3.3 Miles on Stock Antennas - Watch Out for Wind Speed!

[sclabrl]

Really want an accurate winds aloft reading? a great site "ryancarlton.com" is a winds aloft site used for hot ballooning and what I use it for (powered paragliding). Enter in your closet airport and it'll give you winds speed at different altitudes if you really want to know. Enjoy.

 

[SENC]

Really want an accurate winds aloft reading? a great site "ryancarlton.com" is a winds aloft site used for hot ballooning and what I use it for (powered paragliding). Enter in your closet airport and it'll give you winds speed at different altitudes if you really want to know. Enjoy.

Great site, thanks! Bookmarked!

 

[go fast]

Wow that sounded like a really adventorus flight , glad you recovered it.

 

[Alex Baxter]

Fly a 'box' at your intended altitude, note the ground speed on each leg, and you'll find out the wind speed at that altitude, but did you not notice the speed being higher than normal? Warning bells should have been ringing? UAV forecast is wonderful in any case. Happy flying, and I'm happy it ended well!

 

[Mimoid]

Good thinking and here's another example of what could have been booked as a "mysterious flyaway" if you hadn't been cool enough to handle the situation as a true pro.

The Phantom can drift surprisingly fast with the wind - try Atti mode on a windy day on an open field at high altitude to see for yourself! It sure is scary the first time!

//Tom

 

[CCDD]

I'm sure you could've made it back home with roughly 40% battery life and only 1 mile out. It's a bit unsettling when you're speed is drastically reduced however, the remaining battery life should've been sufficient. I flew my Inspire the other day at 250 ft and upon returning to the home point, I logged a speed of 62.4mph. I was coming back over water and let it fly overhead so I could experience the supersonic flyover. Both the Phantom and Inspire continue to amaze me after each and every flight.

 

[Digdat0]

Yesterday evening was an interesting learning experience for me. I live in a fairly wide-open area - golf course behind my house continuing north to a series of fields (mostly crops), a school, a small neighborhood, and then fields for 10+ miles north. My home is somewhat elevated so good LOS north from my deck.

I decided last night to test the range on my P3P while heading north. The plan was to head north until either signal was being lost or I hit 65% battery remaining, whichever happened first.

Surface wind speed was pretty low. 4mph or so heading north. I took off, ascended immediately to 400 feet, and ended up at 3.3 miles / 17,500 feet out when I lost video and remote signal was 1 bar. Hit RTH, it showed RTH initiating, and then lost RC signal. At this point I was at 75% battery and was 4.5 minutes in.

Waited about 2 minutes and I got RC and video signal again. The surprising thing - it was barely south of where RTH started and moving SLOWLY back. For the first time ever, it showed the home spot on the battery meter to the RIGHT of the battery remaining! By the time I reached the school (which is about 1 mile north of my home) I was at 35-40% battery, so I decided to land it in a small grassy field behind the school rather than risk it being forced to land in the crops or golf course between the school and my home - or making it back with a battery depleted to a damaging level. I descended to about 200 feet, pointed the gimbal down for a moment to make sure I was indeed over the field and not the road, then initiated a land. At about 80 feet up I lost signal (likely due to LOS loss), and I BOOKED IT over to that school. Phantom was in the field where I expected it, blinking its lights at me.

Reviewing logs, what I didn't notice at the time, was that I was getting a speed going north of 45+ mph, and coming back between 18-20mph. My guess is that at 400ft there was a much greater wind heading north than I had on the ground.

Lesson from this? Be aware of elevated windspeed. Does anyone have a good way to gauge this? Because the P3 is so good at keeping stable in higher speeds, the wind speed didn't appear to be higher up above from a flight perspective - it all seemed very stable. Or is it more a matter of watching your speed? Also keep an eye out for good safe landing spots if it comes to that when doing distance and battery seems insufficient for a return.

I had a similar issue a few weeks ago, this video shows my landing just on land. I hiked a mile or so to find it at a local Yacht club. Glad I'm not the only one

 

[Wibble]

If your Phantom is registering 45+ mph going out that should have been a big clue to start with.
The top speed in still air is 16 metres/sec (35 mph).
So doing 45 mph shows you have a 10mph tailwind that can take 10 mph off your return speed.
Plus .. when you let the Phantom RTH without your control, it comes back slower than when you fly it.
RTH speed is 10 metres/sec (22 mph) - before you factor in what is now a headwind.
It's a good rule to never attempt a distance run with a tailwind out.

Couldn't have put it better myself. I check my speed constantly. Outbound anything over 35mph and I start to worry!

 

[Digdat0]

Couldn't have put it better myself. I check my speed constantly. Outbound anything over 35mph and I start to worry!

Do you put in in ATTI mode and fly, checking speed increase (+/- ~35 mph) and back into GPS mode once you validate? This is what i do, curious how others measure wind. The alternate I've heard is to go up 100 feet, put into ATTI mode and watch how it floats.. but i think that uses battery I'd rather save for the flight.

 

[Meta4]

Do you put in in ATTI mode and fly, checking speed increase (+/- ~35 mph) and back into GPS mode once you validate? This is what i do, curious how others measure wind. The alternate I've heard is to go up 100 feet, put into ATTI mode and watch how it floats.. but i think that uses battery I'd rather save for the flight.

Flying straight into the wind and noting how fast you can go with the wind against you is another way.
Much better to find out at the start of a flight than when a couple of miles offshore and turning for home.

 

[Wibble]

Do you put in in ATTI mode and fly, checking speed increase (+/- ~35 mph) and back into GPS mode once you validate? This is what i do, curious how others measure wind. The alternate I've heard is to go up 100 feet, put into ATTI mode and watch how it floats.. but i think that uses battery I'd rather save for the flight.

Sometimes I do but normally I do as Meta4 says - just check my speed constantly. I am always checking all the instruments every few seconds.
My old flying instructor said I was a natural for flying in fog - he just wished I looked out of the window more lol.