gusty winds at high altitude

[detectorguy]

I was out the other day flying from a boat. It was a little different as when we landed we had to do a hand catch from a rocking boat.
On my second battery I went up to the max altitude of 400 feet to get a picture of the boat and the surroundings. When I got up there my remote told me "high winds to land" and the circle showed the blue area to be almost straight up and down. I also saw my props in the picture. I looked at my alt and noticed that I was no longer at 400 feet but 350 feet and coming down. I pushed return to home and my drone recovered somewhere in the 200 foot range. I think I got hit by some gusty winds off the side of the hills around the lake.

 

[FormerMember07122019_2]

I think your guess may be correct. It sounds like the wind was blowing pretty good up a higher altitudes and the aircraft was changing it’s attitude to compensate and try to hold position. The wind is commonly affected by the terrain similar to water flowing in a stream disturbed by an obstacle. In this case the surrounding hills. It could have been made worse by the thermal effect of the air sinking over the cooler surface of the lake.

 

[brett8883]

I was out the other day flying from a boat. It was a little different as when we landed we had to do a hand catch from a rocking boat.
On my second battery I went up to the max altitude of 400 feet to get a picture of the boat and the surroundings. When I got up there my remote told me "high winds to land" and the circle showed the blue area to be almost straight up and down. I also saw my props in the picture. I looked at my alt and noticed that I was no longer at 400 feet but 350 feet and coming down. I pushed return to home and my drone recovered somewhere in the 200 foot range. I think I got hit by some gusty winds off the side of the hills around the lake.

If you post the flight data we can tell you what really hsppened.

 

[detectorguy]

I am not sure how to post flight data , but happy I have my drone back

 

[brett8883]

I am not sure how to post flight data , but happy I have my drone back

How to retrieve a V3.DAT from the tablet

 

[Turn11]

May I suggest investing in the free App UAV Forecast from either Android or Apple. Almost all the time (not always) there is a significant difference between wind speed at ground level and wind speed at elevation.
Here is a quick Google search about wind and obstacles. EDIT A search on YouTube for wind "obstacles" will yield some informative video's
There is a LOT more to flying than just pushing the sticks in different directions. You were lucky.

 

[Maui Jeff]

I was out the other day flying from a boat. It was a little different as when we landed we had to do a hand catch from a rocking boat.
On my second battery I went up to the max altitude of 400 feet to get a picture of the boat and the surroundings. When I got up there my remote told me "high winds to land" and the circle showed the blue area to be almost straight up and down. I also saw my props in the picture. I looked at my alt and noticed that I was no longer at 400 feet but 350 feet and coming down. I pushed return to home and my drone recovered somewhere in the 200 foot range. I think I got hit by some gusty winds off the side of the hills around the lake.

On the subject of flying off a boat and hand catching. I have a boat and would like to fly my drone from it but have no experience with hand catching. It seems like it could be dangerous if you screw up. The blades will cut, right? Do you where any type of protective gloves? Any other advice? Thanks

 

[Turn11]

Search YouTube for your AC model.
MP/MPP is different than the M2 series.

 

[FoxhallGH]

I was out the other day flying from a boat. It was a little different as when we landed we had to do a hand catch from a rocking boat.
On my second battery I went up to the max altitude of 400 feet to get a picture of the boat and the surroundings. When I got up there my remote told me "high winds to land" and the circle showed the blue area to be almost straight up and down. I also saw my props in the picture. I looked at my alt and noticed that I was no longer at 400 feet but 350 feet and coming down. I pushed return to home and my drone recovered somewhere in the 200 foot range. I think I got hit by some gusty winds off the side of the hills around the lake.

Seeing the prop's in the Go4 display does indicate that the drone is fighting a headwind ... One thing to practice for here though - don't rely on your RTH to get you out of that problem. Depending on how high you have RTH set, you might find that using RTH just puts the drone in the high-altitude airstream and makes it worse ... If you know that you are fighting headwinds, then resist the urge to use RTH, and drop down to hedge-row level manually, and use your compass on Go4 to get your drone home. Flying low-down should get you out of the strongest head-winds. This is one of those situations where the wisdom in learning how to fly your drone home - rather than just relying on RTH - pays dividends.

 

[Libertyflights]

I am also a hot air balloon pilot, we are always watching the winds at 100 to 3000 ft. We use this web site. you can enter an airport code or use the GPS feature uses you local site Balloonists' Wind Forecast | RyanCarlton.com
enjoy

 

[paulatkin73]

If you post the flight data we can tell you what really hsppened.

i had similar situation only once so far when i got bird to 100m altitude during quite a strong wind, to see what will happen.
we looked at logs afterwards but it was not very conclusive which combination of factors triggers that mandatory forced landing. there is one metric indicating exceeding max power, also i noticed that total current drawn by the drone was at level of 18A - it was with S mode chosen and having altered max angle of attach set to 40 deg - so, it was quite a wind.
good thing - when it goes into that mandatory landing mode it can be interrupted, as it seems, by regular controls and mode switches, but, one needs to keep an eye on it as it happened pretty quick.

 

[detectorguy]

Seeing the prop's in the Go4 display does indicate that the drone is fighting a headwind ... One thing to practice for here though - don't rely on your RTH to get you out of that problem. Depending on how high you have RTH set, you might find that using RTH just puts the drone in the high-altitude airstream and makes it worse ... If you know that you are fighting headwinds, then resist the urge to use RTH, and drop down to hedge-row level manually, and use your compass on Go4 to get your drone home. Flying low-down should get you out of the strongest head-winds. This is one of those situations where the wisdom in learning how to fly your drone home - rather than just relying on RTH - pays dividends.

Once I saw that my drone was not in free fall I did fly the drone back to the boat where I did a hand catch as a landing.

 

[Turn11]

We use this web site

I just checked it to see what the data was in my location. I live in (BHC) Bullhead City, Arizona and if I use that location, click on GPS button or enter the Airport code (IFP converted to FIFP by the program) it shows me the location is 12-13 miles away and quite near a mountain ridge that surrounds BHC to the East on Google Maps. Not quite the comfort level I was expecting.