P4 struggling in 21 mph winds?

[turbmeister]

Hi I was just wondering if it is normal for the p4 to struggle coming back home in 21 mph winds. Flew about 2 miles out , I nearly had to wrestle it back . It would not move in gps mode , sport mode barely did anything . Atti mode was the only mode where the p4 actually started to move but only about 5 mph. Thank god I made it home at 24 percent battery . Also my voltage was dropping pretty low to about 3.58. Is my bird ok or was the wind too much?


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[GrammatonxXXxCleric]

Are you kidding?? You fly in that speed, Phantom is lucky to make it back to kiss you...

 

[Mark The Droner]

Are you sure it was only 21 mph? Where did you get this wind speed?

 

[Lucone]

Brave! Lol. I'm confident my p4 is stable and will fly well in winds up to 10 mph. Anything faster than that and I'll keep it relatively low and close. It's just not worth flying far away risking complication like not being able to come home! I think you'll notice they're very capable machines, it's just that battery life management that can be tricky.


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[RW-1]

How high up?

Wind speed at the surface is typically 10-15Kias slower than at altitude, even as high as 300-500ft. Direction can vary as well by 10-15deg.

 

[GrammatonxXXxCleric]

Me and My drone braved 50 mph winds.... (We sat and ate popcorn watching artic research teams battle the tundra)

 

[Erised]

21mph on the ground could be a lot more at elevation. A good practice to fly distance is to check wind direction and speed before you venture out. Take it up about 100 feet then switch to atti, check your direction of drift and speed, then fly against that in s mode till you reach 60% battery then turn around, once you get back home you will have enough battery to fly around close for a few minutes to get your battery down around 20%. Always give yourself plenty of reserve power as the wind may change direction in flight. The long range pilots know their bird and wind speed and have experience and some just dumb luck. Don't try to break your records until you have a good knowledge of flight or we may be reading another post "I just lost my drone" . If you fly at full power for too long your battery will drop lots of voltage, you have to keep an eye on this when pushing hard.

 

[DoubleV]

Why do people fly downwind? If you're gonna fly when it's windy do yourself a favor and fly into the wind after takeoff.

 

[GrammatonxXXxCleric]

I won't fly if wind is above 10mph. ... unless it's a CNN moment....

 

[turbmeister]

Well I looked at the forecast after , says sw wind 21 mph. I was about 1.8 miles out and 385 feet in the air . It's had no problem getting to the location I was aiming for but on the way back it seemed like it just got stuck in one spot until I switched it to atti mode. Any how i learned my lesson today after almost being heartbroken . lol thought I was going to lose my p4 . This is also my first drone .


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[Patrick]

Well I looked at the forecast after , says sw wind 21 mph. I was about 1.8 miles out and 385 feet in the air . It's had no problem getting to the location I was aiming for but on the way back it seemed like it just got stuck in one spot until I switched it to atti mode. Any how i learned my lesson today after almost being heartbroken . lol thought I was going to lose my p4 . This is also my first drone .


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i would bet the wind speed was greater than 21 MPH at the altitude you were flying at, if it struggled that much considering sport mode is rated at 45MPH+ i chicken out at wind speeds greater than 20 at the desired altitude. also keep in mind i would not really trust the forecast, best to do measuring with a handheld anemometer then extrapolate the added wind speed with altitude.

 

[morph1]

I flew the other day in 30 km /h winds with no problem in sport mode, it was nuts to see the P4 flying with the wind lol I wonder what speeds I was reaching on full throttle with the wind.
anyone flying with DJI go 4 ? does it indicate km / miles per hour on the display like the with Mavic ?

 

[Mark The Droner]

Bookmark this: www.uavforecast.com

and this: www.windytv.com

You might want to get into the habit of checking the wind at 300-400 feet each time before you fly. There can be as much as 15 mph stronger winds up there than on the surface.

