Flying at an angle to the wind to make headway into the wind, how or why does it apparently work?

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I recently had a scare where I put my P3 up above tree level and boom the wind took it, entirely my fault no questions asked. Thankfully I managed to get it back safely but it was a close run thing and at one point I was considering flying into the ground to avoid a flyaway.
Since then I have been gone through some youtube videos concerning blown away drones. Whilst doing so I have seen a number of respondants say that if, when flying directly into the wind, the drone can not make headway then flying at an angle to the wind may work.

To me this implies that the drone's maximum airspeed when flying at an angle to the wind MUST be faster than its maximum airspeed when flying directly into wind.
Does this approach work, if so can anyone explain how it works?
 
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Correct, it doesn't work. Your drone is flying in a moving airmass. It doesn't matter which direction it is going. It can only cover ground into the wind at a specific ground speed. You cannot compare it to a sailboat which is attached to the surface.
 
Yep
Yeah, I was in that and thought it would be better for
you to read that thread than explain it. ?
Ta.
I have been in a small sail boat (dinghy) that was sailing across the wind to the beach, as the centre board (keel) was lifted, to keep from grounding, she'd go sideways, LONG time ago lol.
 
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Hi PhiliusFoggg,

Think of it like a fish tank, a fish is on the right end of the tank next to the front of the glass. And looks out of the glass to his left and sees a pretty fish in another tank just a few inches ahead of him. As he begins swimming forward to get a better look, you move his fishtank to the right at the same rate he is swimming. That's of course a cruel prank, but a Drone in a body of wind has the same problem.

Flying your Drone at an angle to the wind makes no sense, unless the wind is blowing at an angle to your intended course. Wind speed would the defining factor. It's the age old conundrum, you wish to fly your family in your airplane 100 miles east to a birthday party. Your Cessna cruises at 100 mph and has a flight duration of 4 hours, so it would take you about an hour to get there. However there is a 100 mph wind from the south. How long would it take to get there under these conditions?

Captain Bill
 
You can't? If you fly across the wind you are blown down wind i.e. north. The into wind component will be less than 100mph so even though you are going east you are also going north
 
A drone is not a windsurf as this has been said in post #5. The windsurf or a sailboat has its "ground" in the water thus the sailing into the wind at around 30% angle works, A drone is flying with the wind and has only its motors to resist the wind. It will fly faster if flying at an angle left or right to the wind direction but at the same time the wind will continue to push it away. The final result - the drone will be pushed away even further.
The only reasonable action in such situation is to fly into the wind with full speed (sport mode) and quickly reduce the altitude as much as possible. Wind is slower near to the ground. But I'm sure you already know that.
However the best thing is checking the wind situation before each take off. I personally won't fly in winds over 30 km/h.
 

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