Flying in windy conditions.

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They say the P3S can withhold winds up to 25 mph...I find myself struggling with winds at 10 to 15 mph. Do you think it's bc I only have about 6 hrs flight time.and I'm not that experienced. Or should I just stay away from winds that go above 15mph
 
I try to keep it down to 10 MPH too. I've done higher, but seeing the thing getting swatted around like a tennis racket by the wind while the gimbal stays positioned makes me wonder if I'd like a few stress cracks in the arms as well.
 
Keep flying it ... learn what it does in wind ...

If you only fly in calm - you will lose so many opportunities to fly ....

Nigel
 
I'll go up in 25-30mph if I have to, but I'd rather not because the video quality suffers. Everyone should know how to fly competently in wind.
 
I guess what it depends you want to do also, for me my phantom is to create video, movies etc, so if there is wind there no point flying any way because the vieo suffers as previously said, but yeah i guess you should no how to fly in some wind, in case you ever get caught out..
 
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I'm actually surprised how steady the video is with wind ....

Main thing to remember though - don't get too far downwind and then not enough battery to get home !!

Nigel
 
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Absolutely, Dazzauk. It's about the video, which is why sometimes one must fly in wind. I was on a trip with 6 days in a city with some interesting bridges. It rained everyday except one windy day. I went up knowing I'd probably have less usable video than usual.

Of course I ended up seeing a lot more props and landing gear, flew a lot more reverse shots, but came home with something.

On the plus side, I got to visit a lot of museums on the rainy days.
 
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Basically, quads of this size, and as sophisticated as they are, are just toys.

I don't fly my quads in anything above light and variable.

They don't have the grunt.
 
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My advice..

1.. Set some personal operational limits for yourself and stick to them. Consider them your Standard Operating Procedures and don't deviate from them unless you are prepared to fly in those conditions. If you pick 15 MPH as the limit, you know that if the winds including gusts are that and below you are good to go with no special planning. Outside of that you can do but I would operate with extreme caution and plan for how you are going to operate within these conditions.
2.. Know the wind speed (including Gusts) and direction before you launch. The P3 does not take into account wind direction and speed when calculating the low battery RTH, so if you sent it away downwind you may be in for a surprise when trying to return. One thing you could do here is raise the low battery RTH threshold for these specific flights.
3.. Remember, wind speed and direction can change as you gain altitude. Most forecasts are general forecasts and are expected wind speed and direction. I actually have a Weather Station at my place that tells me this live and it reports to Weather Underground. (Weather Forecast & Reports - Long Range & Local | Wunderground | Weather Underground) There are people like me all over the place that do the same, so you might find someone reporting wind and direction close to the area you are flying in. You would be surprised how often there is a difference between the forecast and actual reported on ground in the area as there are so many mechanical factors that can be in play. The forecast will most likely be close to correct at 400' but the surface direction can be vastly different. If you know both of them, you can make some good informed decisions.
4.. As others have mentioned, practice....Go find an area that is very open and fly in windy conditions. It will go along way towards understanding your level of comfort and limits in different conditions.

Personally, I don't fly in anything beyond 25 KPH winds. It is not worth the risk for me and like others have mentioned, I do this for the video footage, which suffers in very windy or gusty conditions.

Coming from aviation perspective, bad things happen when people are unprepared for their conditions. If you know your limits and can recognize when you are going to reach them and have a plan, you will have happy flying.
 
I have short hair and #10 sport gel. Ain't going anywhere.

Me, I love testing anything in anything. When I was a kid I'd go out and drive in snow storms, gale force winds, freezing rain, torrential downpours. I taught myself early and young to not be afraid of weather in case I ever NEEDED to be in it.

Same applies here... although it's been an insanely cold winter and I avoid that because I'm concerned about stress cracks, though I have still flown at -15. OtherwiseI don't shy away from wind, have flown in snow, but will avoid rain for the obvious.

It's not always about the video for me... I equally enjoying the piloting.
 
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I used to fly stunt kites. I liked the wind then. Funny thing, when you fly kites the wind never blows. Take a RC Plane, Heli or quad outside and your guaranteed a howling 25kts or more.

Maybe we all need to take a kite along as part of our standard equipment.
 
Just like jwmcgrath, for me it's not only for the videos. I like piloting. Since my local winds forecasts are pretty actives everydays, I took my drone in, what we can call, heavy conditions.
-Winds rarelly lower than 10 mph average speed. The highest I did was 32mph gust speed, I wouldn't redo it though. But I have frequently 25mph gust speed without any problems.
-High denssity fog, the drone come out very wet. I didn't know the fog was soo low. I thought it was just a very cloudy day. Fog started at arround 75 meter altitude from my starting points. I wouldn't redo it too.
-Snowing
-Minus 20 celsius, often. Pretty hard for my hands.
Still good as new.
Like some others, I wouldn't do it in rain for obvious reasons.
 
I used to fly stunt kites. I liked the wind then. Funny thing, when you fly kites the wind never blows. Take a RC Plane, Heli or quad outside and your guaranteed a howling 25kts or more.

Maybe we all need to take a kite along as part of our standard equipment.

Same here, used to love my stunt kites and actually made a few myself. Took my kites with me on holiday once to the west coast of Vancouver Island where the trees actually grow sideways due to the constant winds off the Pacific.... dead calm all week.
 
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Same here, used to love my stunt kites and actually made a few myself. Took my kites with me on holiday once to the west coast of Vancouver Island where the trees actually grow sideways due to the constant winds off the Pacific.... dead calm all week.
Hi Geoff,

Yes, that's almost always the way with kites.

They are so much fun when the wind does blow though eh ?

You feel 'connected' to nature somehow.

I never attempted to make my own. That is something I might revisit
 
...as mentioned, practice in wind (15-20 kts) in an open field, GPS and ATTI to get a feel for what you're comfortable with and to know how your sUAS responds under varying conditions. Recently I've been doing a lot of commercial flying in tight spaces with a lot of trees and overhead power lines. My cutoff for these conditions is around 10-15 kts gusting to 20 max.
 
I live in New Mexico - if I didn't fly in wind - I wouldn't fly.

Work with wind and just remember that the power it takes to fly into the wind is far more than that required to fly against the wind - as well as forward speeds and time to return to home. It can get tricky fast - especially if you're not aware of your battery condition. You can NOT fly away from you with the wind down to 65% or so battery with the wind, and still get home against the wind.
 
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Its the age old story ................
Flying with wind = aircraft speed + wind speed.
Flying against the wind = aircraft speed - wind speed

Why ? Because the aircraft only knows the air it is in .... it does not know or care about ground below. Its one of the first lessons any RC flier finds out about when he compares downwind and upwind legs of flight.

Nigel
 

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