When is it just too windy ?

When it only goes 5mph into the wind, I'll bring it back down. Hand catching is essential for high wind days. If I need video, I look for 15mph days or less.
 
I think experience is the key. Fly within your capability (pretty much a +1 from a previous post). I either learned how to fly in the wind or I stayed home. There are few calm days around here. You just have to know how to work with it and that comes with practice. Obviously, don't fly down wind when there is a good breeze. Go out up wind and come home with the wind. The Phantoms are quite stable in strong winds but mother nature has a way of kicking your butt. The caution about not flying close to obstructions when it is windy is one I observe. A strong wind can kick your craft into a tree or wall if you aren't pure of heart.
 
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I've been known to take a few risks with wind to "get that shot". I've been burned twice due to battery. I think most have commented well on the risks with gusts and head wind at different altitudes. Let me comment on battery.
1) if you take off with less than full charge, say 50-60, the battery cells may not maintain the same voltage at that level when throttling. You'll notice the cells dropping into the yellow and red ranges if monitoring. Compare this to the same 50-60% level but after starting at 100%. You can search on the forum for the technical explanation due to Lipo properties. The point is, this is one key reason DJI says to take off with full charged battery. Add high wind into the mix, you'll notice this effect without throttling. The impact couple be 'critical low battery -auto land' even when battery initially showed say 30%.
2) Battery cell deviations (as shown in healthy drones) will also increase your risk if a single cell reaches the cutoff point 3.30V? The bird will drop like a rock. Had this happen while flying against a head wind. Total battery % went down fast then the bird feel like a rock into a canyons. I took off with 100% battery. It was not until I reviewed log with healthy drones that I found out battery cell 1 had significant deviations. So the <14min fatal flight could have been prevented without the head wind dragging down the cell voltage quickly due to its full power consumption.

Full/Max throttle power is not your friend in either circumstance.
 
As the post goes do you have a max wind speed when deciding to take off or not ??

Have flown a few times when it has been pretty stormy and was fine however found landing a bit tricky!!


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Let me say up front this is pilot error. Only a putz flies in anything more than 10 mph in NM - a 10 MPH wind in NM will always gust well above that when they come from the west - always. Also note that the putz is also far too close to the windmill at that elevation. Putz knows this, knew this, did this anyway.

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Note that the windmill starts turning at 1:08. It takes at LEAST 20 mph winds to move this one. Wind shifted gusting from NW to SE and got me. This is one of the very few "shorty" windmills in NM. My buddy is 6'2 and can reach the blades with no problem. I'm 5'9" and can if I tip-toe it.

Anyway - all's well that ends well. New props and a whack with a rubber mallet and the P3P flies again.

Gusting winds = the devil!
 
I think gusts up to 25mph are fine. as a fixed wing flyer too, I notice calm at ground level can still mean 40 MPH winds at 400-500'. If the bird is hard to control, Ill bring it back.
 
Whatever wind speed your dealing with at low altitude you can easily double it at around 300m. Had once to deal with at over 300m where aircraft was drifting at 25km/h, with full throttle to bring it back, it was just not moving at all. It was 1km back with battery dropping quickly. Lowered it at 75m and brought it back with 20% power left. Heart pumping. Don't trust the low altitude wind speed as it may be doubled or more over 200m high. Atmospheric pressure, location configuration, temperatures, all can miss lead your judgment.
 
Is there an app for Android that anyone recommends for checking wind speed, especially aloft?

not sure if you found a good app or not? I use UAV FORECAST. It is pretty inclusive and give you the wind speed at 307 ft
 
Depends on location configuration. I don't restraint myself from flying in any conditions except for rain or snow. If you understand and integrate all or most of your aircraft limitations to the location your flying, and you have good pilot skills, plus 80% confidence, you're a drone expert. You see, I earn a living out of it so I have to learn well. And then you have all the rules to follow for each location. I crashed once in the very beginning and none after. I flew in many countries as a hired drone pilot expert for film companies. So I'd say about 25 to 30km/h max generally. Thanks for the app by the way. It's really useful to know the high altitude wind.
 
not sure if you found a good app or not? I use UAV FORECAST. It is pretty inclusive and give you the wind speed at 307 ft
As a matter of fact, I was pointed towards UAV Forecast and it is awesome! Many thanks!

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I think experience is the key. Fly within your capability (pretty much a +1 from a previous post). I either learned how to fly in the wind or I stayed home. There are few calm days around here. You just have to know how to work with it and that comes with practice. Obviously, don't fly down wind when there is a good breeze. Go out up wind and come home with the wind. The Phantoms are quite stable in strong winds but mother nature has a way of kicking your butt. The caution about not flying close to obstructions when it is windy is one I observe. A strong wind can kick your craft into a tree or wall if you aren't pure of heart.
I agree here.
I choose to stay out of the air if the wind is 15mph or greater. I just don't want to chance it.
Although I do not have a Gulf of Mexico, I might run into a cow or something...LOL
 
20 KMH + 20 KMH GUSTS - is my TOP i can fly in. After that i start have the gut feeling that i might not be able to control the bird anymore.
 
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Never, never underestimate the power of wind! It was a beautiful day with light breeze and sudden gust just pushed my Inspire 1 Pro a foot or two sideway toward the spruce tree. Trimmed the top with chilling "zeeep" sound and up we go! Lucky me, no harm done to the bird, but my pants didn't survived :D...
 
I've flown in 30mph wind before. It all depends what what you are trying to accomplish and what your surroundings are. For instance I am not going to risk flying over water or heavily wooded areas if it is that windy, in fact I probably wouldn't go above 100'.
 
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To improve my wind flying skills i fly my syma w5sw. This thing really gets bounced around. I just flew in 16 kmh wind and I can control it fairly well, it got slamed dunked in the snow because I was trying to fly to low and once in a tree 50 feet from nothing. I decided to go about 100 feet hight and almost lost it, flew out of range and it just when down in my field. The good thing about practice with this cheap bird is that its so light that so far nothing gets damaged. Practice makes better.
 
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