Wind awareness

[Howcroft22]

And your flying conditions screen with all the info you need will look like this. You can change the settings of what the thresholds you prefer in the settings. It comes preset to average settings. but most here change them to suit thier needs.

 

[dkatz42]

There is no way for the AC to take into account the windspeed to calculate the "get home" bits.

As we say in the business, "just a small matter of programming." All of the data is there. The winds aloft can be derived from the combination of ground speed (which is already derived from GPS data) and airspeed (which can be approximated from flight control data). Given winds aloft and battery condition it can make a fair shot at when the turnaround point is. Heck, if they wanted to be fancy they could record data on the way out to note the variance in winds aloft as it traveled and apply that to the return time approximation to possibly increase the accuracy.

But yeah, at the end of the day I wouldn't bet the cost of a drone on it...

 

[Big Fil]

Tools are available at different levels to be able to get an idea of what the wind is doing where your flying. I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the use of the aircraft attitude display in the radar display. It will show you the tilt angle in real time which will show you how hard the Mavic is working to try and keep itself in spot. Used in combination with the map you should can tell which direction it's coming from and how much buffeting is happening.

The other simple thing you can do if you have ATTI mode selected with parameter mods is to switch into ATTI for a little bit and watch which direction and how fast the aircraft moves with no stick inputs.

 

[Fergy]

I think the wind speed from that app is ground level. Very different at higher altitude. I use UAV Forecast.

What is UAV forcast.

 

[msinger]

What is UAV forcast.

UAV Forecast

 

[RayOZ]

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.

I said estimate wind speed. Considering if you upload your flight records to AirData (with any HD 360 plan), it can calculate inflight windspeed. So it can be calculated, estimated of course. It's better than just 'high wind warning'.

 

[przero]

UAV

 

[RayOZ]

A quick heads up about the UAV forecast app. There's a bug that I found. I've been in contact with the developer, and he was able to replicate it. It'll be fixed in the next update, or maybe the one after, since there's going to be one in the next 48hrs.
Basic gist of the bug:
If you manually enter an address to get the forecast of that address (Address 1), then use the map to pin point another location (Address 2). If you then close the app (force close), and reopen the app, the address bar will show the address of the location you selected from the map (Address 2), but the actual forecast is for the manually entered address (Address 1). Just be cautious before you fly. You might get an "OK to fly" (forecast for Address 1), but it's actually not OK to fly if you happen to be at Address 2.

 

[microlinux]

I've settled on using an anemometer and pre-calculated tables to determine wind speed at height intervals.

 

[mfc]

For pilots in the UK I have been maintaining this site:
Speleotrove weather analyses
which gives an estimate of 'flying days' in different places. Choose the windspeed you're comfortable with for takeoff/landing and it will (hopefully) tell you how many days on average you'll be able to fly.

As always, travel upwind then you'll have a good chance of making it back home .

I also recommend using a traditional 'T' marker (rather than 'H') for any landing pads: set it to point to the wind direction before takeoff then it only needs a quick glance later when maybe you've turned around a few times.

 

[MavicMoira]

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.

I totally agree with this suggestion - if I saw an estimated wind speed of say 30kmh I would take a lot of notice. Instead I get a “High Wind Warning” most times I fly, which I ignore after checking that the MP is not struggling.

 

[Jstsal69]

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.

It would be very hard to feel sorry for someone that encountered a wind issue at altitude higher than legally allowable.