M2Z didn't have enough battery to RTH

[Drgnfli]

I almost lost my MP in a 20 mph wind one day because I JUST WANTED TO FLY - STUPID! I didn't realize it was that windy up at my flying height (100'). Flying at "Normal" speed trying to get back to my launch point didn't work as it drifted further & further away. I was lucky enough to switch to "Sport" mode and bring her home safely but it was scary as hell! Since then, I've used the "UAV Forecast" app to check the wind at different altitudes & it definitely helps. Now I don't fly if the wind is 15 mph or more - SMART!

 

[emufriedchicken]

I almost lost my MP in a 20 mph wind one day because I JUST WANTED TO FLY - STUPID! I didn't realize it was that windy up at my flying height (100'). Flying at "Normal" speed trying to get back to my launch point didn't work as it drifted further & further away. I was lucky enough to switch to "Sport" mode and bring her home safely but it was scary as ****! Since then, I've used the "UAV Forecast" app to check the wind at different altitudes & it definitely helps. Now I don't fly if the wind is 15 mph or more - SMART!

Parts of this is sounding very familiar to what I tried and experienced. Besides not flying in the first place I think I should have left it in sport mode , dropped a heap of altitude and ignored the auto land message . But I managed to land and safely retrieved the M2Z from someone’s front driveway

 

[ff22]

I almost lost my MP in a 20 mph wind one day because I JUST WANTED TO FLY - STUPID! I didn't realize it was that windy up at my flying height (100'). Flying at "Normal" speed trying to get back to my launch point didn't work as it drifted further & further away. I was lucky enough to switch to "Sport" mode and bring her home safely but it was scary as ****! Since then, I've used the "UAV Forecast" app to check the wind at different altitudes & it definitely helps. Now I don't fly if the wind is 15 mph or more - SMART!

We got a somewhat rare snow here the other day. Around sunset, the colors were looking really nice but I noticed that the all day winds were still quite breezy. I really considered just getting a few nice pans but finally decided that flying in my very constrained yard, over my solar panels was not wise with the breeze. So waited till yesterday with no breeze. No sunset colors but a much safer alternative.

360-org_a78d2d0bc9984aa3_1549390076000.

 

[MeGotAir]

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

That's why calculation is needed. If it has less wind resistance while flying from point a to point b - it should expect more resistance when flying back and thus make an approximation on shorter battery life.

 

[GadgetGuy]

That's why calculation is needed. If it has less wind resistance while flying from point a to point b - it should expect more resistance when flying back and thus make an approximation on shorter battery life.

That's why it wants you to turn around at 65% battery, if you don't cancel out of the "Smart" Return Home warning, which will have you landing with 30-35% battery, plenty of room for error, even if you encounter a head wind on the return flight. Ignore that warning at your own peril.

 

[sar104]

That's why calculation is needed. If it has less wind resistance while flying from point a to point b - it should expect more resistance when flying back and thus make an approximation on shorter battery life.

Oh - you mean why doesn't it update the RTH battery level in flight to take into account both distance and wind speed / direction. That would be a good enhancement to the firmware, but it currently doesn't do that.

 

[MeGotAir]

That's why it wants you to turn around at 65% battery, if you don't cancel out of the "Smart" Return Home warning, which will have you landing with 30-35% battery, plenty of room for error, even if you encounter a head wind on the return flight. Ignore that warning at your own peril.

I always respect it and fly very conservatively but it still happened at one point and the aircraft lost power so fast (due to the strong wind I was not aware of) that it started landing directly into the sea. I barely managed to get it to shore that was about 1 km (0.62 miles) away from my RTH point.

