Good Evening Fellow DJI and Mini 2 users,

I am a new drone owner and new to this forum, and I look forward to reading it and learning more information as the weeks and months go by. I have recently picked up a Mini 2, which I love so far. I have previously flown a Phantom 4 owned by a close friend of mine, but my Phantom experience was limited to in-flight only—no landing or taking off.

I have noticed two things about my Mini2 since owning it, specifically relating to the RTH feature/landing, and I wanted it to run it by the experts here in the forum for some guidance.

The first thing I notice is if I am flying at above my RTH altitude (mine is set at 150 ft), the aircraft returns to home at the altitude it is at, stops directly above me, and then begins descending. Is this normal? I was under the impression it would descend on its flight back to me to the desired altitude or descend and then return to me first.

The second question I have is regarding the Mini 2 bottom sensor. When returning to home and landing, the sensor on my Mini 2 doesn't seem to recognize what it is landing on. The sensor is working and functional, as when I allow it to hover and place my hand underneath, it will move away from me upwards. But if it is in the landing process, sometimes it will attempt to land on a flowerpot in my garden or the brick wall. It returns to me, reduces altitude to the point it stops just off of the ground, and hovers/pauses for a few seconds. Then I get a call out that says "landing," and it begins descending to the ground (or, in this case, the flower pot or any object under it). Is this normal? I never let it fully complete its landing at this point, so I have no idea if it would recognize the flower pot when it got closer, but I am scared even to test that.

Thanks for your assistance and guidance! I want to make sure my craft is indeed functioning correctly.

Those behavioursare completely normal.

If the drone is beneat the RTH set height, it will ascend.  If it is higher than the RTH height, it will stay at that level, unitil it reaches the place where the RTH is set to.
If you press RTH within 20m of the RTH is set, it will land at that place and won't fly to the RTH initial place.

As long it is not landing, when the bottom sensor is triggered it will ascend. If it is landing, it will land on the given spot. So, be carefull where you take off and set your RTH. RTH is set a couple seconds after taking off. Wait until you get the confirmation that the RTH spot is set. If you don't wait and take off and the RTH messages comes during your flight, that will be the RTH spot.
It also means if you place an object on the RTH spot after taken off, it will still try to land there. The landing spot of the Mini2 is not entirely precise, so see you set your RTH to a spot where it has some manoeuvering space.  It is quite accurate, but not like the Mavic 2 pro.

JohnDG Posted at 2-2 19:27
Those behavioursare completely normal.

If the drone is beneat the RTH set height, it will ascend.  If it is higher than the RTH height, it will stay at that level, unitil it reaches the place where the RTH is set to.

Thanks for your reply! I really appreciate it. The landing element is a concern because I take it off from a fairly confined 15‘ x 15‘ patch of my garden. And where I take it off from is dead center within the space, but it still tries to land probably about 6 to 8 feet, sometimes more away from the return the home spot where it lifted off from. It would be accurate enough if I’m in the middle of a large field, but when I’m fairly close to my house, I often feel like it looks like it’s going to land on the roof of the house.

TJM1989 Posted at 2-2 20:06
Thanks for your reply! I really appreciate it. The landing element is a concern because I take it off from a fairly confined 15‘ x 15‘ patch of my garden. And where I take it off from is dead center within the space, but it still tries to land probably about 6 to 8 feet, sometimes more away from the return the home spot where it lifted off from. It would be accurate enough if I’m in the middle of a large field, but when I’m fairly close to my house, I often feel like it looks like it’s going to land on the roof of the house.

most of the time, I fly it back manually. When I use RTH, I still stop it a couple of meters above me and land manually.
My M2P is more precise in landing and it checks the landing place before landing. Had a couple of times it refused to land automatically, because it didn't like the landingplace.

I feel the Mini2 doesn't care that much and will land anywhere.

