Flying apps not so helpful

[marzipana]

Today I decided to leave my comfort zone and take my P3A to the beach - there's a nice area at the top of a cliff where I thought it would be a good spot to fly. I checked the UAV app before I left home, as it's about 30 mins drive from my place, and it told me it was safe to fly in that area I wanted to drive to. When I arrived, the wind was terrible - the Hover app wasn't any more helpful, as they were both telling me upon arrival that wind speed was around 12 kph, and it was safe to fly.

The wind was so strong that my shirt was flapping, the beach bushes were waving at me, the waves were crashing...needless to say, I didn't even pull my Phantom out of its case. I took a quick video with my iPhone and drove to another location, and then another, and the trees were moving wherever I went...So I came home with nothing, not daring to fly in the wind.

My AU weather app tells me the wind speed was 26 kph, presumably at ground level, and I don't understand why that is different to these apps which are supposed to advise on the safety aspects before flying.

Just feeling really annoyed, after all that driving and time wasted...I know, I'm just having a bit of a rant, but it's frustrating to check an area out before you drive there, only to find upon arriving that you can't fly because it's too windy.

What wind speed is okay to fly in?

Here's a quick vid of the bushes on the cliff top...

 

[With The Birds]

Has been my experience with the apps also (in Aus). Useless to be polite.

Even less fun is when the wind picks up from nothing mid flight. I got caught by an afternoon southerly at the beach and had an exciting time comming in to land. Convinced if i didnt go into atti mode i would have lost her, moving away from me at full stick in P mode

 

[GadgetGuy]

While I wouldn't recommend it for beginners, the P3 does quite well in winds up to 20 mph. I've frequently flown mine full speed into the wind and only been travelling at 12 mph. Just be careful, and allow extra time and safety room around obstacles during takeoff and landing where sudden gusts can make it tricky. I would not have hesitated to launch under those conditions in your video. Wind and rain, on the other hand, now that's an entirely different matter! Fly safely!

 

[marzipana]

Has been my experience with the apps also (in Aus). Useless to be polite.

Even less fun is when the wind picks up from nothing mid flight. I got caught by an afternoon southerly at the beach and had an exciting time comming in to land. Convinced if i didnt go into atti mode i would have lost her, moving away from me at full stick in P mode

Ah, yes, that would have made for a very uncomfortable flight...the wind is so unpredictable, it can seem totally calm and then from nowhere there's a gust. I'm still new to this flying business and that kind of rattles my confidence.

 

[marzipana]

While I wouldn't recommend it for beginners, the P3 does quite well in winds up to 20 mph. I've frequently flown mine full speed into the wind and only been travelling at 12 mph. Just be careful, and allow extra time and safety room around obstacles during takeoff and landing where sudden gusts can make it tricky. I would not have hesitated to launch under those conditions in your video. Wind and rain, on the other hand, now that's an entirely different matter! Fly safely!

I guess I'm trying to fly safely, LOL, which is why I didn't even unpack the bird. I know the video probably doesn't show just how windy it actually was, like I said, my shirt was flapping and I took out the sound, you can hear how windy it was in the original. The reason I wasn't game to try it is because the other day it was fairly windy here back home, and I was just hovering about head-height in my backyard to drain the battery down to 50% (still a new battery), and the bird was having a tough time staying in place, I was constantly on the sticks to keep it away from me and from any obstacles. It was just under 3m the entire time and it was a struggle, it certainly wasn't staying in place on its own. It did record a home point, too.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I guess I'm trying to fly safely, LOL, which is why I didn't even unpack the bird. I know the video probably doesn't show just how windy it actually was, like I said, my shirt was flapping and I took out the sound, you can hear how windy it was in the original. The reason I wasn't game to try it is because the other day it was fairly windy here back home, and I was just hovering about head-height in my backyard to drain the battery down to 50% (still a new battery), and the bird was having a tough time staying in place, I was constantly on the sticks to keep it away from me and from any obstacles. It was just under 3m the entire time and it was a struggle, it certainly wasn't staying in place on its own. It did record a home point, too.

It really depends upon what you want to do in the air. Hovering in place is only necessary during takeoff and landing. While flying around over the beach, any gusts won't have much impact upon the flight or the video, as long as you are up above any obstacles. Why were you draining down your battery to 50% by hovering? These batteries don't need any conditioning. Even the discharge to 8% (2% now) every 20 cycles is not for the battery, but only to reset the smart battery readouts.
Get her in the air quickly, fly around and have fun, and then handcatch as you walk toward the aircraft from below, while hovering as best you can, grabbing a strut, and pull down on the left stick for 3 seconds to shut her off!

 

[marzipana]

It really depends upon what you want to do in the air. Hovering in place is only necessary during takeoff and landing. While flying around over the beach, any gusts won't have much impact upon the flight or the video, as long as you are up above any obstacles. Why were you draining down your battery to 50% by hovering? These batteries don't need any conditioning. Even the discharge to 8% (2% now) every 20 cycles is not for the battery, but only to reset the smart battery readouts.

I've been doing the breaking in the battery cycles with it, where you fly for 10 mins or drain to 50% for the first 10 flights, as that is what many people suggest with a brand new battery? I've never seen anyone mention that the batteries don't need conditioning...and to be honest, I wasn't worried about whether the video would be impacted, but the Phantom itself - I had a fly away on my second day with my first Phantom because it suddenly switched out of PGPS into POPTI and it went sailing away with the wind and into a tree. That unit was replaced by the distributor, but it has made me very wary.

After that experience I purchased a Syma and I've flown that quite successfully, but I tend to stick to days or evenings where there is little or no wind.

 

[tcope]

I don't recommend flying in this strong of wind but here you go...

 

[marzipana]

I don't recommend flying in this strong of wind but here you go...

Don't worry, I wouldn't attempt it! I mean, it's very impressive but I've discovered that these things can easily switch out of GPS mode - at least, that was my experience, and it took off and I was completely new to it and totally unprepared - I was hardly touching the sticks hoping it would hover and it sailed into a tall tree before plummeting to the ground. And because I was watching the bird and not my screen, I didn't even realise it had gone into P-Opti mode for some inexplicable reason.

So if this guy lost GPS while he was clowning around, his bird would have taken off in a mighty big hurry.


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