That's pretty much what I had said, it's not the weight but the power. I was badly flamed. Experts kept pushing the mass to power ratio angle. I assumed they meant deliverable power to mass providing that energy/power which improves with technology. Perhaps they meant power required to lift and propel the AC, but a lighter AC would require less power, not more.
Mini wind resistance - ok for coast flying?
- Thread starter Drony_Drone
- Start date
OK ... just want to directly state that i don't disrespect all of those happy Mini owners out there, nor them that are convinced that the Mini can be handled if enough consideration, thought and pre planning are put into it.
This is only what I feel & how I should decide on the background of all blow aways I've seen only in this forum & the reasons behind them ...
It's pretty clear that the Mini have the same possibility for distance & altitude flying as the rest of the bigger Mavics ... to this add that it's also by far the "weakest" of them in terms of thrust. This fact makes it far more unreliable then the rest of the pack. If something regarding wind is misjudged you usually don't have any head room power wise or time to think over the situation & act correctly before it's to late & you see your beloved Mini sail away with as the beginners say "- it didn't listen to my stick inputs" "-I commanded RTH but it speeded in the wrong direction".
When I hear you say "fly on coast a lot, along cliffs etc" I immediately think ... oh well, here comes another blow away!
There you have unpredictable winds both in direction & force in all 3 dimensions ... flying into a sudden down or up wind gust along the cliffs & off you go. With the distance & altitude ability ... suddenly 1000 meters out over the ocean with completely other conditions then those were you took off from.
No I wouldn't go for a Mini ... IF I didn't have a need for the small pack size or just have to crawl under the weight limit for a certification.
But the price ... everyone can't afford the bigger brothers. Yeah, understand that, but what is worse ... pay small & risk loosing it after a couple flights & with that the investment or ... save some more & have the muscles to force yourself out of "mistake situations" & have it back to be able to fly again another day?
To expect the Mini to handle like the bigger Mavic is like a Ford Pinto to handle like a Mustang. Unfortunately many are making this kind of expectation, without bothering to carefully drive/fly and get the feeling of how they handle.
TDZHDTV
Well-Known Member
Thanks, it’s actually a screen shot from one of the videos I took while I was out wild camping ?
Well, I'm not a physicist but I'm pretty sure that thrust-to-drag is the controlling factor for airspeed, and that getting an airspeed greater than wind speed is the only way to move upwind. Thrust is determined by the available power and the efficiency with which it's converted to thrust, which doesn't have anything to do with mass. The Mini has relatively small motors because it has relatively small mass, but it's still the relatively small motors that limit its maximum airspeed. DJI could have put more powerful motors on the Mini, but that would mean shorter flight times. There is speculation that the Mini has enough power to support a higher tilt angle, meaning more thrust and more airspeed, but the " mass to power ratio angle" theory would predict that you can increase or decrease the maximum airspeed by increasing or decreasing the mass -- which I doubt.
EDIT: On second thought, the mass would determine how much of the available power was necessary to sustain lift, and thus it would indirectly determine how much power was available for thrust: It would determine how much tilt you could do without falling out of the sky.
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The mini having trouble with wind seems to be a point of emphasis on these forums.
I personally have some experience flying the mini in high winds(30mph) and basically I’ve had some low speeds as it flew into the winds, but I’ve never come close to a blow away.
I have a theory that something happens to the mini when the battery gets lower. It’s almost as if it flies with less “power”, and it’s these instances where people are getting blown away.
Frankly I don’t know,.. I haven’t encountered it..
People do know that Sport mode enables more pitch and resistance in wind right?...
I personally have some experience flying the mini in high winds(30mph) and basically I’ve had some low speeds as it flew into the winds, but I’ve never come close to a blow away.
I have a theory that something happens to the mini when the battery gets lower. It’s almost as if it flies with less “power”, and it’s these instances where people are getting blown away.
Frankly I don’t know,.. I haven’t encountered it..
People do know that Sport mode enables more pitch and resistance in wind right?...
GerdS
Well-Known Member
The problem is that too many users are relying on RTH instead of flying by themselves in sports mode. And RTH means higher altitude and limited pitch angle, so high risk to get blown away.
Its not that bad but you need to be carefull, and just have to figure out how to fly it, when I was flying in to the lake in Sport mode full stick forward I could only go 8-10km/h , try avoiding flying sideways to the wind. I could bearly handcatch it at the end, took me 3 tries to finaly land.
Agree about UAV Forecast. Does the paid version improve it significantly? It's not really cheap here in the UK for the annual fee, £22, I think.
