Improving Mavic 3 wind performance?

[froozenbeef]

Hello,

I've been tasked with tracking horses around a race track with a drone. The plan is to follow the horses straight above at 120m AGL and stream video to the production crew. The race circuit is a standard oval shape.

We did a test last week and rented a Mavic 3 to see if it would do the job. The main issue was that the drone struggled with the wind. At the time the wind was about 7 m/s (gusting 10 m/s) at ground level. The max speed downwind was ~20 m/s in sport mode so it was able to follow the horses without problem. However, when turning up against the wind the speed dropped down to around 13-14 m/s and the drone struggled to keep up with the horses. We can allow for degraded video quality (due to vibration or else) a long as we can keep up with the horses.

So my question here is if anyone has any tips to improve performance when flying up against the wind? Is there any tuning that can be done in the app to allow for a steeper flying angle maybe?

Or if there is another drone that is better against the wind? Maybe go larger (Inspire or Matrice) or smaller (Mini 3)?

 

[Ty Pilot]

A race horse's max speed is is between 40 and 44 MPH while the max speed of a Mavic 3 is 47 mph. There just isn't enough there to account for much of a headwind, and there is no tweaking you can do to the Mavic.

You'll need to look into faster (FPV) type race drones, or even fixed wing drones which; can easily keep up, but those drones are nothing like flying a GPS drone. Inspires have about a 58 MPH top speed but if you're running against a 20 MPH headwind even that won't be enough.

As an alternative (but I don't know your situation), A smaller flight path inside the oval track would allow you to travel shorter distances thus staying closer in the straights and catching up through the turns. But this type of flight and camera operation would best suit a drone that has separate pilot and camera operators.

 

[wco81]

At 120 meters above the track, don’t you get most of the track in one shot?

do you really have to track and follow individual horses from that altitude!

 

[_seven]

been flying to track horse race as well, but from behind and from their side, not much we can do if the wind gust goes above 20mph the drone simply get left behind even in sports mode; , only thing i can do (since its a live feed) is to digitally zoom in to keep up with the horses


i was using m2pro with a custom firmware before , managed to tweak the angle of the drone to give it more boost adding atleast 5kph but not enough if its windy, mavic 3 isnt yet supported by the custom fw

 

[Meta4]

So my question here is if anyone has any tips to improve performance when flying up against the wind? Is there any tuning that can be done in the app to allow for a steeper flying angle maybe?

No .. flying your drone against wind is just like rowing a boat in a current.
If you can row your boat at 6 mph with no current, when you row against the current in water that is flowing at 3 mph, your rowing speed over the ground is going to be 3 mph.

Or if there is another drone that is better against the wind? Maybe go larger (Inspire or Matrice) or smaller (Mini 3)?

Look at the specifications to see how fast a drone can fly.
A drone with a higher top speed will make better headway against the wind than a drone with a lower top speed.

 

[SkywalkerFeng]

Hello,

I've been tasked with tracking horses around a race track with a drone. The plan is to follow the horses straight above at 120m AGL and stream video to the production crew. The race circuit is a standard oval shape.

We did a test last week and rented a Mavic 3 to see if it would do the job. The main issue was that the drone struggled with the wind. At the time the wind was about 7 m/s (gusting 10 m/s) at ground level. The max speed downwind was ~20 m/s in sport mode so it was able to follow the horses without problem. However, when turning up against the wind the speed dropped down to around 13-14 m/s and the drone struggled to keep up with the horses. We can allow for degraded video quality (due to vibration or else) a long as we can keep up with the horses.

So my question here is if anyone has any tips to improve performance when flying up against the wind? Is there any tuning that can be done in the app to allow for a steeper flying angle maybe?

Or if there is another drone that is better against the wind? Maybe go larger (Inspire or Matrice) or smaller (Mini 3)?

One potential solution, is to use a Mavic 3 Pro instead of Mavic 3. Both drones have the same flight performance, but Mavic 3 Pro has three cameras of different focal length (24mm - 70mm - 166mm). When you film the race track event and the drone is losing speed against the horses, you can zoom in closer, to account for the increased distance between the drone and the horses.

Since Mavic 3 Pro is yet to be released (5/9 launch date in North America), the biggest unknown here is the smoothness of zoom between different focal length. You will need to do some research to find out.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

There is nothing yet for the Mavic 3 but keep an Eye out

nolimitdronez.com

nolimitdronez.com

The Phantom 4 Pro is your best bet right now for a much faster drone .

Phantomrain.org
'Gear to fly in the Rain. Land on the Water , an Experience Cinematic Control Pods on your RC/Pro

 

[bdlitzer]

This is a job for a custom FPV built drone with a gopro on top of it that can fly in excess of 100Mph. Example:

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[Lets Fly]

No .. flying your drone against wind is just like rowing a boat in a current.
If you can row your boat at 4 mph with no current, when you row against the current in water that is flowing at 3 mph, your rowing speed over the ground is going to be 3 mph.


Look at the specifications to see how fast a drone can fly.
A drone with a higher top speed will make better headway against the wind than a drone with a lower top speed.

what did I miss, 4 minus 3 is 1mph.

 

[Meta4]

what did I miss, 4 minus 3 is 1mph.

Typo ... thanks .. corrected now

 

[brett8883]

I would definitely go Inspire 2. It is much faster. How are you streaming to the production crew though?

 

[crlmjohnson]

Hello,

I've been tasked with tracking horses around a race track with a drone. The plan is to follow the horses straight above at 120m AGL and stream video to the production crew. The race circuit is a standard oval shape.

We did a test last week and rented a Mavic 3 to see if it would do the job. The main issue was that the drone struggled with the wind. At the time the wind was about 7 m/s (gusting 10 m/s) at ground level. The max speed downwind was ~20 m/s in sport mode so it was able to follow the horses without problem. However, when turning up against the wind the speed dropped down to around 13-14 m/s and the drone struggled to keep up with the horses. We can allow for degraded video quality (due to vibration or else) a long as we can keep up with the horses.

So my question here is if anyone has any tips to improve performance when flying up against the wind? Is there any tuning that can be done in the app to allow for a steeper flying angle maybe?

Or if there is another drone that is better against the wind? Maybe go larger (Inspire or Matrice) or smaller (Mini 3)?

I was also ask to film some race horses, but I turn down the job, because of my schedule...working on a second MS. in Software Engineering. But would think that the higher you fly above the track you would be able to keep up with the drone, but if you are trying to flying low and behind or in front, then I would say you would have a better outcome on a calm day and no wind....good luck with that senerio.

 

[_seven]

zooming in /out to compensate with the speedlost

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