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Return to home feature settings causing a crash?

Joined
Jan 2, 2019
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Age
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Location
Ontario, Canada
Hi all,

I am wondering what your opinions are on what to set the return to home height to when flying your Yuneec drones (I'm flying a Breeze 4k). Here is what happened to me. I was flying my Breeze yesterday in an open field when my iphone shut down (because it was probably too cold). After the 30 second delay with no wifi, my drone started to "return to home" by first going around 100ft up from the 6 feet it was above the ground to start and then returning to home which was on the other side of a huge tree which caused it to crash badly. What do most people have the height set to? If I set it to 6 feet or so, that would make it crash at a max height of 6 feet so hopefully it woudn't do damage, but at the same time, that could take out people etc very easily if the wifi cuts out. Any suggestions to the best approach? Sometimes it's not practical to always have a completely unobstructed path between the drone and the take off location and it's not practical to constantly be adjusting the height settings in the app. Thanks!
 
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Most of the trees in my area are 80-100 feet tall. So I set mine for 160'.

I usually transit to and from filming location at 300' then drop down to an appropriate height for what I want to see.

I've found that this keeps bystanders and onlookers from hearing it pass by overhead.
 
Most of the trees in my area are 80-100 feet tall. So I set mine for 160'.

I usually transit to and from filming location at 300' then drop down to an appropriate height for what I want to see.

I've found that this keeps bystanders and onlookers from hearing it pass by overhead.
Thanks for the input, I like that idea, I would just be afraid that at any point the wifi could disconnect while I am filming underneath either trees or any other ceiling and the return to home would cause the breeze to crash as it's on it's way up.
 
Hi all,

I am wondering what your opinions are on what to set the return to home height to when flying your Yuneec drones (I'm flying a Breeze 4k). ...

Sometimes it's not practical to always have a completely unobstructed path between the drone and the take off location and it's not practical to constantly be adjusting the height settings in the app. Thanks!

Sorry to hear about the crash.

In fact, if I am flying in an area with trees or other obstacles, I tend to adjust the RTH altitude setting before each flight. It's just a few taps and can save you a lot of trouble. The idea would be to set it high enough to clear the biggest obstacle, but only by a few meters - sending your bird up too high doesn't only increase the impact speed IF the drone drops out of the air, it also increases the probability THAT it drops at all (or tries an emergency landing in the wrong place). Consider that the ascent takes time and burns a lot of battery power, both of which make it more likely that the battery depletes too soon. Note that the Breeze is notorious for loosing battery power disproportionally fast once the reported battery level is below 30%.
 
Sorry to hear about the crash.

In fact, if I am flying in an area with trees or other obstacles, I tend to adjust the RTH altitude setting before each flight. It's just a few taps and can save you a lot of trouble. The idea would be to set it high enough to clear the biggest obstacle, but only by a few meters - sending your bird up too high doesn't only increase the impact speed IF the drone drops out of the air, it also increases the probability THAT it drops at all (or tries an emergency landing in the wrong place). Consider that the ascent takes time and burns a lot of battery power, both of which make it more likely that the battery depletes too soon. Note that the Breeze is notorious for loosing battery power disproportionally fast once the reported battery level is below 30%.
Thanks for the reply, that makes a lot of sense. I suppose if I plan my shots out more carefully ahead of time and adjust the height when needed I should hopefully avoid this happening again! The Breeze is still on sale here in Canada so I ordered a second one yesterday in case my first one isn't fixable.
 
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Mine is a typhoon H. Once I get to 15 volts, I'm in the process of bringing her home. There are a few instances where having your RTH set high would cause an issue, while flying below tree canopies for instance...
 
Just a little side note. You can alway review your route on Google Earth ahead of your flight. it will give you the altitude of every spot along the route. I live in New York where a 50 to 100 foot change in altitude isn't uncommon.
 
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Just a little side note. You can alway review your route on Google Earth ahead of your flight. it will give you the altitude of every spot along the route. I live in New York where a 50 to 100 foot change in altitude isn't uncommon.
Another good idea. Luckily I live in Ontario where pretty well everything is flat. It's just all the trees that get in the way!
 
I’d like to offer some friendly advise about two features of the Breeze for landing the aircraft.