 

[old man mavic]

two points spring to mind here (1) the mav will do a RTH when it thinks that the battery only has enough power left to achieve it. but it requires the pilot to respond if it appears to be not making head way ,if this is the case you should cancel RTH and take action by descending to a lower altitude and going in to sport mode if the wind is very strong.(2)dont just think the mav will make it back on its own it might in a perfect scenario with no wind whatsoever in any direction. but we all know that aint going to happen very often there is a lot of info on the screen of the go4 app use it when a situation arises to ascertain what the issue is

 

[ff22]

two points spring to mind here (1) the mav will do a RTH when it thinks that the battery only has enough power left to achieve it. but it requires the pilot to respond if it appears to be not making head way ,if this is the case you should cancel RTH and take action by descending to a lower altitude and going in to sport mode if the wind is very strong.(2)dont just think the mav will make it back on its own it might in a perfect scenario with no wind whatsoever in any direction. but we all know that aint going to happen very often there is a lot of info on the screen of the go4 app use it when a situation arises to ascertain what the issue is

Admitting my lack of knowledge... I've read a number of replies where the suggestion is to change into Sport Mode if windy and battery is low. I'll ask what advantage does Sport Mode provide over the normal P mode? There's still the wind to contend with.

Thanks in advance.

 

[sar104]

Admitting my lack of knowledge... I've read a number of replies where the suggestion is to change into Sport Mode if windy and battery is low. I'll ask what advantage does Sport Mode provide over the normal P mode? There's still the wind to contend with.

Thanks in advance.

Sport mode allows attitude up to 35°, whereas P is limited to 25°. That allows sport mode to achieve significantly higher airspeeds and so make headway into stronger winds than in P mode.

 

[old man mavic]

Admitting my lack of knowledge... I've read a number of replies where the suggestion is to change into Sport Mode if windy and battery is low. I'll ask what advantage does Sport Mode provide over the normal P mode? There's still the wind to contend with.

Thanks in advance.

in sport mode the mav is able to fly faster so it goes without saying that if you lower the drone the wind speed should be less and that combined with the ability to fly faster should get the mav back home. of course there is a trade off with sport mode, in that it tends to use more battery. the real answer is fly out into the wind when you can and do not fly at all if you think it is to strong for the drone to cope with

 

[Thomas B]

Old Man Mavic has hit the nail on th head! Planning your flight against worst scenario and watching battery indicator every time.

 

[zocalo]

Sport mode allows attitude up to 35°, whereas P is limited to 25°. That allows sport mode to achieve significantly higher airspeeds and so make headway into stronger winds than in P mode.

As I understand it, it's still a trade-off / judgement call. In any given wind conditions you'll go faster in sport mode, but at the expense of more battery consumption per kilometre covered. The only times you should really be using S mode in this situation is if you *need* it to overcome a headwind, and/or you're confident you can still RTH. Once you've decended as much as possible, which is ALWAYS the first thing to do, of course.

The problem is that if you're fighting a headwind and S mode is the only way you can make headway, then you might only be able make a few kph of actual groundspeed. Depending on how far from home you are, it may be more effective to look into other options; flying across the wind to get out of the open, or simply trying to find somewhere to land ASAP for later recovery. If you're fighting wind that hard, then you ought to consider how likely is it that you might lose control altogether (e.g. in a sudden gust) and wreck the drone. If that seems likely the best and safest option is probably to just land ASAP and retrieve the drone later.

 

[sar104]

As I understand it, it's still a trade-off / judgement call. In any given wind conditions you'll go faster in sport mode, but at the expense of more battery consumption per kilometre covered. The only times you should really be using S mode in this situation is if you *need* it to overcome a headwind, and/or you're confident you can still RTH. Once you've decended as much as possible, which is ALWAYS the first thing to do, of course.

The problem is that if you're fighting a headwind and S mode is the only way you can make headway, then you might only be able make a few kph of actual groundspeed. Depending on how far from home you are, it may be more effective to look into other options; flying across the wind to get out of the open, or simply trying to find somewhere to land ASAP for later recovery. If you're fighting wind that hard, then you ought to consider how likely is it that you might lose control altogether (e.g. in a sudden gust) and wreck the drone. If that seems likely the best and safest option is probably to just land ASAP and retrieve the drone later.

Agreed - there is no universal solution for all situations. However, this is generally recommended in cases where the aircraft is making little or no headway due to wind speed. Descending is usually a good solution but comes with other issues - if descending causes loss of the control link then the aircraft will enter RTH mode, which will restrict airspeed again, and it may climb again, depending on the RTH altitude setting. There have been a number of cases where the aircraft was making headway at lower altitude, lost connection, ascended and then was blown downwind.

