Hi, I’m taking my mini 4 pro out for my first flight this weekend. I’ve watched lots of videos but still have a question about landing, can you use RTH every time to land or do you do in manually? Thanks
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You can - I used to just need to be aware of your surroundings any obstacles to avoid etc,
Now these days I always do it manually but each to their own I guess,
You can always use RTH till it’s above you then cancel & bring it down manually ? Also make sure if your using RTH you have it set higher than to that of things around you & you should be all good 
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That god awful attention grabbing noise it makes it makes in RTH mode !
Always manual for me, unless it kicks in itself, then I will always try and take over
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Do it manually, you’ll never learn if you let it do it by itself.
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Same for me just thought id put the options out there,
Agreed 101%
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Nice to show people once, ‘Look what it can do’
Rest of the time hand launch and catch all by myself
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Manual 
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I leaned that quite early on & wouldn’t settle for anything less - unless emergency made it unable.
Reason I mentioned the RTH as I didn’t want to throw the original poster in the deep end but yes manual all the way ……
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things to keep in mind when doing the RTH is that your never really going to know how the drone will behave on its return flight. You set the height for RTH in the controller so when it triggers RTH you may get a bit of a fright when it zooms up in the air to that set height and if its under a tree or power lines it may hit them.
Best to have the RTH set for loss of signal use only so that it flys a bit closer to you if it loses signal then take control again.
Like others have said - manual.
The tech is good but don’t 100% trust it.
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I view RTH solely as an emergency thing if it loses contact with the controller, and always take back manual control once contact is re-established.
Landing is always manual
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RTH is for impressing those that ask “What happens if you loose contact/control?”. 
.. and it’s rather good at that.
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I personally find it lazy flying. I’ve only ever used my RTH twice within 2 years due to situations where the drone suffered technical glitches. I fly home manually all the time otherwise.
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I used RTH once on my first drone just to see what it did, but I can’t think I’ve deliberately initiated it since.
I certainly wouldn’t judge somebody for using it but, as @LE60LAD says, you’ve given up control if you use RTH. It’s a lot better now with the smart RTH (which your mini 4 pro has) but even the flight back is a chance to improve your handling so why not take it?
If you’re going to use RTH remember it behaves differently depending how far away the drone is from the home point (details in the manual).
However you choose to bring it home and land it, I hope you really enjoy your first flight 
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When I first got mine (mini 2se), I used RTH mostly, through lack of confidence, always seemed in a hurry to get it back safely. Now rarely use it, sometimes just cos I like to see it coming home like when you recall a well trained dog. Just started hand catching, not tried launching by hand yet, I’m crack handed.
Thank you everyone, I’ll practise the manual knowing the RTH is there if i need it. Sounds sad but I’m getting very excited but lots of first flight nerves.
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We’ve all been there at some point 
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I find RTH is also quite slow. Generally, I’ll just whack it in sport mode and zip it home quickly.
I agree that the noise RTH makes is loud and (in my opinion) unnecessary. I’ll sometimes let it RTH when battery is low, but almost always take it back to manual when close by to manually land or hand catch.
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RTH is a very re-assuring thing to have, but you need to know exactly how it works before you rely on it. Once you are reasonably confident with the basics, try it out to check it works but learn how to land manually. Hand-launching and hand retrieval are not hard, and keeps your drone off the dirty/wet/dusty ground!
To hand-launch, hold the drone between your thumb & forefinger at a point on the body between the arms and beneath the props. Initiate the take-off sequence, don’t be frightened of the sudden noise, and let go as soon as you feel her start to lift; she will hover about 5’ above your hand.
Landing to your hand has to be done manually; bring her in to a hover about 5’ above your outstretched hand, and bring her down full throttle left stick towards you. The drone will think your hand is the ground and come down gently into it, and you can grab it between thumb & forefinger as before.
If you start the descent from too close to your hand, the drone will leap skywards, which is why you need to hold the stick towards you to ensure a continuous smooth descent. Hand TOAL is worth learning, and I became fairly proficient in about 15minutes of practice. It’s a great thing to show off if you’ve got an audience, and I like to take a little bow, which on one or two occasions has even generated a round of applause… The flip side of this is if you mess it up in front of an audience, in which case I recommend the Walk Of Shame, since the ground won’t open and swallow you, and never go back to that spot again.
RTH with the drone in signal range will ascend to the preset height and make a b-line for the last updated home point. This is why Legolad made the point about trees; you need to preset RTH high enough to clear them, plus overhead power lines, buildings, anything in the way. I set mine to 150’, there’s not much up there at that height! If there’s any obstructions as high as or higher than the preset return height, you are much safer managing things manually, with care if needed! For normal flying, I like to be 20’ or so above any local obstacles, so that they not a worry if I need to come home quickly, RTH or not! This isn’t intuitive when you first start to fly, you make the mistake of thinking that it’s safer closer to the ground; it’s not, it’s safest in clear air.
RTH will be triggered automomously if the drone loses RC signal, in which case it will retrace it’s exact flight path by GPS until it is picking up signal again, at which point it will hover and await further instructions. The RC battery usually lasts longer than the drone batteries, but it is still important to ensure that it is fully charged at the beginning of a flight session, as if it dies while the drone is in the air, you may have the situation where the drone is hovering, and will automatically land when it’s battery runs down, in a location where retrieval is difficult, or worse…
I have used RTH in situations where I’ve lost sight of the drone and cannot locate it, especially if there are low battery warnings. One should in theory be able to locate the drone using the inset map (bottom left of the screen), but in poor visibility or bright sun glare this is not always possible, and I’ll own up to still not being able to pinpoint the little bugger even when I can hear it! I now start to come home when the battery level is below 50%. Good practice with risks is not to take them!
Glare has proven to be a major problem in my attempts to maintain VLOS like the CAA tells me to, and I have bought a shade for my phone so that I can actually have some chance of seeing what’s on the screen. Money well spent.
Your nerves will subside in line with the number of flights you’ve taken, and don’t worry; you’ll be fine! Happy landings, and as many landings as take-offs…
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Video ?
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You want me to hand-launch, with my phone monitoring the drone camera so I’d need to somehow be holding another phone or video camera, with my imaginary third hand holding the RC? Yeah, right! Shove a broom up my arse, I’ll whistle ‘Dixie’ and sweep the floor for you at the same time as well if you like!
This is where we went wrong during evolution. Opposable thumbs were a cracking idea, but we shoult have kept the prehensile tail!
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