High wind alert

[omerk]

I been flying the mavic in winds of about 6-10 mph and I keep getting a red box that tells me that I should fly with cation because of high wind. I been reading in a few places that The sensor it to sensitive and I shouldn't worry about it.

Does anyone else get the warning in low wind conditions? Do you keep flying?


Sent from my iPhone using MavicPilots

 

[harleymhs]

get them all the time when winds are about 6-10 mps otherwise no warnings.. I always keep flying and had no issues... even on a 12 mph day! 15 is my limit

 

[4wd]

As it gets more serious a further arning in yello scolls alng the top.
This should be taken more seriously.
The annoying thing with the red box is it ought to go away without being closed manually, which can sometimes result in accidental refocus.

 

[atatistcheff]

I get "Large wind" warnings sometimes, generally it's on a windy day. It's the only verbiage I've noticed so far that didn't quite translate perfectly.

 

[romarnv]

I get warnings over 12-15mph, one time on beginner mode returning home in a higher headwind, switched to sport mode to get it home, (nervous time going from beginner to sport) but it worked and I was done for the day. It really did freak me out when the Mavic was about 200 feet away bucking that headwind, it could not hold it's position, let alone could not go forward & the battery was depleting quickly in sport mode. at least now I know the limitations as far as the wind, I'm confident up to 20mph, but as a Private pilot for 40 years, I have to consider the winds aloft are usually stronger and can blow from a different direction.
Good flying,
We must know our limitations as pilots to avoid incidents caused by pilot error

 

[MavicFrank]

I use an app called UAV Forecast to get an idea of what the wind conditions are predicted to be, before I go out. You can go into settings and look at winds at whatever altitude you like. For me, the warning is more pertinent the farther away I am and if I am downwind. The real issue is getting back. I don't know if anyone has had their Mavic knocked out of the sky by a gust, but I suppose it is possible. I would not fly in those conditions to begin with.

 

[4wd]

It's the cut off point is problematic. You often see clouds scudding overhead pretty fast when it seems near calm on the ground.
If it's a reasonable 10-15mph it can easily be more than 2x that at 200 feet - and if Obstacle Avoidance is on that's higher than Mavic top speed without any sudden gusts.

 

[scott rand]

I get high wind warnings often, and it ALWAYS affects the Return to Home feature, I always have to fly it home manually. Is this normal or is there a work around. I NEVER have that problem with my Yuneec Q500+, always flies home when I hit RTH, every single time, even in high winds.

 

[sdharris]

UAV forecast is a good source, but I also use a wind meter for the iPhone or Android which shares and views other meter readings from the local area.

In terms of the high wind speed warning on the Mavic, I get these occasionally on relatively calm days and it could well be different wind speeds at different heights. I tend to let it hover and if it station keeps nicely without much effort I don't worry too much, but will keep an eye on the wind direction so that I am not flying home against a head wind.

The Mavic is a light little thing so I think DJI tuned it to be quite sensitive!

 

[Hawgguy]

I nearly got bit the other day. West TX is windy. I was around 2 miles out with 55% battery and had to fight the wind coming home. In sport mode made around 15 -20 mph speed. At around 10% Mavic announced "landing now" Picked a clear spot in someone's front yard 2 blocks away and retrieved it 5 minutes later spotting the flashing red lights at dusk. I'll never do that again and have more respect for the effect of the wind on this little thing.

 

[Kestrel]

I nearly got bit the other day. West TX is windy. I was around 2 miles out with 55% battery and had to fight the wind coming home. In sport mode made around 15 -20 mph speed. At around 10% Mavic announced "landing now" Picked a clear spot in someone's front yard 2 blocks away and retrieved it 5 minutes later spotting the flashing red lights at dusk. I'll never do that again and have more respect for the effect of the wind on this little thing.

That's the only thing I hate about South Dakota is its windy EVERY DAY, it sucks, some days its less windy than others but there's wind all the time. It sucks for people like me.

 

[voongnz]

Yes take note of the wind speed AND direction, especially when flying to the limits of your battery. Many have had forced landings because of flying home in headwinds.

