Hi Keith. I started with a fuel heli. It had a cargo capacity of about 16 pounds. It had a 60 inch rotor with a full one hp fuel motor. Back then, in 2000 there weren't any electric helis available and a few year later the electrics were just as large and powerful as my fuel heli. The carrying capacity was necessary to carry the batteres, camcorder and transiever which were not yet miniturized. There were no sensor for collision control. You had to fly it fully 100% of the time. I've had, since then, micro helis w/ 7" rotor for indoor flying, but they did not have camera or sensors. Before I even attempted to fly a heli, I started with a flight simulator. I practiced for months before I even built my heli. (these helis were kits and U provided the motor, the servos, gyro, and batteries, and the kit contained the control members, the frame members which needed to be assembled, and sometimes a body.) Without an instructor to guide me I would never have even attempted to fly a heli of this size and power. It was a simulator that gave me the confidence. It was flying hundreds of hours and thousands of crashes on a simulator that gave me the confidence to take that first flight. I flew in open fields with noone around for safety reasons. This 5 ft rotor spins at up to 3200 rpm with a one hp motor burning aircraft fuel. In a relatively short time, radio contolled aircraft has advanced significantly.
My origninal experience with RS and the H plus was very positive, RS and RTH I absolutely depended on every time I flew any distance for the first year of flying my H plus. But, before I ever flew the H plus, I read the instructions and understood how RTH and obstical avoidance works. First, as U say, U must pay attention to the right hand set of 3 switches. The Center switch turns RS on and off, and the one just to the right of it controls the flite modes. The up position of the Flight Mode switch is Sport Mode and is the fastest reacting and highest speed mode which turns off RS. RealSense cannot respond fast enough at higher speeds and therefore is turned off when the mode switch is set to Sport Mode. Another limitation of RS is that it only has forward looking sensors and is limited to what it can sense.while moving forward Solid walls, full leaf branches, trees, solid fences, and buildings it can sense, but small objects, thin objects such as poles and utility wires and moving objects it does not sense consistently. It also does not sense side to side and therefore is only useful when operating moving forward in level flight. It does not see above or below the drone and is flying blind when climbing and descending. Even with these limitation, if U are aware of them and fly accordingly, it has been an extremely useful aid. Maybe I was somewhat lucky also, but for the first year of flying, everytime I flew more than 500 ft away, and sometimes even less, I would be watching my monitor and would look up and loose track of the drone, and I totally depended on RTH and RS to get my drone back. I didn't use it sometimes or most of the time, but, actually every time I flew. I've had the drone for a little more than one and a half years and never had any kind of an incidence even close to a crash of any kind except for an incidence of wind when landing where after landing, I didn't shut down quickly enough and a very slight gust tipped my craft over after it had sat down because the blades had not shut down completely. No damage was done, and I continued to use the same blades for a year and a half. They were still quiet and very efficient. Since then I developed the habit of using the red kill button just before setting down and have never had that occur again. But I also, when landing in unsteady conditions, gusts or dirt and sand, I alway handcatch my bird. But getting back to the RS, I always make sure before I take off, that the switches are set correctly, the takeoff position is recorded, the return to home heighth is above any surrounding obsticals such as trees, and my landing area is clear of any overhead obsticals such as trees so when my craft returns home it has a clear path down back to my landing spot.. As a rule, since the RS only sees forward, I tend to fly it forward like a fixed wing aircraft and I don't worry about what it can't see side to side because I'm not going to crash into anything that isn't in front of the aircraft. Then, the only 2 areas U must be concerned with is what is above U and what is below. Anytime U are climbing or decending, U are in danger with this system, so fly in a level manner and climb or decend only when U are either absolutely sure nothing is above or below U or U are close enough to the craft to be sure it is safe to climb or decend. Either way, is it only common sense not to depend too much on the sensors, since they always have weaknesses. Having said that, I have depended heavily on RTH and the RS sensor for over a year of flying and hundreds of flights, but with careful planning on my flying area and most importantly my clear landing area. Until recently! I have now, not been able to use RS because when its on, my craft frequently will not climb, descend or fly forward. In order to get it to fly, I'll take it up 200 ft in wide open space and turn it on and it will not move in any direction. It just freezes until I shut it off. Sometimes it does fly but will suddenly react and freeze for no apparrent reason. But I had to stop using it.
So that's my take on RS. For a year or so I used it consistently, and now until I find some answers, I do not use it at all...Ray