At what wind speed do you ground your P3S?

[Tenly]

Think you totally missed the point of the posts above that talk of crosswind. Most of us have a destination in mind when we're flying a particular location or at least the direction of travel that we would prefer. So turning around an facing another direction is not an option because that may not be where your point of interest is at.

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Well, the smile at the end of my message made it clear to "most people" that I was joking.

It's also a tad presumptuous and probably incorrect for you to speak on behalf of "most people". Most of the recreational pilots that I know just want to get out and fly. True that they may have a preferred direction - or even a preferred destination - but they are not so locked to it that they would decide not to fly that day if there was a crosswind. Some would just fly in a different direction - others might drive a mile down the road so that they could still fly to their destination with a more favourable wind.

You may have restrictions as to where you can take off from and what directions you can fly - but I don't think it's accurate to apply those same restrictions to "most people".

Again - as my "smile" was intended to indicate - the post you quoted was meant to be humorous. It appears that I'm not the one that "missed" anything. If you scroll back and look at the 3rd reply to the OP - you'll see that I was one of the first to reply with good, serious advice that has since been echoed/reinforced several times by others offering similar advice.


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[Mark The Droner]

Another thing I'll add:

Let's say there's a 20 mph cross wind from the 90 degree East and you're flying due North. It might seem your AC is handling things wonderfully and maybe it is. But what may be invisible to most of you is the extreme tilt of your AC as it's fighting that cross wind. You've got that advanced gimbal, and if it's pointing low enough, that tilt is completely invisible to you. That horizon is horizontal just like it always is. That's why I like to fly in FPV Gimbal mode - so I can see exactly what's going on with my AC. In FPV Gimbal mode, the camera stays with the AC's left and right tilt on cross winds.

My point is, when you see that extreme tilt, you know your battery is going to get played out sooner than you'd otherwise think.

 

[WilliamM]

Well, the smile at the end of my message made it clear to "most people" that I was joking.

It's also a tad presumptuous and probably incorrect for you to speak on behalf of "most people". Most of the recreational pilots that I know just want to get out and fly. True that they may have a preferred direction - or even a preferred destination - but they are not so locked to it that they would decide not to fly that day if there was a crosswind. Some would just fly in a different direction - others might drive a mile down the road so that they could still fly to their destination with a more favourable wind.

You may have restrictions as to where you can take off from and what directions you can fly - but I don't think it's accurate to apply those same restrictions to "most people".

Again - as my "smile" was intended to indicate - the post you quoted was meant to be humorous. It appears that I'm not the one that "missed" anything. If you scroll back and look at the 3rd reply to the OP - you'll see that I was one of the first to reply with good, serious advice that has since been echoed/reinforced several times by others offering similar advice.


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First I know you were making fun, but I also think most people would think you were making fun at our expense, the folks making a big deal about wind direction. And I do think most people have a spot picked out or find a good spot just perfect to use as a takeoff point and a general direction of travel in mind or a POI in mind. So on one point we agree, if the wind is too strong and blowing in the wrong direction. Either change your plans on your flight destination and/or POI that day or pick a new place to fly. But I stand by my premise that most people have either a destination and/or a POI that we're planning to accomplishing at that moment. And while we might be able to just fly 180° the other way, that wasn't the goal of the day. Anyhow many times I'm backed up against an area I don't want to fly over like a heavy wooded area, a lake or swamp, residential area, businesses, highway. So I need to stay at least in the same general planned direction.

 

[WilliamM]

Another thing I'll add:

Let's say there's a 20 mph cross wind from the 90 degree East and you're flying due North. It might seem your AC is handling things wonderfully and maybe it is. But what may be invisible to most of you is the extreme tilt of your AC as it's fighting that cross wind. You've got that advanced gimbal, and if it's pointing low enough, that tilt is completely invisible to you. That horizon is horizontal just like it always is. That's why I like to fly in FPV Gimbal mode - so I can see exactly what's going on with my AC. In FPV Gimbal mode, the camera stays with the AC's left and right tilt on cross winds.

My point is, when you see that extreme tilt, you know your battery is going to get played out sooner than you'd otherwise think.

Good point with flying in FVP gimbal mode. I've always had mine on follow mode from day one for best video image. Might try that next time out, hope I don't get dizzy. lol

 

[42FrankZ]

I gauge by the flags on a pole near where I fly. Some old military thumb-rule has the angle they are flying at divided by 4 gives you the wind speed. If they are around 80 degrees up, that would mean 20 MPH and I notice the drone has a really bad time with horizon being level as it hovers twisted into the wind too and yawing it around in a 360.

That wouldn't really work over 22.5MPH and would be pretty dependent on the flag.

 

[ThommyBoy]

I've found you don't want to fly when the winds are higher than the top speed of your Phantom. Sometimes the job requires giving it a try, even if the wind is kind of scary. I've flown my P3P in 35 mph average wind and couldn't bring it back facing the headwind. I had to land on a gravel road and drive the car to it. On the other hand, I've flown my P4 in those same conditions and had enough push to return. You have to watch your battery levels because it's going to be a slow return into a headwind.

 

[Tenly]

I've been out in high winds once or twice unintentionally. The winds increased while I was out. I was able to make it back both times because I wasn't all that far away - but I learned a couple things about my phantom.

I had always thought that my phantom was perfectly symmetrical and so it didn't matter what direction I was facing and that it could travel at full speed in any direction. It turns out that's not true.

I like to land in reverse - with the Phantom facing away from me (so left on the joystick moves left and right moves right) - but when I tried this on a windy day, the Phantom 3 Professional did not have enough power flying in reverse to get through the wind. Fortunately I didn't panic and just rotated it so it was facing forward and found that when flying forward - it DID have enough power to fly into the wind. I'm not sure why that's true - but it is - at least on my P3P.

