A bit disappointed yesterday; P4P vs Mavic Pro

[TxPhantom4Pro2017]

Greetings everyone,

I wanted to share with everyone what transpired earlier in the week while out taking commercial aerial shots of a building in Oklahoma City. No, this is not a P4P vs Mavic Pro thread. Nor is it even a remotely scientific analysis of my findings. It's simply something that happened earlier in the week based off of a real world scenario.

I was going to photograph a building in Oklahoma City and the winds were rather gusty (as is the case quite often in the OKC area). I had taken along both my Phantom 4 Pro Obsidian along with my Mavic Pro 'just in case'.

I began by taking out the Phantom. Set everything up and I was ready to go. Upon first attempt at lift off, the wind caught it and the bird tumbled like a tumbleweed across the lawn. Made a second attempt to get her airborne and man o' man was it struggling. The Phantom was having what seemed to be one helluva time negotiating the wind. It was leaning so far left I thought for a moment that it was going to flip. I decided not to press my luck and landed it before things got worse. I didn't even make it any more than 30-40 feet in the air.

I then took out the Mavic Pro. My anemometer reading was in the same neighborhood as when I tried to fly the Phantom. Upon lift off, the Mavic Pro took to the air like a champ. There was initial 'let me get used to the wind' stuff going on. But then, steady and off she went. Flew like a freaking champ and did everything I needed for it to do; and then some.

My disappointment was that I expected more from the Phantom and darn sure didn't expect for it to be outhandled by the Mavic Pro where the wind was concerned. Kind of lost a bit of confidence in the thing (somewhat), to be candid.

 

[Fly Dawg]

What was the actual wind speed in this incident. The Phantom should have easily handled 20mph at low altitude. I know my P3 has handles that without much difficulty. Although I grant you, my rule is I don't fly in 15mph+ winds, at least at normal flying altitudes anyway.

 

[TxPhantom4Pro2017]

25+ gusts here and there. The winds were rather gusty in OKC earlier in the week with 35-45 gusts on occasion (i didn't try to fly in those winds).

 

[John Locke]

The P4P will perform in wind better photography-wise, but you need to learn the limitations of the craft in wind, and how to adapt.

With wind like you describe, I've had the same thing happen when taking off from ground, flipping. The REV REV of the motor is what does that. If the angle of props to the wind is just right, it will flip over upon starting the motors. That first experience of the flip at launch changed my launch process in wind. I will never take off in wind like that again. There are two ways to adapt. The easiest and most flexible is to hand launch, facing downwind, but you need a harness for the radio to do that safely. If you practice the hand launch process you'll learn why the harness is needed, and how to do it safely. The other way to launch is using a wall or building to block the wind for initial take-off. And for landing you must always hand catch, otherwise you will likely ruin some props when you land in a gust of wind.

Another way to mitigate a launch flip as you have described is to modify the craft parameters and disable the REV REV during motor startup, and also lower the idle speed down to 50% normal. I can't tell you how much I like those two changes, the motors start up silent, you can hardly hear the props when idling on the ground. This slow idle and no REV REV alleviates most wind risk at launch, but if it's really blowing, > 20mph, I will hand launch.

The Mavic doesn't have wind risk flip issues that Phantom does, due to it's lower profile and low center of gravity. However the Mavic does have camera issues. The P4P is simply a better camera with better optics, no argument there.

 

[TxPhantom4Pro2017]

The P4P will perform in wind better photography-wise, but you need to learn the limitations of the craft in wind, and how to adapt.

With wind like you describe, I've had the same thing happen when taking off from ground, flipping. The REV REV of the motor is what does that. If the angle of props to the wind is just right, it will flip over upon starting the motors. That first experience of the flip at launch changed my launch process in wind. I will never take off in wind like that again. There are two ways to adapt. The easiest and most flexible is to hand launch, facing downwind, but you need a harness for the radio to do that safely. If you practice the hand launch process you'll learn why the harness is needed, and how to do it safely. The other way to launch is using a wall or building to block the wind for initial take-off. And for landing you must always hand catch, otherwise you will likely ruin some props when you land in a gust of wind.

Another way to mitigate a launch flip as you have described is to modify the craft parameters and disable the REV REV during motor startup, and also lower the idle speed down to 50% normal. I can't tell you how much I like those to changes, the motor start up silent, you can hardly even hear the props when idling on the ground. This slow idle and no REV REV alleviates most wind risk at launch, but if it's really blowing, > 20mph, I will hand launch.

