watch your crosswinds with your mothercare

[John Gowland]

I made a calculated risk assessment but erred in my assessment.

Increased crosswind speeds threw my Mavic Air way of track. I had plenty of battery left but that slight crosswind speed increase turned my MA more into the wind. I then lost all transmission visual data for no apparent reason. I then over compensated the turn away from the wind without transmission vision and lost the bird.
Does the MA float? My search indicated not.
DJI need to make sure that the last thing to go on a low battery must be the transmission data. I think I had about 20% left.
And someone needs to fix google searchers, so I get Mavic Air when I type “Mavic Air” not Mothercare.

At least give me Grandfather care, rather than Mothercare.

Here’s hoping DJI care is better than Mothercare.

 

[sar104]

I made a calculated risk assessment but erred in my assessment.

Increased crosswind speeds threw my Mavic Air way of track. I had plenty of battery left but that slight crosswind speed increase turned my MA more into the wind. I then lost all transmission visual data for no apparent reason. I then over compensated the turn away from the wind without transmission vision and lost the bird.
Does the MA float? My search indicated not.
DJI need to make sure that the last thing to go on a low battery must be the transmission data. I think I had about 20% left.
And someone needs to fix google searchers, so I get Mavic Air when I type “Mavic Air” not Mothercare.

At least give me Grandfather care, rather than Mothercare.

Here’s hoping DJI care is better than Mothercare.

Loss of video downlink is not going to be battery driven - the power consumed by the radio is negligible compared to the motors.

 

[Mike4884]

Also if u do a little scan thru of what u wrote, u can prevent words like mothercare and fix it to "mavic air" lol cant blame everyone dude!

 

[John Gowland]

Well Mike4884 it might be all your fault.

 

[SpyderSkeets]

Why didnt you just activate RTH?

You must be using a different Google than I am. None of my "Mavic Air" or even "mavicair" searches result in "mothercare"

 

[John Gowland]

I did activate RTH early on. But then lost transmission data.
After you activate RTH you can push the forward stick to speed it up, it was in sports mode. I tried it a few times in the last few days and it worked every time.
The flight record showed the cross wind on a return journey increased. The MA was pointing towards home at all times until the last few seconds. I was fling out south into a SW wind. I returned home at 49% which would have meant it should have returned well within the time frame.
As the craft got close it was also flying into a rising sun to my left. I don't know if this was the reason for lost transmission. Anyway it ran out of battery. It was only a hundred or two, meters from home,
So just a warning to people. Crosswinds can result in unpredictable results, as all winds I suppose. So don't travel far in any windy conditions, even if you fly at low altitudes. I use a wind app on my phone and the wind was well under 10m/s or 25 miles an hour. ZephyrFree Wind Meter. I know its not accurate but its never very far off.

The mothercare issue is a result not of typing, but speaking into the mic in the google search box.
I thought it was funny.
Reminds me of a time when I dictated a shopping list into a word doc on my phone. When you get old, getting up in the morning can be painful. So I dictated Paracetamol and ibuprofen.
At lunch time before going to the shop I replayed the shopping list and it told me I needed to buy paracetamol and that I had a "new boyfriend"
Bugger, I thought, news to me!
Then realised what had happened.
Happy flying.

 

[ddesens]

You were flying over water then when you lost it?

 

[SpyderSkeets]

"the wind...was well under 25 miles an hour" can mean anywhere between 0 and 24 miles an hour .

Gotcha about the voice recognition. It does sometimes have done funny results. Auto-correct does some funny things too. I once had a phone that wanted to autocorrect "nasty" to "masturbate"...try explaining that one to your future wife!!

I just used the voice thing on my phone for "mavic air" and it worked for me...no mothercare for me.

 

[John Gowland]

Yes ddesens I was flying over water. But I don't think that was an issue. I am now certain what this issue was. I know in my brain but I am trying to find the words to describe it.
I am sure it is a know issue with sailors and aircraft pilots dealing with the wind.


When an object is flying into a cross wind coming from an angle of, lets say, 45 to 90 degrees (that is from its left) it can keep a relative straight line.
However when that object returns to its origin with the wind then behind it at say 0 and 45 degrees (that is from its right) it can not keep its trajectory as straight as it could on its outward bound journey. The object gets forced away to its left and hence needs more power to keep its trajectory straight.
Now there are going to be some smart arses correcting me on my poor science words. Good, go for it.
Since I have not heard of this effect, partly because I am not familiar with the science of wind, I am going to call it the "Win D" effect.
So the outward, into a cross wind, is the straight line. The return journey forms the bow of the "D". that is from the point of origin you fly in a straight line. On the return journey the object swings around away from the straight line.

