Scenario 2: low battery, long distance, and the wind shifts

[geigy]

In scenario 2, your DJI drone is over a mile away. The Home indicator (red yellow and green line with the H) indicates you have enough battery remaining to return.

Then the wind shifts, and you find that your return velocity is limited, and you may or may not have enough battery for the return.

What things will be on your mind, and in what priority, to deal with this situation. How can you prepare yourself and your equipment to deal with this possibility?

This is an open ended discussion that I hope some of you will contribute your own ideas and thoughts.

 

[Qoncussion]

Find a good place to land, then use the 'find my drone' feature to locate it. I figure it would be better to pick a landing spot, using the remaining battery, than it would be to have the drone pick it for you "somewhere" on its return path home.

Edit: for what it's worth, I start my return trip home long before reaching the "H" in the battery bar.

 

[PanthersFan]

Find a good place to land, then use the 'find my drone' feature to locate it. I figure it would be better to pick a landing spot, using the remaining battery, than it would be to have the drone pick it for you "somewhere" on its return path home.

Makes sense.

 

[Donald Rump]

I would suggest to not fly so far in the first place? What's the point?

 

[Qoncussion]

What's the point?

It's a blast!

 

[james_mav]

In scenario 2, your DJI drone is over a mile away. The Home indicator (red yellow and green line with the H) indicates you have enough battery remaining to return.

Then the wind shifts, and you find that your return velocity is limited, and you may or may not have enough battery for the return.

What things will be on your mind, and in what priority, to deal with this situation. How can you prepare yourself and your equipment to deal with this possibility?

This is an open ended discussion that I hope some of you will contribute your own ideas and thoughts.

This is bigger problem then you think. You'll probably lose connection once you start to descend & then the Mavic will try to return home instead of landing as you intended. The next thing you know the Mavic will still be a mile away, higher then you intended, & you'll even have less battery life when you regain connection.

 

[HALdrone_1]

In scenario 2, your DJI drone is over a mile away. The Home indicator (red yellow and green line with the H) indicates you have enough battery remaining to return.

Then the wind shifts, and you find that your return velocity is limited, and you may or may not have enough battery for the return.

What things will be on your mind, and in what priority, to deal with this situation. How can you prepare yourself and your equipment to deal with this possibility?

This is an open ended discussion that I hope some of you will contribute your own ideas and thoughts.

the problem with this scenario is: how do you know the wind shifted? you only have the tools in front of you to know what is actually happening...

if there is a suitable place to land then do it before battery ends and go and retrieve your drone - this is depending on environment.

just know that wind travels mostly in one direction - so getting a tailwind and then backtracking is an option - but the safe one is to land as close to as possible in a safe landing zone.

 

[geigy]

Wind change is probably the most common explanation for an unexpectedly reduced horizontal speed. The only other one I can think of is mechanical failure. The problem to be solved is similar either way.

James brings up a good point - remote landing can be risky because you might lose signal and trigger an unwanted Return to Home. Perhaps this is why Masheen recommended landing on a roof. Ian In London, who is a skilled pilot, ran into that problem and lost his Mavic in a dense forest.

Let's up the ante a little - suppose that your drone is over water. What actions can you take to increase your chance of reaching land? Does RTH always make the best use of the battery?

 

[Kilrah]

the problem with this scenario is: how do you know the wind shifted?

Groundspeed slower than normal.

I start my return trip home long before reaching the "H" in the battery bar.

+1. Plan to be home at 40% or so.

 

[flightmike]

If you realize you truly aren't going to make it only option is find a safe landing spot.

1st don't panic, then change your RTH setting to "Land" when signal is lost.
That way when you go to land in your safe spot and you get low enough to lose signal, which you will because your far away and will have obstacles in the way the lower you get,
It will continue to land.

Or you can change your RTH to "hover" if not safe to land, turn off controller and when connection is lost get to the point of hover as quick as you can. When you get there reconnect and bring it to you.
Even if you run out of battery it will land at the spot it was hovering.

If your over water them you need to be more prepared like don't push it or have a boat handy.

Things do happen and we do push this thing but what would also help is extra insurance. Just in case.

My 2 cents.

 

[moleza]

Windfinder - wind, wave & weather reports, forecasts & statistics worldwide

before and check if there is any forecast for strong wind speeds and changes.

Be safe, don't be sorry.

 

[m0j0]

Look guys this isn't the Kobiashi Maru. You don't get to change the parameters of the test...

This has actually happened to me. Here is what I did.

I reduced altitude immediately to a height above ground level that would enable me to clear everything. Wind is usually less harsh closer to the ground. In my case it I reduced the altitude to about 90 feet.

Second I checked to ensure obstacle avoidance was off... I know seems counterproductive but.. it increases your vertical speed significantly with about the same battery consumption. And since the only obstacles in the desert above 10 feet is telephone wires obstacle avoidance is pretty useless. It was on I switched it off.

I watched the map and radar and made corrections to keep the Mavic on course.

I did find an alternate landing area which was going to be the flat shoulder of the road. My contingency plan was to actually get in the car and drive to it if I thought I had no chance at getting it home.

However my experience has been that the bingo fuel indicator (yellow bubble) is pretty conservative. So I just kept coming home with an eye on my battery percentage-not voltage. My concern was that I would reach the autoland cutoff. I never did though. As I said, the RTH calculations are conservative. I landed with about 18% remaining. I was way way way out and yes you can tell when there is a change with the wind. The Mavic moves offline a little or the speed changes.

 

[m0j0]

If you are over water. Reduce altitude, ensure obstacle avoidance sensors are off. Hold on to your butts!

 

[Mission North]

Sport mode, fly as fast as you can especially if into wind. Often, up to mid afternoon, changes in wind direction at the coast are caused by a sea breeze which would be to our advantage if flying over the sea. Later in the day, katabatic wind may blow us further out to sea.

 

[FlyGuy8675309]

Sport mode, fly as fast as you can especially if into wind.

Not sure that's good advice. It's kind of like flooring it to make it to a gas station when you are on E. The engine (Mavic & car) is much less efficient at top speed so you will probably run out of gas sooner than if you kept going at a slower pace. Would be good to test this out in a controller experiment.

 

[rstekeur]

Keep an eye on your battery and don't be out 1 mile that close to spent. That's a good way to loose a $1000 quad. You cut it that close sooner or later you'll be shopping for a new one.

 

[leonardolisboa]

I would suggest to trigger the RTH to let the mavic to drive home by himself, take your car or walk towards the return path to try to reach half way back.
Then you stop in a safe place, assume mavic control and land it manually.

 

[jamesw]

Not sure that's good advice. It's kind of like flooring it to make it to a gas station when you are on E. The engine (Mavic & car) is much less efficient at top speed so you will probably run out of gas sooner than if you kept going at a slower pace. Would be good to test this out in a controller experiment.

I've heard conflicting opinions about sport mode using up more battery than normal mode. Which mode is more efficient?

 

[leonardolisboa]

I've heard conflicting opinions about sport mode using up more battery than normal mode. Which mode is more efficient?

Have a look at this video. It may answer the question:

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[Kilrah]

Not sure that's good advice. It's kind of like flooring it to make it to a gas station when you are on E. The engine (Mavic & car) is much less efficient at top speed so you will probably run out of gas sooner than if you kept going at a slower pace. Would be good to test this out in a controller experiment.

Someone already did that and posted results on this forum, and that is where that advice comes from.