Flying in wind

[ladykate]

It is normal to bounce a little in heavy wind. I've flown in 35mph+ winds. Here is a video (in ATTI mode on a P2). While it isn't GPS stabilized, it is fairly solid until I get down in the trees where it is quite turbulent. In GPS mode it will bounce around a little but you don't have to coax it as much.

 

[Evel_Knievel]

It's very rare to have zero wind. I stress about flying in the wind and crashing. What's the highest wind the p4 can fly in. ?

I wouldn't stress about the bird being able to handle the wind. It's an extremely capable machine. The issue regarding wind is making it back if you've flown downwind. Easy solution...always place your takeoff area downwind of where you intend to fly. That way if the wind is too high for you to make it to your subject you can still make it back to land. I have a P3A and have flown in 30 mph winds. P4 is more capable, Just keep it upwind from you at all times and that should take a lot of the stress out of the equation. Good luck!

 

[David Cooke]

If you are taking off downwind of major objects like hills or buildings, just be cautious taking off and especially in heavy winds at the top of a hill or the edge of a cliff or building. The Phantom 4 does handle turbulence generally well but I've had to intervene quickly on a couple of occasions when gusty turbulence almost drove it into the ground. If you take off well back from the edge of a hill or cliff and get some altitude first BEFORE you cross into the turbulence you may avoid a nasty surprise . . my background in small wind turbines reminds me that most turbulence exists around and mostly downwind of an objsct. Just picture this graphic in your head when you are flying around hills, buildings and trees. Twice the height of the object upwind and 20 x the height downwind . . there's where the turbulence is.

 

[iowahill]

It's very rare to have zero wind. I stress about flying in the wind and crashing. What's the highest wind the p4 can fly in. ?

I was playing around with my P2V+ a couple of days ago with winds around 8-10 MPH with occasional gusts. I had this "Spirit Of Flightt" attached to it as well in preparation for Halloween. The bird hovered and flew like a champ. I've flown in higher winds without the hitcher too without any problems. Expect lower battery time as the bird is using up power to maintain position and control inputs.

 

[GMack]

I was playing around with my P2V+ a couple of days ago with winds around 8-10 MPH with occasional gusts. I had this "Spirit Of Flightt" attached to it as well in preparation for Halloween. The bird hovered and flew like a champ. I've flown in higher winds without the hitcher too without any problems. Expect lower battery time as the bird is using up power to maintain position and control inputs.View attachment 64986

haha! Cool idea!

Needs a longer cord to get the drone out of sight, maybe cover the lights too so the spirit thing will appear to eerily float down the street. Glow sticks inside the spirit too? Ought to be good for chasing those Halloweener kids. Need a Bigfoot too for off season.

 

[dgd3]

I try to keep my waypoint mission flights upwind so that the RTH has a good chance of making it back with the wind helping blow it back.
And I've discovered that the wind high up can be way stronger. I was having a "blow-away" at 150M and had to descend asap to get to slower wind so the RTH had a chance.
(P2V+ v3)

 

[pe9999]

Ok. Well mine doesnt keep ascending. I'm talking about maybe a foot or two maybe 3 feet of rise then it lowers back to original position. Is that common?

If it is less than 6 feet from the ground, the prop wash may affect your baro which can impact your attitude hold.

 

[KingDad1985]

I was flying out in the Mojave desert yesterday with 30+MPH gusts with no problem with my P4. I was flying with the wind and hit a top speed of 61.7MPH. Flying back into the wind was slow but not a problem.

Where at in the Mojave desert? I live in Barstow ca


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[KingDad1985]

"Hand Catch" is the only safe recovery for you and the bird.

Establish a hover about at about 7ft . . .and away from you . .(see my avatar) . . take your thumb OFF the throttle lever ( just near it) . . approach it from below, grasp the leg firmly and throttle to idle. . .BEFORE you try to move it! . . especially in gusty winds. Just watch what it's doing as you approach to grab it.... and only AFTER it has held station for a few seconds. Day or night, it's the best way to save tipping over , damaging blades needlessly or bouncing the gimble. . . you're right though . . not good at eye level.
ps you should always use a neck strap so you can never drop the controller.

How do you stop the blades from spinning? Move the right stick all the way down to the right or left?


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[Erised]

Left stick only, pull straight down and hold till the props stop.(P4) Do not touch the right stick once down or move the left side to side, straight down or you may tip your bird.

 

[Patrick]

I was playing around with my P2V+ a couple of days ago with winds around 8-10 MPH with occasional gusts. I had this "Spirit Of Flightt" attached to it as well in preparation for Halloween. The bird hovered and flew like a champ. I've flown in higher winds without the hitcher too without any problems. Expect lower battery time as the bird is using up power to maintain position and control inputs.View attachment 64986

love the decoration!

 

[iowahill]

haha! Cool idea!

Needs a longer cord to get the drone out of sight, maybe cover the lights too so the spirit thing will appear to eerily float down the street. Glow sticks inside the spirit too? Ought to be good for chasing those Halloweener kids. Need a Bigfoot too for off season.

I put a 10' line on it the next day when I took it over to my girlfriends house to thrill the neighbor kids. I thought that using a hundred or more feet of line would be good, and putting a Lume Cube or equivalent in the "ghost" would be fun too. Problem with the long line is high potential of the line and load getting tangled in the trees, as we have quite a few in the neighborhood. But lots of possibilities exist when you look beyond just flying!

 

[GMack]

You shouldn't have any problems flying at 20 mph or below... Drones can fight the wind much better than mid to big size Rc airplanes. I prefer to fly at 15 mph or less...

I lost my RC heli once when the winds got bad over the tops of some trees back when we could fly in local city parks (ahem!). It blew away like a kite, lost radio contact or it refused to respond (panic!), then the props stopped, and it dropped like a rock onto someone's roof and all the neighborhood dogs began barking. The barking led me to the house where I suspected it fell and the guy said it bounced off his patio roof and onto the pool deck and got mangled up. So much for that heli.

Now I pack on of those Dywer wind indicators ( Portable Wind Meter | Portable Wind Meter | Dwyer Instruments ) that has a 2-10 scale and a 10-60 MPH scale (No batteries.). If the little ball in it hits the 10 MPH, I don't fly it. Autopilot also warns against going over 10 MPH too with their software as some of the drone spec's and their programming might become non-standard due to excessive winds and it not be at a given point if blown about.