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Wind, like I’ve never experienced

HiloHawaiian

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Flying from my backyard near sunset, on a day with some thundershowers —it suddenly became VERY windy. From dead calm to 30mph in seconds. I felt a few drops, heard distant thunder...oh sh*t. 85% battery, 1/2 mile away, at 400’. I jammed the controls but it wasn’t coming back. I tested it, I could get my XSP to move in any direction except back towards me...

Sweating, I hit RTH, it activated, but it still wasn’t heading back. It wasn’t going to it’s RTH altitude (150’) either. Sweating more, noticed the distance was closing, but incredibly slowly. RTH was working, it was obviously much windier at 400’. There was nothing I could do but manually bring it down to 150’, (I didn't want to go lower over houses), watch the battery power and wait. It took 14min to get back, 15% power left. I really thought it was gonna be a long search in the dark. I tried to shoot some lightning while returning, but missed it :(
 
Another hairy moment haha. Glad you got her back safely!
 
Good ending.
I think when you press RTH the drone will return at the altitude is at the present or RTH set altitude,which ever is grater. The drone did not disobey you
 
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I think when you press RTH the drone will return at the altitude is at the present or RTH set altitude,which ever is grater. The drone did not disobey you

Correct. Glad you were lucky Hilo. Especially with such a low battery!

From the manual -
IMPORTANT • When the Go Home function is activated, for safety reasons, if the aircraft is hovering at the altitude lower than 30 meters , it will ascend to an altitude of 30 meters above the home point before starting to return. You can adjust the Go Home altitude in the app: Settings > Flight Control Settings > Go Home Altitude (pg 51).

If the Go Home function is activated within 10 meters radius from the home point, the aircraft will land automatically onsite.
 
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