Windy conditions for a newbie

[jmlooper]

Hehe...yesterday I learned to not fly in the house anymore after hitting my 5K pool table, 10 ft ceilings don't matter if it goes sideways. Anyway, today I went out and braved the wind, afterall the manual states Cat4 winds are OK, yeah right...I had the drone on GPS mode and it had a hell of a time down low with swirling gusts. I raised it up to about 60ft and it caught wind and flew downwind. I had a difficult time getting it down. You can tell by the pitch of the rotorguards that it was fighting the wind. I switched to "Failsafe and it worked hard to stay in one spot. It would only hover at 60ft and would not descend. I switched the controller back on to regain control and was able to bring it down in the pasture. It sat there for a few seconds and while I was on the way to retrieve, it took off again and shot up to 60ft again and continued to "Go Home". I finally got it landed. I've only been doing this for a little over a week. Having some hard learnings but that's part of the fun.
This was really stressful considering the cost of the drone and my lack of skill. Needless to say, it took a few minutes to calm down. :shock:

http://youtu.be/V_XFZJTnKsk

There are some interesting points at 3:30 (Nuke plant in bkgrnd) and 5:36 (Close calls with the house...big gust)

Any input is greatly appreciated!

Cheers!
Joe

 

[BlackTracer]

If you switched the controller off after it landed, before switching off the phantom, that is why it took off again. It lost control signal and was doing what it does in that case; going home.

After landing always switch off your phantom before the controller. And don't forget to stop video recording before switching off the phantom, else you will have an unclosed video file until the next time you power on, in which case it will close, but you will lose the last 30 seconds of the video!!

Power on in this order: controller, extender, phantom.
Power off in this order: phantom, extender, controller.

 

[ilovecoffee]

Yeah those prop guards will catch wind. Better to fly without them IMHO. Usually if you hit something hard enough to make them worthwhile, you'll have bigger problems

Then learn to hand catch it instead of landing it on the ground if you want to avoid scuffing the props from it tipping to the side on a bad landing.

 

[dutch]

wow that was scary!
when they say cat4, it isn't on the hurricane scale!
that refers to 13-17 mph winds or so, and i'd say you
were well above that!
congrats on your first flight, how close was it to the
roof of the house???

 

[Meta4]

Your Phantom can fly at 30+ mph in GPS mode.
It should have no problem holding position in 20+ mph winds.
I've flown in stronger without issues.
You definitely want to lose those sails (propguards).
They cause more problems than they prevent.

 

[jmlooper]

If you switched the controller off after it landed, before switching off the phantom, that is why it took off again. It lost control signal and was doing what it does in that case; going home.

After landing always switch off your phantom before the controller. And don't forget to stop video recording before switching off the phantom, else you will have an unclosed video file until the next time you power on, in which case it will close, but you will lose the last 30 seconds of the video!!

Power on in this order: controller, extender, phantom.
Power off in this order: phantom, extender, controller.

Yep...that's exactly what happened. I figured it wouldn't be long before I got corrected on that one.

 

[jmlooper]

Yeah those prop guards will catch wind. Better to fly without them IMHO. Usually if you hit something hard enough to make them worthwhile, you'll have bigger problems

Then learn to hand catch it instead of landing it on the ground if you want to avoid scuffing the props from it tipping to the side on a bad landing.

I was concerned about the amount of wind they would catch. I put the taller landing gear on for more stability and gimbal clearance. I think i'll garner a bit more experience before I remove the "training wheels"

 

[jmlooper]

wow that was scary!
when they say cat4, it isn't on the hurricane scale!
that refers to 13-17 mph winds or so, and i'd say you
were well above that!
congrats on your first flight, how close was it to the
roof of the house???

That was close! I'm figuring a couple inches at full speed.Twice!! "UNCLE"

 

[jmlooper]

Your Phantom can fly at 30+ mph in GPS mode.
It should have no problem holding position in 20+ mph winds.
I've flown in stronger without issues.
You definitely want to lose those sails (propguards).
They cause more problems than they prevent.

In time my friend...Or until I get some more blades.

 

[MapMaker53]

Wow, each house has a large parcel of property in your neighborhood. I like that little round concrete landing pad.

 

[Meta4]

You definitely want to lose those sails (propguards).
They cause more problems than they prevent.

In time my friend...Or until I get some more blades.

I don't think you understood what I was saying.
Propguards cause more problems than they prevent.
Problems that result in broken Phantoms.

 

[lake_flyer]

I would only use prop guards when flying indoors or in the close proximity of other people or pets (which I don't anyway). They are mainly to protect bystanders from the spinning props.
But they don't protect your phantom much. You would damage the guards sooner than you would damage a prop and the prop guards are more expensive and less easy to replace.

I have 2 Phantoms for 6 months and hundreds of flights and never had to buy a new prop set. And I never used propguards.

 

[jmlooper]

Wow, each house has a large parcel of property in your neighborhood. I like that little round concrete landing pad.

I spent the last 5 years trying to figure out why the prior owner had that poured. I was thinking Spa (but why outside the pool fence?), or a trampoline base...No more wondering, it's my launch pad now.

 

[happydays]

Make sure it's not full of rebar or you may run into some issues!

Also, that was a fairly heavy landing. A few more of those and you could have even more issues!

The clip doesn't look normal to me. That craft is seriously fighting the wind and judging by the trees, the wind wasn't that hard.

This clip was filmed in really heavy winds - you can see by the wind trails on the reservoir, especially by the dam wall. There is no sign of my props in the shot (mind you, I film in narrow FOV, not wide) so I suspect you have something else going on there.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bia2nB8aqKc[/youtube]