I am traveling for the holidays and am down in LA at a friend's house. A couple of days ago I decided to take the P4 out for a flight. It was pretty windy but nothing crazy. I didn't have my anemometer with me so I wasn't able to take a measurement but I thought I'd be ok.
Anyway, I flew out about 3000 feet and iirc, I had around 75% battery left. I was in GPS mode with CA. It wasn't very fast going out there (maybe around 8mph or so) so I figured there was some headwind.
I decided to play it safe and fly it back anyway even though I had plenty of range left. I have the big ITELITE mod so I'm able to get around 10,000 feet or so in most suburban type conditions like this.
When I flew back, I was surprised to see that it was struggling and only going around 1mph coming back. I was pretty glad that I decided to turn back as I would have been nervous if I only had 50% battery left.
After a few minutes, I switched over to sport mode and was able to get around 8mph or so of speed coming back so I figured that was good enough. If that wasn't good enough I would have gone into ATTI mode but at this point, I had lost visual from looking down on my screen a lot (take my eyes off the bird).
I made it back with around 40% battery and switched back to GPS mode left but to my surprise when I was landing, it was really struggling with the wind. I was in my friend's backyard but it's a really tiny yard with trees, etc. so not much room for error (but I've never had a problem with this type of space before).
As I was landing, I was shocked to see the P4 change from a hover to moving right towards the house! I quickly moved away. The back was towards the house (this is the orientation I always use when landing because it's intuitive) so there were no sensors I guess. I switched over so that the bird was facing the house to use the front sensors for CA but when I tried to land like that, it was still moving around way too much (towards trees, etc.).
In the end, I moved it back to the orientation that I am most comfortable with and brought it down quickly with little time to hover and did a quick hand grab to catch it.
Definitely the most nerve racking flight and landing that I've had. I won't go flying in that kind of wind again.
Of course when I came back into the house my friend was like "take it up again when my son gets home!" and I was just like "nah, too much wind." And then later when his son came home he asked again for me to fly it but by then it was dark and even more windy so I declined.
I landed with around 30% battery left.
Anyway, I flew out about 3000 feet and iirc, I had around 75% battery left. I was in GPS mode with CA. It wasn't very fast going out there (maybe around 8mph or so) so I figured there was some headwind.
I decided to play it safe and fly it back anyway even though I had plenty of range left. I have the big ITELITE mod so I'm able to get around 10,000 feet or so in most suburban type conditions like this.
When I flew back, I was surprised to see that it was struggling and only going around 1mph coming back. I was pretty glad that I decided to turn back as I would have been nervous if I only had 50% battery left.
After a few minutes, I switched over to sport mode and was able to get around 8mph or so of speed coming back so I figured that was good enough. If that wasn't good enough I would have gone into ATTI mode but at this point, I had lost visual from looking down on my screen a lot (take my eyes off the bird).
I made it back with around 40% battery and switched back to GPS mode left but to my surprise when I was landing, it was really struggling with the wind. I was in my friend's backyard but it's a really tiny yard with trees, etc. so not much room for error (but I've never had a problem with this type of space before).
As I was landing, I was shocked to see the P4 change from a hover to moving right towards the house! I quickly moved away. The back was towards the house (this is the orientation I always use when landing because it's intuitive) so there were no sensors I guess. I switched over so that the bird was facing the house to use the front sensors for CA but when I tried to land like that, it was still moving around way too much (towards trees, etc.).
In the end, I moved it back to the orientation that I am most comfortable with and brought it down quickly with little time to hover and did a quick hand grab to catch it.
Definitely the most nerve racking flight and landing that I've had. I won't go flying in that kind of wind again.
Of course when I came back into the house my friend was like "take it up again when my son gets home!" and I was just like "nah, too much wind." And then later when his son came home he asked again for me to fly it but by then it was dark and even more windy so I declined.
I landed with around 30% battery left.
