please analyze wind blowing P4P+ 2000ft behind me (before I realized it)

[ribjig]

2 yr owner encounters first wind emergency;
earlier morning flight nearby up 327ft, took photos, down, no issues;
(TV weather reported 18mph for day)
then around 11A at Everglades Holiday County Park (at edge, not in National Park)
took off from here: (sharp curve in lane middle of image)

Google Maps

briefly, immediately up to my 327ft height limit, got confused by distance measure
blanking=out, then realized from live view drone was near 2000ft behind me!!
manual return effort failed, manual lowering height to ?slower? wind failed & almost hit construction crane, manual up again to 327ft, tried H=Home button, no progress, tried manual return, no progress, noticed battery at 65%, tried H=Home again, very very slowly came closer (maybe wind temporarily lowered), finally got overhead &
RC announced "landing" -- probably under 30% battery at landing !!!

Am tech-challenged, is there dumbed-down flight data access presentation steps advising which cables, connect to what, etc.? Would like analysis telling me, if possible, wind speed that did the most "pushing away" & if it died down allowing "return to home". Thanks in advance.

 

[Meta4]

manual return effort failed, manual lowering height to ?slower? wind failed

There are two things to be aware of in that situation.
Wind speed will always be lower is you come down lower.
RTH is a slow driver. You can flyyour Phantom 50% faster if you do the driving.

Am tech-challenged, is there dumbed-down flight data access version advising
which cables, connect to what, etc.? Would like analysis telling me, if possible, wind speed that did the most "pushing away" & what it died down to before landing. Thanks in advance.

If you want help with analysis, go to DJI Flight Log Viewer - Phantom Help
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
Come back and post a link to the report it provides and someone might be able to analyse it and give you details of the incident.

 

[Fly Dawg]

(TV weather reported 18mph for day)

These are surface level winds. Winds at 300 ft are much higher.

We would need to see the flight data to analyze this as Meta 4 mentioned above. There really is no easier way to do it. Follow the instructions for upoad and we can get back to you.

 

[ribjig]

Thanks for tutorial.
Are these properly uploaded?
First flight had no issues, Second did.
What program is used to see data properly?
(I am seeing symbols & characters in NotePad)

 

[Oso]

Thanks for tutorial.
Are these properly uploaded?
First flight had no issues, Second did.
What program is used to see data properly?
(I am seeing symbols & characters in NotePad)

The instructions for where to upload to the viewer were in the post from @Meta4 earlier. I will go ahead and do it for you this time.

5:03pm flight:
DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

7:59pm flight:
DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

 

[Meta4]

Am tech-challenged, is there dumbed-down flight data access presentation steps advising which cables, connect to what, etc.? Would like analysis telling me, if possible, wind speed that did the most "pushing away" & if it died down allowing "return to home".

Click on the second link posted by Oso and you see the story.
In the first 26 seconds you only pushed the left stick up and climbed to 327 ft.
In that time the drone had been blown 100ft away from home.
From 0:43 till 1:17 you just left it hovering and were blow a further 306 ft from home.
That's 9 ft/s or 6 mph when the Phantom is trying to hold position.
So the wind up there is probably 30+ mph.

You go to RTH at 4:08 and the Phantom is blown further backwards at 2-3 mph.
You brought it down to 284 ft and tried driving yourself but went even further backwards for a bit.
At 6:12.5 you tried again and managed to make headway at 4-5 mph when the wind eased and 0-1 mph in gusts.
You brought it down to 225 ft and progress was still slow.
At 7:38 you left it hovering and it was drifting backwards again at 5 mph.
At *:44 and 225 ft you went to RTH again and the Phantom was making slow headway at 2.5-5 mph and brought the Phantom home.

If you had brought the Phantom down lower, the wind strength would have been less and easier to fight.
If you had piloted the Phantom yourself, you could have flown faster.
If you had Obstacle Avoidance enabled, that was also reducing the possible speed.

And the smartest thing to have done would be to avoid flying off downwind in the first place.
If you fly away with the wind, it's always going to be a headwind you have to fight coming home.
It's much safer and happier to push against a headwind going out and have an easy ride home.

