Wind - be careful

[borislip]

Lesson learned today - the winds at higher altitude are much stronger than at the surface level, while the wind at high altitude, above a river, away from trees and cliffs, is the worst!

Bad enough to cause a nasty, fast drift. Note that RTH is utterly useless in this case, it isn't smart enough to go down and use the cliff as cover, it just fights the wind, wasting precious battery juice!

 

[borislip]

And yea, here i am breaking the law again... i went out of VLOS to hide behind the cliff instead of taking the risk of losing the bird :-(

 

[Keule]

Did you try Sport mode to fight the wind?

 

[borislip]

Did you try Sport mode to fight the wind?

Yep, i did. Take it as a warning, a wind CAN be stronger than Mavic can handle, even in the sport mode.

 

[borislip]

My only remaining options where risky landing away from me, either somewhere between the trees or on a shoulder of a busy highway, while fighting the wind, or using the cliff to hide from the wind, flying out of VLOS most of the time, until i bring it to just below the observation point i've been standing on, getting the visual on it from above, and bringing it up almost right into my hands from there. I did the latter.

 

[Keule]

Well done

 

[borislip]

Well done

Thanks. Lesson learned. Don't be stupid! The warnings are there for a reason :-(

 

[borislip]

The ridiculous part is, while i am well trained on toy drones to fly visual/ATTI, i am a total noob in flying FPV!!! I've turned it to look at that cliff like 20 times, just to make sure i am not going to side-slam into it, lol. I am BAD at judging my distance, especially from the sides, by the video feed, and thats an expensive bird to slam into a cliff.

 

[th_mav]

Does the mavic controller or app measure/display windspeed at the heights the bird is on?

I know it throws warnings but not actual numbers. I'd love to access a teletmetry feed measuring current wind speed based on height location.
Any suggestions?

 

[SteelFlyer]

Well done. The best part is that you did not panic but assessed the situation and came up with a solution. And as far as "breaking the rules" - yes you lost VLOS but the FAA recognizes that in emergency situations, pilots may have to break rules to ensure the safety of the craft and people. In those cases, breaking the rules is just fine.

Thanks for posting this. It's a good reminder. Wind near the surface (less than 1000' or so) can actually increase exponentially with height. And I'm guessing the cliff creates some funky wind conditions too.

Glad you got your bird back in one piece.

 

[Dspace]

Hi Borislip, nice job getting your bird back. Did you have a wind forecast or current wind meter readings in hand (ie local airports, etc) before flying?

I live in an area (sand bar sticking out in the Atlantic Ocean) where life is dictated by wind. Most of my activities (sailing, windsurfing, kiteboarding, SUPing) involve thinking about wind all the time.

Everything thing from updraft/downdraft/rotor effects around buildings/hills/trees, nearshore midday convective "sea breezes" and turbulence effects due to land mass heating, which local meters are in wind shadows versus those with unobstructed locations, combining wind forecast with frontal system forecasts to get a feel for how gusty it will be (if you think 30+ mph winds are tough try winds going 8-30 every 20 seconds). You can even have complex stuff like thermal barriers (warm air mass over cold land or water mass) preventing winds at say 40 AGL from making it to the surface, which is quite the on-off switch with our kiteboarding kites whipping around at the end of 24 meter lines.....

With the newer drones able to handle more wind, it's probably a good thing for UAV pilots to start checking out more of these near surface wind effects. NOAA aviation wind aloft forecasts I think start at 3000 ft so I'm not so sure it's as useful for drone flying,.....or even the ultralight flying I did many moons ago. FWIW, I actually have had decent luck with Weather Underground for short range wind forecasting in my area, although I still have access to custom wind forecast/meters.

Happy flying!

 

[dagpeak]

The best mobile wind forecasting app I've seen is called "Windy", free on iOS and very useful for the drone pilot.

 

[CC Rider]

Well done. The best part is that you did not panic but assessed the situation and came up with a solution. And as far as "breaking the rules" - yes you lost VLOS but the FAA recognizes that in emergency situations, pilots may have to break rules to ensure the safety of the craft and people. In those cases, breaking the rules is just fine.

Thanks for posting this. It's a good reminder. Wind near the surface (less than 1000' or so) can actually increase exponentially with height. And I'm guessing the cliff creates some funky wind conditions too.

Glad you got your bird back in one piece.

SteelFlyer hit the point right on the head. Thinking through the problem instead of merely only reacting to it is ALWAYS the best, most logical choice to finding the correct solution. Your solution may have been unorthodox and even risky, but you ultimately managed to maintain control - of both yourself and your Mavic - and land your aircraft safely without causing any harm.

Like my Father always said, "Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing!" So, great job. Thumbs way up.

 

[CC Rider]

The best mobile wind forecasting app I've seen is called "Windy", free on iOS and very useful for the drone pilot.

I haven't used "Windy" yet but I do have "Hover" and "UAV Forecast" on my iPhone, both of which are very good at delivering what I have found to be up-to-the-minute, accurate wind conditions.

Just to always fly on the safe side, I also invested some money in a small, handheld weather station/wind metering device that I whip out before each flight. Wind conditions can vary greatly from locale to locale for a variety of reasons - as poster Dspace described in his post - even within the same weather-monitored area, so knowing exactly what's going on where you are is, to me at least, critical.

Of course, the air will always be different the further you go up in altitude, as wind friction at the surface level diminishes as you go up and the rules of the open sky come into play, and so you always have to factor that into the equation, too. But the Mavic's wind-alert system is a great boon to drone pilots lucky enough to fly one. I can only wish my other drone came so equipped.

 

[Oingo Boingo]

Hence the reason you need to build up experience before heading into the blue yonder. I dont want to sound rude, but by reading your post its clear this is your first ever RC craft and first ever drone. Ive taken my Mavic in winds of 24km perhour.... And it handled it with ease. The reality is becaise its a smaller drone it works a bit harder to stay up. This has an impact on battery life. Many flyers that have flown drones before will tell you, the wind 20m up is twice as strong as it is on the ground

 

[Anthony Horrigan]

The best mobile wind forecasting app I've seen is called "Windy", free on iOS and very useful for the drone pilot.

WindGuru is also an excellent free information web site on local weather. - wind, rain and temp.

 

[JDPEagle]

Absolutely no offense to the OPer, but this is exactly why Part 107 (for commercial operations) requires a written FAA exam, and why its predecessor (333 exemptions) required the operator to have a pilots' license.

I am an FAA licensed pilot, and winds are something that we are always considering (as well as wind shear - a concept that you eluded to in your OP). Recognizing wind patterns (in the air and on the surface) it critical to safe UAS operations.

 

[borislip]

Does the mavic controller or app measure/display windspeed at the heights the bird is on?...

No. It doesn't. It definitely doesn't display the wind speed anywhere, it probably doesn't measure it either, possibly calculating it's approximation judging by how hard it had to fight it or something. The last part is just a speculation, though.

 

[armoredsaint]

next thing you'll be telling us to not fly in a rainstorm or a hurricane

 

[borislip]

next thing you'll be telling us to not fly in a rainstorm or a hurricane

Hey, it could be nice to fly in those if the bird could take it
Imagine a video of a thunderstorm from up there.