Wind?

[mrshanes]

Just got back from Playa Del Carmen in Mexico. Took my Mavic hoping to get some nice beach video, but the wind had me scared. Never had it up. I even walked down to the beach early one morning thinking the wind would be less, but it was still pretty strong. I estimate the speeds at a steady 15-20mph with no gusts really. Would I have been OK? I've only had it a couple months, so I'm still kind of nervous.

 

[Bunny Too]

Just got back from Playa Del Carmen in Mexico. Took my Mavic hoping to get some nice beach video, but the wind had me scared. Never had it up. I even walked down to the beach early one morning thinking the wind would be less, but it was still pretty strong. I estimate the speeds at a steady 15-20mph with no gusts really. Would I have been OK? I've only had it a couple months, so I'm still kind of nervous.

You would have been ok with the wind, the combination of the wind and the ocean could have been trouble if you went out and had trouble getting back. The Mavic is rated to 10 m/s (wind velocity) which is somewhere around 22 mph ish, If you did not feel comfortable you made the right decision.

 

[flyNfrank]

Just got back from Playa Del Carmen in Mexico. Took my Mavic hoping to get some nice beach video, but the wind had me scared. Never had it up. I even walked down to the beach early one morning thinking the wind would be less, but it was still pretty strong. I estimate the speeds at a steady 15-20mph with no gusts really. Would I have been OK? I've only had it a couple months, so I'm still kind of nervous.

You made the right choice by NOT flying. Just because the Mavic has a 10m/s rating, doesn't mean those wind speeds are good for shooting video or pics. However, the sad part is the ocean is always associated with strong winds the majority of the time. Because of that it makes it hard to enjoy flying based on the fear of something going wrong.

 

[Mfpullen]

I had my Mavic in Amsterdam, Zaanse Schans and Nordwiijk aan Zee(on the North Sea beach) the past two weeks. There wasn't a day the wind was less than 10 knots. Most dates the wind speed ranged from 15 -20 knots. The Mavic handled this wind just fine. Video came out great and stable. My only warning is to keep in mind your wind direction, distance from home point and battery life. While traveling against the wind (not in SPORT mode) I ran into speeds of 1-3knots MAX. So take care in lettting your MAVIC get too far aaway from your home point when traveling downwind.

 

[ed1nh0]

If you did not feel comfortable you made the right decision.

Your words says all. That guy didn't become a statistic.

 

[Mfpullen]

That is it exactly. Whether to launch....based on your experience, familiarity with the environment and comfort level should always be the guide. AS a pilot flying search and rescue missions in Alaska, I was always reminded of that as I picked up lost souls or bodies from flights which should have never started.

 

[mrshanes]

Maybe time and experience will ease this. I always freak out and bring it back home when I get high wind warnings on the app. I've read a lot of stories on here about fighting wind to get home or the wind taking it away. It sucked taking it on the trip and not even using it, but it lives to fly another day!

 

[bucefalo]

well I do understand your fears.. me i avoid to take off when wind "seems" strong, I don't need to know if mavic can take it or not I'll just avoid to flight it based on my perception of fear in those conditions!

 

[BorisTheSpider]

You would have been ok with the wind, the combination of the wind and the ocean could have been trouble if you went out and had trouble getting back. The Mavic is rated to 10 m/s (wind velocity) which is somewhere around 22 mph ish, If you did not feel comfortable you made the right decision.

This.

If there's any doubt, there's no doubt. Stay on the ground.

 

[Squamer]

I fly in the wind regularly. Key is to read the wind if possible and be aware of your surroundings. If the wind is constant from the north to south I will send my drone against the wind and as battery diminishes bring it back with the wind. This isnt always perfect as wind changes it but its not something to be scared about. Like others said, you have to get comfortable and know the limits of the machine. Day one if it was 10 mph i was in the house, now 15-20MPH winds are nothing to me as I am comfortable. Flew yesterday on top of a mountain in 28mph winds, didnt do anything crazy but as an engineer, a hobbiest, and an aerospace enthusiast the little mavic blows my mind for its capabilities in wind.

 

[Andrew F]

Maybe time and experience will ease this. I always freak out and bring it back home when I get high wind warnings on the app. I've read a lot of stories on here about fighting wind to get home or the wind taking it away. It sucked taking it on the trip and not even using it, but it lives to fly another day!

