What happens if you fly from a cliff?

Meta4, very true, although I experience more difference usually. Like yesterday. 1.5 m/s at 3 meters, but 4 m/s at 15 meters and 10 m/s at 90 meters. Btw, very stable camera work at 90 meters (300 feet) with 10 m/s wind and -10C. (Quebec city, QC)
 
Um, what does that have to do with real-time wind speed and a built in anemometer?
It has everything to do with practical safe flying.
You said you'd like some sort of wind speed and direction indicator.
You have one ... put your Phantom up to where you want to fly and flick over to atti, hover and watch it.
The app will show how fast it's drifting.
How your Phantom drifts tells you the strength and direction of the wind your Phantom is exposed to up there.
I can't think of something simpler or more practical.
If you had some additional numbers, you'd have difficulty working out what that meant.
Also how does that help, when the drone is 1.5 kms away
The idea is to check the wind before you zoom away with the wind.
The direction of the wind 100m up will be the same as you have on the ground, the strength possibly a little more.
If you fly 1.5 kilometres downwind and then decide to check the wind situation, perhaps you'll learn from the experience and be more careful with your next Phantom?
 
You said you'd like some sort of wind speed and direction indicator.
You have one ... put your Phantom up to where you want to fly and flick over to atti, hover and watch it.
The app will show how fast it's drifting.
How your Phantom drifts tells you the strength and direction of the wind your Phantom is exposed to up there.
I can't think of something simpler or more practical.
If you had some additional numbers, you'd have difficulty working out what that meant.
Didn't mention direction, but that's a good addition. Letting your drone drift to ascertain wind speed seems like the least practical or safe method of determining wind speed and direction. If only wind traveling in one direction and never moved throughout a flight, that might work.

But knowing on the fly that you're currently flying in 45km/h wind, traveling North East would help you plan a flight and it's power requirements for a safer journey. From start to finish.

Also the app will show how fast it's drifting, based on what telemetry? GPS positioning? The one that isn't military grade, accurate to like 1-3 metres?

The idea is to check the wind before you zoom away with the wind.
The direction of the wind 100m up will be the same as you have on the ground, the strength possibly a little more.
If you fly 1.5 kilometres downwind and then decide to check the wind situation, perhaps you'll learn from the experience and be more careful with your next Phantom?
I guess you take flight not within the cover of buildings, trees or other obstructions to wind, as wind at height unobstructed by those things can travel a lot faster than where you starting from. You say downwind, I guess you've also never flown around mountains, cliffs, the beach, etc. You get shifting winds at varying speeds and directions.

Which I feel, stopping in the middle of all that and switching to ATTI mode and observing the drones movement to determine wind speed less effective, as possible attached anemometer.

Tools my friend, better to serve the flyer and assist. That's my idea of enjoyable flight.
 
But knowing on the fly that you're currently flying in 45km/h wind, traveling North East would help you plan a flight and it's power requirements for a safer journey. From start to finish.
I can't tell how experienced you are but this all sounds like the theoretical stuff a beginner might come up with.
Any experienced flier can gauge the winds he's dealing with pretty well from what he sees and feels together with what he sees with the Phantom and the app.
If you are flying full speed into 45 km/hr, your Phantom is going backwards at 10 km/hr.
If you are so unaware of the wind around you or the wind affecting your Phantom, you won't keep it very long.
Also the app will show how fast it's drifting, based on what telemetry? GPS positioning? The one that isn't military grade, accurate to like 1-3 metres?
Watch the speed indication in the app and you'll notice it's nice and steady and doesn't jump all over the place.
GPS units don't use distance / time to calculate speed.
Because GPS calculates Doppler shift to give speed, speed iy more accurate than position.
Garmin quotes speed accuracy for their car and handheld GPS units of 0.1m/s or 0.36 km/h.
 
Ooops... Meta4 I think you made a small quick mistake using 35km/h max speed, since it's rather 35mph or 56km/h. Thanks for that Doppler info, didn't know that.
 
