Does obstacle avoidance work at all during RTH?  What if set to "brake" on obstacle?  

For example -- I'm wondering what happens if RTH altitude is 100ft, and the drone sees a 120ft tree in front of it on the way "home".    In normal flight it would steer around that, but what about during RTH?

Has anyone tested this?

It appears the Obstacle Avoidance works with RTH so long as the sensors are enabled.  If you lost connection and the sensors are off then RTH will not automatically reenable them.  You would be flying blind in essence until the controller reconnects.   

I try when possible to set the RTH higher than any objects or terrain around me.  Sometimes due to altitude restriction or flying in a valley with mountains it can be difficult.  One of the things from flying in the mountains often I have figured out is to takeoff from an elevated point.  This allows for better line of sight, signal and because the Home Point elevation is higher the RTH altitude uses that as the base point and adds the RTH height to the Home Point elevation.

According to the v1.2 manual (page 14) it works to some degree in RTH and even does some tricky things to correct if necessary. Are you asking if we have actually tested that to see if it works? I have not.

Its a good question. Hope someone will chime in.

With the Air 1, i remember it will back trace the path ie fly backwards along the path created, assuming it safely got there so it can safely fly the same path back.

But if an obstacle gets in the way during flight I too wonder how the aircraft handles this. My initial guess is it will try to navigate  around it but very clumsily and most likely will just end up hovering until battery drains.

I wouldn't want to test it. I try to make sure my RTH height is always greater than that of any obstacle on a potential return path.

Best practice is to set the RTH height above obstacles.

Good question - always set the RTH altitude to clear any obstacles in the flight area before take off

I know best practice is to set RTH to clear anything in flight area.  But that wasn't the question -- because that best practice isn't always entirely practical.

I fly in hilly, mountainous terrain -- where 135 foot high trees are common and 200 foot high trees are not unusual.  Let's say I take off in the valley, and ascend to 150' (which puts me above MOST the trees).  Now I fly up a hillside that is 250' higher than my takeoff location, navigating around any taller trees, and maintaining 150' above ground level.   So now I'm 400' above takeoff location (but still 150' above ground), and there are a few trees around that are 50' higher than that.  I would need something like 475' "above home point" to clear every single tree in the proposed flight area.

To be clear, I'm not concerned about "manual" push-the-button RTH -- I don't use that.  I'm concerned about the auto-RTH that could occur if the controller failed, or there was a communications failure.  I wouldn't have any way to manually control (lower) the altitude during the RTH operation.

I could set RTH altitude to 475' before flight, as suggested above.  But that would mean a "lost signal auto-RTH" would bust the 400' legal ceiling (I'm in the U.S.) during much of the return -- even if I was only 150' above takeoff location when auto-RTH occured.   

Assuming I could rely on some obstacle avoidance for those taller trees, I could set RTH for 400' and be both safe and legal -- even with an auto-RTH.

Or would it make more sense to manually adjust RTH altitude during the flight, as the ground rises?  I'd still end up with RTH set at 475' above "home point", but only for a portion of the flight.

Hello there Scott108. Thank you for reaching out and for these information you have given. In addition, to this post I will post a link where in you van find the DJI Mavic Air 2 User Manual ( https://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/ ... Manual_v1.2_en_.pdf ) and give out the RTH procedure as well.
- The Home Point is recorded.
- RTH is triggered.
- If the altitude is lower than 20m, the drone ascends to the RTH altitude or 20m, and then adjust its orientation. If the altitude is higher than 20m, the drone adjusts its orientation immediately.
- a. If the drone is further than 20m from the Home Point when the RTH procedure begins, it ascends to the preset RTH altitude and flies to the Home Point at a speed of 8m/s. If the current altitude is higher than the RTH altitude, the drone flies to the Home Point as the current altitude.
  b. If the drone is less than 20m from the Home Point when the RTH procedure begins, it lands immediately.
- After reaching the Home Point, the said drone lands and the motor stops.
Thank you.

DJI Stephen Posted at 11-1 19:21
Hello there Scott108. Thank you for reaching out and for these information you have given. In addition, to this post I will post a link where in you van find the DJI Mavic Air 2 User Manual ( https://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/Mavic_Air_2/20200615/Mavic_Air_2_User_Manual_v1.2_en_.pdf ) and give out the RTH procedure as well.
- The Home Point is recorded.
- RTH is triggered.

no answer the question ma....

talk about missing the point.....