New pilot questions: wind stability and gpsHealth

[ManuCH]

Hey everyone,
I‘m the proud owner of a new DJI Mavic Pro. I‘ve taken it on a few test flights and I'm still learning the in an outs of this jewel. I've read the manual forward and backwards, watched tutorial videos and lurked on several forums (this one seems to be the my favorite so far!). I tend to be a very cautious flier.

Before that, I only had drone experience with a lowly Parrot (first generation), which doesn't even remotely compare to the Mavic.

In the meantime I have 2 questions which I hope some of you might help me with:

1. how safe is it to fly the Mavic in windy/gusty conditions? I'm not talking about high winds, maybe 10 km/h gusting to 20 km/h. It seems to be flying and maintaining position OK, but I see it wobbling and struggling. The noise it makes is often a bit worrying (angry swarm of wasps probably best describes it). Will it generally be OK? Or does it risk flipping over at some point? I know this might be a stupid question (especially because it's specified up to 31 km/h), but I still want to be sure. I tend to be a bit afraid when going high up (50-100 meters) as it seems a bit too exposed to the elements.

2. is GPS loss due to low gpsHealth values still a thing? I've read several reports of Mavics switching to ATTI mode while in flight for no apparent reason, and I'm scared this might happen, especially when it's windy, moreso because there's no way to explicitly train ATTI mode flying. Any input on this one? I always make sure I wait for a full GPS lock and for the home point to be set before taking off (again, cautious flyer here).

Thanks

 

[Path Finder]

I have not had any issues in wind or with GPS loss. (But don't fly in high winds that it is not rated for either)

Having said that, if you must fly in "wind" think about making your flight away from you "into" the wind, that way if you stay up too long for that "must have" footage you will get the wind to "help" the Mavic get home. This will also help if the wind picks up and you need to land, the Mavic will be getting closer to you as you look for a safe place not getting farther and risk "out of range".

After you fly awhile the "worry" part gets better, just don't let it go away totally.

 

[Pathogen]

Loosing GPS lock means your craft is seriously obstructed. It should not happen typically. Assuming you are not on the very newest of firmwares, you can reconfigure the SPORT mode switch to enable ATTI mode on demand, but doing so requires advanced skills and elite abilities and superhuman abilities and a general "I do what I want to do" attitude, more info can be found here: howto:parameterhacks [dji.retroroms.info]

 

[ManuCH]

Loosing GPS lock means your craft is seriously obstructed. It should not happen typically. Assuming you are not on the very newest of firmwares, you can reconfigure the SPORT mode switch to enable ATTI mode on demand, but doing so requires advanced skills and elite abilities and superhuman abilities and a general "I do what I want to do" attitude, more info can be found here: howto:parameterhacks [dji.retroroms.info]

Thanks. I am on the newest everything and I'd rather not hack stuff (yet) although the superhuman part intrigues me...

 

[msinger]

Will it generally be OK? Or does it risk flipping over at some point?

I've never heard of a Mavic flipping over in windy conditions. A common issue is that the Mavic is not powerful enough to allow it to make forward progress when flying into a strong headwind (36+ km/h). If that happens, your Mavic will blow away with the wind and eventually end up auto landing in an unknown location due to the battery reaching the critically low level.

is GPS loss due to low gpsHealth values still a thing?

Unless you're flying in a location that blocks the top of the Mavic from the sky (like flying in a canyon), it's not normal for the Mavic to disconnect from GPS satellites after taking off.

 

[Anthony]

1 Wind ...

I never fly in winds stronger than 20 mph and when I do fly and it is windy I choose a location were the wind direction on my out bound leg is a head wind so the my return leg has a tail wind.

2 GPS in the year I have had my Mavic this has never happened when flying in open space but as already pointed out if you fly into a location that has a very narrow vew of the sky you will loose GPS connection.