right (left control stick) until it stops moving laterally in your vision.  If it then starts to move laterally to the left, you've over corrected and need to yaw left.  Continue to make small corrections until you see no lateral movement.  This technique assumes you still have your drone in sight, which you always should.  Go forward and if it moves right  then turn right...moves left then turn left.

This technique enhances your basic flying skills and after time becomes second nature.  It also let's you keep constant sight of your drone versus burying you head in the app.

Very frustrating, really ...!      

Rustic17 Posted at 9-5 06:06
All the posts about the aircraft orientation indicator, the map mode, and gadgets are great information and should help in your situation.  But the most basic solution is to push forward on the right control stick (pitch).  If visually your drone starts to move laterally to the right, you need to yaw right (left control stick) until it stops moving laterally in your vision.  If it then starts to move laterally to the left, you've over corrected and need to yaw left.  Continue to make small corrections until you see no lateral movement.  This technique assumes you still have your drone in sight, which you always should.  Go forward and if it moves right  then turn right...moves left then turn left.

This technique enhances your basic flying skills and after time becomes second nature.  It also let's you keep constant sight of your drone versus burying you head in the app.

the way the ma2 turns so quickly and banks and if it is way way far away but still visible, you will be stuck in purgatory forever until your batteries dies and your drone drops out of the sky if you've never done this before.  and you panic as your drone continues to drift away as you miscalculate.  what you describe is spot on but often it isn't easy for the novice.

The Saint Posted at 9-5 19:00
the way the ma2 turns so quickly and banks and if it is way way far away but still visible, you will be stuck in purgatory forever until your batteries dies and your drone drops out of the sky if you've never done this before.  and you panic as your drone continues to drift away as you miscalculate.  what you describe is spot on but often it isn't easy for the novice.

Yeah...I should have stressed starting out by practicing with the drone close and using small control inputs.  It's a skill that takes a little work to master but I like it better than heads down in the app...or even trying to determine what the app is showing in bright sunlight.  

Rustic17 Posted at 9-5 06:06
All the posts about the aircraft orientation indicator, the map mode, and gadgets are great information and should help in your situation.  But the most basic solution is to push forward on the right control stick (pitch).  If visually your drone starts to move laterally to the right, you need to yaw right (left control stick) until it stops moving laterally in your vision.  If it then starts to move laterally to the left, you've over corrected and need to yaw left.  Continue to make small corrections until you see no lateral movement.  This technique assumes you still have your drone in sight, which you always should.  Go forward and if it moves right  then turn right...moves left then turn left.

This technique enhances your basic flying skills and after time becomes second nature.  It also let's you keep constant sight of your drone versus burying you head in the app.

The Air 2 is so small (and gray!) that it's extremely hard to keep track of it visually once you look away. And you DO have to look away. Yesterday was following a boat in the bay. You can't do that without using the screen because it's a moving target. I knew the boat and drone were basically in front of me, a couple of hundred feet away. When I finished the following I tried to require sight of the drone. It took about 15-30 seconds to find it.

That doesn't just apply to drones either. I live under the flight path of a local airport. I'm about 3 miles from the strip. I hear planes all day long. Sometimes it takes me up to 30 seconds to acquire visual of them. It's amazing how camouflaged they seem to be even at 200-500 feet up and several hundred feet out. And that's a small plane!

“Which begs the second question, when it issues a RTH, does the craft face me”


It depends, if you initiate Rth the it will follow procedures you set up. IE go to height set and fly home directly.
However if you lose signal your craft will first fly backwards for approx 50m it will then halt for a few seconds to see if signal has returned and if it has you have option to retake control, if not it will go to Rth height and Rth .

As others have said using telemetry is the best way to fly your drone if it’s outside VLOS.

hallmark007 Posted at 9-6 04:07
“Which begs the second question, when it issues a RTH, does the craft face me”

Thank you for the expanded information!