 

[flyNfrank]

In my opinion, nothing beat having the ability to place your aircraft in the Atti mode that allowed it to drift. I would climb up to the altitude that I had planned to fly at and switch onto Atti mode. Then allow it to drift for 5-10 seconds and watch the Horizotal Speed to see what mph displayed. So not only did this show real time wind speed, but also the exact wind direction. Btw, many times I would increase altitude say 50-75ft and get both a different direction and/or wind speed.

I use a weather station with a decent anemometer. But I think the current best option would to attach a hand held mini station to the Mavic and let it detect what the wind is in real time.

 

[Cerberus]

In my opinion, nothing beat having the ability to place your aircraft in the Atti mode that allowed it to drift. I would climb up to the altitude that I had planned to fly at and switch onto Atti mode. Then allow it to drift for 5-10 seconds and watch the Horizotal Speed to see what mph displayed. So not only did this show real time wind speed, but also the exact wind direction. Btw, many times I would increase altitude say 50-75ft and get both a different direction and/or wind speed.

I use a weather station with a decent anemometer. But I think the current best option would to attach a hand held mini station to the Mavic and let it detect what the wind is in real time.

Am I reading this right? You can turn off GPS and got straight to ATTI mode?

 

[flyNfrank]

Am I reading this right? You can turn off GPS and got straight to ATTI mode?

You are...Not...reading it correctly. You would never want to disable GPS.

 

[strykher]

Only 3rd week with the mavic. Almost got into situation the other day. Coming from a rainy wedding shoot in Tulare county, and coming back to LA county with a very nice weather and an awesome view of Pyramid Lake near Castaic CA. We were all excited from this view and stopped on the side of the freeway and flew the bird, but was very windy. High wind warnings going off all the time, and you could see it dodging the wind so much, but the video feed was still good. It was so tempting to let it fly towards the lake and follow focus on the moving boat more than a mile away, but had to pull it back. It was my first time encountering this much wind, and thought to myself, I'd rather save it to fly another day rather than battling it out with the head winds coming back on a low battery. I recalled someone on FB losing their mavic force landing on the water 200 feet away from him, and just had to call it off.

 

[AlanTheBeast]

I use an app called UAV Forecast to get an idea of what the wind conditions are predicted to be, before I go out. You can go into settings and look at winds at whatever altitude you like. For me, the warning is more pertinent the farther away I am and if I am downwind. The real issue is getting back. I don't know if anyone has had their Mavic knocked out of the sky by a gust, but I suppose it is possible. I would not fly in those conditions to begin with.

The Mavic is a solid performer in gusts - limits of course - but it is quite amazing.

More dangerous is the Phantom on the ground when the motors first light up - a good gust almost knocked it over on one flight. Would have lost a couple props I guess but lucked out. I've flown the MP in worse than that with no issues.

 

[Apocalypso]

but as a Private pilot for 40 years, I have to consider the winds aloft are usually stronger and can blow from a different direction.

This. My gut and experience so far, flying in the "winds of March", is that all or most of the UAV apps report ground wind speed. Can be much more even 50 to 100 ft. up - many times multiples of ground wind speed in some cases.

 

[AlanTheBeast]

In my opinion, nothing beat having the ability to place your aircraft in the Atti mode that allowed it to drift. I would climb up to the altitude that I had planned to fly at and switch onto Atti mode. Then allow it to drift for 5-10 seconds and watch the Horizotal Speed to see what mph displayed. So not only did this show real time wind speed, but also the exact wind direction. Btw, many times I would increase altitude say 50-75ft and get both a different direction and/or wind speed.

I use a weather station with a decent anemometer. But I think the current best option would to attach a hand held mini station to the Mavic and let it detect what the wind is in real time.

Wind direction and speed change with altitude occurs near the surface. The closer to the surface, the greater the change.

It would be nice if DJI could come up with a TAS sensor (or even a IAS sensor). Then we'd know a lot more about the bird in flight and as you mention wind direction and speed.

 

[AlanTheBeast]

This. My gut and experience so far, flying in the "winds of March", is that all or most of the UAV apps report ground wind speed. Can be much more even 50 to 100 ft. up - many times multiples of ground wind speed in some cases.

That's why I like this site. It's prediction based of course, and the low level altitude increments are coarse (100m), but it gives you a good idea about what's going on out there...