Maximum wind conditions - Mavic

[Cutaway]

Thanks John. Wow great video! Can I ask you newbie q's?

You flew that from your backyard?!? What about all these "becareful on interferences?"

Do you have a wind gauge on your rough? Or are you using the weather report?

Flew with an average wind speed of 15MPH at the weekend, recording gusts of 23MPH, no issues with recording video, here is a link, which also includes a RTH segment and a precision land in faily choppy conditions.

Only issue I had on the return was I switched to sport mode for a bit (not in this vid.) and got some gimbal max movement errors.

Vid here if you're interested:

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[JohnC]

Thanks John. Wow great video! Can I ask you newbie q's?

You flew that from your backyard?!? What about all these "becareful on interferences?"

Do you have a wind gauge on your rough? Or are you using the weather report?

Flown from the back of my house, I just started flying a bit further and then a bit further until I found I could fly quiet a distance. Never had any issues with interference, only problem I had was over the sea when the it switched to ATTI mode because the compass had a bad calibration, for reference if you get a switch to ATTI and you have lots of GPS satellites then calibrate the compass.

Always have a good home position recorded before embarking on your voyage! RTH set appropriately. As my back yard is high up flying from there is usually below the launch point.

Got basic wind from an App UAV forecast, and confirmed it with Healthy Drones which gives you wind data based on aircraft performance.

 

[Squamer]

I get wind velocity message all the time. I just ignore it. I wrote DJI online support and didn't got any answer about it (just advice to make IMU calibrations as usual =)))) ) So I think it not working properly, or maybe they made it just to blame pilots if somethings happens. For example: there was wind velocity message and you not stopped flying so all further problems/crashes can be taken as pilot error

Sent from my SM-N910C using MavicPilots mobile app

Same,no matter how windy it is I get the warning, its rather annoying as I check later on healthy drones and the winds are like 10MPH.

 

[nb87]

I discovered the Mavic's limit today.

Fortunately, I was able to guide it back home safely! I stepped outside of my house for a short flight today and didn't notice too much wind. It was breezy, but I've flown the Mavic in what I thought was stronger wind before. My home is in a small community on top of a hill, sitting at about 900 ft. above sea level and has large forested areas all around which serves as a great wind-break. I took off, ascended to about 150 feet relative to my takeoff point and flew downwind(I know better from flying fixed-wing r/c). I flew out about 1100 feet, to the forrest edge. As I turned the mavic around to start heading back I noticed I had no ability to fly forward and in-fact was drifting away, even with full stick forward. I fought with it for about a minute or so, but the drone continued to drift away with the wind. At this point I was over a very dense forrest, so I tilted the camera all the way down to see if there were any spots I could possibly land. Nothing. Completely closed canopy. So, I began to descend as low as I could without hitting any trees. I got down to about 10 feet above the trees and finally began to gain some forward momentum. I fought the wind all the way back to the house, but finally landed.

After I came inside, I checked the local weather report and realised there were wind gusts up to 39mph/63kph... Holy cow... I'm just glad I got it home safely. Lesson learned: check weather reports before taking off!

Happy flying!

 

[devin120]

I flew with the plastic done covering the gimbal for two batteries today and noticed some rather strand behavior. The gimbal, on two separate occasions, gave me a "Gimbal vibration abnormal" warning. I also received several warnings about the gimbal reaching it's max throw. On the third battery, I took the dome off and none of those errors appeared even once.

Also, my Mavic is constantly giving me wind warnings when I switch to Sport mode. It was dead calm today on the ground, but winds were possibly up to 13mph at 200 feet based on aviation weather data for the KBUF airport. The Mavic flew well but that wind error was rather annoying as it kept popping up.

Does any of this sound familiar to you guys? Normal bugs/issues?

Never had it happen as your not suppose to fly with it on. You block the cooling flow. Thats how I see it. Otherwise its a poor design. The cooling is severely effected with the dome. Listen at home witht he fan on. Dome on and off.

 

[KDog]

While it makes sense to think flying the drone forward when descending for added stability I wonder if it is actually the case given there is no air foil to help stabilize the craft. Perhaps the forward momentum in itself is enough to stabilize the craft... Any thoughts out there on this topic. I am still learning.

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using MavicPilots mobile app

Of course there is an aerofoil shape in a Mavic Pro, as with all rotary wing aircraft (hint: the rotor blades). Without getting too deep into the physics of rotary wing aircraft (which is a little different to fixed wing), flying forwards (or backwards) into the wind requires less power than a stationary descent due to effective translational lift. At risk of over simplifying it a little, when moving forwards, advancing blades will have a higher relative velocity than the retreating blades, with the differential being calculated using the wind speed and aircraft velocity, providing greater lift and requiring less power. Landing forwards or backwards has the same effect, but there are some practical drawbacks to landing backwards.

The same applies for ascending - it's more efficient to ascend with some motion than to ascending in a stationary position (think battery life if you're doing an administrative move and not filming the ascent).

Although landing into the wind is primarily to do with efficiency, since power generally translates into stability, this would ring true. Regardless, it's always better to descend with horizontal motion [emoji4]

 

[HFMan]

I discovered the Mavic's limit today.
So, I began to descend as low as I could without hitting any trees. I got down to about 10 feet above the trees and finally began to gain some forward momentum. I fought the wind all the way back to the house, but finally landed.

After I came inside, I checked the local weather report and realised there were wind gusts up to 39mph/63kph... Holy cow... I'm just glad I got it home safely. Lesson learned: check weather reports before taking off!

Happy flying!

Glad you got it back. But you should know, there are two ways to increase your forward speed.

1) If you are in P-Mode with GPS, if you disable obstacle avoidance you can get another 10mph.
2) If that doesn't work, you can flip into sport mode for another 10mph.