The second time I was caught in a high wind, even flying in forward was not enough to make up any ground against the wind. The best I could do with full power, facing forward into the wind - was to hover in place. Anything less than full power and I was being blown backwards. I was almost ready to choose an alternate landing point somewhere downwind when I finally found that "tacking" into the wind was able to get me home. I attacked the wind at a 45 degree angle and I was able to move forward. Even this might not be enough some days - so, as everyone else has already said - be careful on windy days. You might even be well advised to choose an alternate landing spot downwind that you can use if the wind becomes stronger while you're out and you find yourself unable to make it back.


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[Slackware]

That's great, but if you're on a distance run (pushing range per the OP), you're wasting your time with a cross wind because your battery energy will be wasted fighting with the cross wind. So you're not going to break any records. If you're just flying to fly, that's fine.

Thanks for posting.

you might break the record for furthest away drone lost if you start downwind. The eye of hurricanes are the BEST for flying, completely calm with clear sky.

 

[Slackware]

I've been out in high winds once or twice unintentionally. The winds increased while I was out. I was able to make it back both times because I wasn't all that far away - but I learned a couple things about my phantom.

I had always thought that my phantom was perfectly symmetrical and so it didn't matter what direction I was facing and that it could travel at full speed in any direction. It turns out that's not true.

I like to land in reverse - with the Phantom facing away from me (so left on the joystick moves left and right moves right) - but when I tried this on a windy day, the Phantom 3 Professional did not have enough power flying in reverse to get through the wind. Fortunately I didn't panic and just rotated it so it was facing forward and found that when flying forward - it DID have enough power to fly into the wind. I'm not sure why that's true - but it is - at least on my P3P.

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Did you point the camera down to get the weight off the nose?

 

[Mark The Droner]

... The eye of hurricanes are the BEST for flying, completely calm with clear sky.

Sorry but not really. In competition, the guy who flies in the a steady wind (not increasing or decreasing and not crosswind) will beat the guy who flies in calm. Because the guy who flies in a headwind or tailwind can use the wind to his advantage by flying at optimum altitude going and coming.

Furthermore, the guy flying in increasing or decreasing winds can do even better than the guy flying in steady wind if it's blowing in a favorable direction relative to flight.

In other words, if you're flying against a 10 mph head wind, but you have an 11 mph tail wind coming back, you beat everybody!

 

[Solly747400]

As a private pilot, one of the most important things you need to know before taking off is the wind direction and speed, and I think although yes we are flying a hobby drone and our life doesn't depend on it, it makes good practice to know what the wind is doing before taking off. A pilot must never take off in winds higher than the max for that aircraft. Same applies with our drones. But that doesn't mean everyone is comfortable to fly at the max recommended wind. Some (including myself) are comfortable with only half that number.

 

[Eddie258]

Ah phooey!!! I give up. I'm removing this ARGtek antenna as I type this. Sending back to Amazon. 1800 feet at 330 high and it COMPLETELY lost video and control. Talk about scared. I had the 3 panels on and I'm 99% sure I was pointing them right at the bird. Kept getting RTH failed too. I'm 1000% sure I have the 2.4ghz and 5.8ghz leads hooked up correctly. Cracked it open, just to see. She's all safe n sound on my shelf now and her ITELITE will be here (EDIT: Thursday) via FedEx.

ARGtek kit, Pros- you don't have to drill holes in your transmitter, for when you have to remove it and send it back a week later. LOL

Hello Matts, Go here and get the clean install kit and you wont have to drill the holes for the ITELITE either. DJI - Clean Install Kit

 

[Matts175]

I already drilled the holes. No big deal, but thanks for showing that.

 

[Klaus_Klavier]

Ah phooey!!! I give up. I'm removing this ARGtek antenna as I type this. Sending back to Amazon. 1800 feet at 330 high and it COMPLETELY lost video and control. Talk about scared. I had the 3 panels on and I'm 99% sure I was pointing them right at the bird. Kept getting RTH failed too. I'm 1000% sure I have the 2.4ghz and 5.8ghz leads hooked up correctly. Cracked it open, just to see. She's all safe n sound on my shelf now and her ITELITE will be here (EDIT: Thursday) via FedEx.

ARGtek kit, Pros- you don't have to drill holes in your transmitter, for when you have to remove it and send it back a week later. LOL

Don't use 3 panels then. Use the taller antenna and if there is an issue with it contact the BlueProton guys they are pretty good from what I hear. I'm about to get one myself hopefully it works


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[Matts175]

Don't use 3 panels then. Use the taller antenna and if there is an issue with it contact the BlueProton guys they are pretty good from what I hear. I'm about to get one myself hopefully it works


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I tried all of the combos.

 

[Goldenzrule]

Thanks for the UAV Forecast suggestion. Just wanted to add that when entering the web address, I was alerted to a UAV Forecast App (this is on Android). Just downloaded it, very useful. Thanks again.

 

[Craig Willes]

I took off and it was calm, and after about 10 minutes into the flight the wind started to blow very hard, 38 MPH according to the news that day. The trees show the wind in the video, and I took off from a spot where I had not a lot of open space to begin with. The video was shot at 60 FPS so keep that in mind when looking at the tree movement. Here is a link to the video I posted to youtube, It was hard on the nerves to bring the bird back in with the wind as strong as it was.

 

[Mark The Droner]

Looks like a storm was incoming. We can see rain drops hitting the lens. Did you not check the weather before launch?

Nice video.

 

[Craig Willes]

Looks like a storm was incoming. We can see rain drops hitting the lens. Did you not check the weather before launch?

Nice video.

Actually it seemed it was past and moving away at the point I started, but I do admit I didn't check with the weather channel to see what more was on it's way.