Flying with App only in Follow Me

[Rocky the FS]

I've been watching a whole bunch of follow me's, but have not yet found one that shows what the pilot does at the end of the flight. I have to assume that:
A. For any flights other than very short ones, say a loop of less than 200 meters, one must have the smartphone on one's person.
B. Since you cannot use RTH unless there is an assistant waiting back at the ranch with the controller, one must use the App to land the drone where you are at the end. Correct?

My question for those who have done this, is how easy and reliable is it to stop the follow me and land smoothly at your feet with just the App on the phone? And in general what are your experiences with flying with phone only? I just don't have any nice big grass fields to practice in and i'm concerned about crashing.

Thanks

 

[Vegasrobbi]

For follow me you must have a GPS enabled device. Anafi follows just fine using only a tablet or smartphone however range is limited.

Anafi returns to the smart device during follow me so it will return to you. At any time you can cancel follow me and fly Anafi with the virtual sticks on the device.

 

[Rocky the FS]

Ah, yes, I just found this on the Parrot Blog:
"If you’re using the Follow Me mode, the drone will automatically return to the pilot’s current GPS location."

"Note: The exact position of “Home” is always visible on the map in FreeFlight 6."

That makes sense. The position of "Home" is where the smartphone is, not where the controller is, once separated. I would also guess that "Precise RTH" is not available in this scenario. You would have to fly it manually to touchdown where you want, or grab it out of the hover.

 

[Liger 1956]

The position of "Home" is where the smartphone is, not where the controller is, once separated.

You can either fly using the smartphone only or using the controller with or without the smartphone. You cannot start the flight using the controller with the smartphone attached and during the flight detach the smartphone from the controller and expect the Anafi to follow the smartphone's GPS but still have manual control using the controller. You would have to shutdown the controller and then connect to the Anafi using the smartphone's WiFi to enable the Anafi to see the smartphone's GPS.

 

[Rocky the FS]

That clarifies it for me. Thanks! I will have to start practicing with the smartphone only so I can do Follow Me's on the motorcycle....below 30 mph

 

[Vegasrobbi]

For best results try and use a device with a barometer so Anafi can follow the elevation changes of the subject.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Using follow me mode with "Locked" does the Anafi just keep going in a straight line or when you turn will it adjust its path?

 

[Vegasrobbi]

A little difficult to explain. I think of locked as heading lock so if you are heading North and Anafi is following from the front pointing South then you turn left and go West Anafi will still stay North of your and film your side staying North of you.

If you select Dynamic it will clock around you as you turn which I find to be very unpredictable and unforgiving.

Track is like early DJI active track where no matter where Anafi starts it will eventually clock around and follow you from the rear.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Got ya. I was out testing today and was surprised to see in the App the explanation boxes did not show up this time. Do they figure if you read it once your an expert LOL or is there something wrong with my App?