The Mavic doesn't have wind risk flip issues that Phantom does, due to it's lower profile and low center of gravity. However the Mavic does have camera issues. The P4P is simply a better camera with better optics, no argument there.

Insanely good info. Thank you. I'll be candid, I hadn't a clue that one could disable the REV REV during motor startup and lower idle speed down to 50%. I'm assuming this is within the software menu system somewhere?

 

[John Locke]

Insanely good info. Thank you. I'll be candid, I hadn't a clue that one could disable the REV REV during motor startup and lower idle speed down to 50%. I'm assuming this is within the software menu system somewhere?

No, it's not that easy. That's a whole different subject, and requires a hack into the parameter setting of the craft. Search YouTube for "Phantom Parameter Modifications" and you should be able to find it. We can't discuss this subject in this forum, that's taboo, but it requires craft firmware 1.3.509 or older to get access to the settings.

 

[TxPhantom4Pro2017]

The P4P will perform in wind better photography-wise, but you need to learn the limitations of the craft in wind, and how to adapt.

With wind like you describe, I've had the same thing happen when taking off from ground, flipping. The REV REV of the motor is what does that. If the angle of props to the wind is just right, it will flip over upon starting the motors. That first experience of the flip at launch changed my launch process in wind. I will never take off in wind like that again. There are two ways to adapt. The easiest and most flexible is to hand launch, facing downwind, but you need a harness for the radio to do that safely. If you practice the hand launch process you'll learn why the harness is needed, and how to do it safely. The other way to launch is using a wall or building to block the wind for initial take-off. And for landing you must always hand catch, otherwise you will likely ruin some props when you land in a gust of wind.

Another way to mitigate a launch flip as you have described is to modify the craft parameters and disable the REV REV during motor startup, and also lower the idle speed down to 50% normal. I can't tell you how much I like those to changes, the motors start up silent, you can hardly hear the props when idling on the ground. This slow idle and no REV REV alleviates most wind risk at launch, but if it's really blowing, > 20mph, I will hand launch.

The Mavic doesn't have wind risk flip issues that Phantom does, due to it's lower profile and low center of gravity. However the Mavic does have camera issues. The P4P is simply a better camera with better optics, no argument there.

No, it's not that easy. That's a whole different subject, and requires a hack into the parameter setting of the craft. Search YouTube for "Phantom Parameter Modifications" and you should be able to find it. We can't discuss this subject in this forum, that's taboo, but it requires craft firmware 1.3.509 or older to get access to the settings.

Gotcha. Thanks.

 

[gingerbloke]

I took my PfCO flight exam on a very gusty day and the guys with the Mavics definitely had an easier time of it. We were all very impressed with the way it flew.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Greetings everyone,

I wanted to share with everyone what transpired earlier in the week while out taking commercial aerial shots of a building in Oklahoma City. No, this is not a P4P vs Mavic Pro thread. Nor is it even a remotely scientific analysis of my findings. It's simply something that happened earlier in the week based off of a real world scenario.

I was going to photograph a building in Oklahoma City and the winds were rather gusty (as is the case quite often in the OKC area). I had taken along both my Phantom 4 Pro Obsidian along with my Mavic Pro 'just in case'.

I began by taking out the Phantom. Set everything up and I was ready to go. Upon first attempt at lift off, the wind caught it and the bird tumbled like a tumbleweed across the lawn. Made a second attempt to get her airborne and man o' man was it struggling. The Phantom was having what seemed to be one helluva time negotiating the wind. It was leaning so far left I thought for a moment that it was going to flip. I decided not to press my luck and landed it before things got worse. I didn't even make it any more than 30-40 feet in the air.

I then took out the Mavic Pro. My anemometer reading was in the same neighborhood as when I tried to fly the Phantom. Upon lift off, the Mavic Pro took to the air like a champ. There was initial 'let me get used to the wind' stuff going on. But then, steady and off she went. Flew like a freaking champ and did everything I needed for it to do; and then some.

My disappointment was that I expected more from the Phantom and darn sure didn't expect for it to be outhandled by the Mavic Pro where the wind was concerned. Kind of lost a bit of confidence in the thing (somewhat), to be candid.

