As soon as I got an initial low battery warning, I pressed the Return To Home button in the Pilot App (latest version, 1.0, for IOS) but the aircraft landed directly below where the aircraft was hovering. The documentation says this should work but it did not work from the Pilot app.
Anyone know why this may have occurred? Anyone else experienced this?

I've only tried the RTH in real life once and it did what it was supposed to do. However, I tried it once in the simulator and it did exactly what you described (even though the home point was at the take off point).  

Was the aircraft within 20 metres of you when you hit RTH?  I believe that it has to be outside of this area to return to the home point area initially set after the motors start up. If its within the 20m area when you hit RTH it will just land where it is hovering as you describe. Please correct me if I'm wrong?

Really? That is NOT documented! Good thing I was in a big meadow. Yikes! That is soooo bad. Why on earth would "within 20 metres" make any difference? Very strange.

Thanks for your reply.

I recall reading it somewhere in the documentation.  It might be documented electronically.

For what it's worth, I've had occasion to use RTH 3 times on both V 1.0, and V1.01, and all were executed flawless
I do have a habit thought of recording my home point every single flight, as soon as the motors are armed, just before takeoff,

A couple of things that seems to keep me out of trouble is :
1. Calibrate before every flight, even if I just change batteries
2. Set home point just before take-off, with motors in idle, (Set to Craft), making sure there is good GPS lock
3. Take off Manually, hover for 20 seconds at 10 meters, and wait for the GPS to re-lock (It seems the GPS loses lock with takeoff, and drifts a bit for a few seconds)  as soon as the (inflight) lock takes hold, it remains quite solid
3.  Execute a 4 axis little jiggle manoeuvre at 10 meters to make sure forward, sideways, yaw and pitch operates normally, and inputs are equal to craft response.  It only takes a few seconds, but it settles the nerves and gives the Inspire time to just settle too,.
4. I THEN raise the landing gear, and fly off...
I did it with the Phantom, and continue the tradition with the Inspire,

Happy flying, its a fantastic machine, and the noticeable lack of negative experience posts in the last week proves the Inspire with IOS app, an Ipad and common sense makes for almost the package DJI promised in it's advertising.

Now we wait for IOC, camera point of interest, Follow me and Ground station to be steadily incorporated, and we'll have a damn near perfect drone

It's documented in the firmware update log on DJIs web site. I think return to home should take it home and not land in place. Sometimes I don't understand what DJI is thinking. Its going to cause a few Inspires to land in trees or on top of buildings. Come on DJI, put it back the way it was.

chrisgeigerphot Posted at 2015-2-15 15:29
It's documented in the firmware update log on DJIs web site. I think return to home should take it h ...

I also think it shouldn't land in place but otherwise I see it slightly different. I think it shouldn't be possible to use RTH within 20 m. I'm pretty sure 20 m is there to counter GPS errors while weaker signal eg. craft thinks it's already home. Granted margin is quite big I still think it's reasonable. It's not only once I've had my car navigation thinking I'm off-road or driving wrong way suggesting errors of 5-10 m

Muscadel Posted at 2015-2-15 15:03
For what it's worth, I've had occasion to use RTH 3 times on both V 1.0, and V1.01, and all were exe ...

Duly noted Muscadel !!

Make Sure Batteries Are Fully Charged in Both TX and A/C
Verify Mode P/A/F
Power On TX
Power On A/C
Load DJI App
Exit Storage Mode via the app
Power Off A/C
Attach Camera
Install Props & Prop locks when we get them.
Power On A/C
Check For cleanest Channel
Calibrate compass before every flight, even if I just change batteries
Check IMU Calibration .99 - 1.01
Set Fail Safe Height
Point Antennas Correctly on TX
Power up motors if in winter to allow motors to warm up for a minute or so.
Set home point just before take-off, with motors in idle, (Set to Craft), making sure there is good GPS lock
Take off Manually, hover for 20 seconds at 10 meters, (30 ft) and wait for the GPS to re-lock
Execute a 4 axis little jiggle manoeuvre at 10 meters(30 ft) to make sure forward, sideways, yaw and pitch operates normally, and inputs are equal to craft response.
Raise the landing gear, and fly off...
Then enjoy your flight

PS: Kudos to Muscadel and UM305 for your checklists and suggestions!

chrisgeigerphot Posted at 2015-2-15 15:29
It's documented in the firmware update log on DJIs web site. I think return to home should take it h ...

Yes - this behavior of immediately descending and landing if the quadcopter is within 20 meters of the Home Point when a RTH is triggered - either intentionally from DJI Pilot app or RC, or due to loss of RC signal is very dangerous, in my opinion, because it is in direct contradiction to expected behavior as described in the Phantom 3 and Inspire 1 Owner's manuals.  This will, and has, caused crashes resulting in loss of aircraft.  I have posted a Warning post on this Poorly Documented RTH Behavior on the Inspire forum and should probably post one on the Phantom 3 forum as well.  Imagine if you are flying out over water or a cliff or above trees within 65 feet of your current Home Point and a RTH is triggered - your quadcopter will descend into the water, the valley below or into the treetop when you were expecting, instead, to rise to programmed RTH altitude, fly back directly over the recorded Home Point and then slowly descend and land.  DJI needs to change this!

Low battery warning , and it landed because it was closer than 20 meters but you can retake control by using the RC sticks any time during the RTH sequence even in critical battery so you can avoid objects and people if necessary .. Read up its covered in the directions , better yet watch your battery level and plan on returning to land around 30% still plenty of battery to come home even if your out there a ways .
The inspire takes your battery and distance from home point to calculate the percentage to get itself back in time also , watch your battery %
I never recal my compass or imu unless I've travelled over 100 miles , or I've done a firmware upgrade , if I'm at a new location and not getting a GPS or compass setting then it's almost always the location and not a bad imu or compass calibration .
It's just not necessary to do this every time you fly , I can pull my phantoms out of the closet and fly them both after months of sitting , My inspire is no different .Also I've tested RTH , auto takeoff and land with the auto landing gear on , resetting the dynamic home point to the RC location and RTH , geo fence limits , etc etc ,
On my bird all the features work properly every time without fail , if you can't count on these safety features knowing they work correctly then your just winging it when you get in trouble , you need to know how to retake control and or cancel RTH too ! You need to know what to expect and what your bird can do or not when a not so good scenario comes along ...
Not knowing could cause your panic and mis managing the situation or simply waiting for your bird to recover on its own .