 

[Patrick]

Bookmark this: www.uavforecast.com

and this: www.windytv.com

You might want to get into the habit of checking the wind at 300-400 feet each time before you fly. There can be as much as 15 mph stronger winds up there than on the surface.

i used to watch this like a hawk when i had my P2, wind used to make me really nervous, the newer DJI quads handle the wind so much better I rarely pay attention . for me the biggest benefit of the P4 is how it handles the wind!

 

[Mark The Droner]

Depends on your flying style. If you're just flying around, that's great. If you fly max distance every flight, you really need to check that wind. Head wind, tail wind, cross wind, increasing, decreasing? All five of those make or break my decision to fly.

 

[John Locke]

Winds cannot be estimated from a forecast, no way. For ground speed you'd need a wind meter to come close to a good estimate, as it can vary a lot up high versus down low. Floating in ATTI is an accurate way to measure wind speed at altitude. Wind varies a lot based on altitude, time and intensity of the wind storm you get (story below). You know your drone will do 40+mph in sport mode. That mode is faster than ATTI mode, about 9 to 10mph faster, (33mph versus 43mph) so Sport mode is your best bet for fighting wind. In your case, when you were in sport mode, you likely had a momentary gust of wind, and when you switched to ATTI, the wind subsided, coincidentally, making you think ATTI was best. When you find yourself in this predicament, the best thing to do is get as low to the ground as you feel comfortable and full throttle it back in S mode.

I had some "Santa Ana" winds on Sunday afternoon in Anaheim hills. What a mistake to fly that day. Keep in mind I've flown in 20 to 25mph winds many times before (measured with wind meter), I'm not really afraid of getting my craft back in consistent wind. However, Sunday was a bit scary. I'm out flying in 15mph winds, measured by floating in ATTI mode for 20 seconds. Having a great time running my new 5870mah battery for the first time in my P4. Then.... out of the blue.....all heck broke loose and the wind kicked up while I'm about 3000' away crosswind, so I headed back home. By the time I got home the wind kicked up to 35mph (estimated only by feel), maybe more. It was crazy, it blew my ballcap off. There was no way to land it on the ground without stuffing it into the bushes, way too intense to set it down. I always hand catch anyway, I'm very comfortable with hand catching and very experienced doing it (IMHO). However my craft was bouncing up and down about 1' at a time, randomly to the wind, and the craft was sitting at about a 30 degree pitch just to hover in the same place. This was pretty crazy, something I had never experienced while flying. I was wishing I had gloves on to catch this thing. However, after patiently waiting for the right moment, I grabbed it and everything was good. I had 13% left. whew. I put my tail between my legs and humbly drove home, slow . I had been shown my flight limits on Sunday. I haven't reviewed the video yet, that might be interesting at landing.

 

[GrammatonxXXxCleric]

Winds cannot be estimated from a forecast, no way. For ground speed you'd need a wind meter to come close to a good estimate, as it can vary a lot up high versus down low. Floating in ATTI is an accurate way to measure wind speed at altitude. Wind varies a lot based on altitude, time and intensity of the wind storm you get (story below). You know your drone will do 40+mph in sport mode. That mode is faster than ATTI mode, about 9 to 10mph faster, (33mph versus 43mph) so Sport mode is your best bet for fighting wind. In your case, when you were in sport mode, you likely had a momentary gust of wind, and when you switched to ATTI, the wind subsided, coincidentally, making you think ATTI was best. When you find yourself in this predicament, the best thing to do is get as low to the ground as you feel comfortable and full throttle it back in S mode.

