PatR
Premium Pilot
You are perfectly correct. As mentioned, you have to initially take off with GPS active and disable whilst in flight but then it will RTH no problem. Telemetry is also recorded (including position) with GPS disabled.
Your description is telling you that GPS was not completely severed. Although switched off it has to still be running in the background. Telemetry is not tied to GPS functionality. If actual flight telemetry is being recorded there is still a radio link maintained with the aircraft. When link is lost, aircraft telemetry stops. There's nothing available to record.
If both the C2 link and GPS are lost at the aircraft there is absolutely nothing that can be done to bring the aircraft back. Best you can hope for is for the aircraft to stop, hover, and drift with the wind until the battery runs down. Military grade stuff is no different in such a scenario. This is a condition where "fail safe" programming becomes important. Systems that can employ programming to achieve a specific flight profile or reduce throttle to a controlled descent speed when link and GPS are lost can be extremely beneficial for multirotors. A command to hover and drift until link is regained or hover and drift awaiting a pre-set battery level to be reached and then land can save the day. Without the C2 link there is no way for the aircraft to return home even if GPS is regained. The original Home position was lost with the GPS failure.
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