Your initial flip of the P4P, during the attempted launch from the ground, leading to "the bird tumbled like a tumbleweed across the lawn. " likely altered the P4P IMU calibration. Had that not happened, the P4P should have handled the wind better than the Mavic. Be sure and check all calibrations on the P4P, and recalibrate the IMU's after any crash like that.

 

[Dredd]

Greetings everyone,

I wanted to share with everyone what transpired earlier in the week while out taking commercial aerial shots of a building in Oklahoma City. No, this is not a P4P vs Mavic Pro thread. Nor is it even a remotely scientific analysis of my findings. It's simply something that happened earlier in the week based off of a real world scenario.

I was going to photograph a building in Oklahoma City and the winds were rather gusty (as is the case quite often in the OKC area). I had taken along both my Phantom 4 Pro Obsidian along with my Mavic Pro 'just in case'.

I began by taking out the Phantom. Set everything up and I was ready to go. Upon first attempt at lift off, the wind caught it and the bird tumbled like a tumbleweed across the lawn. Made a second attempt to get her airborne and man o' man was it struggling. The Phantom was having what seemed to be one helluva time negotiating the wind. It was leaning so far left I thought for a moment that it was going to flip. I decided not to press my luck and landed it before things got worse. I didn't even make it any more than 30-40 feet in the air.

I then took out the Mavic Pro. My anemometer reading was in the same neighborhood as when I tried to fly the Phantom. Upon lift off, the Mavic Pro took to the air like a champ. There was initial 'let me get used to the wind' stuff going on. But then, steady and off she went. Flew like a freaking champ and did everything I needed for it to do; and then some.

My disappointment was that I expected more from the Phantom and darn sure didn't expect for it to be outhandled by the Mavic Pro where the wind was concerned. Kind of lost a bit of confidence in the thing (somewhat), to be candid.

Maybel

Greetings everyone,

I wanted to share with everyone what transpired earlier in the week while out taking commercial aerial shots of a building in Oklahoma City. No, this is not a P4P vs Mavic Pro thread. Nor is it even a remotely scientific analysis of my findings. It's simply something that happened earlier in the week based off of a real world scenario.

I was going to photograph a building in Oklahoma City and the winds were rather gusty (as is the case quite often in the OKC area). I had taken along both my Phantom 4 Pro Obsidian along with my Mavic Pro 'just in case'.

I began by taking out the Phantom. Set everything up and I was ready to go. Upon first attempt at lift off, the wind caught it and the bird tumbled like a tumbleweed across the lawn. Made a second attempt to get her airborne and man o' man was it struggling. The Phantom was having what seemed to be one helluva time negotiating the wind. It was leaning so far left I thought for a moment that it was going to flip. I decided not to press my luck and landed it before things got worse. I didn't even make it any more than 30-40 feet in the air.

I then took out the Mavic Pro. My anemometer reading was in the same neighborhood as when I tried to fly the Phantom. Upon lift off, the Mavic Pro took to the air like a champ. There was initial 'let me get used to the wind' stuff going on. But then, steady and off she went. Flew like a freaking champ and did everything I needed for it to do; and then some.

My disappointment was that I expected more from the Phantom and darn sure didn't expect for it to be outhandled by the Mavic Pro where the wind was concerned. Kind of lost a bit of confidence in the thing (somewhat), to be candid.

Ive flown mine behind a jumbo and it was like whaaaat, you huffing & puffing on my props... no seriously I’ve not had issues even in crazy winds with my P4P

 

[GadgetGuy]

Maybel


Ive flown mine behind a jumbo and it was like whaaaat, you huffing & puffing on my props... no seriously I’ve not had issues even in crazy winds with my P4P

Only issues I have with the P4P in high winds are with the gimbal flipping, when flying sideways to the right. The aircraft itself is fine, even as it slows down, flying into the wind! As long as I can make forward progress, I'm fine! Just don't fly downwind on the outward leg or you might not make it back!

 

[Miltrez]

I am constantly battling winds here in Oklahoma, but last week was out of the ordinary. Of the 160 flights I have done in this region through the last year, it was the first time I actually postponed a flight until later in the afternoon. Homeowner completely understood. Most of the time they get it. It’s the idiot ones that you have to explain it to that makes it difficult sometimes here in Okieland...