M2Z didn't have enough battery to RTH

[Vegasdad]

Your flight distance to home would have only been 6 km which should be easy.

I'd be doing quite well if I got $5 for every flyer that goes too high and pays no attention to the wind.
You flew at 670 feet where the wind is always going to be much higher than down on the ground.
At 4:20 you made an easy 14 metres/sec with obstacle avoidance enabled.
That tells me there was a good tailwind at that point.
Around 5:20 you took it up to 670 ft and kept powering away further downwind.
Now if you zip away with a raging tailwind, how do you think the return trip is going to go?
<<Hint>> You're going to have to turn around well before 50% if you want to get home
<<Hint>> You should get down out of that wind if you want to see the drone again

Around 7:27 at the turn, things slow down so you switch to (battery burning) Sport Mode.
You seem to have trouble steering straight and wiggle all over the sky while your battery goes from 50% to 40%.
You give up on Sport Mode at 8:20 and continue wandering, switching to RTH after a while at 9:38.
You've been making 1.8 metres/sec in P-GPS and the drone is still up 538 ft.
You bring the drone down to 260 ft and the speed picks up to 4-5 m/s
At 13:23, battery at 9% and 730 metres from home, the drone gives up and autolands before it runs empty and falls.

Yes, it's a common issue.
What you have to tweak is your awareness of wind speed and direction and think what it will mean to the drone, especially the return trip.

Hold on the popcorn is almost ready for the roasting...

 

[JMagnus]

Wind speed was the problem, as mentioned above. 40 mph in the wrong direction above 150 ft where you were flying.



You need to rethink your strategy - your statement "I have even flown in strong winds and it still makes it back home into the headwind with plenty of power left" suggests that you don't understand the airspeed limitations of these aircraft at all. Have you been assuming that they can fly in any wind conditions?

I'm new to this so forgive my stupidity. How did you get this wind graft? Thank you!

 

[sar104]

I'm new to this so forgive my stupidity. How did you get this wind graft? Thank you!

I cheated. AirData has an aerodynamic model for each of the DJI aircraft, and computes airspeed and direction from pitch, roll and ground speed. It's a paid, premium feature - gold level I think.

 

[PhantomFandom]

I agree 100% with your diagnosis of my flight and I do realise that CF props wouldn't have made any difference at all with the outcome.

However I do live in a well known Windy part of our country and do my best to fly early morning or on days when there is gentle breeze at its best. Would CF props allow me to utilize the battery power a lot better in these conditions ???

your recommendations of launch, direction of travel with wind is all taken on board and will definitely be used! Thank You.

Just to give you some idea of the winds we get where I live here is a link to what the wind does to trees here. Leaning Trees » Visit Geraldton And no I wouldn't even look at my drone case when these winds are howling through which this time of the year can be very frequent sometimes!

No, the carbon fiber props will not help you squeeze more time out of your battery. Personally I would never use any props other than OEM DJI props, but yes that is only personal preference.

 

[emufriedchicken]

No, the carbon fiber props will not help you squeeze more time out of your battery. Personally I would never use any props other than OEM DJI props, but yes that is only personal preference.

The reason I asked was I watch this guys YouTube channel

and they got a pretty good wrap from him?

 

[tcope]

I have heard that Carbon Fibre Props are better in wind than the standard props because they don't flex as much. I realise that it isn't going to be the magic bullet to solve my problem as it was operator error but it might make my flights more stable and able to utilize the battery power more efficiently...Thoughts?

CF won't make a bit of difference other then looks.

 

[tcope]

The reason I asked was I watch this guys YouTube channel

and they got a pretty good wrap from him?

CF won't change anything. Also, his only claim is that they make the Mavic more stable in strong winds. Does not claim more flight time or efficiency.

 

[emufriedchicken]

CF won't change anything. Also, his only claim is that they make the Mavic more stable in strong winds. Does not claim more flight time or efficiency.

Thanks for the reply. If these props are better in the wind then that has to be a plus as far as I can tell. I don't believe that props of any nature would extend battery life or flying time. But if the props make the aircraft more stable in wind then that is using the battery power more efficient not extending it. Maybe I should bite the bullet buy some and do a test with and without CF props and post the flights here to be analyzed.

 

[Meta4]

But if the props make the aircraft more stable in wind then that is using the battery power more efficient not extending it. Maybe I should bite the bullet buy some and do a test with and without CF props and post the flights here to be analyzed.

