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Wind awareness

dennyc39

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Haven't flown yet, but from reading this forum it is obvious that wind and wind awareness is important.

Seems to me that when a drone is in a P-mode hover, the system is managing to exactly cancel the local wind. So, the drone would seem to have all the information it needs to do a quick calculation and send the wind information to the pilot, perhaps in the form of a yellow arrow on the DJI GO display. That would help keep the pilot informed of what the RTH situation might be like if he needs it.

The wind would just be the horizontal component of the thrust vector. Shouldn't take very much code or CPU capacity.
 
I might be mistaken ~but there are two possibilities for you here. If you're familiar with Airdata.com, they have a gold plan that includes wind analysis. Otherwise, there is a meter embedded in the radar circle of the Go4 app, that shows thrust and (I believe) horizon. If the craft were tilting to counter the wind, this meter might display that behavior. I've not tested this, but will soon.
 
I check it on the Polar pro filter app on the Ipad mini for Temp, wind, sunset/sunrise times, and Kp before flight.
 
I check it on the Polar pro filter app on the Ipad mini for Temp, wind, sunset/sunrise times, and Kp before flight.

Are you on iOS? I dont see temp wind in android. It only suggests a filter for me.
 
I also use UAV Forecast, and it is very good guide, but it doesn't give you real time conditions for the exact place you are flying. I am not sure where UAV gets it's data from, probably the local airport. My main clue as to winds aloft at the height I usually fly at is watch the tree tops and gauge the winds up there. I fly abut 30-60 feet above them which puts the Mavic between 90 and 120 feet. I usually will not fly higher than 200 feet, don't see any reason to. Where I usually take off from and land is surrounded by dense trees, which gives me a protected, wind free landing zone. Also, when ever I get a "high wind alert", I will drop to a lower elevation, and start to return to home or to where I get VLOS.
 
I think what we've been talking about in last few posts is Forecast Wind, which is better than no estimate at all. I use windy.com for example. But we live in a canyon area with ridges on either side, and the forecast models often don't do a good job or have the resolution to predict terrain effects on the forecast wind. This is particularly true below about 3000 ft. AGL in our area. But the drone hovering up there on a GPS position knows exactly what the actual wind is at that point, as would a person flying a kite.

Another problem is local temperature inversions, and I think I may have seen evidence of this in a couple of videos. In this situation cool air pools down close to the ground and in valleys, and the ambient wind just slides over the top of the inversion. The pilot on the ground is in a flat calm, with leaves and nearby bushes absolutely still. But as soon as the drone penetrates the top of inverted layer, it can find itself in a significant wind, surprising the pilot. Most likely to happen around sundown or early part of the morning.
 
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It is not hard to figure wind direction at altitude. Just give it a few seconds at full forward at different directions and the direction it fly's the slowest indicates a head wind. If you are going to venture out a ways, try to go in the direction of a head wind so you have the tail wind help you come back. The RC battery meter does not take wind direction into account so you cannot rely solely on it's estimate to return home.
 
I think what we've been talking about in last few posts is Forecast Wind, which is better than no estimate at all. I use windy.com for example. But we live in a canyon area with ridges on either side, and the forecast models often don't do a good job or have the resolution to predict terrain effects on the forecast wind. This is particularly true below about 3000 ft. AGL in our area. But the drone hovering up there on a GPS position knows exactly what the actual wind is at that point, as would a person flying a kite.

Another problem is local temperature inversions, and I think I may have seen evidence of this in a couple of videos. In this situation cool air pools down close to the ground and in valleys, and the ambient wind just slides over the top of the inversion. The pilot on the ground is in a flat calm, with leaves and nearby bushes absolutely still. But as soon as the drone penetrates the top of inverted layer, it can find itself in a significant wind, surprising the pilot. Most likely to happen around sundown or early part of the morning.

Yup. Katabatic Winds
 
Just had a first hand experience with the wind delta at altitude versus at ground level. Had some low flying clouds and wanted to get up above them for a video shot. Got up to 1600 feet and was filming but not paying close attention to the High Wind Velocity notices (shame on me). Started to bring it down when I realized I was way off coarse downwind. Tried to make headway but the wind was hauling up there. Switched to Sport and went full forward and down. As I got lower started to make headway but realized I was going to be cutting it too close with the remaining battery to insure I could get back and land at a safe spot. Spotted a local golf coarse about a quarter of a mile from me and found a nice open area to land. Lowered down to about 150 feet and put into hover. Started walking to golf coarse as low battery warning went off. Lost connection but found it resting right in the middle of the fairway where I left it hovering. Battery was bone dry. It was pretty early in the morning so there were no golfers out yet, just maintenance staff and I don't think they even noticed it. Valuable lesson learned......respect the Wind Gods!
 
