Flying in high wind

[shward1]

I started out flying into a field to film a herd of antelope. When I lifted off the wind was gusting to about 20mph and I stayed out over the herd for about 8 mins when the wind started to pick up.

I flipped in to HL and started back. You can see in the video that the return trip was slow against a head wind, but it was making steady progress for most of the way. As it got closer to me it started to lose the battle against the wind, I was able drop some altitude and again make some progress.

Then all the sudden the wind picked up to about 40mph and the battle was lost...

I finally decided to ground it as gracefully as possible. I was considering whether to switch to ATTI, but I was a bit paniced and wasn't quite sure what to do.

Luckily, no damage to the quad or attached equipment.

http://youtu.be/-WQlkfsLwzY

 

[motobob]

wow, so close but yet so far; glad everything survived! Bob

 

[4wd]

I think what happened is that when it got close your homelock (correctly) switched to courselock, and it veered off according to how it was orientated when course lock was set.
Without the wind it would have been no big deal.

 

[shward1]

I think what happened is that when it got close your homelock (correctly) switched to courselock, and it veered off according to how it was orientated when course lock was set.
Without the wind it would have been no big deal.

That makes a lot of sense. I didn't realize it would automatically switch to CL. Since I kept pulling down on the stick and the nose was point towards me, the quad went away from me.

Thanks for the info on HL to CL behavior.

 

[robsquad]

dam that must have been a long walk

 

[StangLuvr]

HOLY CRAP!!!! I would have crapped a brick!

 

[Zinnware]

In high winds the prop guards are killers. They are wind catchers and make it harder for the Phantom when flying into the wind.

I used them once. The winds on my mission were gusty and caused the prop guards to flex enough to interfere with the props themselves. It actually cracked a prop tip. Lucky for me the phantom continued to fly with an inch of the prop tip missing.

Another pointer for others is that the Phantom does not perform at the same level when using RTH (Return to Home). You did not use this feature and that is good, because if the RTH was used, you would have seen your bird fade away even at 20 mph winds. I have found that the RTH feature flies the phantom at about 15 mph.

You did have the right idea about using ATTI mode. That probably would have been your saving mode in high winds since it can perform up to speeds of 40 to 45 mph depending on the version of software you are running. I have used ATTI it in similar circumstances. Once even over water. It was my only saving mode.

One more point. Altitude and ground features can play a factor with wind and wind speed since wind can flow faster or slower closer to the ground depending on the situation.

Thanks for sharing your experience. This will help others when in gusty or high wind situations.