RTH canceled in high winds on Air 2s

[Seaken]

Flying my DJI Air 2s in hilly area it reported on app that it was experiencing high winds and that RTH would not be allowed. I was told to lower the altitude and fly home manually.
My previous drone the original Mavic pro would never do this . Hate to think that if contact to the drone was lost that it wouldn’t RTH .

 

[SeriousUndertaking]

It might just be a better message.
On the MP/M2 and so on RTH would initialise but the drone never make it back because of the winds so the drone was lost.

At least now it tells you of that and wont enter an auto-suicide mode.

 

[Meta4]

Flying my DJI Air 2s in hilly area it reported on app that it was experiencing high winds and that RTH would not be allowed. I was told to lower the altitude and fly home manually.

Was that the exact wording of the message?
It seems unusual (but who can be sure?).
The previous wording made people thing that RTH wouldn't happen, but it was just poor wording warning that RTH might not be able to get home against the wind.
Could you post the recorded data from that flight so I can investigate?

 

[Seaken]

Was that the exact wording of the message?
It seems unusual (but who can be sure?).
The previous wording made people thing that RTH wouldn't happen, but it was just poor wording warning that RTH might not be able to get home against the wind.
Could you post the recorded data from that flight so I can investigate?

That’s what it said basically that RTH would not be allowed . It did provide a straight line from drone to home for me to follow in map mode . I’m not familiar with extracting flight data but I’ll see what I can do .

 

[Meta4]

I’m not familiar with extracting flight data but I’ll see what I can do .

Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
That will give you a report of the flight.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you .. even if it looks empty.
Or .. just post the txt file here.

 

[Tninl]

I received a few of these warnings the last time I was flying my air2s. At first I was concerned as well but after looking into it a bit more I don’t feel as worried.

I uploaded my logs to airdata and analyzed the logs, it looks like I had a few gusts over the 22mph alert threshold. In turn this triggered the warnings. In the logs they are listed as “low risk”.

If you were flying in a constant 20+ mph wind scenario then this warning would be a more appropriate I feel like. A few gusts here and there shouldn’t be much of an issue being able to return home.

 

[Meta4]

If you were flying in a constant 20+ mph wind scenario then this warning would be a more appropriate I feel like. A few gusts here and there shouldn’t be much of an issue being able to return home.

Of course, the direction of the wind and how that affects the return flight is important.
If the drone is upwind of the home point, a strong wind won't be a problem.
But if you've flown a long way downwind that's a different matter altogether.

 

[Tninl]

Of course, the direction of the wind and how that affects the return flight is important.
If the drone is upwind of the home point, a strong wind won't be a problem.
But if you've flown a long way downwind that's a different matter altogether.

Absolutely. Good point.

 

[hiflyer201]

I see in the new manual something about that. I'll have to take a closer look.

 

[Seaken]

Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
That will give you a report of the flight.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you .. even if it looks empty.
Or .. just post the txt file here.

Seems iTunes doesn’t support the features listed in that document anymore. It says dealing with apps data is done on the device ( iPhone 8plus in my case ) guess I’ll need to research that .
ThankYou

 

[Chrislaf]

Seems iTunes doesn’t support the features listed in that document anymore. It says dealing with apps data is done on the device ( iPhone 8plus in my case ) guess I’ll need to research that .
ThankYou

If you are using a Mac computer with the latest Mac OS, plug your iphone into your computer, launch a Finder window or HD window and you will see your iPhone on the sidebar. Click on your iPhone, then the Files tab, find the Fly app and then open it by clicking the triangle, then copy the 'FlightRecords' folder to your Mac Desktop. After you have done this you can then find the txt file for the flight and upload it to the Flight Log Viewer Link mentioned above.

Hope this helps.



Chris

 

[Sjkieffer]

It just says that it "may" not be able to RTH if the wind is strong enough. It will still try.

 

[Seaken]

Go to DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help
Follow the instructions there to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
That will give you a report of the flight.
Come back and post a link to the report it gives you .. even if it looks empty.
Or .. just post the txt file here.

 

[Ian in London]

Flying my DJI Air 2s in hilly area it reported on app that it was experiencing high winds and that RTH would not be allowed. I was told to lower the altitude and fly home manually.
My previous drone the original Mavic pro would never do this . Hate to think that if contact to the drone was lost that it wouldn’t RTH .

The slightly misleading message is telling you that it doesn't think it will be able to auto RTH. But it will still try, and will probably make it as well as the Air 2 and 2 S can handle pretty strong winds. I tested this here:
Cheers
Ian

 

[restyler]

Flying my DJI Air 2s in hilly area it reported on app that it was experiencing high winds and that RTH would not be allowed. I was told to lower the altitude and fly home manually.
My previous drone the original Mavic pro would never do this . Hate to think that if contact to the drone was lost that it wouldn’t RTH .