Start "small" - fly low (50 feet?) stay close (300 feet) and practice a bit in the wind in a nice open area. The wind warning combined with the RTH warning is unsettling. But usually when I view my video, you'd never know it was windy. I've found gusty days to be more irritating than consistent wind. Practice really helps qualm the fears.

 

[Andrew F]

Maybe time and experience will ease this. I always freak out and bring it back home when I get high wind warnings on the app. I've read a lot of stories on here about fighting wind to get home or the wind taking it away. It sucked taking it on the trip and not even using it, but it lives to fly another day!

But you don't want to be one of those guys who owns a Ferrari that just sits in a garage gathering dust either. Haha. Or, on second thought, I'd volunteer for that job! Haha.

 

[Robert Mitchell]

All the above is correct. I might only add that wind around the coast is usually very smooth and not turbulent. So, if it is within reasonable speed, 10-15 mph the mavic will hold its position perfectly and remain amazingly smooth. Dont let it get too far downwind and you will be fine. But, as said above, if you aren't comfortable, fly another day.

 

[mrshanes]

All the above is correct. I might only add that wind around the coast is usually very smooth and not turbulent. So, if it is within reasonable speed, 10-15 mph the mavic will hold its position perfectly and remain amazingly smooth. Dont let it get too far downwind and you will be fine. But, as said above, if you aren't comfortable, fly another day.

I did notice that the wind was constant. That's why I almost considered it. It wasn't gusty. But I still decided to wait until I had more practice and experience overall.

 

[DSGDSG]

I'm really anxious about trying my mavic in the wind. My first real drone, the Yuneec Q500 could be flown in winds up to 13mph however, when it's windy the unit wouldn't respond to inputs in the controller. Instead it would fight to maintain a hover, then when it could it would perform the inputs that seemed to be saved in some type of cue. So if you went nuts on the sticks because it wouldn't move in the wind, the first chance it got it would mimic the moves and go all over the place without your hands on the controls. This made it impossible for me to fly. I keep watching peoples videos with the mavic where hair and clothes are flapping in a very obvious strong wind but the mavic is still maneuvering through the air seemingly unaffected. I'm just not sure after seeing how my Yuneec did things I could bring myself to cast my mavic up into the stream just to see what happens.

 

[Rick]

If you fly over or near water watch the surface of the water to gauge gusts. Gusts, or increases in "pressure" as a sailor would describe, can be observed by different shades of colour on the surface of the water as ripples are formed. You can watch these to gauge how frequent they are and how intense. Gusting near coastal waters is actually very common.

 

[Keth Unwin]

There's an App called "Gust Buster" that can be loaded as an add-on to the Mavic OS. Very useful when flying in coastal areas. It was originally released as "Guster". But Guster was dropped in favour of "Gust Buster". Hope that helps

 

[Rick]

Thanks Keith, I've searched for both versions of the wind app you refer to but without any luck. I'm not sure how this app works but please can you post the link for the benefit of the forum.

 

[Spanish Flyer]

I use Kittyhawk and it works for me (andoid), but I've seen WINDY and it seems to have a lot of thumbs up, so I will try it and comment. Even so, I always listen to the local weather report and go from there. When in doubt, I try a short flight without moving from my take-off spot and increase the MV height to what I plan to fly and if at any stage I get the warning of windy conditions on the remote, I just land and forget the flight plans I had.
BR,
Spanish Flyer

 

[mcjoshin]

I was down in Playa and felt exactly the same way, but got talked into flying by my buddy... Annnndddddd that's when I crashed for the first time... And again for the second time lol. Luckily the Mavic handled both crashes like a champ and other than a busted propeller and some palm tree colored markings on my drone, everything was fine.

The Mavic actually handled the wind quite well, much better than I anticipated. The problems come when it's time to land... Both times I crashed was trying to land when it was windy and we both mostly my fault due to inexperience. First time the Mavic stopped to ask me if I really wanted to land, and a big gust of wind slammed it into a palm tree. Second time was trying to land in a relatively closed in space and the wind was again pushing it around and my nervousness caused me to press the sticks the wrong way and hit a fence.


The key is just to make sure you've got enough room for a safe landing and you know your bird well. Once I started paying more attention to landing zone and waiting till the wind died down a bit to land it I was fine. Up in the air it did much better than I though it would, though anytime I got a wind warning I'd bring it in close and away from the water and be prepared for a quick landing just in case.