My doctor recommended I take a day off work to get some rest. What better way to rest and relax than to fly my Starship Enterprise (P3P), right? Ha! Well, I was excited because I hadn't flown for about a week due to travel and the weather, so I was glad it was a nice day, although breezy. I decided to practice using Litchi, since I'd only used it twice before and needed some experience. I did all of my pre-flight checks, hovered for a few moments, then shot up to about 50 meters and hit the forward throttle....without giving any thought to the wind speed and direction. Within seconds the 'Enterprise' was about 500m away, behind trees and out of sight! I thought I had lost control, because I had released the joysticks, but it kept on going. Oh no! Did I have it in atti mode? Being inexperienced with Litchi, I was confused at first. I determined that I was indeed in P-Opti, GPS was working, etc. As I was thinking about how long I should wait before hitting the RTH, or jumping in my truck to give chase, I finally had the presence of mind to look at the video feed. I recognized the scene, and it wasn't moving, so it had finally stabilized position. Adjusting the yaw, I was able to see my house and head back into the wind. Whew! How relaxing! I think I'll have to take tomorrow off, too!
Following Doctor's orders...
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There's quite a few lessons to be learned here:
1. Only fly INTO the wind when heading away from yourself.
2. NEVER fly behind trees. The signal has very little penetration and is easily lost behind any objects.
3. RTH would do nothing to combat wind drift and would only make the situation worse. If you find yourself downwind in a strong wind, manually flying back is your best option.
1. Only fly INTO the wind when heading away from yourself.
2. NEVER fly behind trees. The signal has very little penetration and is easily lost behind any objects.
3. RTH would do nothing to combat wind drift and would only make the situation worse. If you find yourself downwind in a strong wind, manually flying back is your best option.
Ah yes, some days out with the drone can quickly become sphincter tightening moments...lol. Glad your bird returned unharmed.
hahaha! Try to explain that to the wife, I took a day off to rest and almost got a heart attack!
Back in my days of full-size Sailplane piloting, I recall a strong crosswind that caused my main gear wheel to slide several feet sideways just at liftoff behind my towplane. I almost had to change my pants that day
That particular "flying lesson" makes my decisions not to fly on windy days very easy...
That particular "flying lesson" makes my decisions not to fly on windy days very easy...Ever land backwards due to head wind?Back in my days of full-size Sailplane piloting, I recall a strong crosswind that caused my main gear wheel to slide several feet sideways just at liftoff behind my towplane. I almost had to change my pants that day
I have flown a Piper Archer "backwards" with a strong and steady 80mph headwind at altitude. Got her in landing mode and the plane was actually going backwards yet we stayed at altitude. It was awesome, except my passenger pooped his britches Bc he didn't understand flight dynamics and thought we would drop like a stone.
No, but if you look on Google Earth for Waynesville Airport, just South of Xenia, Ohio. You'll see at the highway end of the grass strip, a set of power lines which had to be overflown on final to landing, and on that windy day if it weren't for the voice of my flight instructor (who was a civilian instructor for Navy Pilots at the start of WW2) ringing in my ears to "GET THAT NOSE DOWN" I'm not sure I would have cleared them, and as it was I think rollout for the 2-33 I was flying was less than 20 feet...