I can't tell how experienced you are but this all sounds like the theoretical stuff a beginner might come up with.
Any experienced flier can gauge the winds he's dealing with pretty well from what he sees and feels together with what he sees with the Phantom and the app.
If you are flying full speed into 45 km/hr, your Phantom is going backwards at 10 km/hr.
If you are so unaware of the wind around you or the wind affecting your Phantom, you won't keep it very long.
You making arguments over a product that is designed for beginners. An experienced flyer will have other issues and boundaries to push. I've flown in 45km/h winds and the drone wasn't going backwards, but once again that was calculated via other telemetry, and not via an accurate anemometer. Which would be a benefit for all flyers of the drone, beginner or skilled alike. Which was the initial starting point of this discussion. Not if there was methods of gauge rough wind speeds, but having a device included to assist.

But yes, knowing that you've flow over the edge of a cliff towards the ocean and are now encountering increased wind speeds wouldn't be a benefit to seasoned flyer as yourself, but I'm sure it would be a benefit to some. But then again, no experienced flyer gets their drone pushed into a wall, cliff or tree due to winds. That might have been avoidable knowing real-time wind speed and direction.
 
The drone is "dumb" and zero ground level is where you've taken off. So over the cliff it'll fly at the same 10m as if over ground where you started. So you'll be a lot higher from AGL under the drone and go into negative height when you descend.

It doesn't and cannot see how high it is, in real time. It's just the barometer from start point.
***************
FAA has a altitude limit of 400 ft., it did not say it is above sea level or ground level. If the take-off point is at 500 ft. above sea level, and you set AGL at 100 ft. How does FAA interpret this altitude? Violation? FAA should license the drone pilots instead of just registration.
 
How does FAA interpret this altitude?
The only way they can interpret height for drones is AGL ... height above ground level.
The intent is to maintain separation between small drones and real planes that (mostly) are going to be above 500ft AGL
Because your drone is highly mobile and you can launch from anywhere ... top of a cliff or the bottom, height above launch point is not relevant.
It's all about the height your drone is above the ground below it.
 
It's all about the height your drone is above the ground below it.
Which is an unknown variable, for accuracy, once you've moved away from start point. Unless you're on a flat earth. Which is partly why, I'm sure, it's a guideline currently.

Hobby drones cannot reach hundreds of miles currently, and the highest point in the current flight area of the drone can offer the best base point for the 400' guideline limit. You can't fly within a landing zone of a commercial airport, so you'll not have planes coming that low outside of those zones. If they do, then it's probably military and they're possibly below 400' anyways.
 
I had this problem in reverse. I was able to fly my P3P out over 22,000' but the elevation said 750'. I got ragged on for flying above 400'. The truth is, I was flying upslope and was only about 300' about the ground where I was flying. But, because I was flying up a hill, it showed an altitude of 750'. People get disturbed over the wrong things!
 
The problem with trying to watch a clip like this in 4K is the broadband speed. I tried watching in 4K, but just kept getting the spinning dots of death. I'm on about 37 Mb/s download speed here which generally isn't bad.

Next time start the video then pause it..... go to another page or get a cup of coffee and come back. You'll be able to watch the video without a problem.
 
The problem with trying to watch a clip like this in 4K is the broadband speed. I tried watching in 4K, but just kept getting the spinning dots of death. I'm on about 37 Mb/s download speed here which generally isn't bad.
You can download a 4K video (to your SSD?), and watch it offline.
 
You can download a 4K video (to your SSD?), and watch it offline.
Next time start the video then pause it..... go to another page or get a cup of coffee and come back. You'll be able to watch the video without a problem.


Yeah, could do that. Unfortunately, with a lot of clips I adopt the attention span of a gnat so I just find something else to watch if it doesn't work straight away. Also, if a clip is more than 2 minutes I tend to click on next as well. I know it's not a nice trait, but if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. Also I suppose it's fairly academic as none of my screens allow viewing in 4K anyway.

And I drink about 12 cups of coffee during the working day - surely that's enough?
 
Not a dumb question at all, as I wondered the same thing as a newbie. But now I can say I have done it many times and no issues. The height you take off at is 0. When you go over the cliff edge it will stay level and still be 5 feet or whatever your altitude was. If you descend below the cliff then you will have a negative altitude reading.
Then beware if you are flying from the base of a cliff or mountain-- the drone should fly right into it if your altitude isn't set higher than the physical feature you are flying toward.
 

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