During RTH does the drone:

1) go up to the set RTH altitude, then follow a straight line to the home point before decending?


Or

2) does it go up to the set height , then return along the same ground flight path as it followed going out?

I had assumed that #1 was the case, but I saw one of the DJI tutorial pictures that made it look like #2 was the case.

Thanks,
Larry

Im asking because when I launch from my front yard I have to take off in a westerly direction to avoid several very tall fir trees with long lower limbs. At some point I will be flying to the east where line of site is very short distance. If the drone returns in a straight line, I wont have much time to see it before it starts to decend. Plus its hard as heck to pick out at 300 ft altitude (My RTH set point) when you dont know exactly where it is.

During RTH does the drone:
1) go up to the set RTH altitude, then follow a straight line to the home point before decending?
Or
2) does it go up to the set height , then return along the same ground flight path as it followed going out?

The answer is ... that depends.
If you initiate RTH by pushing the RTH button, the drone will take a straight line path directly from where it is.
If the drone initiates RTH because of lost signal (Failsafe RTH), it will initially retrace its path from before signal was lost.
This usually solves the lost signal issue if signal was lost because you flew behind an obstacle.
For more information on Failsafe RTH and other RTH scenarios, see page 15-16 here:
https://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/DJI_Mini_3/UM/20230328/DJI_Mini_3_User_Manual_v1.0_EN.pdf

Labroides Posted at 4-12 15:54
During RTH does the drone:
1) go up to the set RTH altitude, then follow a straight line to the home point before decending?
Or

Hi there. Thank you for reaching out. You may refer to Labroides response in post #3. The aircraft will automatically fly back and land at the Home Point when Smart RTH is initiated, the aircraft enters Low Battery RTH or the signal between the remote controller nad the aircraft is lost. RTH will also be triggered in other abnormal scenarios such as where video transmission is lost. For more information about RTH, please visit the DJI Mini 3 Manual on pages 15-16. Thank you for your valued support.