a tiny flying tip

[akdrone]

today as I took off the wind seemed seemed reasonably still at ground level but as I often do, I wanted to check wind at 200feet where I was flying and I flew outward in the direction I was going to head at full speed and watched my airspeed and then turned around and headed back and observed my airspeed. If there is much discreptancy I do that often and thought I'd mention it as a reasonable way to check to ensure you don't fly too far with the wind and then have trouble on the return against the wind. As we all know, it can be calm at take off but quite windy at 2 or 300 feet. It's not foolproof but at least of some small help.

 

[astrohip]

I was going to head at full speed and watched my airspeed and then turned around and headed back and observed my airspeed. If there is much discreptancy

Great tip. Actually happened to me yesterday. Windy at ground, maybe 12-14, but not terrible. Flew up about 150', headed downwind to check out something. Turned around, and got a message that it couldn't RTH, the wind was too strong. Had to fly manually, and made it back with <10% battery left.

I will always do exactly what you suggest in the future, a quick downwind/upwind, and compare speeds.

Thanks!

 

[AlanL]

Tip #2 - take your drone up about 20' or so and watch to make sure it can actually remain stable. If the motors are going nuts trying to stay in place you might not want to fly it anywhere at all. I ran into that a couple of weeks ago in the Columbia River Gorge with 25-30mph winds. I also got the No RTH message even though I didn't go anywhere other than up. I normally always manually land and am quite used to doing so but felt lucky to drop it down within 10' of the starting point.

 

[Deleted member 170519]

Tip #2 - take your drone up about 20' or so and watch to make sure it can actually remain stable. If the motors are going nuts trying to stay in place you might not want to fly it anywhere at all. I ran into that a couple of weeks ago in the Columbia River Gorge with 25-30mph winds. I also got the No RTH message even though I didn't go anywhere other than up. I normally always manually land and am quite used to doing so but felt lucky to drop it down within 10' of the starting point.

I'm usually doing just that. Take it to 20' and watch how stable the drone is.
Where I fly, in winter, it's normally 18-25mph gusts winds. Tonight, no exception. 18mph gusts ground level. Mini 3 pro is a soldier although it's tested. Air2S handles it pretty well.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Might I suggest a better test or a parallel add on would be to open up the artificial-horizon/attitude-indicator and check how much pitch the drone is using to reach each full speed.
In still air a drone needs x deg of pitch to reach full GROUND speed but if it is flying flat out and the horizon/indicator shows it to be in a near hover position or nose up then you know the wind speed is, respectively, equal to or greater than the drone's full GROUND speed and you are flying downwind. Turn it around and it's going to be greatly nose down on the return trip and it will to use more than x deg of pitch to reach the maximum ground speed.

 

[Red Pyro]

today as I took off the wind seemed seemed reasonably still at ground level but as I often do, I wanted to check wind at 200feet where I was flying and I flew outward in the direction I was going to head at full speed and watched my airspeed and then turned around and headed back and observed my airspeed. If there is much discreptancy I do that often and thought I'd mention it as a reasonable way to check to ensure you don't fly too far with the wind and then have trouble on the return against the wind. As we all know, it can be calm at take off but quite windy at 2 or 300 feet. It's not foolproof but at least of some small help.

opposite also applies, lots of ground wind and nothing at 100M

 

[akdrone]

Tip #2 - take your drone up about 20' or so and watch to make sure it can actually remain stable. If the motors are going nuts trying to stay in place you might not want to fly it anywhere at all. I ran into that a couple of weeks ago in the Columbia River Gorge with 25-30mph winds. I also got the No RTH message even though I didn't go anywhere other than up. I normally always manually land and am quite used to doing so but felt lucky to drop it down within 10' of the starting point.

Hah! Good point. I also watched as my mini 3 pro got blown back upon launch a few weeks ago. I wondered if it was going to be able to handle the wind and found out very quickly the answer was "Nope!". Luckily landed safely...

 

[LoudThunder]

I wanted to check wind at 200feet where I was flying

I use the Windy.com App and it is really accurate, much more so than UAV Forcast. And it is easier to use for locations where you intend to fly as you can scroll using the Map verses trying to enter an address in the UAV Forcast.

When I get on site and I suspect the wind may be an issue, I lift off, turn my drone due North and rise up in 50' increments and then I check my Atti meter, looking for attitude variations in the "horizon" If the nose of my drone is dipping to the north, I know I have a headwind. Right wing dipping indicates a crosswind from the East, and so forth…

The amount of dipping is indicative of the strength of the wind, it's not scientific, but my drone remain overhead and even if I have to bring it down quickly, the drone is never blown too far off.

Before the Update that changed the Wings in the Atti gauge to that "faux horizon" it was easier to use the wings…

Your method is more accurate than mine is since you can actually read a speed variation, but it also puts your drone "away from Home…"

Here are two Screen Shots, one for North Pole, Alaska, as of 11AM EST, the Camera View was from yesterday as the current view still showed Night time… You can Taylor so much information even in the free version.

The second is for Cook Inlet, I just searched the location, but it is huge and I do not know where you were for the video you did there recently. But like I wrote, you can check the area even before you drive 200 miles, only to find Gale force winds…

 

[akdrone]

I use the Windy.com App and it is really accurate, much more so than UAV Forcast. And it is easier to use for locations where you intend to fly as you can scroll using the Map verses trying to enter an address in the UAV Forcast.