 

[lammetje]

Thanks for the tips. I tried flying in wind conditions between 15 - 18 knots. I disabled all collision sensors on my Mavic. The flight was going ok, but with a lot of strong wind warnings and even at one moment an compass error. Anyhow i flew two full batteries. The outside temperature was around 12 degrees, i was using firmware .400. Flying height between 60 - 70 meters and i calibrated the compass before the flights.

I made this video edit of it :

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I think its safer to fly under 15 knots. Above is asking for trouble.

 

[4wd]

Today I "needed" to fly in stronger winds than normal and was surprised it started giving compass warnings, could this be a result of extreme angles required to hold position?
When it got back it was doing small circles rather than hovering in place so something had been upset, but landed safely.

 

[Digitaldias]

My self imposed limit is 15 km/h with up to 25 km/h gusts. I get warnings at this level but am comfortably in control with the Mavic leaning pretty good into the wind when it hits sideways.
I am not interested to find out where the absolute limit is and come back here with yet another "lost drone" report .

Amen to this. Allowing for twice the average windspeed (in gusts) is safe practice!

 

[ghalleck]

Here's a good comparison video with the P4 in some pretty heavy wind.

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Sent from my iPad using MavicPilots

Gutsy my man! Now...can you juggle 3 drones! ;-)

 

[Mossiback]

While it makes sense to think flying the drone forward when descending for added stability I wonder if it is actually the case given there is no air foil to help stabilize the craft. Perhaps the forward momentum in itself is enough to stabilize the craft...

Dropping straight down means you are moving through your own prop wash. This is especially noticeable on a calm day. Moving it forward or backward while descending puts you in smoother air.

 

[Szepy_lc8]

Glad you got it back. But you should know, there are two ways to increase your forward speed.

1) If you are in P-Mode with GPS, if you disable obstacle avoidance you can get another 10mph.
2) If that doesn't work, you can flip into sport mode for another 10mph.

My question relating this topic: my understanding is that Mavic measures it's speed using GPS - so relative to the ground. I can imagine that it's performing better in Sport mode as it also allows higher engine performance, but in P-mode the difference between switching obstacle avoidence on or off should not make it perform better against wind. As the speed is restricted relative to the ground it should try to reach it with all the current power settings.
Or switching obstacle avoidence off also changes engine performance limits and not only allows more speed. I'm pretty new so do not have too much experience with it - only guessing.
Would be fine to know how exactly this thing behaves, it helps understanding the possibilities and the possible issues as well.

 

[Mossiback]

... but in P-mode the difference between switching obstacle avoidence on or off should not make it perform better against wind. As the speed is restricted relative to the ground it should try to reach it with all the current power settings....

OA on restricts the speed so it will have enough time to stop after an object is detected at full speed. Turning OA off allows it to fly faster.

 

[Szepy_lc8]

OA on restricts the speed so it will have enough time to stop after an object is detected at full speed. Turning OA off allows it to fly faster.

Thanks, I know this. Question is if the wind is so strong it can do less (relative to the ground) than the allowed maximum with OA why it's faster w/o OA. Does turning OA off also modifies engine output.

 

[Mossiback]

Thanks, I know this. Question is if the wind is so strong it can do less (relative to the ground) than the allowed maximum with OA why it's faster w/o OA. Does turning OA off also modifies engine output.

It would fly faster without OA because the allowed maximum is higher. I assume this means that more current is allowed to the motors to allow them to turn faster. It is a step between OA on and sport mode.

 

[Szepy_lc8]

It would fly faster without OA because the allowed maximum is higher. I assume this means that more current is allowed to the motors to allow them to turn faster. It is a step between OA on and sport mode.

Thanks. That means that indeed these settings not only modify the maximum allowed speed but the engine performance too. Good to know.

 

[gnirtS]

I know DJI says "don't fly the Mavic in over 10 m/s winds (22 mph)" or something like that?
But I'm more interested in real world experiences with the Mavic when it comes to wind conditions.

Up to how strong winds can you fly your Mavic and still have perfect and unaffected video recordings, and also safe flights?

This is highly variable and depends how far you want to fly.

Ultimately if is windy (15mph or so) you dont want to go far from the launch location or high (if you want to get it back).
22mph is the speed where the mavic in normal P-GPS is going to fail to make any forward progress. Any more than that its going to start to drift with the wind.

Above that you need to operate in sport mode and your battery is going to go down fast. Ive once had my drone drifting backwards slightly in full power sport mode after getting hit by a 10 second gust even at 30ft altitude.

Personally, if sustained winds are 15mph or more i wont do a flight of more than a few hundred metres from launch and i'll keep it low. And never start by flying with the wind.

 

[gnirtS]

It would fly faster without OA because the allowed maximum is higher. I assume this means that more current is allowed to the motors to allow them to turn faster. It is a step between OA on and sport mode.

Nothing to do with current. The mavic is pitch limited. Sensors only work to a maximum pitch angle. OA off and Sport allow pitch ranges above what the sensors can work at.

The mavic is pitch limited and speed limited - whichever is hit sooner. So with the wind its GPS speed limited. Into the wind, if its strong is going to be pitch limited.

 

[Mossiback]

Nothing to do with current. The mavic is pitch limited. Sensors only work to a maximum pitch angle. OA off and Sport allow pitch ranges above what the sensors can work at.

The mavic is pitch limited and speed limited - whichever is hit sooner. So with the wind its GPS speed limited. Into the wind, if its strong is going to be pitch limited.

It has to do with pitch and current. I am not an engineer, but it seems too me that if you increase the pitch you must also increase the RPM to maintain level flight. Since sport mode depletes the battery quicker it implies that more current is flowing from the batteries.