I live in a mountainous region, and have done flights up mountains where, over the course of 1/2 mile, the drone climbs 1,100 feet (and at the top it is only 100 feet above the top of the mountain).  I want to be sure I understand the RTH behavior in these kinds of settings to prevent loss of the drone.
If my RTH altitude is, say, 400', but the drone is at 1,100' (altitude above where it took off), what does it do if RTH is invoked? Does it try to descend to 400 and then fly back? Does it maintain the current elevation to the point at which it took of and descend? Does it do both at once and fly diagonally down and back to where it took off?

Thanks.

its 400ft above take off point so will descend

The Rev Posted at 12-6 07:17
its 400ft above take off point so will descend

Drone will never descend in a RTH mode!
If drone is flying above the RTH height setting, at a RTH it will remanin on that height.
Some type (not the MINI2) use a power saving RTH ; it will descend under certain circumstances; its in the manual.

Fly Height always reference to the height at takeoff spot. (zero height set at takeoff)

cheers
JJB

The Rev Posted at 12-6 07:17
its 400ft above take off point so will descend

Before or after travelling to the point at which it took off?

JJB* Posted at 12-6 07:28
Drone will never descend in a RTH mode!
If drone is flying above the RTH height setting, at a RTH it will remanin on that height.
Some type use a power saving RTH ; it will descend under certain circumstances; its in the manual.

It will, try to set RTH to 50 meters then go to ex. 100 meters and hit RTH, it will descend and go home, - just checked.   

BWJ Posted at 12-6 07:36
It will, try to set RTH to 50 meters then go to ex. 100 meters and hit RTH, it will descend and go home, - just checked.

uh  not in any manual

nice to see a screen recording of this descending in a RTH

I don't know how to screen record !, but try for your self, it takes less than 3 min.

If the drone is above the RTH set height it will stay at that height as far as i am aware

BWJ Posted at 12-6 07:48
I don't know how to screen record !, but try for your self, it takes less than 3 min.

well, i have try this many many times. All my drones do not descend.

In that case i am lucky, obesely my AC are defect

In the Mini 2, RTH only ascends to the designated RTH height if it is below that height.  It does NOT descend to that height if it is above that height.  It will return to the home coordinates, turn and face the correct direction, then it will start its descent.  

BWJ Posted at 12-6 07:36
It will, try to set RTH to 50 meters then go to ex. 100 meters and hit RTH, it will descend and go home, - just checked.

It does NOT descend before returning to the home coordinates.  If above the defined RTH height, it will move horizontally at the current height until it reaches the coordinates for the home point before it then starts its descent.  

Maybe some of the differing answers are because we're not all talking about the same drone? I'm specifically asking about the Mini 2.

daneast Posted at 12-6 09:33
Maybe some of the differing answers are because we're not all talking about the same drone? I'm specifically asking about the Mini 2.

talking about MINI2, does not descend, just read the manual.

Just to clarify here is how it works:

- If current height is less than RTH height: Drone will raise up to RTH height and return
- If current height is more or equal than RTH height: Drone will come back the current height, it does not descend before returning never!

daneast Posted at 12-6 09:33
Maybe some of the differing answers are because we're not all talking about the same drone? I'm specifically asking about the Mini 2.

The differing answers are because two people in here don't know the facts and are confused.
Your Mini 2 will NEVER descend to RTH.

BWJ Posted at 12-6 08:26
In that case i am lucky, obesely my AC are defect

No .. you aren't lucky and your drones aren't defective.
You are just confused.

If you think your drone descends to RTH, post recorded data from a flight where you think this has happened.
That will show exactly what happened.

From the manual , page 15

" In Smart RTH and Low Battery RTH, if the current altitude of the aircraft is less than the RTH altitude, it automatically ascends to the RTH altitude first. If the altitude of the aircraft reaches or is higher than the RTH altitude, it will fly to the Home Point at its current altitude"

It is also the behaviour I have seen myself i.e. if it is above the RTH height it flies home at the height it was at when the RTH was triggered, it starts to descend once it is over the homepoint.