When I get on site and I suspect the wind may be an issue, I lift off, turn my drone due North and rise up in 50' increments and then I check my Atti meter, looking for attitude variations in the "horizon" If the nose of my drone is dipping to the north, I know I have a headwind. Right wing dipping indicates a crosswind from the East, and so forth…

The amount of dipping is indicative of the strength of the wind, it's not scientific, but my drone remain overhead and even if I have to bring it down quickly, the drone is never blown too far off.

Before the Update that changed the Wings in the Atti gauge to that "faux horizon" it was easier to use the wings…

Your method is more accurate than mine is since you can actually read a speed variation, but it also puts your drone "away from Home…"

Here are two Screen Shots, one for North Pole, Alaska, as of 11AM EST, the Camera View was from yesterday as the current view still showed Night time… You can Taylor so much information even in the free version.

The second is for Cook Inlet, I just searched the location, but it is huge and I do not know where you were for the video you did there recently. But like I wrote, you can check the area even before you drive 200 miles, only to find Gale force winds…

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View attachment 162285

very cool info! thanks!

 

[maggior]

Might I suggest a better test or a parallel add on would be to open up the artificial-horizon/attitude-indicator and check how much pitch the drone is using to reach each full speed.
In still air a drone needs x deg of pitch to reach full GROUND speed but if it is flying flat out and the horizon/indicator shows it to be in a near hover position or nose up then you know the wind speed is, respectively, equal to or greater than the drone's full GROUND speed and you are flying downwind. Turn it around and it's going to be greatly nose down on the return trip and it will to use more than x deg of pitch to reach the maximum ground speed.

I was thinking about this also. Just letting it hover will show you which way the wind is coming and the amount of pitch will indicate how strongly.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

I was thinking about this also. Just letting it hover will show you which way the wind is coming and the amount of pitch will indicate how strongly.

Indeed.
Alternatively I switch the gimbal to FPV mode and do a slow 180deg or 360deg spin but the artifical horizon thng and movement is a bit more informative I think.

 

[Don Testme]

today as I took off the wind seemed seemed reasonably still at ground level but as I often do, I wanted to check wind at 200feet where I was flying and I flew outward in the direction I was going to head at full speed and watched my airspeed and then turned around and headed back and observed my airspeed. If there is much discreptancy I do that often and thought I'd mention it as a reasonable way to check to ensure you don't fly too far with the wind and then have trouble on the return against the wind. As we all know, it can be calm at take off but quite windy at 2 or 300 feet. It's not foolproof but at least of some small help.

I often do an early partial return home flight, just to check the speed difference between going away and returning. It's a great way to judge when you will need to return home later in the flight.

A headwind on the return home is a dangerous thing.

 

[baddog]

today as I took off the wind seemed seemed reasonably still at ground level but as I often do, I wanted to check wind at 200feet where I was flying and I flew outward in the direction I was going to head at full speed and watched my airspeed and then turned around and headed back and observed my airspeed. If there is much discreptancy I do that often and thought I'd mention it as a reasonable way to check to ensure you don't fly too far with the wind and then have trouble on the return against the wind. As we all know, it can be calm at take off but quite windy at 2 or 300 feet. It's not foolproof but at least of some small help.

I use the "UAV forecast" app to get wind speeds and gusts at any height AGL. Just an add on tip. There is a free version and paid for version which include a week long forecast and also includes current ceiling levels which comes in hand.

 

[Melvoid]

Great tip. Actually happened to me yesterday. Windy at ground, maybe 12-14, but not terrible. Flew up about 150', headed downwind to check out something. Turned around, and got a message that it couldn't RTH, the wind was too strong. Had to fly manually, and made it back with <10% battery left.

I will always do exactly what you suggest in the future, a quick downwind/upwind, and compare speeds.

Thanks!

Similar. I got a "high wind" warning as well, but nothing about RTH. I just brought it down as low as I could and then brought it in.

 

[shawgod]

I use the UAV app myself and find that it works great. It keeps me well informed.

 

[minipro3]

Tip #2 - take your drone up about 20' or so and watch to make sure it can actually remain stable. If the motors are going nuts trying to stay in place you might not want to fly it anywhere at all. I ran into that a couple of weeks ago in the Columbia River Gorge with 25-30mph winds. I also got the No RTH message even though I didn't go anywhere other than up. I normally always manually land and am quite used to doing so but felt lucky to drop it down within 10' of the starting point.

Why does drone give " No RTH Message " in wind events ??

 

[minipro3]

today as I took off the wind seemed seemed reasonably still at ground level but as I often do, I wanted to check wind at 200feet where I was flying and I flew outward in the direction I was going to head at full speed and watched my airspeed and then turned around and headed back and observed my airspeed. If there is much discreptancy I do that often and thought I'd mention it as a reasonable way to check to ensure you don't fly too far with the wind and then have trouble on the return against the wind. As we all know, it can be calm at take off but quite windy at 2 or 300 feet. It's not foolproof but at least of some small help.

I assumed that the UAV app and the Wind compass apps would calculate wind speeds not at ground level, but higher up - Is that not true ?