Hello there TJM1989. Thank you for reaching out and for these information you have given. The Return to Home (RTH) function brings the aircraft back to the last recorded Home Point and lands when the GPS is signal is strong. There are three types of RTH: Smart RTH, Low Battery RTH, and Failsafe RTH. The said DJI Drone successfully recorded the home point and the GPS signal is strong, the RTH will be triggered when either the user starts Smart RTH, the aircraft battery level is low, or the signal between the remote controller and the is lost. RTH will also be triggered in other abnormal scenarios such as if there is a loss of video transmission. Thank you and fly safe always.

TJM1989 Posted at 2-2 20:06
Thanks for your reply! I really appreciate it. The landing element is a concern because I take it off from a fairly confined 15‘ x 15‘ patch of my garden. And where I take it off from is dead center within the space, but it still tries to land probably about 6 to 8 feet, sometimes more away from the return the home spot where it lifted off from. It would be accurate enough if I’m in the middle of a large field, but when I’m fairly close to my house, I often feel like it looks like it’s going to land on the roof of the house.

As JohnDG says, when it returns to your location on RTH and starts descending, cancel RTH, take control when it is above your house height and land manually to the exact spot where you want it to.
You will gain more confidence through time that you will be landing your Mini 2 on your hand, as I do, when I wish to do so.
Therefore,you will avoid your flowerpots etc etc.......

thanks all! Much appreciated.

TJM1989 Posted at 2-2 20:06
Thanks for your reply! I really appreciate it. The landing element is a concern because I take it off from a fairly confined 15‘ x 15‘ patch of my garden. And where I take it off from is dead center within the space, but it still tries to land probably about 6 to 8 feet, sometimes more away from the return the home spot where it lifted off from. It would be accurate enough if I’m in the middle of a large field, but when I’m fairly close to my house, I often feel like it looks like it’s going to land on the roof of the house.

And where I take it off from is dead center within the space, but it still tries to land probably about 6 to 8 feet, sometimes more away from the return the home spot where it lifted off from.
GPS accuracy is +/- a couple of metres.
You cannot rely on GPS to put your drone dead centre of a small patch.
When you launch from a tight spot like that, do the landing yourself.

It's normal, RTH won't descend, just ascend. That prevents collisions when you are climbing a mountain, for example. If you are higher than the selected altitude it will just turn, return home and land. I allways set RTH to 120m, unless if I know I'm going to find a higher obstacle. For example if I want to descend behind a building at the top of a mountain.

Just disable it whe flying indoors or below obstacles like a tunnel or similar.

While the drone is coming back in RTH you can move the gimball up and down, increase the speed by tiliting the stick forward and also increase or decrease altitude with the corresponding stick.

RTH will be cancelled if you press the button or move the throttle stick backwards.

Set the RTH in an open area with nothing in a 3 meter radius at least.

Thank you for all of your replies! Is the behavior of the bottom sensor normal also? Is that sensor designed for landing or for when the drone is in flight? If the drone is hovering and I place my hand under the sensor, the drone will increase its altitude to move away from me. But during landing, it doesn’t recognize objects underneath it and tries to land on those items. I thought the sensor was designed to prevent this, but perhaps it’s designed for in-flight. I usually take manual control for landing now, but I was testing it to see if it would land itself and the sensor would avoid objects like flowerpots.

TJM1989 Posted at 2-3 16:55
Thank you for all of your replies! Is the behavior of the bottom sensor normal also? Is that sensor designed for landing or for when the drone is in flight? If the drone is hovering and I place my hand under the sensor, the drone will increase its altitude to move away from me. But during landing, it doesn’t recognize objects underneath it and tries to land on those items. I thought the sensor was designed to prevent this, but perhaps it’s designed for in-flight. I usually take manual control for landing now, but I was testing it to see if it would land itself and the sensor would avoid objects like flowerpots.

After the drone increases height when you put your hand under it, just pull down the left stick and it will land on your hand. Once landed let go of the left stick and the motors will stop. Hope this helps.