Pre-flight planning

[FlyMore54]

I have a good pre-flight check list put together by reading posts in the forums. Does anyone use an anemometer and / or drone weather apps to check local weather forecasts? Any recommendations welcome. I fly a Mavic 2 Pro in Ireland

 

[icecoldgin]

I use UAV Forecast. So far so good for my area. However 90% of the time it says "Not Good to Fly" and 90% of the time, I fly anyway ?

I also have an anemometer but I hardly use this for determining wind speed before I fly the drone - for now anyway

 

[FlyMore54]

Thanks ice cold gin for your suggestion re UAV forecast. I'll have a look.

 

[Rchawks]

UAV here as well. There are times it seems off or behind a couple of hrs and others spot on, it's a good general guide but not absolute as icecoldgin has said. The reading for height is adjustable as well as temp tolerance ect for the red flags to fly. I also have a meter that was used from my glider days but not for this because I'm more concerned about the wind speed at 400 ft than at ground level.

 

[new2mavic]

Its better to check the wind direction and speed with the tilt indicator of the GO app. Take the drone up to the flying altitude above head, hover there and observe the direction and magnitude of tilt. The more the tilt, the stronger the wind. Its far more reliable than any forecast.

this metod works on the GO app only. The FLY app does not have tilt indicator

 

[FlyMore54]

Its better to check the wind direction and speed with the tilt indicator of the GO app. Take the drone up to the flying altitude above head, hover there and observe the direction and magnitude of tilt. The more the tilt, the stronger the wind. Its far more reliable than any forecast.

this metod works on the GO app only. The FLY app does not have tilt indicator

Thanks guys for the input. I'm flying in brisk wind conditions this afternoon so I'll have a look at the tilt indicator in the Go app. Risk assessment is part of the EU regulations we will all be flying under at the end of the year.

 

[Croym747]

I have a good pre-flight check list put together by reading posts in the forums. Does anyone use an anemometer and / or drone weather apps to check local weather forecasts? Any recommendations welcome. I fly a Mavic 2 Pro in Ireland

Hello from up north, I fly a Mavic Pro 2 as well but I used to fly a 747 until recently. If you live near any airport you can access their TAF( terminal approach forecast) which is pretty accurate out to 25 miles from the airport. For example Belfast City Airport is EGAC and Shannon is EINN, sorry if you know all this, just google EINN TAF and it will be revealed in plain text. Their winds are pretty accurate.

I have an anemometer but found if I need to use it then the wind is probably too strong !! The 1000 foot wind will be totally different to the surface wind, you can access the 1000 ft wind on many met websites. I look at surface wind and the 1000 foot wind and have a think about it. If there is a low pressure system anywhere near Ireland then be cautious, the wind will be whipping up, the reverse with most high pressure systems. We are sometimes affected by local variations so some drone apps are too general in nature, you must take into consideration where exactly you are launching from.

I look at the tops of the trees, what are they doing, see how fast upper clouds are moving and any other clues. Flocks of birds are a good indicator especially if they are moving at speed, ie they are in wind. One day recently near Belfast I launched in still air, by the time the Mavic got to 150 feet it was nearly blown away, I just dropped it back to 20 feet and went home, old pilots and drone pilots !!
Wind and cold will attack the drone so preparation is the key, especially at this time of year.
Good luck

Mick

 

[FlyMore54]

Hello from up north, I fly a Mavic Pro 2 as well but I used to fly a 747 until recently. If you live near any airport you can access their TAF( terminal approach forecast) which is pretty accurate out to 25 miles from the airport. For example Belfast City Airport is EGAC and Shannon is EINN, sorry if you know all this, just google EINN TAF and it will be revealed in plain text. Their winds are pretty accurate.