The first is RTH and it is useful when flying in fairly open areas with some obstacles that may get in the way while returning to the takeoff point. Setting the RTH value in Drone Settings to about 20 feet (6 meters) above the tallest obstacle in your flying zone is a good setting to use. If you are off in your estimate by a few feet you will still have clearance. When RTH is activated the Breeze will ascend to that height (if you are under any type of obstacle at that point - SPLAT) and then fly straight to the takeoff point and land. If it is at or above the RTH setting it will remain at that height and fly to the takeoff point and land. You can interrupt the RTH at any point by pressing the RTH button again. If you takeoff under an overhang or tree canopy do not use RTH to land the Breeze it will try to land through the obstacle.

The second method is the Land button. If you are flying in a congested area with a lot of obstacles this is the preferred method of getting the Breeze back on the ground. Pilot the Breeze to a point where you can land it with no obstacles in its descent path. Press the Land button and it will descend and stop the motors once it touches down. Pressing Land a second time will halt the process and the Breeze will hover in its present position.

Hope this gives a little more insight into how the Breeze is brought safety to rest on the ground.

As a side note, if you use the controller to fly “Y” is the RTH button and the Land button is the Start (hold for about 3 seconds and release it).
 
I’d like to offer some friendly advise about two features of the Breeze for landing the aircraft.

The first is RTH and it is useful when flying in fairly open areas with some obstacles that may get in the way while returning to the takeoff point. Setting the RTH value in Drone Settings to about 20 feet (6 meters) above the tallest obstacle in your flying zone is a good setting to use. If you are off in your estimate by a few feet you will still have clearance. When RTH is activated the Breeze will ascend to that height (if you are under any type of obstacle at that point - SPLAT) and then fly straight to the takeoff point and land. If it is at or above the RTH setting it will remain at that height and fly to the takeoff point and land. You can interrupt the RTH at any point by pressing the RTH button again. If you takeoff under an overhang or tree canopy do not use RTH to land the Breeze it will try to land through the obstacle.

The second method is the Land button. If you are flying in a congested area with a lot of obstacles this is the preferred method of getting the Breeze back on the ground. Pilot the Breeze to a point where you can land it with no obstacles in its descent path. Press the Land button and it will descend and stop the motors once it touches down. Pressing Land a second time will halt the process and the Breeze will hover in its present position.

Hope this gives a little more insight into how the Breeze is brought safety to rest on the ground.

As a side note, if you use the controller to fly “Y” is the RTH button and the Land button is the Start (hold for about 3 seconds and release it).

Thanks for your insights DoomMeister! My only concern is when I am near obstacles with the intention of landing manually using the start button, and the wifi disconnects for whatever reason. This will cause the Breeze to start heading home possibly through obstacles unless I can reconnect the wifi in 30 seconds (which wasn't possible during my crash because my iphone was restarting unfortunately). One solution is to never have obstacles above the home point, but that limits my options for flying it in some areas.
 
Thanks for your insights DoomMeister! My only concern is when I am near obstacles with the intention of landing manually using the start button, and the wifi disconnects for whatever reason. This will cause the Breeze to start heading home possibly through obstacles unless I can reconnect the wifi in 30 seconds (which wasn't possible during my crash because my iphone was restarting unfortunately). One solution is to never have obstacles above the home point, but that limits my options for flying it in some areas.

Are you using the controller or just the phone? If you are only using the phone put it in airplane mode then enable just WiFi. This will prevent any cellular activity such as phone calls or text messages. If you are using the controller you should be clear of any obstacles before initiating the landing with the 3 second holdvand release of the Start button on the controller.

Flying in areas with a lot of trees is risky with any sUAS, but the Breeze is even more prone to dropouts as it uses WiFi for flight control and 5.8 GHz gets attenuated very fast by foliage. If you are flying under trees the GPS signals also suffer by attenuation and reflections.
 
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Are you using the controller or just the phone? If you are only using the phone put it in airplane mode then enable just WiFi. This will prevent any cellular activity such as phone calls or text messages. If you are using the controller you should be clear of any obstacles before initiating the landing with the 3 second holdvand release of the Start button on the controller.

Flying in areas with a lot of trees is risky with any sUAS, but the Breeze is even more prone to dropouts as it uses WiFi for flight control and 5.8 GHz gets attenuated very fast by foliage. If you are flying under trees the GPS signals also suffer by attenuation and reflections.
Thanks that’s all very helpful! So basically I’ll keep my phone cellular off while using the controller and stay clear of trees for many reasons!
 
Thanks that’s all very helpful! So basically I’ll keep my phone cellular off while using the controller and stay clear of trees for many reasons!

It is possible to fly near them you just need to plan where you are flying so you can stay in contact more easily. You can follow or move to keep the Breeze in your VLOS (Visual Line of sight) to lessen the chance of a WiFi disconnect.
 

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