Interesting wind test

Impressive! Always thought the Phantom's held their ground fairly well. Live and learn.
 
Neat test.

Too bad DJI lost on both accounts. Never thought about the Inspire body shape acting as a vane in the wind. The P4 getting lost 4 miles away and found by Civil Air Patrol? Inspire 814 feet off the landing spot, and the Yuneec only 16 feet off.

Wonder if the Yuneec uses the Intel system for GPS as in those 300 drone light shows during the Super Bowl, and DJI uses their own (Dare I say inferior?) guidance system. The Yuneec seemed to stay within its cubed fairly area well. And DJI, you got some work to do.

That poor P4 just disappeared....
 
Neat test.

Too bad DJI lost on both accounts. Never thought about the Inspire body shape acting as a vane in the wind. The P4 getting lost 4 miles away and found by Civil Air Patrol? Inspire 814 feet off the landing spot, and the Yuneec only 16 feet off.

Wonder if the Yuneec uses the Intel system for GPS as in those 300 drone light shows during the Super Bowl, and DJI uses their own (Dare I say inferior?) guidance system. The Yuneec seemed to stay within its cubed fairly area well. And DJI, you got some work to do.

That poor P4 just disappeared....

I don't see how it can be a GPS/control system problem. That might result in some local drifting around (although we know that the Phantom and Inspire FC GPS is good to just a few meters at most). The fact that it drifted off into the distance, downwind, cannot be because it did not detect the drift, and must reflect that the FC simply could not hold location against the wind - i.e. the motors were not up to the challenge. Not particularly surprising since one of the touted selling points of the H520 is a high top speed and greater stability in high winds.
 
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I don't see how it can be a GPS/control system problem. That might result in some local drifting around (although we know that the Phantom and Inspire FC GPS is good to just a few meters at most). The fact that it drifted off into the distance, downwind, cannot be because it did not detect the drift, and must reflect that the FC simply could not hold location against the wind - i.e. the motors were not up to the challenge. Not particularly surprising since one of the touted selling points of the H520 is a high top speed and greater stability in high winds.

You might be right, although given the issues with altitude numbers in GO verses actual altitude leads me to wonder about DJI's guidance at times. No way should I see it landing at -46 feet when it shows take-off at zero feet. With all the VPS, sonar, GPS, barometer on board, landing at -46 feet is pretty sad for guidance.

The Inspire 1 with the body acting as a wind vane is disturbing too, aerodynamically speaking. It should have handled the winds better as it is quick, but the body might be at fault there.

How the Yuneec H520 compares in altitude reporting would be an interesting test too against DJI. Somehow I'd wager that the Yuneec may fly a more accurate altitude specified path than DJI given its altitude hold over the DJI pair in the video. If so, the guidance between the two, Intel (Yuneec?) vs. DJI, would be telling.
 
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Hello...
Has anyone considered the fact that the Yuneec has SIX motors? That's 50% more motor power than the other two birds (not knowing the true power of any of the copter's motors). Last but not least, the weight of each drone has to have some impact on the results, as well as aerodynamics. Besides, anyone who would truly fly in 35mph gusting to 50mph deserves to land two counties away from where they took off!
 
Besides, anyone who would truly fly in 35mph gusting to 50mph deserves to land two counties away from where they took off!

Canceling commercial shoots for wind is annoying and negatively impacts clients. Being able to fly in high wind is a significant asset for people not just flying for fun.
 
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Canceling commercial shoots for wind is annoying and negatively impacts clients. Being able to fly in high wind is a significant asset for people not just flying for fun.

Well, I can appreciate where you are coming on the business end, but they just cancelled 1700 flights here in the Northeast citing weather conditions. That's a lot of pissed off people and a huge monetary loss to the airlines. People need to accept that there will always be circumstances which we cannot control. (Weather being one of them). I do not fly professionally (yet), but if there was a situation that could result in the loss of my equipment, I would reconsider or reschedule, insurance or not.
 
Canceling commercial shoots for wind is annoying and negatively impacts clients. Being able to fly in high wind is a significant asset for people not just flying for fun.
Good point.

However, judging by the motion of the Typhoon trying to hold position I doubt very much that any usable footage could be obtained in those conditions, unless the intended shot was to include hurricane wind cinematography as part of the scene.

As for the subject matter of the thread, meh. I'm not bothered at all by the Phantom not coming out well in this test. The wind speeds are far in excess of what the P4 is spec'd to be able to handle, so who's surprised it didn't?

Further, who's disappointed in their P4 that there's another bird out there with better specs? That's nothing new either. All it takes is money...
 
Well, I can appreciate where you are coming on the business end, but they just cancelled 1700 flights here in the Northeast citing weather conditions. That's a lot of pissed off people and a huge monetary loss to the airlines. People need to accept that there will always be circumstances which we cannot control. (Weather being one of them). I do not fly professionally (yet), but if there was a situation that could result in the loss of my equipment, I would reconsider or reschedule, insurance or not.

Canceling for a blizzard is completely different than having to call someone and say "hey, I know it's windy here most of the time and today is just another windy day... but, huh, I'm going to have to wait for one of those few calms days we get per month."
 
Good point.

However, judging by the motion of the Typhoon trying to hold position I doubt very much that any usable footage could be obtained in those conditions, unless the intended shot was to include hurricane wind cinematography as part of the scene.

The H is well known for having an outstanding gimbal, so I doubt there was any issue with the footage, but they certainly should have included that as part of the test.
 
Well, I can appreciate where you are coming on the business end, but they just cancelled 1700 flights here in the Northeast citing weather conditions. That's a lot of pissed off people and a huge monetary loss to the airlines. People need to accept that there will always be circumstances which we cannot control. (Weather being one of them). I do not fly professionally (yet), but if there was a situation that could result in the loss of my equipment, I would reconsider or reschedule, insurance or not.

While there will always be circumstances we can not control, the limits of our own abilities are also a factor. Someone who regularly flies in 25mph winds is going to be more comfortable than someone who draws the line at 15mph.

I have flown professionally but most of my videos are for me. Either way, there were times when I felt little bit of wind risk was warranted. I was in a location for a limited time and had to take the time and weather windows given to me, or not.

Higher winds usually results in a lower percentage of usable video, but not flying results in even less.
 
The H is well known for having an outstanding gimbal, so I doubt there was any issue with the footage, but they certainly should have included that as part of the test.
Doesn't matter. The video was enough for me to SEE that the shot would be unstable as hell. The bird was moving all over, not hovering in place.
 
We often don't know the real wind speeds at higher altitudes. Many a multirotor has been lost due to launching in what we thought was a safe wind speed based on what we see on the ground. It is nice to see this kind of testing to learn the limits of our aircraft.
 
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