What's the max wind speed you'd feel comfortable launching your drone?

[Dangerly]

"Increasingly gusty west winds 25 to 35 knots with a few evening gusts possibly nearing 40 knots until 07Z tonight."

Is this too windy?

 

[Meta4]

"Increasingly gusty west winds 25 to 35 knots with a few evening gusts possibly nearing 40 knots until 07Z tonight."
Is this too windy?

It might be .. depending on how the actual winds match the forecast.
If the wind goes above 25 knots, that's getting dicey, and you'd want to be very cautious.
35 knots is definitely no go.
And if you have one of the slower drones like the minis, revise those numbers downwards.

 

[Robert Prior]

That's also the winds on the surface. Will be faster aloft.

If you are in an open area where you can quickly lower the altitude (and don't go too high) and don't need a steady platform then you might be ok, cautiously.

 

[Meta4]

That's also the winds on the surface. Will be faster aloft.

If you are in an open area where you can quickly lower the altitude (and don't go too high) and don't need a steady platform then you might be ok, cautiously.

If the wind is 35 knots, that's the speed of the Sport Mode max speed of the Mavic 3 and the Air 2S and significantly faster than the Top speed of the minis.
If you launched the M3 or Air 2S in 35 knots, you couldn't fly anywhere past straight up.
If the drone went just 50 yards downwind, it could not make it back to the homepoint.
A Mini 2 or 3 would be blown away.
Just launching in 25 knots or more requires shelter to prevent the drone being tipped over on takeoff.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

"Increasingly gusty west winds 25 to 35 knots with a few evening gusts possibly nearing 40 knots until 07Z tonight."

Is this too windy?

Were all about living " dangerously" and fly more than most in Extreme high winds as we Capture the Storms. Recently we had the Mavic 3 blow 2500 ft Away in heavy gusts and were able to engage sport mode to get it back.

The danger points of High Winds are getting it up in the Air , with shelter or great timing.
Once in the Hover Position you will notice a drift from the Original GPS position on average anything past 12 ft is pushing your Experience in the wind where as 6 ft is very manageable

We keep our high wind flights to 100 ft so if we need to get it down quickly we have a better chance of it.
As far as Wind Speed , for us its more about Drift from the Hover Position , as Gusts are your enemy.

So being whipped around in the sky is not really an issue as long as your aware , an have confidence in Sport Mode that it will get you back and dont panic .

The hardest part is negotiating the landing , hand catching is out , so you may want to follow the landing of where the drone wants to land rather than fight the wind to land it in your spot.

We sometimes will over shoot the landing area knowing it will be blowing back to us as seen in are video where the we let the Mavic 3 get taken with the Wind to Test sport mode.

Here is a good example of a 6 ft Drift in the sky with heavy gusts with the Air 2S

2:40 seconds for the Drift Only

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain. Capture the Storm.

 

[old man mavic]

@Dangerly whether you fly or not if its windy, should be based on risk verses reward ,and wind speed at ground level can sometimes actually be stronger, than it is 100ft plus up in the air
due to the topography and surroundings at the takeoff point

 

[retiredNH]

I live in a heavily forested region, where the trees top out at about 100 feet, so windy flying is especially risky. The only open areas are our various wetlands, but getting to them from a suitable takeoff and landing spot is another problem, so my flying times are pretty limited - the margin of error is basically zero.

 

[REStewart]

My drones are capable of 40 MPH or greater. As a rule I do not launch when the forecast is greater that 20 MPH. Just being conservative and when you doing paid jobs the gusts at those levels can produce some wiggle in spite of the incredible gimbals we take for granted. It's frustrating when the lighting is beautiful but the winds aren't cooperating.

 

[Wild Drone Pilot]

"Increasingly gusty west winds 25 to 35 knots with a few evening gusts possibly nearing 40 knots until 07Z tonight."

Is this too windy?

Yes! Don't do it unless you are ready to buy another drone when it blows away and crashes
Now if I had more money than I knew what to do with [and I don't] I may be a little more carefree
HTH
WDP

 

[Eagle Eye 62]

My drones are capable of 40 MPH or greater. As a rule I do not launch when the forecast is greater that 20 MPH. Just being conservative and when you doing paid jobs the gusts at those levels can produce some wiggle in spite of the incredible gimbals we take for granted. It's frustrating when the lighting is beautiful but the winds aren't cooperating.

I would agree, 20 MPH is about my limit. I have flown in more variable conditions when it was like 15 gusting to 25 and the Mavic 3 handles it just fine. I am not sure I would trust a mini series drone in those conditions though. If you want to "test" it, I would fly upwind to start and see how it goes, that way you are downwind if you need to return home.

 

[LoudThunder]

Is this too windy?

The link below is one that I've responded to several times so I will not re-write it here, you can read it if you care to…

When looking at UAV forecast, should I be concerned too much about wind gust speed?

I recently got a Mini 3 Pro and been using UAV forecast (app) to see when its a good time to fly and when its not I've noticed alot of times, the wind will be like 3-7 m/s but gusts will be 10-12 m/s Is that bad weather for flying or is it ok if gusts are higher speed since they're not usually...

mavicpilots.com

Of course with a User name like ""Dangerly" I would not expect you to be too concerned with any Hazard, Risk, Threat, Menace, or Peril; let alone a little Gusty Wind…

I glanced at your previous postings and they all seem to be DJI FPV and I have no knowledge of flying one of these. So I guess flying one of these gives credence to your "Handle…" as I've never seen any videos posted with a DJI FPV flying in Cine Mode… With most Videos showing the Drone flying at 60 MPH Plus…

But the first thing you need to do is read the User Manual.

I'm taking a guess here but here is the link to all the DJI FPV Downloads…

DJI FPV - Download Center - DJI

At DJI Download Center, Learn aboutDJI FPV

www.dji.com

After you read the Manual, read it again, you will be surprised what you missed the first time and you will be better prepared for that next "scary moment…"

 

[whistlen2602]

I fly by my own 25/25 rule. No faster than 25 sustained and no colder than 25 degrees!

 

[twickers14]

One small addition, regardless of the wind speed the good old advice that says on windy days always try to fly out IN to the wind so that if you have a RTH or other emergency your drone will at least have wind assistance on return. You’ll know that anyway but worth saying.

 

[Meta4]

Of course with a User name like ""Dangerly" I would not expect you to be too concerned with any Hazard, Risk, Threat, Menace, or Peril; let alone a little Gusty Wind…

That's very presumptive of you to make so much from a simple user name..

But the first thing you need to do is read the User Manual.

After you read the Manual, read it again, you will be surprised what you missed the first time and you will be better prepared for that next "scary moment…"

DJI manuals are extremely limited in the details of how to fly and cope with real world situations.
I've read the user manuals for all DJI drones, multiple times and I haven't found anything in them that would help answer the OP's question or give advice to help understand how to deal with strong winds.