If the wind speed is such that sport mode is able to make reasonable progress then switching to sport mode and maintaining enough altitude to keep the connection alive may be the right approach. An even better approach is not to get into that situation to begin with, of course.

 

[zocalo]

Agreed - there is no universal solution for all situations.

Yeah, that's my main point. Clearly the best "solution" is to use an app to judge the likely wind conditions pre-flight, plan (or abort) your flight accordingly, and don't get into the situation in the first place.

If you do find yourself in this situation though, then the most important thing is not just to know all of the available recovery options, but also the pros and cons of each one to judge when they are applicable. Even then, you need to be aware of your remaining battery life so that you can adjust your recovery plan if/when required - e.g. if sport mode doesn't let you make the necessary amount of progress.

Descending - usually gets you out of the fastest winds, but if you drop too far might cause loss of comms and auto RTH (you did set a sane RTH altitude, right?). Also increases the risk of collisions with buildings, trees, etc., especially if the drone is being pushed around by the wind.

Sport mode - lets you make headway against stronger winds, but requires more battery, e.g. further reduced range. You need to monitor the battery drain and see how many percent it takes to get a given fraction of the way home, then do the math...

Landing - safest option, but runs the risk of someone making off with the drone before you can retrieve it, so choose your landing spot wisely. Also, you might lose comms before touchdown and initiate an auto-RTH, so make sure you have LOS to the drone.

 

[JDawg]

"Agreed - there is no universal solution for all situations. However, this is generally recommended in cases where the aircraft is making little or no headway due to wind speed. Descending is usually a good solution but comes with other issues - if descending causes loss of the control link then the aircraft will enter RTH mode, which will restrict airspeed again, and it may climb again, depending on the RTH altitude setting. There have been a number of cases where the aircraft was making headway at lower altitude, lost connection, ascended and then was blown downwind.

If the wind speed is such that sport mode is able to make reasonable progress then switching to sport mode and maintaining enough altitude to keep the connection alive may be the right approach. An even better approach is not to get into that situation to begin with, of course. "

Summed up nicely Sar104 with the last option being the best. These Birds are easy to fly, the least we can do is be aware of the conditions among other things.

 

[Meta4]

Admitting my lack of knowledge... I've read a number of replies where the suggestion is to change into Sport Mode if windy and battery is low. I'll ask what advantage does Sport Mode provide over the normal P mode? There's still the wind to contend with.

My experience is that Sport mode might be useful in light winds but in real strong wind situations, the small extra speed isn't enough to make a significant difference and not enough to justify the faster burn rate of the battery.
Planning before flying and considering what the return is going to be like is the best thing you can do.

 

[paulatkin73]

so, what comes with some experience is the habit to start and fly out against the wind, unless you really-really absolutely need to go in the opposite direction. it is done very easily - you ascent, then switch off gps to only hold altitude, see where model drifts, put back gps mode and fly in the opposite direction. do not assume that wind blows in a same exact direction at 300ft up as on the surface.
if you ignore it and go downwind, then, you will risk it. in high current draw mode your lipo sags way faster, and a real working advice here is not to panic and do not try to fight inevitable - you have to calm down and try to look down at the terrain below and land it safe where/while you still can. if you can record your last gps coordinates - it also helps, so you can at least come and pick it up from the spot you can recognize - a large clearing, or sidewalk, anything else other than just a terminated transmission at 100ft up in the air, as then you will never find it, pretty much.

ps. as mavic, with all its complexity is unable to clearly communicate its last gps location - as transmission can be cut, again, a unit like marcopolo tracker with a 12g transmitter is really a must have thing. with traditional drones radio telemetry feed is not getting cut like that, but, this wifi signal is something completely different. it is either all or nothing.

 

[Thomas B]

Excellent thought on determining wind direction and force when at altitude.

 

[paulatkin73]

Excellent thought on determining wind direction and force when at altitude.

only issue with mavic is that you need to use an assistant version 1.1.2 to alter tripod mode to atti mode. it is easy to do, but, still requires some effort.
but when you have it - then you`ll make it a habit and will never get into a problem as you will see how fast that wind will be pushing your model away at the target altitude.