Flying in turbulence conditions

[rusm]

Is anybody has experience of flying in conditions of vertical air currents?
I'm going into mountains and a little bit worried about Mavic maximum descent speed of 3 m/s.

What will happen if Mavic will be inside ascending 5 m/s air current? It can't descend?

 

[Robert Mitchell]

I fly in the mountains a lot. I'm pretty sure sport mode would get it down or worst case, fly out of the lift zone and descend. I fly sailplanes in ridge lift and there is plenty of sink also.

 

[rusm]

I'm pretty sure sport mode would get it down or worst case,

But descent speed in sport mode are 3 m/s too.
Interesting what will be do flight controller if it can't reach nominal descent speed? Lower prop RPM even more, or not because of vortex ring danger?

 

[BorisTheSpider]

Seems to me the rate of descent limit would probably be based on gps height, ie. in a rising column of air with rate 5 M/s the drone should be able to sink at 8 M/s relative to the air. If it's barometric altitude then it should still do something similar allowing for some pressure variations due to terrain.

 

[Robert Mitchell]

But descent speed in sport mode are 3 m/s too.
Interesting what will be do flight controller if it can't reach nominal descent speed? Lower prop RPM even more, or not because of vortex ring danger?

I guess it is theoretically possible that it couldnt descend or even climb with full down stick (that is a good question) but unless you are in a lift zone, such as in front of a ridge with perpendicular flow, it is hard to imagine not being able to find a sink zone or a place with level flow. But if flying in conditions that sketchy, or are unfamiliar with the terrain, and its effects, I might just wait until it was a little calmer.

 

[maxfaxdude]

I routinely fly in mountainous terrain and in windy conditions (up to 35 mph gusts) and have never had a problem with descent. Headwinds, however, can slow horizontal movement significantly.

 

[rusm]

I will flight near 500 meters vertical cliffs raised from ocean, worried that there is always hard wind conditions..

 

[stratos]

Interesting question I will do some mountain flying tomorrow

 

[BD0G]

It can get scary. I was over a mountain flying in Tahoe in some cloud cover that was low hanging.

Flew up and then placed in a hover to capture footage. Updrafts started blowing it way off course. I tried to descend and it was very slow going. So I figured these updrafts cant be all over the place I am going to fly horizontally and look for an "air sink hole" found one and dropped it down like water in a toilet.

Thats when I knew it was time to call it a day and not fly in such unstable conditions.

 

[HollWaz]

I just had a similar experience to BD0G, it was windy yesterday but not too bad. I took off and flew over to a cliff that had a wild updraft. The MP was dancing up and down 10 to 20 feet at a time so I turned and got about another 100 feet from the cliff and everything was fine. I'm going to remember this next time I approach a cliff or anything that can catch and redirect that much air.