HOWEVER you can command it to descend en-route and it would be wise to do so, otherwise you would end up at 1100ft above the home point and  it takes quite a while to come down from that sort of height, 100 seconds or thereabouts.

Labroides Posted at 12-6 15:06
The differing answers are because two people in here don't know the facts and are confused.
Your Mini 2 will NEVER descend to RTH.

My mistake but I will still check next time I'm out as always thought it would drop to the height set.I dont know why it would not drop to the set height as I oftyen set it lower than my height so it doesnt have to fight the high wind on return as lond as there is no obstructions but have to admit I havent checked if it has dropped.

Is this possible with a Mini 2:

Drone is above set RTH height;
RTH is ordered;
Drone maintains its original height (which is above the RTH height) and returns to a position immediately over the Home point but does NOT descend;
Drone is then ordered to descend but only to a pre-determined level (such as 8 feet) where it then hovers.
I would then wish to position and land it manually.

As a very inexperienced pilot, I would find it very useful to be able to do that in this heavily forested area which has open spaces between groves of trees.

Ann JS Posted at 10-1 18:56
Is this possible with a Mini 2:

Drone is above set RTH height;

That's not the way the drone is programmed to behave under automated RTH.
If you wanted teh drone to do that, you would have to do it manually.
Or use RTH to bring the drone back to a point above the homepoint and cancel the autolanding part of teh RTH procedure and manually bring the drone down. manually

As a very inexperienced pilot, I would find it very useful to be able to do that in this heavily forested area which has open spaces between groves of trees.
You need a wide, clear area to bring the drone down.
Flying close to trees is quite risky and one of the most common ways to crash or lose the drone.

@ann JS

As an automated procedure, no. The drone WILL RTH at its current height (above the set RTH height) until it is over the home point, you could then either
a) let it automatically descend to the height you desire and cancel the landing when it reached the desired height, or
b) cancel the landing phase entirely and bring the drone down using manual control.

Why do you ask?
Just in case you do not know, you can manually adjust the horizontal positioning of the drone during an automated landing  using the controller's left/right/forward/reverse stick.

Thank you both for that info..

I plan to adopt your suggestion that I bring it home via RTH but then cancel RTH when it is over the Home position and then land it manually.

I think that I would find it useful if there was a further RTF variation which would bring the Drone home (at RTH height) and then automatically cause it to Hover until it received further instructions to either land automatically or to landed manually.

I hadn't realised that I still had manual control over lateral movements while the Drone is under RTH orders so that is very good to know.

I lost a mini2 last year in similar circuimstances. The air temperature was around -15 celsius, which was already a major risk-factor. The drone was quite far (1 km) and battery running quite low. Disaster just waiting to happen. I don't even remember what RTH height was. And then the phone turned off. Probably its battery froze. The home point was in height restricted area. Max 60 m. All the factors piled up, I also chose to rush home to get a powerbank then run to last known location which was wrong. The drone was never found.
At times like these one thing I learned is to hit back. Lost/broke something? - Get a better one fast, and not let the situation suck the joy out of your life. Bought a new mini2 right away only this time in fly more combo.
Here's panorama shot just a couple of days before loss.

ROBOTNIC-f5288 Posted at 11-1 21:46
I lost a mini2 last year in similar circuimstances. The air temperature was around -15 celsius, which was already a major risk-factor. The drone was quite far (1 km) and battery running quite low. Disaster just waiting to happen. I don't even remember what RTH height was. And then the phone turned off. Probably its battery froze. The home point was in height restricted area. Max 60 m. All the factors piled up, I also chose to rush home to get a powerbank then run to last known location which was wrong. The drone was never found.
At times like these one thing I learned is to hit back. Lost/broke something? - Get a better one fast, and not let the situation suck the joy out of your life. Bought a new mini2 right away only this time in fly more combo.
Here's panorama shot just a couple of days before loss.

If you post the flight data from that unfortunate incident, it might have enough detail to work out what happened to help you prevent a repetition in future.

Go to http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
It has instructions to find the .txt file from your phone or tablet which you can upload to that site
Upload it and it gives you a summary of the flight data.
Post a link to that summary.

Or just post the .txt file