First experience flying in wind. Odd results.

[caffeinated]

Shameful waste this afternoon. Took off from Williamstown in Melbourne Aus and it was the perfect time and location. Just before sunset, lots of small yachts in the foreground, looming snaking bridge to the left, cbd skyline across the bay straight in front.... But it was too windy.

I made the call and landed it. Not worth rising the quad, I'll come back.

What was interesting to me was that this was the first time the p3 didn't hover in place. Manual control could and did counteract the wind but without intervention it was drifting downwind badly.
Upon review the footage was major jello. That's probably my fault as after my first flight small crash my adhoc repairs have left me running using all four pins between the gimble plates so there is probably not enough give.

But I digress. Is that normal behaviour? If the craft is capable of holding position that it would not do so with hands off the sticks?
Is there a maximum angle for self-hover?

I'm glad I made the safety call and will go back on a calmer day but I'm interested as to the default behaviour in wind.

 

[SimonH78]

It should hover in a fixed position in GPS mode in the wind unless it was too windy!

 

[gravity]

That is interesting. I would assume hands on or off, the craft would be just as capable of holding GPS position in wind. I haven't ever heard of it being able to do it manually but not automatically. My first thought would be a GPS problem. Maybe you could test its ability to hold position by dragging it around while hovering near you. Very odd.

 

[Chuck Young]

I flew in sustained 7 (3.1 meters per second) miles per hour with gusts to 15 (6.7 meters per second) it was not exactly fun. It was doable and the video turned out pretty good. I think the gimbal was bumping the mount and causing a bit of vibrations occasionally and the rotors were in view a lot. I only have 2 stock pins but have applied some small zip ties, put 90° angles with needle-nose pliers to make them rectangular and totally suspended in the holes. According to the DJI Wiki page a gust to 18 miles per hour would over come maximum ground speed at 2 meters AGL.

 

[F6Rider]

The P3 cannot 'hover' in a wind that exceeds it's max speed on a calm day, maybe a bit less. If the bird can only do 25mph then any wind over that will cause it to drift as the auto hover does not use 100% power. You can add power manually to counteract that but only up to a point. At some point (about 30mph) nothing you can do will keep it from drifting so you better get out of the sky. Descend into the wind and be very careful when you get into the lee side of a tree or building as with full throttle to keep it stationary the sudden lack of wind will cause it to shoot forward. Almost lost my P2 this way once.

 

[happydays]

Manual control? Atti mode, you mean?

 

[caffeinated]

Not atti mode, just pushing the stick into the wind.

The p3 was capable of beating that wind (what little flying I did do was upwind for that very reason) but it was quite strong.
That left me with either that the self-hover had a lower maximum angle of attack than the sticks or I happened to have a gps drift, in the direction of the wind, for the first time.