3 Mavic 3 Caught in a strong wind Gust : Fly away

[Phantomrain.org]

Prepared for a cinematic run down the river in 35 mph winds to test the camera ,
A huge gust of wind came and took the drone backwards almost 2000 ft .

I wanted to wait till the gust died before entering sport mode and was just barely able to make it back
as the winds got stronger.

Not all Gusts are the same. lol That was nuts.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your M3 in the Rain > Land on the water

 

[dozzn]

Glad you got it back

 

[Meta4]

Sport mode barely got me to crawl , as the 35 mph winds got stronger and a relentless gust would not let go.

Fly away?
That's not a fly away.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

One of things that I believe kept me level headed was that I had 81 % battery when the Wind Gust let go.

Once I saw that , I felt like I could still maintain the flight , but had I lost visual line of sight, i would have tried the RTH and the chances of loosing the drone would have increased exponentially for me I believe .

I went up again with the M3 Rescue Jacket in sport mode and had a better results but without that Wind Gust .
this way if I did land in the lake I would have a rescue mission. I also took off from the roof to clear the deck .

The end result was to gain confidence in the M3 in Sport mode to really fight against that wind with the battery Power to get me results.

I will post that video soon.

 

[Prop Wash]

Braver than me - I fly a Mini 2 so I wouldn't have even attempted that, but I'm not sure I would have ventured out with the 3. I am impressed with the stability of the video in those winds. Pics are really good. Glad it all turned out well. I think not panicing helped a LOT.

 

[Reginald E Johnson]

Braver than me - I fly a Mini 2 so I wouldn't have even attempted that, but I'm not sure I would have ventured out with the 3. I am impressed with the stability of the video in those winds. Pics are really good. Glad it all turned out well. I think not panicing helped a LOT.

That happened to me as well but as soon as I barely got it to the Shore, I landed it on the Sand! The trick to it is to keep your Cool and not Panic!

 

[zeusfl]

That is impressive the M3 was unable to handle that wind gusts. I will like to look at the Flight Logs and see how many amps were pulling.

 

[cgmaxed]

Sport mode barely got me to crawl , as the 35 mph winds got stronger and a relentless gust would not let go.
It took the drone out almost 2500 ft before letting go . Sport mode got me back home , but just barely.

Not all Gusts are the same. lol That was nuts.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your M3 in the Rain > Land on the water

I'm not surprised. You probably fly your drone in more extreme weather than most of us. But, I'm not suprised, you got it home. Unless you were at the end of the drones battery life, I'm sure it have would have plenty of extra power to get you home. It's flight time will save lots of drone operators.

 

[cgmaxed]

One of things that I believe kept me level headed was that I had 81 % battery when the Wind Gust let go.

Once I saw that , I felt like I could still maintain the flight , but had I lost visual line of sight, i would have tried the RTH and the chances of loosing the drone would have increased exponentially for me I believe .

I went up again with the M3 Rescue Jacket in sport mode and had a better results but without that Wind Gust .
this way if I did land in the lake I would have a rescue mission. I also took off from the roof to clear the deck .

The end result was to gain confidence in the M3 in Sport mode to really fight against that wind with the battery Power to get me results.

I will post that video soon.

View attachment 140312

For some reason, whenever I am in a wind situation slowing me down, I almost always end up in sport mode. When I use the other modes, they seem to fly too slow relative to the battery power loss.

 

[Lets Fly]

Sport mode barely got me to crawl , as the 35 mph winds got stronger and a relentless gust would not let go.
It took the drone out almost 2500 ft before letting go . Sport mode got me back home , but just barely.

Not all Gusts are the same. lol That was nuts.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your M3 in the Rain > Land on the water

Glad you saved it Phantomrain, now fix that railing.

 

[smfry60]

For some reason, whenever I am in a wind situation slowing me down, I almost always end up in sport mode. When I use the other modes, they seem to fly too slow relative to the battery power loss.

Just outside of Chicago yesterday morning doing a time-lapse the wind took my M3 a few hundred yards and had me worried.. I stopped the cam after 14 or 16 seconds of video and fought the wind getting back.. then put up my Air 2 and got another 20 to 30 seconds of the sunrise.(2 battery's).. was surprised that the pictures were pretty good.

 

[Meta4]

For some reason, whenever I am in a wind situation slowing me down, I almost always end up in sport mode. When I use the other modes, they seem to fly too slow relative to the battery power loss.

This has been tested many times to show that Sport Mode is not very economical and gives poor mileage.
Just like driving your car at 80.

