Almost lost Mavic in the wind!

[Mykeee]

That's what I've found. I was trying to come back and was only getting 8mph. Came down to 100' and made it up to 20.
When all else fails, keep looking for a safe place to put her down.

Yes I should have done that in retrospect but I'll chock it up to a rookie mistake.

 

[neoblitz]

I've been to Bali and get into similar incident. It drifted away 1/2 km away from the beach by the wind and lost signal from remote. Essentially I was extremely worried because I couldn't take it back where i was. Then I disable cinematic mode when I get signal back for a moment and reduced altitude and then I flicked the sports mode switch and pushed the throttle towards me. It was slow but it moved towards me. So I reduce even more altitude and increased the speed. Finally I was able to get it back. It was a hell of a scary feeling to deal with.

Wind speed I found there 18kmh

I got a very serious lesson and now I have two apps to calculate wind speed in any area I want to fly in.

Ps: there was no open place to land mavic. Either hotels roof or on the road.


Sent from my iPhone using MavicPilots

 

[BD0G]

I noticed that too, and I know there is a way to fix that but can't figure it out. Any suggestions?

I would strongly consider a gimbal calibration. The gimbal motors are supposed to keep the camera level and need to be properly calibrated to do so. I have seen Mavic video in high wind where the gimbal can steady the camera even in pretty high wind. Yours doesn't.

 

[cobra46]

I noticed that too, and I know there is a way to fix that but can't figure it out. Any suggestions?

You need to adjust your gimbal roll. Go through the settings and you will find it.

I check out the menus while I'm sitting in my office at home with the MP sitting on a chair next to me. I can test all kinds of stuff this way and the battery lasts forever if it's not flying. Additionally, I don't need to worry about the flying part in my office. If you think about it, the Mavic is nothing more than a flying camera so there's two side to it....flying and camera. Most of the camera functions can be tested and practiced without actually flying.

 

[BD0G]

Good suggestion with the Gimbal Roll adjustment, but first try to calibrate the gimbal as that may fix the issue or at least reduce it so that less offset will need to be "dialed in" using the Gimbal Roll Adjustment.

Recalibration "may" be all thats needed.

 

[fbthompson32]

View attachment 6585 Last night I my wife looked out the window and commented on how beautiful the sky looked with the sunset, so I quickly took the mavic out to get some cool shots. The wind at ground level was strong, but nothing I haven't flown in before. I took it up to about 100-120 feet straight above my head and started snapping pictures. A couple minutes later I looked up an the drone had drifted considerably. Probably about a 1/4 mile! I guess the wind was a lot stronger up there! I was getting strong wind warnings but ignored them as I was just going up, taking a few pictures and coming back down. Oh, did I mention my mavic battery was at about 33%? So when I noticed the mavic had drifted the battery was already down to about 22%, so I immediately started manually flying back home. The speed was only about 12 km/hr and dropped to 5 as I was flying into the wind. I panicked and put it in return to home mode but the speed was no faster and battery life was dropping fast. It was on its was home but was over a field (we live in the country) and if it were to emergency land there, I would be up to my knees in mud trying to retrieve it! I quickly jumped in the car and drove in the general direction and caught up with it trying to come home about 1/8 mile from home. I managed to get it to land on the side of the road as the battery dropped to 9%! It may have made it home, but that experience almost gave me a heart attack and taught me a lesson to pay more attention to wind. Just happy I didn't have to trudge through knee deep mud to get it back!

UAV Forecast This site gives you wind speeds of varying altitudes, temps.... best times to fly your Mavic

 

[Mykeee]

UAV Forecast This site gives you wind speeds of varying altitudes, temps.... best times to fly your Mavic

Thanks!

 

[tokorobam]

It was a dark and stormy late afternoon, literally, in Japan. My mavic was being blown slowly away no matter how much throttle was applied. I was not in sport mode though reading the other posts (thanks), it might have helped. We started in an open area but a sudden strong wind forced it over a residential area. Finally, we were able to land it on a small quiet street. I suspect that a combination of wind and heavy clouds obscuring the GPS contributed to it, though there was only a high wind and no GPS Warning.

 

[gnirtS]

GPS would have been fine. Normal cloud isnt going to kill that and as you said, it didnt drop to ATTI mode.

Any wind over about 20mph you're realistically going to need sport mode to make any real headway against it. Its a little strange the firmware for an RTH wont automatically override the P mode limits but thats the way its set.
Check with Airdata for the actual wind speeds and direction experienced. You could use an app like UAV forecast which allows you to select an altitude for the wind speed to get a better idea (winds in general are stronger the higher you go).

Sport mode and/or drop altitude should help with wind. And also be aware of it, dont get carried away heading outwards with the wind and then struggle to get back - always check the conditions from metar or an app and fly accordingly.