Safe wind speed?

[mavic6611]

Hey guys,

Does anyone happen to know what is a safe max wind speed to fly the Mp in?

 

[msinger]

The Mavic manual recommends not flying in wind speeds exceeding 10 m/s (22 MPH). While the Mavic is no doubt able to hover in higher wind speeds, there will be a point where it will start to make negative progress when flying into a headwind on its way back to the home point. If you're planning on flying in stronger winds, make sure you're flying with the wind on the way back.

 

[Qoncussion]

The Mavic does a good job of reporting high wind warnings. I have flown several waypoint missions and manual flights in spite of the warnings, but only by keeping the drone nearby, in case I need to land it quickly.

 

[mavic6611]

Thanks for the reply guys

 

[mpa]

Iv flown in 60km/h head winds and its not fun. It took about 10%batteries to get to 2km with the tail winds. And about 80% batteries to return on sports mode. In some instances the mavic was being pushed backwards even in sports mode. In the final 5 minutes or so the mavic was on its forced decent due to low batts. Very lucky making it back just in time!

But good to know the mavic held level the whole time. No flips!

 

[Jacknet007]

Most I have flown is 15 mph with maybe a few gusts to 18mph or so .

 

[tracer bullet]

I don't think there's a safe speed threshold. It's not like 10mph is OK but 11 is not. I'm sure this is stating the obvious. The way I picture it is there's a line drawn from perhaps 0mph (totally safe) to maybe 40mph (definitely not safe if it's sport mode's max speed). Where you are on that line is an indicator of how unsafe things are, in relative terms, as a %age.

OK so it's probably a line between 5 and 40 or something, and maybe it's curved, but this is the way I interpret it. If I set out in 15mph, I know I will probably be fine, but might not, and it's simply whether I am willing to take the risk.

 

[geigy]

I usually bow out at 15 knots wind speed, though I suppose it could do well at 20 or even 25. It just feels too risky to me.

 

[mavic6611]

Thanks guys [emoji3]

 

[Oingo Boingo]

I have flown in 21 knots around 24 mph and it was hairy but the mavic handled it well. The biggest prob is that if the wind is gusting at 10 mph at ground level is double that or more 20 meter up

 

[Felix MB]

Fly against the wind always if you have high speed winds ; I experienced a forced automatic landing because the battery lost power against the wind luckily I found the drone 1 km away

 

[bsimon]

I usually don't fly in winds over 15 mph. The Mavic can handle more wind than that reasonably well, but it tends to move very slow when traveling against the wind.

 

[ADZ]

The Mavic manual recommends not flying in wind speeds exceeding 10 m/s (22 MPH). While the Mavic is no doubt able to hover in higher wind speeds, there will be a point where it will start to make negative progress when flying into a headwind on its way back to the home point. If you're planning on flying in stronger winds, make sure you're flying with the wind on the way back.

I came very close to losing my Mavic for this reason.

 

[MavicCF]

I've flown once in 30Mph with gusts up to 35. Almost didn't make it back home, but the Mavic seemed to do okay other than that is was verrrry slow. I'm actually going out now in some 20-25Mph stuff, I'll let you know how
it goes.

 

[vertigo]

This happened to me once, I had to switch to sport mode to give it the extra power to get it back, it actually said wind level was to high returning home but , was struggling.
The wind where I took off was almost none but across a bay it was a different scenario.

 

[Kilrymont]

I’m a relative newbie to these things, only just past my first “birthday” with a P4.
I began being VERY cautious with winds, (certainly too cautious in retrospect) but remain fairly conservative with these things. For good reason.
I’ve been a fisherman for the best part of 60 years, boy and man. And windy conditions can play a huge part in the pleasure of fishing generally but more importantly with safety if boats are involved, as they very often are.
In my experience, wind forecasts are no more than a very broad guideline, and take little or no regard for what conditions are like above ground level, or what effect topography might have locally.
And winds can- and do - “veer” and “back” - ie they swing around, and what was a Westerly ten minutes ago could come from most any angle in ten or even five minutes’ time. This is usually caused by large scale turbulence set up by hills and valleys, which can make very local wind direction most unpredictable.
Winds are seldom constant, and are prone to gusting to speeds WAY in excess of the mean observed. That’s what can push sailing boats over when heeled well over at speed.
So in many cases my practice of being what many might call over cautious has resulted in zero crashes or even near misses, and landings have never pushed battery duration past best practice guidelines.
Have I missed opportunities to fly and so miss getting quality footage? Almost certainly. On the other hand my drones’ most noticeable battle scars are insect spatter from on occasion flying through swarms of tiny flies. Which cleans off with a carefully used damp cloth. (I use a polish called “Armor All” which is made for plastics. This lets bug spatter come off more easily) this stuff is applied minimally, only just enough to help the plastic gleam.
So - rather than seek out max. wind-speed speed figures it’s safe to fly in, it might be a better policy to note what ground speed the forecast gives, and check however many sources are available too. And add on a gust factor, and the possibility of major direction swing during flight duration. This latter could make all the difference between a fun flight and a lost drone, if the tail wind you expected on the homeward leg becomes a headwind. And wind speed over land ALWAYS picks up hugely over open water because there’s no topography to slow it down. To repeat, forecasts are only the broadest of guidelines, and the pilots who pay close heed to local conditions are most likely to be the ones with drama-free flights.

 

[JoBri]

Fly against the wind always if you have high speed winds ; I experienced a forced automatic landing because the battery lost power against the wind luckily I found the drone 1 km away

What did you use to find the drone? did you attached extra GPS tracking device?

 

[tgbl]

What did you use to find the drone? did you attached extra GPS tracking device?

The drone will give a remarkably precise drop location. Find it in the App under "Lost my Drone"

 

[Michman1]

I usually don't fly in winds over 15 mph. The Mavic can handle more wind than that reasonably well, but it tends to move very slow when traveling against the wind.

Agree. Dont wanna lose my drone just becouse of that.

 

[JoBri]

The drone will give a remarkably precise drop location. Find it in the App under "Lost my Drone"

In my case, I usually attached extra 3G GPS tracking device just to be sure.