Strong Wind Warning -- scary situation

[TJFly]

Tacking is of no use unless it moves you into slower wind.

"tacking" with a drone, would reduce the apparent headwind. Although, the path back would be longer.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Sorry but you are labouring under a misunderstanding about the speeds, I expanded the answer you quote but you replied before I finished the edit.

Think of a motor boat with a maximum water speed of 10mph on a river flowing at 10mph. When the boat points directly upstream it holds its own with respect to the bank.
Please tell me what, from the perspective of someone stood on the river bank, happens if the bow is then pointed towards the river bank?

 

[old man mavic]

@TJFly as someone who has a model sail powered RC boat ,i also thought that flying a drone back into the wind by tacking across the wind would help to get back quicker ,but after the subject was mentioned on this forum many moons ago ,and having tried it myself ,then i can say that the best way home is to drop altitude fly full speed in p mode and head straight to the home point ,of course this will all depend on where you are flying and if there are any obstacles in you path ,the problem with a drone compared to a boat is the drone will be consuming battery every second its in the air, the boat will quite happily sail all day long, till it encounters an obstacle or dry land

 

[DanMan32]

"tacking" with a drone, would reduce the apparent headwind. Although, the path back would be longer.

The same amount of wind would be blowing against the body, just a different part of the body.
However now that you've changed the angle of thrust, the component of thrust opposing the wind is less, the remaining moving the AC sideways.

 

[SkyeHigh]

The same amount of wind would be blowing against the body, just a different part of the body.
However now that you've changed the angle of thrust, the component of thrust opposing the wind is less, the remaining moving the AC sideways.

Correct, unless flying directly into the wind you are exposing a broader side of the aircraft to the wind thereby increasing drag.

It works with a sailboat only because it is using the wind as its source of power and the energy extracted by the sails is greater than the increased drag presented by the sailboat’s angle to the direction of the wind.

A powered aircraft will fly at an angle to a headwind to ensure it’s heading combined with the wind induced drift results in a straight path to its destination. It will require more power to counteract increased drag if it is to maintain speed.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

I think this summaries crosswind flying

 

[TJFly]

OK. I suppose not. di

Sorry but you are labouring under a misunderstanding about the speeds, I expanded the answer you quote but you replied before I finished the edit.

Think of a motor boat with a maximum water speed of 10mph on a river flowing at 10mph. When the boat points directly upstream it holds its own with respect to the bank.
Please tell me what, from the perspective of someone stood on the river bank, happens if the bow is then pointed towards the river bank?

OK, I suppose not. Different dynamics here, the drone cannot gain any power.

 

[SkyeHigh]

OK, I suppose not. Different dynamics here, the drone cannot gain any power.

You can increase thrust if not already at maximum but that increases battery drain, which will reduce flight distance.

 

[Meta4]

If dropping altitude doesn't help, the only strategy that really works is to think about the wind and its effect on the return flight before launching and avoid getting into the situation.

 

[kidroc]

I flew my MA2 out over water about 3,900' to video a sailboat cooking along on spinnaker only. It does incredibly well in high wind (white caps on the water).

However, on the way back I got the following warning:

Strong wind warning. Aircraft unable to return to home automatically. Lower altitude immediately and return to home manually(Code: 30149)

It makes sense that it didn't want to ascend to the RTH altitude (65') because the wind might be even greater. However, it begs the question -- what would have happened if signal was lost and it couldn't "return to home automatically"?

It was flying fine. The video was smooth and the gimbal was never maxed out. It was about 25' above the water.

By coincidence the battery on my tablet died when I was almost home and the drone was visible. But I wouldn't have been able to manually retrieve the drone if that had happened earlier, assuming the message is accurate.

Has anyone had a similar experience? Or know anything more about this condition? If the message is accurate that's not a good thing. It should at least attempt to RTH.

Remember you can turn the charge your device on the remote so you never have to have a dead device!!

 

[Ian in London]

@TJFly ... the best way home is to drop altitude fly full speed in p mode and head straight to the home point...

May I ask why you suggest P mode? I've found Sport's mode allows the faster max speed and does seem to allow better progress against a very strong wind than P mode? Have you found P mode better in some way? Ian

 

[Meta4]

May I ask why you suggest P mode? I've found Sport's mode allows the faster max speed and does seem to allow better progress against a very strong wind than P mode? Have you found P mode better in some way? Ian

Sport mode is fine if you are close enough to home but if you have to cover a substantial distance, it burns battery much faster.

 

[old man mavic]

May I ask why you suggest P mode? I've found Sport's mode allows the faster max speed and does seem to allow better progress against a very strong wind than P mode? Have you found P mode better in some way? Ian

exactly for the reason @Meta4 mentioned in post#113 it really depends on how much battery charge is left in the tank ,the slight speed advantage over P mode ,comes at a price ,for me if i can see that the drone is not making any head way ,then the best solution at the end of the day is to pick a landing spot and just get down, in any situation what you do is a judgment call, based on your experience and the outcome is down to you,it would seem that many of the issues that the MM suffered from, have been addressed with the release of the Mini 2