I had some "Santa Ana" winds on Sunday afternoon in Anaheim hills. What a mistake to fly that day. Keep in mind I've flown in 20 to 25mph winds many times before (measured with wind meter), I'm not really afraid of getting my craft back in consistent wind. However, Sunday was a bit scary. I'm out flying in 15mph winds, measured by floating in ATTI mode for 20 seconds. Having a great time running my new 5870mah battery for the first time in my P4. Then.... out of the blue.....all heck broke loose and the wind kicked up while I'm about 3000' away crosswind, so I headed back home. By the time I got home the wind kicked up to 35mph (estimated only by feel), maybe more. It was crazy, it blew my ballcap off. There was no way to land it on the ground without stuffing it into the bushes, way too intense to set it down. I always hand catch anyway, I'm very comfortable with hand catching and very experienced doing it (IMHO). However my craft was bouncing up and down about 1' at a time, randomly to the wind, and the craft was sitting at about a 30 degree pitch just to hover in the same place. This was pretty crazy, something I had never experienced while flying. I was wishing I had gloves on to catch this thing. However, after patiently waiting for the right moment, I grabbed it and everything was good. I had 13% left. whew. I put my tail between my legs and humbly drove home, slow . I had been shown my flight limits on Sunday. I haven't reviewed the video yet, that might be interesting at landing.

Those Santa Ana's are something else... Lived for a long time in Orange County, and they funnel through focusing along the 91 fwy.

 

[Patrick]

Winds cannot be estimated from a forecast, no way. For ground speed you'd need a wind meter to come close to a good estimate, as it can vary a lot up high versus down low. Floating in ATTI is an accurate way to measure wind speed at altitude. Wind varies a lot based on altitude, time and intensity of the wind storm you get (story below). You know your drone will do 40+mph in sport mode. That mode is faster than ATTI mode, about 9 to 10mph faster, (33mph versus 43mph) so Sport mode is your best bet for fighting wind. In your case, when you were in sport mode, you likely had a momentary gust of wind, and when you switched to ATTI, the wind subsided, coincidentally, making you think ATTI was best. When you find yourself in this predicament, the best thing to do is get as low to the ground as you feel comfortable and full throttle it back in S mode.

I had some "Santa Ana" winds on Sunday afternoon in Anaheim hills. What a mistake to fly that day. Keep in mind I've flown in 20 to 25mph winds many times before (measured with wind meter), I'm not really afraid of getting my craft back in consistent wind. However, Sunday was a bit scary. I'm out flying in 15mph winds, measured by floating in ATTI mode for 20 seconds. Having a great time running my new 5870mah battery for the first time in my P4. Then.... out of the blue.....all heck broke loose and the wind kicked up while I'm about 3000' away crosswind, so I headed back home. By the time I got home the wind kicked up to 35mph (estimated only by feel), maybe more. It was crazy, it blew my ballcap off. There was no way to land it on the ground without stuffing it into the bushes, way too intense to set it down. I always hand catch anyway, I'm very comfortable with hand catching and very experienced doing it (IMHO). However my craft was bouncing up and down about 1' at a time, randomly to the wind, and the craft was sitting at about a 30 degree pitch just to hover in the same place. This was pretty crazy, something I had never experienced while flying. I was wishing I had gloves on to catch this thing. However, after patiently waiting for the right moment, I grabbed it and everything was good. I had 13% left. whew. I put my tail between my legs and humbly drove home, slow . I had been shown my flight limits on Sunday. I haven't reviewed the video yet, that might be interesting at landing.

Letting her float in ATTI is a great pro tip to really judge what the wind is doing! its really the only way to get a good feel for what your in for if you lose GPS.

 

[ibxnc]

I live on the Pamlico River in Eastern North Carolina, USA. The opposing shoreline is nearly 5 miles across, and quite often we experience windy conditions. I have a P4 ( about 4 weeks now) and have found it to be quite stable in winds sustained at 10 to 15 mph and gusting to maybe 25 mph. I always, however, launch into the wind so as to return with the wind, just as I would in a kayak, canoe, or swimming. I sometimes use sport mode to go into the wind, while paying attention to not using up too much battery going out. I insure the home point, RTH altitude, compass calibration and adequate satellites are acquired prior to launching. I pay particular attention to the battery strength and rc signal strength when flying in these conditions. Thus far I am very impressed with the P4 in windy conditions.

 

[Samuel stanley]

Fly in sport mode

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