DJI Mavic 4 Pro – Advanced Return To Home is Incredibly good

Good day, folks! Shawn here from Air Photography. In this video, we’re conducting a return-to-home test of the DJI Mavic 4 Pro. It features an advanced return-to-home function that builds a real-time map during its outbound flight, enabling it to land in complex environments like patios or garages. Right now, I’m surrounded by trees. When I fly out, I’ll go straight down this narrow corridor, take a hard right over the water, and initiate a return-to-home. In theory, it should navigate back and land close to its takeoff point, despite the trees overhead.

Traditional vs. Advanced Return-to-Home

Traditionally, drones would return to the home point and descend straight down, which isn’t feasible in environments like this. The Mavic 4 Pro’s advanced system is designed to handle such challenges. It can even perform this without satellite connectivity. If satellite connection is lost, it still navigates and finds its way home, which is impressive.

Testing the DJI Mavic 4 Pro Drone

Apologies for the noise—inevitably, a train passes by as soon as I start recording. Let’s get the drone up. Right now, it’s building a real-time map. I’ll push it forward, head down the corridor, and make a hard right. As you can see, there’s an opening ahead. The drone is creating a real-time map as we go out over the water. We’re about 89 meters away now, which is far enough.

Initiating Return-to-Home

I’m going to manually initiate the return-to-home. Whether triggered manually or as a failsafe due to lost controller connection, it works the same way. Pressing the button on the controller, I can see a green line showing the drone’s planned path. It’s set to come down in front of the trees and navigate through the corridor. However, it’s crucial to monitor closely, as thin branches might not be detected. The Air 3 has a similar feature and has always been accurate, so I’m optimistic.

Observing the Return

The drone is descending now. You can see it in front of the water, detecting its surroundings and making its turn. It’s navigating down the path perfectly. That’s phenomenal! Now it’s landing on the pad. I’m still blown away by this. The Air 3 can do something similar, but for the Mavic 4 Pro to make a hard right and land precisely is incredible. DJI’s technology is truly remarkable.

Conclusion

This advanced return-to-home feature makes flying less stressful. Unlike older systems that would descend directly, the Mavic 4 Pro builds a map and navigates complex environments with ease.

That’s it, folks—a quick demonstration of the return-to-home function with the Mavic 4 Pro and RC Pro 2. I hope you enjoyed this video and found it valuable. Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you in the next one!