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Just had a first hand experience with the wind delta at altitude versus at ground level. Had some low flying clouds and wanted to get up above them for a video shot. Got up to 1600 feet and was filming but not paying close attention to the High Wind Velocity notices (shame on me). Started to bring it down when I realized I was way off coarse downwind. Tried to make headway but the wind was hauling up there. Switched to Sport and went full forward and down. As I got lower started to make headway but realized I was going to be cutting it too close with the remaining battery to insure I could get back and land at a safe spot. Spotted a local golf coarse about a quarter of a mile from me and found a nice open area to land. Lowered down to about 150 feet and put into hover. Started walking to golf coarse as low battery warning went off. Lost connection but found it resting right in the middle of the fairway where I left it hovering. Battery was bone dry. It was pretty early in the morning so there were no golfers out yet, just maintenance staff and I don't think they even noticed it. Valuable lesson learned......respect the Wind Gods!

I do genuinely hate to be that guy, but it's probably also a good idea to respect the FAA guidelines and not break the law? That concerns me much more than the Wind Gods.
 
For DJI drones to be able to display the high wind velocity warning, it must be able to calculate wind speed it is experiencing. So, maybe DJI should just display "estimated wind gust" next to the warning. When pilots see a 'big' number, they are more inclined to bring their drone down sooner than keep flying. And on the map screen, display arrow for wind direction. Surely it can't be that hard for DJI to add to the app.
 
Just had a first hand experience with the wind delta at altitude versus at ground level. Had some low flying clouds and wanted to get up above them for a video shot. Got up to 1600 feet and was filming but not paying close attention to the High Wind Velocity notices (shame on me). Started to bring it down when I realized I was way off coarse downwind. Tried to make headway but the wind was hauling up there. Switched to Sport and went full forward and down. As I got lower started to make headway but realized I was going to be cutting it too close with the remaining battery to insure I could get back and land at a safe spot. Spotted a local golf coarse about a quarter of a mile from me and found a nice open area to land. Lowered down to about 150 feet and put into hover. Started walking to golf coarse as low battery warning went off. Lost connection but found it resting right in the middle of the fairway where I left it hovering. Battery was bone dry. It was pretty early in the morning so there were no golfers out yet, just maintenance staff and I don't think they even noticed it. Valuable lesson learned......respect the Wind Gods!
 
Some years back when I was flying, I can remember some evening approaches when the wind would suddenly change from roughly a 10-knot cross-headwind to dead zero around 100 or 200 feet above the ground. There would usually be a little bit of light turbulence when we descended through the wind shear, marking it almost as clearly as if you could see it. It was noticeably cooler on the ground, and would sometimes develop into fog before morning.

I've seen some videos where leaves and shrubs near the drone pilot appear to be still, but where the drone seemed to be struggling in the moving air aloft. I'd expect these conditions are more likely in the early morning or early evening where people like the low-angle lighting.
 
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Some years back when I was flying, I can remember some evening approaches when the wind would suddenly change from roughly a 10-knot cross-headwind to dead zero around 100 or 200 feet above the ground. There would usually be a little bit of light turbulence when we descended through the wind shear, marking it almost as clearly as if you could see it. It was noticeably cooler on the ground, and would sometimes develop into fog before morning.

I've seen some videos where leaves and shrubs near the drone pilot appear to be still, but where the drone seemed to be struggling in the moving air aloft. I'd expect these conditions are more likely in the early morning or early evening where people like the low-angle lighting.
At least it's in a craft that doesn't need airspeed to stay aloft. I fly full-scale fixed-wing, and it can get exciting. I was flying into Rochester NY once behind a strong cold front, with wickedly strong winds and gusts, and was repeatedly pushing the throttles to full and then back to idle on the approach trying not to fall out of the sky. After landing, the tower controller said, "Turn left next intersection and monitor this frequency. [pause] Looks like you won't need to go to the amusement park today!"
 
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What the AC is doing when you get the "high wind speed warning", is not sensing/calculating "the wind speed" itself, but rather looking at how much/how hard the AC is working,trying to remain level/position.
That's it.
Period.
There is no way for the AC to take into account the windspeed to calculate the "get home" bits.
It is the pilot's responsibility to be aware of the environment that the AC is going into...
 
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