 

[skymonkey]

Make sure to always check weather before you fly. Today was very windy down here in south Florida. I checked wind for Markham Park not to far from from Holiday and it was 18 gusting to 30+. Not a good day to fly.

 

[sar104]

Here is the computed wind field map for your second flight, with wind speeds exceeding 50 mph out of the west at 300 ft AGL:


For comparison, on your earlier flight the wind barely exceeded 20 mph:

 

[Timinator]

Sport mode man! Find it and use it in a situation like this. Lucky you didn't lose the aircraft.

 

[ribjig]

Thanks for detailed analyses!
On wind-crisis flight, my mission was same as first flight:
fly straight up to 327ft height, take photos in various directions, fly straight down to take-off point;
at no time did I purposely fly downwind;
Question: successful second auto-return-home began after 8m45s, the wind speeds after that time seem,
on average, about same as before 8m45s, so am confused as to why attempted manual return & first
auto-return-home failed to decrease distance from home???
Also: do occasional red messages like "Obstacle Sensing is not functioning." refer to obstacle sensing
that was working, then stopped, then worked again, then stopped, etc.? Was this due to drone tilting
severely in wind temporarily? Or mistaking wind for obstacle? Why would this message appear when
drone was not near any obstacle? If obstacle sensing was off all the time, why doesn't message appear
in every row?
I was not in Beginner's Mode, so what mode would I be in if not Sport Mode & how does highest
flight speed of that mode compare to Sport Mode?
Thanks in advance. regards jg

 

[Timinator]

Sport mode is going to give you the extra power you need to overcome the winds compared to P mode. Have a look at the manual for the P4P. I fgenerally don't fly in sport mode often but I do not that if i should end up in trouble with a headwind, I won't hesitate to use it.

In terms of obstacle sensing, low light would more likely affect it's ability compared to aircraft attitude.

 

[sar104]

Thanks for detailed analyses!
On wind-crisis flight, my mission was same as first flight:
fly straight up to 327ft height, take photos in various directions, fly straight down to take-off point;
at no time did I purposely fly downwind;
Question: successful second auto-return-home began after 8m45s, the wind speeds after that time seem,
on average, about same as before 8m45s, so am confused as to why attempted manual return & first
auto-return-home failed to decrease distance from home???
Also: do occasional red messages like "Obstacle Sensing is not functioning." refer to obstacle sensing
that was working, then stopped, then worked again, then stopped, etc.? Was this due to drone tilting
severely in wind temporarily? Or mistaking wind for obstacle? Why would this message appear when
drone was not near any obstacle? If obstacle sensing was off all the time, why doesn't message appear
in every row?
I was not in Beginner's Mode, so what mode would I be in if not Sport Mode & how does highest
flight speed of that mode compare to Sport Mode?
Thanks in advance. regards jg

The first RTH did start to bring it back, but you cancelled it. The wind didn't change much - it appears that the aircraft was averaging nearly 30° pitch in RTH, but only 24° in P-GPS (partly because you were not consistently applying full forward elevator), which is why it made headway in RTH but not P-GPS.

Sport mode buys you up to 35° pitch, and so that would have made even better progress.

 

[Meta4]

my mission was same as first flight:
fly straight up to 327ft height, take photos in various directions, fly straight down to take-off point;
at no time did I purposely fly downwind;

As explained above, the wind was too strong for the Phantom to maintain position and was already being blown away as you climbed.
This would have been obvious from your screen display when you could see the distance from home increasing.

Question: successful second auto-return-home began after 8m45s, the wind speeds after that time seem,
on average, about same as before 8m45s, so am confused as to why attempted manual return & first
auto-return-home failed to decrease distance from home???

Your second RTH was 100 ft lower than your first.
The wind speed was less and your Phantom managed to gradually make headway against it.

Also: do occasional red messages like "Obstacle Sensing is not functioning." refer to obstacle sensing
that was working, then stopped, then worked again, then stopped, etc.? Was this due to drone tilting

Yes, it was an advisory to let you know that OA was not able to work due to the tilt angle.
If you had switched your OA off, you would have had more speed to help you fight the wind.

