So that's what that wind warning is about!

[AWD]

All,

I've read in various threads about how a person's quad has just drifted backwards while attempting to RTH from a downwind position. Never gave it much thought but always kept it in mind, just in case I had an unforeseen problem in the future.

Yesterday I was getting some video of a nice storm front moving in from the east. Lightning, dark clouds, things like that. The P4 was up around 300 feet when I started to get a LOT of those "high wind warning" icons coming up. Hmm, better think about getting back to base and landing.

Still in "P" mode I start down but the P4 is not moving all that much AND it's drifting backwards while I'm attempting to move forward. This is a bit confusing.

After it drifts past me I finally realize what's happening and immediately switch into Sport mode to be able to make a bit of headway against this pre-frontal wind that is now beating up the P4.

I did finally get it down and in front of me to attempt my usual hand catch but that turned into an interesting scene as the quad just could not stabilize in the gusty winds of the front. I did manage to make a capture and brought the P4 into the garage.

So, if you think that "P" mode will hold against a very strong wind, think again and be ready to switch to Sport mode before it drifts away downwind.

AD

 

[Grandpa Don]

Sometimes reducing altitude to a minimum will help in a high wind condition.

 

[BCBasher]

That's weird, I'm getting the wind waning and fly from a the top of a hill near the ocean so there is always a good breeze up high. I get the warnings but no noticeable drift if I loiter above the trees, it does seem jerky fighting little gust down low though.

 

[Grandpa Don]

If there is that much wind, I'd put up with the jerky just to get it back on the ground safe.

 

[AuldGimpy]

@BCBasher, I'd say that your breeze above the hill will be relatively constant but above the trees at lower level it will be liable to more turbulence therefore appear more jerky fighting these gusts lower down.

 

[AuldGimpy]

Couple of weeks ago we managed a 'test' flight in the breeze with a Phantom 4. Checked the wind with 2 hand-held anemometers and it was gusting/ peaking at around 20 mph. Although it coped pretty well with the wind, I would suggest that 20 mph was the maximum safe limit for flying.
NB. This was a close in flight about 100 yards along the side of an abandoned bridge .. across a tract of Atlantic. Too risky for me but a 'good' reference for the capabilities for future flights. Wouldn't have been me but my cousin said he wanted to feel confident with his equipment.
I'll see if he will OK me posting the movie as it shows how well the Phantom 4 can perform in a strong gust. Stable and coped well with flight out and back in again. Only real problem was the 'dragonfly waltz' trying to land the thing. I would have hand caught it but not my cousin.

 

[jwt873]

I get frequent wind warnings when there's barely enough wind to rustle the leaves on tall trees.

Perhaps there is a good use for it, but in my case, it's far to sensitive.

 

[Meta4]

I get frequent wind warnings when there's barely enough wind to rustle the leaves on tall trees.
Perhaps there is a good use for it, but in my case, it's far to sensitive.

The strong wind warning is mostly a nuisance since it gives lots of false alarms at wind strengths that aren't strong at all.

 

[Jrlroxx]

Can you turn that warning off?

 

[zgembit]

Those wind warnings are such a pain in the ***, I get it all the time even when its not so windy at all. Also when flying in a more windy conditions warnings are popping up like crazy and they seem to correlate with video feed breakups.
It is driving one crazy as for e.g my former phantom 4 with older dji go app flew far better

 

[heightsaerialmedia]

I get frequent wind warnings when there's barely enough wind to rustle the leaves on tall trees.

Perhaps there is a good use for it, but in my case, it's far to sensitive.

Same here, sometimes the warnings are inaccurate but use your best judgement.
Any winds 10mph+ you should consider if the conditions are safe enough for getting the mission complete.

 

[DocDiggler]

Can you turn that warning off?

Yeah good question like to know as well

 

[Deleted member 62848]

I use the uva forecast app for looking at wind , shows wind speed at different heights, not sure if 100% true but good guide for checking,,as for the P mode it should hold itself against pretty strong wind,i fly lichi too and notice P mode speed (gps)is faster than djigo4 P mode , did fly both apps yesterday and dj was pretty slow to react to turns and moves

 

[John Locke]

Yeah good question like to know as well

Yes you can, but you need old firmware, older than June 2017. FYI, if you look at the DJI setting in their firmware, the first wind warning is set to notify at 6km/h, which is 3.7mph. The severe wind warning is set at 9km/h, which is only 5.6mph. This is why these warnings are such a nuisance to everyone, because they are not relevant to need a warning. Changing these numbers can set the warning to a more relevant speed, but you can only do that with older firmware.

 

[Meta4]

the first wind warning is set to notify at 6km/h, which is 3.7mph. The severe wind warning is set at 9km/h, which is only 5.6mph. This is why these warnings are such a nuisance to everyone, because they are not relevant to need a warning.

