What could arguably be the most important feature of a drone, "return to home" is designed to make sure you get your aircraft back in one piece. However, not all RTH features are created equal. There are times you may not even want to use it. We'll quickly go over this essential feature to show how it works and some tips on how to use it effectively.
How Does RTH Work?
At the heart of the return to home feature is GPS. That’s right, the same technology you use to drive to the store without getting lost is the same thing your drone uses to know how to get home. Getting the feature prepared for a flight is usually as simple as setting the takeoff GPS point and the altitude the drone should fly at during its journey home. Once in flight, the feature can be activated manually with a controller button press or screen tap, or automatically if something were to go wrong. Typically, RTH is automatically engaged when the drone's battery is too low, it loses signal with the controller, or when flown out of range. What happens after this depends on the drone you purchased.
Generally, the less money you spend on a drone, the more simplistic the RTH feature will be. For example, the affordable DJI Neo will simply fly back to the point of takeoff, and the HOVERAir X1 is similar but has an improved palm landing feature where it will hover in place until you place your hand underneath the camera to initiate the landing sequence. More professional camera drones, such as the DJI Air 3 will intelligently return while using its built-in obstacle avoidance to navigate around hazards. The DJI Air 3S goes even further with nighttime obstacle avoidance using LiDAR, and a non-GPS RTH function, where the Air 3S will retrace its flight path.
RTH Advice
Now that you have a good overview of the return to home feature, here’s some advice and tips on how to use it most effectively.
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Set the Correct Height: Look around the area you plan to fly and set the RTH altitude to be above the tallest potential obstacle.
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But Not Too High: When setting your RTH altitude, try not to set it too far above any possible obstacles. Remember, if it's coming home because of a low battery, the drone will need to use precious power to climb to that height.
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Keep an Eye on Things: When RTH is active, most drones will use the camera to show the return flight on your remote or phone. It's wise to watch this to see if the drone is on a path to hit an obstacle. If so, you can take control to fly around it and then reactivate return to home.
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Maybe Don't Use It: Sometimes it's better to avoid using RTH altogether. If you're flying over water while on a boat, some return to home functions may attempt to land if triggered. Setting the feature to hover in place instead could avoid an accidental crash.
As you can see, return to home is a very powerful and significant feature for drone pilots. It's also a feature that can vary from brand to brand and from drone to drone. So, we highly recommend reading over your drone's documentation and becoming familiar with how it functions. Is there anything about this feature that you think we missed? Let us know in the comments, and as always, you can pick up drones with return to home and many other features at B&H.
