Amazing Clear Air Turbulence Recovery

Dennis Frantz · Jul 25, 2021

I was orbiting Lake Livingston Dam at 350 feet at the Trinity River when out of no where a very strong gust of clear air turbulence nearly turned the Phantom 4 Pro on its head.
I’ve been flying Phantom aircraft since 2015 and this has only happened to me one other time. The other near crash was with a Phantom 3 pro and it also recovered. The winds that day were very light as one can tell by looking at a very calm Lake Livingston. This is an amazing piece of technology. The little Phantom that could.

Dennis Frantz · Jul 25, 2021

Deleted member 62848 · Jul 25, 2021

I think you have just experienced the p4 cam tilt which gives impression of nearly inverted flight,,
For some reason the cam does this and many have had it happen including myself,these cam tilts can happen in some wind,no wind while turning and some just do it,
Certainly can make things scary,I will find my picture and add,,,,,these 2 below are screenshot from video ,,,myself unsure exactly why this happens,but pretty common, sometimes I think the gimble motor just let's go for a bit !, I presume this can also happen with the p3 cause a few come up under search logo above,,you got a nice area to fly there

Meta4 · Jul 25, 2021

Dennis Frantz said:
I was orbiting Lake Livingston Dam at 350 feet at the Trinity River when out of no where a very strong gust of clear air turbulence nearly turned the Phantom 4 Pro on its head.

As mentioned above, that looks like a gimbal glitch, possibly due to wind from a particular angle.
If you post your flight data, it's likely to confirm that the drone was perfectly stable the whole time.

Pygar70 · Jul 25, 2021

Temporary gimbal failure is triggered by lateral pressure. It only occurs for me when I'm flying sideways into the wind - never facing the wind.
In your video you can gauge the wind direction from the movement of the waves on the surface of the dam - visible from about 18 sec. The incident occurred as soon as your drone rotated directly into the wind. The wind speed encountered by your drone at elevation may well have been higher than 0-4 mph.

You've done well to have only had this happen once before in six years of flying. It's probably testament to how you fly or the weather conditions in which you choose to fly.

Adamborz · Jul 26, 2021

My gimbal started with small glitches, then larger movements like depicted in this video. Ended up needing to be replaced.

RPP · Jul 28, 2021

Some months ago I was flying in wind gusts and almost lost the P4Pv2. It is one tough bird. See -

Gone With The Wind

Photography from Iceland and Goa by Rajan Parrikar.

blog.parrikar.com

Meta4 · Jul 28, 2021

RPP said:
Some months ago I was flying in wind gusts and almost lost the P4Pv2. It is one tough bird.

You didn't almost lose your drone and it would have been in stable flight the whole time.
That's your gimbal being buffeted by the wind on the side.
It had no effect on the drone.
Your flight data would confirm that.

RPP · Jul 28, 2021

Meta4 said:
You didn't almost lose your drone and it would have been in stable flight the whole time.
That's your gimbal being buffeted by the wind on the side.
It had no effect on the drone.
Your flight data would confirm that.

The gimbal was knocked out yes, but I was operating well outside the envelope of safe flight. The gusts in Iceland are deadly enough to take down the drone and on that day they were very strong. I had trouble just getting the drone off the ground and had to shelter it behind my vehicle to get it to launch.

Added: in Iceland often the gusts come out of nowhere. There could be a strong wind and you feel it is stable enough. And then when you just think it's safe...

Deleted member 62848 · Jul 28, 2021

RPP said:
The gimbal was knocked out yes, but I was operating well outside the envelope of safe flight. The gusts in Iceland are deadly enough to take down the drone and on that day they were very strong. I had trouble just getting the drone off the ground and had to shelter it behind my vehicle to get it to launch.

Added: in Iceland often the gusts come out of nowhere. There could be a strong wind and you feel it is stable enough. And then when you just think it's safe...

Yip that's exactly what happened in my above screenshot, I was flying low and because that happen I almost fly into the sea,cam tilt crossed with limp gimble,,
My experience in the wind and it gets windy in NZ a high wind prompt comes onscreen to land now,
Pitty that happen in you clip,,it wrecked a nice video
Ha yeh I've had to use objects to hide behind to launch and lots of close call hand catches, leather wielding gloves make for good protection during windy hand catching

Meta4 · Jul 28, 2021

RPP said:
Added: in Iceland often the gusts come out of nowhere. There could be a strong wind and you feel it is stable enough. And then when you just think it's safe...

I think it's safe because it was.
Your drone wasn't knocked around in that video, it was the gimbal being stuck.
I see it happen on my drone too.
As I said, your flight data from the flight would confirm that the drone did not get tossed around like you think it did.

lasersbee · Aug 1, 2021

RPP said:
The gimbal was knocked out yes, but I was operating well outside the envelope of safe flight. The gusts in Iceland are deadly enough to take down the drone and on that day they were very strong. I had trouble just getting the drone off the ground and had to shelter it behind my vehicle to get it to launch.

Added: in Iceland often the gusts come out of nowhere. There could be a strong wind and you feel it is stable enough. And then when you just think it's safe...

Why would you even risk flying and expensive drone in such conditions ??

Jerry