Now someone straighten my words out.
That by the way is exactly what my flight data showed.

 

[John Gowland]

Your right SpyderSkeets it was on the higher side but not 25.

 

[John Gowland]

I've done some comparative, initial tests between a Mavic Air and Mavic Pro in respect of this "Win D" effect and whilst I have not been able to replicate exactly my initial "fail' of my Mavic Air I have been quite close. I suspected that the difference in mass and power generation between the MA and MP the WinD effect would not be such problem for the MP. The tests I have done bore this out. Of course this is very preliminary (a tiny sample base) but there is a very clear difference.
The MA goes off course far more extremely than the MP. There seems to be no difference when they are going into a cross wind at say 45% but going out of that cross wind (being pushed away) the bend gets more extreme the longer the distance.
This didn't matter with the spark because it could not go far.
Now we have a craft that is much lighter than anything ells that can travel far, we have a new anomaly.
Not only do users need to be warned but there has to be developments in the Go4 app. It has to take account of this phenomenon and quickly account for this sweeping away of a light craft with a tail crosswind. And it has to do it live reacting quickly to changing conditions. But it has to take this changing data into account as it takes off and travels so it can recalculate percentages of battery usage for the return journey.
I believe they are working on this issue but they better get moving faster and build it into the app updates.
So the bottom line is that the MP and the MA react very differently on longer/windy conditions. Before the updates take this into account it would be wise to watch the MA's trajectory very carful and be prepared to return well before the 50% mark and to stop the return to get it on track in a straight line then continue the return turning the craft into the angled crosswind.

 

[Ian in London]

I am really sorry for your situation; although I'm a bit confused as I thought you said you lost the AIR, but you later said you're carrying out tests.

I too did side by side comparisons and had completely different results to you; I found when NOT in Sports mode, the AIR was rock solid and stable, whilst the PRO ground to a halt and went off course.
In Sports mode, both the PRO and AIR were practically identical in their performance. And this was in 25-30 mph gusts.

I would also stop using Voice Commands on Google Voice; it's just not working for you.
cheers
Ian

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[John Gowland]

I have a very good, life long, no claims bonus. Comes with not making any claims for 15 years, just never had any thing big to claim for, and could not be bothered with the few hundred dollar small claims.
I do need to provide proof of purchase and stuff but they are very fast (same day pickup) and polite.
I got the same results as you. But I was only ever in sports mode. Now go and try it on a very long run. Make it return with a cross wind at about 45% behind it. My trajectory was a sweeping "D" away from the straight line, return.
The MP did a "D" but much less pronounced. But the conditions were never exactly the same. The only variable Is the MP, maybe my MP is secretly on steroids. If I find this to be so I'll smack it and let you know. Voice commands on multiple platforms work great for me. PCs, Macs, phones. Much faster even though you have a little editing to do on long documents. So I don't mind the occasional mishap. Can be very entertaining,
You do great videos, many have enjoyed them for a while. Well done.
Oh and it will not be long before we will be talking (interacting) with our drones. 5th generation languages are coming fast upon us. That could be hilarious, imagine
John.

 

[Jameslavis]

Well here is my experience. I flew across a frozen lake with strong winds. 29mph or so. No cover from anything as it’s lake. I had a very specific target but I manually flew it there. There was a slight bow in my path. Now I did RTH and this sucker shot up 29 meters and flew back, dead straight. Props to DJi

 

[Ian in London]

I have a very good, life long, no claims bonus. Comes with not making any claims for 15 years, just never had any thing big to claim for, and could not be bothered with the few hundred dollar small claims.
I do need to provide proof of purchase and stuff but they are very fast (same day pickup) and polite.
I got the same results as you. But I was only ever in sports mode. Now go and try it on a very long run. Make it return with a cross wind at about 45% behind it. My trajectory was a sweeping "D" away from the straight line, return.
The MP did a "D" but much less pronounced. But the conditions were never exactly the same. The only variable Is the MP, maybe my MP is secretly on steroids. If I find this to be so I'll smack it and let you know. Voice commands on multiple platforms work great for me. PCs, Macs, phones. Much faster even though you have a little editing to do on long documents. So I don't mind the occasional mishap. Can be very entertaining,
You do great videos, many have enjoyed them for a while. Well done.
Oh and it will not be long before we will be talking (interacting) with our drones. 5th generation languages are coming fast upon us. That could be hilarious, imagine
John.

Well, we're gesturing to our drones already... (although I don't use that function!), so talking won't be long as you say....
Ta for the good words! My long range wind test was attrocious weather for flying... I really don't understand why yours went wrong... I've only been able to fly in windy bad weather so far with my Air. Still waiting for a calm and sunny day. Glad you're still smiling and retained your sense of humour


Ian