The wind warnings are a nuisance but they take a bit more wind than that.
Perhaps you mean metres/sec

 

[John Locke]

The wind warnings are a nuisance but they take a bit more wind than that.
Perhaps you mean metres/sec

Well, you could be right, but the evidence leans toward km/hr. In the parameter settings everything else is measured in km/h. Even though they don't actually state the unit of measurement in their firmware settings, you can tell from the RTH speed, ascent speed, they're all in km/h. The other evidence supporting this is when I've measured the wind in ATTI using a hover drift the moment I get a warning, most times there's practically no wind, it's under 5mph. When this was the case so many times, I stopped worrying about the warnings because I knew they were bogus. With few exceptions, most all of them were nowhere close to 13mph (6m/sec) when measured with an ATTI hover drift. I'm pretty sure it's km/h.

 

[Meta4]

Well, you could be right, but the evidence leans toward km/hr. In the parameter settings everything else is measured in km/h. Even though they don't actually state the unit of measurement in their firmware settings, you can tell from the RTH speed, ascent speed, they're all in km/h. The other evidence supporting this is when I've measured the wind in ATTI using a hover drift the moment I get a warning, most times there's practically no wind, it's under 5mph. When this was the case so many times, I stopped worrying about the warnings because I knew they were bogus. With few exceptions, most all of them were nowhere close to 13mph (6m/sec) when measured with an ATTI hover drift. I'm pretty sure it's km/h.

According to the DJI people that have told me, the wind warning is shown when the flight controller calculates that the wind strength is 7 metres/sec (25 km/hr or 15.5 mph)
That fits with my observations too.
It's still not a wind strength that I would think of as strong and the frequent alerts are annoying.

 

[John Locke]

According to the DJI people that have told me, the wind warning is shown when the flight controller calculates that the wind strength is 7 metres/sec (25 km/hr or 15.5 mph)
That fits with my observations too.
It's still not a wind strength that I would think of as strong and the frequent alerts are annoying.

That's interesting. Try measuring the wind when you get a warning, using ATTI drift hover. I'm sure you'll see what I've seen, most the time it's under 5mph when you get the warning on a calm day. There have been times with it's truly windy, and it warns immediately of course, but when it warns when calm on the ground, measure it at altitude with ATTI.

In the firmware settings the two wind warnings are clearly set to 6 and 9, not 7. The question is the unit of measurement. I never deal with this issue anymore because I've bumped mine up to 30 and 40km/h.

 

[John Locke]

On P4P, it's been suggested the wind warnings occurring so often in low winds are a way to mitigate DJI's liability on gimbal flips. This inherent gimbal flaw in practically all P4P craft is more prominent in higher winds, combined with flying over 30mph. Generally speaking you can avoid gimbal flips by flying with OA enabled, which limits the craft to 30mph. This has the added benefit of maximizing flight time.

The gimbal flips occur at higher speeds, or 30mph in higher winds. If the flight log records wind warnings at such a slow speed, DJI has an explanation to gimbal flips if they occur. After reviewing your flight log they will say "you were flying in winds that were too high for the P4P, didn't you see the warning?". DJI has never published what those wind warnings mean. They've never published their setting, describing their purpose with MPH speed, because they don't want people to know what they are for in detail, likely because they don't was pilots to complain the speed warnings are set too low. DJI knows they are set too low, but it's been months now that we've been getting these annoying non-relevant warnings, and no change from DJI. This kind of draconian implementation, forcing everyone to be annoyed by unwarranted wind warnings, covering up the display countless times, distracting the pilot from capturing video to cancel out of the multiple warnings, over and over.... is why people resort to hacking their firmware, to make things reasonable.

 

[Meta4]

On P4P, it's been suggested the wind warnings occurring so often in low winds are a way to mitigate DJI's liability on gimbal flips. This inherent gimbal flaw in practically all P4P craft is more prominent in higher winds, combined with flying over 30mph. Generally speaking you can avoid gimbal flips by flying with OA enabled, which limits the craft to 30mph. This has the added benefit of maximizing flight time.

The gimbal flips occur at higher speeds, or 30mph in higher winds. If the flight log records wind warnings at such a slow speed, DJI has an explanation to gimbal flips if they occur. After reviewing your flight log they will say "you were flying in winds that were too high for the P4P, didn't you see the warning?". DJI has never published what those wind warnings mean. They've never published their setting, describing their purpose with MPH speed, because they don't want people to know what they are for in detail, likely because they don't was pilots to complain the speed warnings are set too low.

Here are a couple of DJI people commenting on the speed warning settings. I see one is saying 6 m/sec

High wind warnings
High Wind Warnings
Flyaway - Healthydrones​

Gimbal flips? They were common in very early firmware but I haven't seen any gimbal flipping for a long time and I mostly fly with OA disabled.
I thought that was fixed long ago with a firmware update.