I've just watched the recent Phillip Skraba video where he had exactly the same problem with the Air2S & it ditched itself in the sea

 

[Meta4]

I've just watched the recent Phillip Skraba video where he had exactly the same problem with the Air2S & it ditched itself in the sea

Exact same problem ??
Not at all .. not even close.

Look again ... he had no idea what he was doing, no idea what the wind was doing and no idea how to deal with wind.
He failed to notice the direction the wind was blowing and advised the guy piloting the Air 2S not to come straight back (which would have been safe and easy).
Instead he told him to fly way off downwind, thinking somehow that would make the return flight easier.
Bad mistake as it did exactly the opposite.
The drone was more than a mile downwind with the battery at 38% when he started coming home straight into a significant headwind.
What's the dumbest thing to do in that situation?
So he kept the drone up high and wasted the battery in Sport Mode.
He watched the battery run down to zero and never tried anything different, like getting lower, getting out of sport mode and flying toward shore.

Exactly the same problem?
The only problem was an idiot in command.
An idiot that blamed the drone for his string of failures.

 

[Ashjuk]

Exact same problem ??
Not at all .. not even close.

Look again ... he had no idea what he was doing, no idea what the wind was doing and no idea how to deal with wind.
He failed to notice the direction the wind was blowing and advised the guy piloting the Air 2S not to come straight back (which would have been safe and easy).
Instead he told him to fly way off downwind, thinking somehow that would make the return flight easier.
Bad mistake as it did exactly the opposite.
The drone was more than a mile downwind with the battery at 38% when he started coming home straight into a significant headwind.
What's the dumbest thing to do in that situation?
So he kept the drone up high and wasted the battery in Sport Mode.
He watched the battery run down to zero and never tried anything different, like getting lower, getting out of sport mode and flying toward shore.

Exactly the same problem?
The only problem was an idiot in command.
An idiot that blamed the drone for his string of failures.

My thoughts exactly.

He knew there were wind problems as he was having trouble with his Mini 2, so why tell the other pilot to fly even further away?

I would have reduced height and headed straight back rather than waste battery going right.

 

[cgmaxed]

Flying my DJI Air 2s in hilly area it reported on app that it was experiencing high winds and that RTH would not be allowed. I was told to lower the altitude and fly home manually.
My previous drone the original Mavic pro would never do this . Hate to think that if contact to the drone was lost that it wouldn’t RTH .

I've had all my DJI drones say that a few times, except the M2P. In my case the smaller drones still try to fly home anyway. If I didn't think it would make it, i would switch to manual and only lower the altitude if needed. I've flown enough to judge the effect of wind on my drones and how it will affect the life of the battery during the flight. Sometimes, I'd just let my drone hover and drive my car to it, then land it next to me. "I predict my drone can't make it home, start driving kid." When my battery appears to have insufficient power to make it home, I fly it near, but not over, road ways and let it hover until i can get there and land it. When I was a newbie, I actually flew it toward my car as I was driving. Yes it was stupid and unsafe, but the anxiety of losing that much money can make one do some crazy things.

 

[inno]

Hi all, i get this message regularly on all my DJI drones. Especially in the late afternoon during spring and summer months here in the Sacramento valley. I fly a lot at Folsom Lake, in the afternoon we get what they call the Delta Breeze and it can be pretty strong at times at the lake. Depending on what model I'm flying will depend on the frequency of the message. My M2Zoom and P3A not so much, but my MM2... a lot. I have purposely activated the RTH on my MM2 after receiving the massage to see what it does. The result... depending on your altitude set in your RTH, if it has to climb... you could be in trouble, if already at RTH altitude or above it will try, but at times, it makes no real headway. I just cancel the RTH, lower it, and fly back or if the wind was too strong, i just tacked it back like a sailboat would and hope you have enough battery to get it back. If it doesn't make it... well either i get my dive gear out or i start walking. I do however try most of the time flying out into the wind and use the tail wind as a boast to get back especially when flying the MM2.

Happy and Safe Flying
inno

 

[Meta4]

My thoughts exactly.

He knew there were wind problems as he was having trouble with his Mini 2, so why tell the other pilot to fly even further away?

I would have reduced height and headed straight back rather than waste battery going right.

There were no actual problems with the wind until he made one by being completely unaware of the wind direction and flying well away downwind.
The DJI strong wind warning pops up when the app calculates that the wind affecting the drone is >7 metres/sec which is not a particularly strong wind.
Knowing the speed of the wind is only a small part of the calculation needed for flying in wind.
What's more important is the direction of the wind.

As it was, that drone could have easily and safely been flown directly home at the altitude it was.
It would have had to deal with a crosswind of maybe 7 m/s and had plenty of battery.
But sending the drone so far downwind put it in a situation where it had to fight a headwind to get back, and have less battery to do it.
That Youtuber scores an F- for basic wind awareness and an extra demerit for not understanding afterwards and blaming DJI for his appalling mistakes.