I have an anemometer but found if I need to use it then the wind is probably too strong !! The 1000 foot wind will be totally different to the surface wind, you can access the 1000 ft wind on many met websites. I look at surface wind and the 1000 foot wind and have a think about it. If there is a low pressure system anywhere near Ireland then be cautious, the wind will be whipping up, the reverse with most high pressure systems. We are sometimes affected by local variations so some drone apps are too general in nature, you must take into consideration where exactly you are launching from.

I look at the tops of the trees, what are they doing, see how fast upper clouds are moving and any other clues. Flocks of birds are a good indicator especially if they are moving at speed, ie they are in wind. One day recently near Belfast I launched in still air, by the time the Mavic got to 150 feet it was nearly blown away, I just dropped it back to 20 feet and went home, old pilots and drone pilots !!
Wind and cold will attack the drone so preparation is the key, especially at this time of year.
Good luck

Mick

Good advice Mick. My nearest airport is Enniskillen so I'm going to see if they have a TAF available. If not, Dublin is the closest at 70 miles. Definitely, the weather is going to make flying frequently a lot more of a challenge this winter. Will the North be subject to the EU drone regs after Jan 1st? The Mavic 2 Pro at 907grams will technically be an A2 class drone with licensing requirements in the South. I've read some of the literature and I'm still unsure where M2P owners will stand. As a pilot you probably have all of the qualifications required to fly A2 drones - what's your take on the new regs for recreational flyers?

 

[Bxr532001]

I check the weather to see what the wind speed is. Using an anemometer some time the wind speed is lower than what I estimated. If my MA2 is being bounced around I’ll land an call it a day.

 

[Rchawks]

How would you access the TAF?

 

[Corsair415]

How would you access the TAF?

This may help. METAR TAF : Rosecrans Memorial Airport, Saint Joseph Missouri United States

 

[DanMan32]

For Brooksville, it only seems to show surface winds. At least I assume that's the altitude since it doesn't designate the altitude.
It does describe cloud cover at various altitudes.

 

[Croym747]

Good advice Mick. My nearest airport is Enniskillen so I'm going to see if they have a TAF available. If not, Dublin is the closest at 70 miles. Definitely, the weather is going to make flying frequently a lot more of a challenge this winter. Will the North be subject to the EU drone regs after Jan 1st? The Mavic 2 Pro at 907grams will technically be an A2 class drone with licensing requirements in the South. I've read some of the literature and I'm still unsure where M2P owners will stand. As a pilot you probably have all of the qualifications required to fly A2 drones - what's your take on the new regs for recreational flyers?

Hi, I actually did my Pro license so I keep in touch with my instructor who is up to speed on all aspects of legislation, I will find out. I don’t think St Angelo publish a TAF . For anybody else interested a TAF is subtly different to a general forecast you see after the news. A forecaster must take into account all local topography which may influence the wind/cloud/precipitation within 25 miles of the airport as most aircraft are in their descent at that point and need more accurate weather information.
They publish the actual weather every 30 minutes at 20 mins past the hour and 10 minutes to the hour. The forecast is roughly published 4 hours in advance and is for an 8 hour period, they are usually very accurate.
The weather forecast you see after the news is very general and covers huge areas and thus cannot be as accurate.
As my old instructor always used to say “If you are not happy nobody is forcing you to take off “ ?

TAF: EGAC 270804Z 2709/2718 17007KT 9999 SCT008 BKN025 TEMPO 2709/2713 4000 RADZ BKN005 BECMG 2711/2713 27018G28KT BECMG 2713/2715 26012KT PROB40 TEMPO 2713/2718 27015G25KT 7000 SHRA

Belfast City airport this morning, looks complicated but on the sites they decode it into plain English.
Published at 0804 this morning and covers time period 09-18. The general weather is breezy but this guy is saying between 11-13 and 13-18 hours there will be nasty gusts, you soon get used to reading them.
Mick

 

[Rchawks]

This may help. METAR TAF : Rosecrans Memorial Airport, Saint Joseph Missouri United States

Thank you Corsair415!