Mistaking ‘Return to Home’ for ‘Return to Doom’: When Your DJI Drone Has Different Plans

Hello fellow pilots! It’s me again. Hope you don’t get bored easily with my articles. Today we’re talking about those terrible minutes where you have Schrödinger’s DJI drone—it’s flying, but at the same time, there’s no way to prove it…

I remember the first time I lost connection with my DJI drone. Because it wasn’t just a “lost connection” message: it was a full-on reboot of my Android phone. Just imagine this: you’re a new pilot, just three months with your brand new drone. You try to fly everywhere and anywhere you can.

When DJI Drone Tech Scares You

So there I was, in the middle of the busiest avenue in Quito, flying the original DJI Mavic Air, and for some strange reason (more than one probably because I didn’t know that if your cell phone wants to update the software, you should do that when you are NOT FLYING YOUR DRONE) the cell phone just restarted.

And there I was. Looking into the air. With no VLOS at all, because I was a newbie.

Without knowing that when you fly with those old-school controls, the cell phone is just a screen. If the phone disconnects, you still have control over the drone. Actually, later in life, I showed my students that you could fly the drone with no cell phone at all.

But at that time, I just didn’t know that. In my mind, I was a droneless man. A very stupid droneless man standing in public, desperately scanning the skies, like I’d lost a flying winning lottery ticket.

And the time passed. Minutes felt like years. The cell phone stared back at me with its blank screen. I swear that if I wasn’t thinking I needed it to recover the drone, I’d have broken it in half at that exact moment. But after what felt like a very long time—and in reality was like a couple of minutes—the cell phone came to life again (and with new software, yay!) and almost simultaneously, I heard a very distinctive propeller sound.

The drone, my life, and the cell phone signal all came together at the same time.

That was the first time I saw (in my mind) my drone leaving and not coming back. Reality hit me years later when that feared flyaway finally happened in some windy mountains with a DJI Mavic Mini. Let’s have a moment of silence for our fallen aerial comrades… pause… OK, that’s enough grieving—these things aren’t cheap, after all!

When “Return To Home” Becomes “Return To Who Knows Where”

One of the best features drone manufacturers have added to our birds is Return To Home (RTH). But even with that, sometimes we’re prone to lose our drones. It’s like giving your teenager car keys and a GPS—technically they should find their way home, but we all know how that story often ends.

The main reason why many drones don’t return to their home when you lose connection with them is because the pilot was in a hurry and took off without enough locked GPS satellites. So the drone flies away and keeps getting satellites during the flight, eventually marking the “home” position when it gets a determined amount of satellites (around 15-16). That position will be ANYWHERE but home… so do yourself a favor and NEVER take off until you hear that annoying voice that says “Home point updated. Ready for takeoff.” Consider it the drone equivalent of your mother saying “Did you pack clean underwear?” before a trip—annoying but ultimately for your own good.

Some other mistakes that pilots make is having the RTH altitude too low. If the place where you’re going to fly has a 150 ft tall building and your return altitude is 100 ft… well, you can guess what CAN happen. Your drone might decide that becoming a permanent architectural feature was its lifelong dream. Always set the RTH altitude higher than the tallest obstacle in your flying zone. Think of it as giving your drone enough clearance to avoid an embarrassing encounter with a tree, building, or a particularly ambitious eagle.

The Final Drone Flight

We all have terrible stories about return to home functions that never returned, bless those brave drones (and their owners—give them new drones to lose) that are flying to the drone sky, far, very far from home.

The rest of us, please guys and girls: calculate and mitigate risks! Remember, a drone in the bush is worth nothing compared to a drone in your hands. And unlike cats, drones definitely don’t have nine lives—though some of us pilots seem determined to test that theory.

What is your saddest story of a drone NOT returning home? Was it your fault or its? Did your drone develop consciousness and decide to start a new life somewhere in the Bahamas? Let me know in the comments!

P.S. If your drone does come back safely after a scare, remember to hug it. Just don’t squeeze the propellers.