 

[cgmaxed]

This has been tested many times to show that Sport Mode is not very economical and gives poor mileage.
Just like driving your car at 80.

Yeah, I'm positive you are correct. But over the last 3 years , every time I slow down to 15-20 mph to fly back, the battery just appears to have have lost more power over the same distance travelled than it would during sport mode. So I guess I'll just keep doing what I'm doing. However, I'll give the idea a few extra trials to make sure. My results just may be in my head.

 

[Smooth Rhythm]

SMH ….

 

[rcourtney671]

Sport mode barely got me to crawl , as the 35 mph winds got stronger and a relentless gust would not let go.
It took the drone out almost 2500 ft before letting go . Sport mode got me back home , but just barely.

Not all Gusts are the same. lol That was nuts.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your M3 in the Rain > Land on the water
View attachment 140340

Hmm, by comparison to this video it seems your M3 is weak. This guys was even able to stop mid flight in high winds, make several camera adjustments and keep the drone and recordings amazingly steady. So, it seems piloting skills may have been the contributing factor in your "almost" fly away.

 

[Meta4]

Hmm, by comparison to this video it seems your M3 is weak.

All that shows is that the wind in the video was less than the wind referred to in post #1

This guys was even able to stop in high winds, make camera adjustments and keep the drone steady. It seems piloting skills was the contributing factor in your "almost" fly away.

How it works is very simple.
If the wind is faster than the drone's maximum speed, the drone gets blown away.
No amount of pilot skill can change that.

 

[rcourtney671]

All that shows is that the wind in the video was less than the wind referred to in post #1


How it works is very simple.
If the wind is faster than the drone's maximum speed, the drone gets blown away.
No amount of pilot skill can change that.

True, so if the OP had that knowledge I presume he would not have been surprised at all with the results he got. Good that he posted his video so others attempting the same can gain some insight on what could be expected in a high wind gimbal stability test.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Hmm, by comparison to this video it seems your M3 is weak.

The idea was not to go into sport mode but to get the down the river in Cinematic fashion. I expected some shaky footage.

The winds were at best 25 mph with gusts up to 45mph which seems doable. What i was not prepared for was the Gust that came and never let go but got stronger and push the drone up higher .

Most wind gusts here at my home last a few seconds , but this one gust held on much longer than anticipated and I made the decision to wait out the Gust to enter sport mode to conserve battery.

When the gust released I had 81% battery so that gust took 20 % of my battery on the way out.

Seeing the M3 battle back was a sign of M3 Strength and gave me even more confidence to battle bigger winds now.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your M3 in the Rain and land on the lake.

 

[rcourtney671]

The idea was not to go into sport mode but to get the down the river in Cinematic fashion. I expected some shaky footage.

The winds were at best 25 mph with gusts up to 45mph which seems doable. What i was not prepared for was the Gust that came and never let go but got stronger and push the drone up higher .

Most wind gusts here at my home last a few seconds , but this one gust held on much longer than anticipated and I made the decision to wait out the Gust to enter sport mode to conserve battery.

When the gust released I had 81% battery so that gust took 20 % of my battery on the way out.

Seeing the M3 battle back was a sign of M3 Strength and gave me even more confidence to battle bigger winds now.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your M3 in the Rain and land on the lake.

Cool, so it sounds like you knew what you were doing and fortunately were able to bring the M3 back unharmed despite the unexpected gust. Personally I would not have taken such a risk with a drone as expensive as the M3 under those conditions but I understand if ya gotta know, ya gotta know. As the saying goes "if ya don't know . . . now ya know!" In all honesty I had a similar urge when I bought my Air 2S but that was regarding range rather than gimbal stability in high winds. I flew it out about 2-miles and back (shhh, don't tell the mall cops) simply because I wanted to know it could do it. Now I know, LOL.

 

[WHITAKERZ]

One of things that I believe kept me level headed was that I had 81 % battery when the Wind Gust let go.

Once I saw that , I felt like I could still maintain the flight , but had I lost visual line of sight, i would have tried the RTH and the chances of loosing the drone would have increased exponentially for me I believe .

I went up again with the M3 Rescue Jacket in sport mode and had a better results but without that Wind Gust .
this way if I did land in the lake I would have a rescue mission. I also took off from the roof to clear the deck .

The end result was to gain confidence in the M3 in Sport mode to really fight against that wind with the battery Power to get me results.

I will post that video soon.

View attachment 140312

This "rescue jacket" looks like a windsock to me. That can't help in the wind at all.