The Best app just for wind forecasts at different altitudes is Ventusky, it shows hour by hour wind direction and strength changes. It greatly helps in planning a few hours ahead.
GaryDoug
Active Member
There are heated discussions going on right now in other forums (I don't know about this one yet) about the possibility of requesting the addition of a bit of code to the Mini that would sense the backwards progress while in RTH mode due to strong headwind and step up the power as a result of that. Or at least raise the speed limit in RTH mode. As I understand it, the RTH mode is limited to the lower speed limit even though manual operation is not. Needless to say, there are two camps on this: 1) those with a lot of experience that say it isn't need or wanted and to just learn more about being proactive... and 2) others who are generally less experienced who want the Mini to be able take care of itself in instances where user control is lost. I tend to agree with the second camp, being very inexperienced myself.
For group 2 the best suggestion is to go balling when is too windy. There is no point of taking risks in bad weather if there is no desire to learn how to fly those things. Bad weather = balling and taking drones, good weather = drone flying talking balling.
GaryDoug
Active Member
Sometimes it is not obvious as to it being too windy. I really do not trust the reports that are available since I have already seen gross errors in them. In my area, the reports usually say everything is ok to fly even though I can witness unfavorable conditions myself. It would be a shame to have the drone lost because it was limited in power to return when adequate power was technically available.
Just looking at the flags or tip of the trees will give a very good indication of how good of a day it will be for MM. If it is not obvious, it's probably not the best day.
RTH button is the only shame
People buy drones to fly them and then they press RTH and don't fly them... I don't get it, where is the fun in RTH?. Why would anyone deprive himself\herself of controlling his/her bird even for 10 seconds less than absolutely necessary?
GaryDoug
Active Member
Just looking at the flags or tip of the trees will give a very good indication of how good of a day it will be for MM. If it is not obvious, it's probably not the best day.
RTH button is the only shame
Well, I am mostly talking about situations when the comms fail for whatever reason. If you can't control it, what is wrong with giving it the most power to save itself for you? And by the way, this is an entry level product. If the user has not enough experience to save it himself, the likelyhood of him continuing this hobby is lessened. What is the point in that?
I agree with you on the learning part, however each should use common sense. This translates to be better safe than sorry and to take responsibility as a pilot for your actions. It's not different from driving a car or riding a bicycle. At some point you are not experienced and need to pay more attention.
Just as an analogy, Tesla is capable of semi autonomous driving and some fall asleep at the wheel and turn their brain off as the car will take care of things for them. The same applies for the drone pilot who has no clue as of his/her limits, sees other on YouTube doing stuff and on the first flight goes up 500m and looses the drone or sets RTH altitude to 100m (or more). Then he claimed that it's the drone fault as the operator pressed RTH and it never came back.
The advice for new pilots is low and slow. Get aquinted to the drone and how it behaves first. Then after gaining hands-on experience, you'll know what to do when unexpected things do happen.
Just as an analogy, Tesla is capable of semi autonomous driving and some fall asleep at the wheel and turn their brain off as the car will take care of things for them. The same applies for the drone pilot who has no clue as of his/her limits, sees other on YouTube doing stuff and on the first flight goes up 500m and looses the drone or sets RTH altitude to 100m (or more). Then he claimed that it's the drone fault as the operator pressed RTH and it never came back.
The advice for new pilots is low and slow. Get aquinted to the drone and how it behaves first. Then after gaining hands-on experience, you'll know what to do when unexpected things do happen.
TDZHDTV
Well-Known Member
Pilots should take responsibility for their AC, if the RTH is bumped up it may help in a few instances, but mostly it’s down to pilots flying beyond the capabilities of the Mini, many haven’t even taken the time to read the manual, or practice with functional to understand how the Mini works. Unfortunately a lot of new pilots just want to fly, high out of VLOS or in weather conditions that they have no comprehension of, I’ve only flown small drones, Spark, Air and Mini, but I feel a huge responsibility each time when I launch these technical marvels, unfortunately many do not.
I have the mavic air and wont fly it in winds (including gusts) beyond what the manual says. Also I'm not always flying 2km away so I dont worry about not being able to return due wind and battery. The lowest I've landed my air is with 20 percent battery.
RTH is a great feature. In my opinion it can be used in any circumstance. Sometimes even in LOS you can lose it in a cloud/sun and to me it’s safer to press RTH for it to come back to you, even if you do RTH and cancel once can see.
I would hope that if RTH is activated the MM should go into its best power mode possible to come home by calculating battery etc.
I would hope that if RTH is activated the MM should go into its best power mode possible to come home by calculating battery etc.
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