More stable?
That sounds positive but what does itmean and is that any "better"
CF props are much more rigid and have no give.
The DJI props have some flex and that's not a fault. It's a design feature.
They are like shock absorbers and help give your camera drone a smoother ride.

He says stability and that sounds good but it's not really what they do for the drone.
Your drone is probably more stable with stock props.

In any case, "stability" was not an issue in this flight.

 

[DanMan32]

Hold the left stick up to counter auto landing and fly it back home. Even on 0% the M2 can go another 1000m. In calm conditions I've gone 3km from 10% battery.

As others mentioned, get as low down as possible when returning into a headwind.

I was going to say that too.

 

[JimP Florida]

Your flight distance to home would have only been 6 km which should be easy.

I'd be doing quite well if I got $5 for every flyer that goes too high and pays no attention to the wind.
You flew at 670 feet where the wind is always going to be much higher than down on the ground.
At 4:20 you made an easy 14 metres/sec with obstacle avoidance enabled.
That tells me there was a good tailwind at that point.
Around 5:20 you took it up to 670 ft and kept powering away further downwind.
Now if you zip away with a raging tailwind, how do you think the return trip is going to go?
<<Hint>> You're going to have to turn around well before 50% if you want to get home
<<Hint>> You should get down out of that wind if you want to see the drone again

Around 7:27 at the turn, things slow down so you switch to (battery burning) Sport Mode.
You seem to have trouble steering straight and wiggle all over the sky while your battery goes from 50% to 40%.
You give up on Sport Mode at 8:20 and continue wandering, switching to RTH after a while at 9:38.
You've been making 1.8 metres/sec in P-GPS and the drone is still up 538 ft.
You bring the drone down to 260 ft and the speed picks up to 4-5 m/s
At 13:23, battery at 9% and 730 metres from home, the drone gives up and autolands before it runs empty and falls.

Yes, it's a common issue.
What you have to tweak is your awareness of wind speed and direction and think what it will mean to the drone, especially the return trip.

No problems yet but glad we have members like you!

 

[GFields]

Wind can be your friend or your worse enemy.

 

[ErikDF]

The Apps Windy and UAV Forecast probably give you all information you need for a preflight analysis. Wind on the ground is one thing but the wind speed and direction at 330 feet and above is even more important to know before you fly.

 

[Turn11]

As others mentioned, get as low down as possible when returning into a headwind.

@emufriedchicken A couple of good tools to keep an eye on what is going on near ground and up there are UAV Forecast and Ventusky.

Does the wind speed in the first one look familiar? If you had known the wind speed aloft, you would have posted pictures from an amazing flight. Glad you were able to recover your AC.


Ventusky will give you an idea of the wind activity around you.

 

[emufriedchicken]

Thanks for the app recommendations. Will certainly download them and use them to help me make a decision to wether or not I go flying . Quite a bit of difference of wind speed at different altitudes!!

 

[Meta4]

Thanks for the app recommendations. Will certainly download them and use them to help me make a decision to wether or not I go flying . Quite a bit of difference of wind speed at different altitudes!!

You don't need any app to tell you that the wind up high will be blowing faster than down on the ground.
If you will be flying with a headwind, you need to know how much the wind will affect your speed.
That's very easy to do by flying directly into the wind above the home point before flying off into the distance.

 

[emufriedchicken]

I will probably use them as more point of interest rather than a hard and fast rule... here is the current conditions at work where i am at the moment

 

[MeGotAir]

I wonder why doesn't DJI calculate approximate wind resistance and add it into battery equation?

 

[sar104]

I wonder why doesn't DJI calculate approximate wind resistance and add it into battery equation?

Because it doesn't know what the wind conditions are going to be during the flight.

 

[bonzo]

As the title says. My M2Z did a low battery RTH this morning and for some reason it came up 700 meters short of home and did a auto land. Managed to steer it to a place that I could drive close enough to retrieve it. This is the 1st time it has ever done this. Every other time it still has more than 10-15% battery still when it lands. Am running latest firmware and the latest version of Go4 on my ipad mini2. I have even flown in strong winds and it still makes it back home into the headwind with plenty of power left . Lucky I dodged a bullet today with a successful retrieve but still scary of what might have been. Any ideas of what did happen or maybe a setting or 2 that I can tweak or maybe this is a common issue that has a fix that I haven't heard about yet. thanks in advance everyone ..fingers crossed there is a fix!

This exact same thing happened to me yesterday, after the new firmware, i barely made it home.
(Leave me alone sar)