I was not in Beginner's Mode, so what mode would I be in if not Sport Mode & how does highest
flight speed of that mode compare to Sport Mode?

You were in P-GPS mode - the mode that most people fly in most of the time.
The (still air) speeds possible are:
S-mode: 45 mph (72 kph)
A-mode: 36 mph (58 kph)
P-mode without OA: 36 mph (58 kph)
P-mode with OA: 31 mph (50 kph )

 

[Andy9]

And you can see how dramatically the wind speed decreases at lower altitude. You would have no problems at all if you put it down for at least 50m.

 

[ribjig]

Sport mode...if i should end up in trouble with a headwind, I won't hesitate to use it.

Thanks for further analyses.
Vast majority of my flights = straight up, photos, straight down;
(am not willing to make any kind of changes during flights)
If I switch PMode to SportMode permanently, what am I risking?
Loss of obstacle detection? Other? Harder landings if not careful?
2yr old "gently" handled P4P+ shows a few hairline cracks in
landing leg's plastic covering. Thanks in advance!

Also, do I understand correctly, I could have added speed
to normal RTH PMode speed by pressing joy stick at same time
as RTH was functioning? Or does stick use shut off RTH?

 

[Timinator]

Thanks for further analyses.
Vast majority of my flights = straight up, photos, straight down;
(am not willing to make any kind of changes during flights)
If I switch PMode to SportMode permanently, what am I risking?
Loss of obstacle detection? Other? Harder landings if not careful?
2yr old "gently" handled P4P+ shows a few hairline cracks in
landing leg's plastic covering. Thanks in advance!

Also, do I understand correctly, I could have added speed
to normal RTH PMode speed by pressing joy stick at same time
as RTH was functioning? Or does stick use shut off RTH?

Ok this is where I tell you to read the manual as I think you are missing some fundamental understandings on the capabilities and operating procedures of the aircraft. All three modes "Pmode, Atti Mode and Sport Mode" can be toggled effortlessly by the toggle switch on the left front side. There have been some flights where I have used all three. Like any complex piece of machinery it is really important to know what it can and cannot do. Ignorance is likely to result in unintended consequences such as the loss of the aircraft. Make life easier for you by studying the manual and improving your knowledge of the aircraft.

 

[Meta4]

Vast majority of my flights = straight up, photos, straight down;
(am not willing to make any kind of changes during flights)

Even if you only want to fly straight up and straight down, you need to be aware of flying conditions and how they are affecting your Phantom.
If you couldn't tell there was a strong wind before flying (?), the app was telling you by showing the drone could not hold position and was being blown away.

If I switch PMode to SportMode permanently, what am I risking?
Loss of obstacle detection? Other? Harder landings if not careful?

There's no reason to switch to Sport mode permanently.

Also, do I understand correctly, I could have added speed
to normal RTH PMode speed by pressing joy stick at same time
as RTH was functioning? Or does stick use shut off RTH?

Joystick input during RTH will not cancel RTH.
I'd suggest a little practice and experimenting to get a better understanding of how it works.
Go to a large, open area, fly a few hundred yards away and observe the speeds you get with RTH on it's own, when you push the right stick forward, with and without obstacle avoidance and when you are in control in P-GPS and in Sport modes.

Also read again the last two paragraphs in post #6.
They distill the important things you need to know for flying in strong winds.

 

[Andy9]

The best you can do is not to fly in strong wind.
Otherwise you can easily check how your drone handles it. Put your drone to let say 5m and observe if it can maintain the position in P-mode and how it flies against the wind..
Then put it at 30 m and do this again. If all is OK then switch to ATTI mode and try to fly against the wind so you can see what difference is the wind made. You also can let the drone in ATTI and put hands off the sticks so you can estimate the heading and strength of the wind by observing how fast and in witch direction drone drifts away.
If the craft can't handle the position in P-mode and can't fly against the wind then put it down and go home.