I took my mini on it's maiden up into the air yesterday in mild wind. First battery did WONDERFUL! loved it. Flew it around the Sapp Bros "Kettle" water tower. just had a ball with it. Doing orbits, checking everything out, tried the RTH, just loving this thing!      Second battery i flew for half a battery (60%), Landed, and gave controller to my friend. 5 minutes into his flight when mini was 150ft in the air, wind kicked up hard and pushed mini away from us. I took control, turned into wind (I knew what direction it was coming from) and put full forward cyclic. Mini was still moving backwards so I threw it into sport mode and it just hovered in place fighting wind (i still had the cyclic full foward) . the wind kicked it around left and right. Tried to descend to get out of high wind above only to come down near trees and antennae. Just kept full cyclic forward and fought not giving up. had to take it back up some to avoid hitting anything but back into stonger wind.        Low battery warning! did my best and finally got it down to a relatively safe area and snatched  it out of the air and flipped it over quickly to kill the motors, but not before one of the props made mince meat out of my middle finger. 13% battery left, No damage to mini, props or anything. Damage to my finger and pride. Exhausted from panic and still bleeding everywhere. we packed up and went home. Lesson learned. NEVER get complacent! I plan on making a video from the drone capture vid and the flight log (if i can somehow make it a playable video format) to showcase what can happen.          A lot of people have complained about flyaways, but my drone did the exact same thing as theirs did in the video. (Wind kicked it hard to the right)  However I know for a FACT in was wind high up and little to no wind on the surface. Even after we got it down the breeze was light near us, but the clouds were racing. so yea, high level wind. Still I'm quite proud of this little 249g drone! Now I just have to make it into a video somehow...... EDIT: Finished Video of this event:

Do you happen to know the speed of the wind when you were flying? Curious as to what the true limits of the mini are when it comes to wind.

Interesting post. How much damage did you do to your finger?

I don't. I'm trying to find the wind conditions for that area at that time. I can guess but that is hardly scientific. Also, another point to mention. I'm in Cheyenne, Wy. Elevation 6,000 ft. So performance is already degraded for the mini.

Knapweed Posted at 12-3 22:09
Interesting post. How much damage did you do to your finger?

Sliced the tip 4 times. Cut like a knife. Not deep, but deep enough for each cut to bleed. And hurt of course

Jollyroger Hobbies Posted at 12-3 22:12
Sliced the tip 4 times. Cut like a knife. Not deep, but deep enough for each cut to bleed. And hurt of course

Ouch! Those little props are pretty sharp. Is it true what they say, was the first cut the deepest?

Bjord Posted at 12-3 21:44
Do you happen to know the speed of the wind when you were flying? Curious as to what the true limits of the mini are when it comes to wind.

According to weatherbug, the wind an hour before was steady at 18mph. (Didn't feel like that to me). Next reading an hour later (five minutes before flight) said 20mph with gusts to 28mph. Next reading an hour later had wind at 36, gusts to 48 mph. Flight lasted 10 minutes total. At the 20mph, gusts to 28 mark. However, that is measured at the surface. No clue what it was 150ft in the air. Also, the closest weather station the history came from was at the airport about 15 miles to the west.

Knapweed Posted at 12-3 22:25
Ouch! Those little props are pretty sharp. Is it true what they say, was the first cut the deepest?

Lol, I have to idea which cut was the first!

Knapweed Posted at 12-3 22:25
Ouch! Those little props are pretty sharp. Is it true what they say, was the first cut the deepest?

Lol, I have to idea which cut was the first! But I know it hurt like heck.I grabbed it and flipped it over all in a "split" second. puin intended!

"Damage to my finger and pride."
Come on, only to your finger!
You won the fight against the nature!
Be proud! ;-)

Jollyroger Hobbies Posted at 12-3 22:36
According to weatherbug, the wind an hour before was steady at 18mph. (Didn't feel like that to me). Next reading an hour later (five minutes before flight) said 20mph with gusts to 28mph. Next reading an hour later had wind at 36, gusts to 48 mph. Flight lasted 10 minutes total. At the 20mph, gusts to 28 mark. However, that is measured at the surface. No clue what it was 150ft in the air. Also, the closest weather station the history came from was at the airport about 15 miles to the west.

get UAV forecast on your phone.
You can select the wind altitude there

Whoa, 6000ft (1828.8m) and 18mph (8m/s) - that's quite pushing it... I have not yet dared to fly in wind over 5-6m/s (~11.5mpg) with gusts over 15m/s (33mph) at 1900f latitude...

At best I am impressed that you managed to save your Mini... Time will heal finger cuts and your pride - GJ and thanks for sharing your experience.

Not your pride! you are a hero cause you didnt loose it! well done, like some guys here recommend, get UAV forecast APP, awesome help!

Hi. Thank you for sharing your experience and insights. I am sorry for the trouble this has caused you. With regards to this incident. Kindly please post a short video of the incident for further assistance. Thank you.

thanks for posting your story well done in getting it back

S-e-ven Posted at 12-3 23:01
"Damage to my finger and pride."
Come on, only to your finger!
You won the fight against the nature!

To my pride as well. I got it down and won this battle, yes. but was having fun and failed to noticed the degrading conditions. when we realized the danger I did act and got it down after a long fight.
"get UAV forecast on your phone.
You can select the wind altitude there"


I didn't know this app existed. I will look for it and get it. Thank you for the suggestion. I do have the B4UFly app and now i will get this. Again, thank you!

DJI Paladin Posted at 12-4 10:27
Hi. Thank you for sharing your experience and insights. I am sorry for the trouble this has caused you. With regards to this incident. Kindly please post a short video of the incident for further assistance. Thank you.

I did not post this as a complaint. Quite the opposite, I am praising DJI and the Mavic Mini for wonderful performance in degrading conditions. The mini did all it could do and thanks to quick action, sport mode, the wonderful engineering of the mini and its capabilities it was saved this time. I have the video of the flight and I will try to screen record the log/gps info and put them together to post.

This was my fault for getting complacent and flying in high wind, the fault is solely on me and not DJI or The Mavic Mini.

Good recovery.  Gotta respect the wind. Had a similar wind story but had to retrieve mine over 3km away, with "find my drone" feature. Thanks for sharing. Speedy healing to fingers and pride.

Jollyroger Hobbies Posted at 12-4 15:43
I did not post this as a complaint. Quite the opposite, I am praising DJI and the Mavic Mini for wonderful performance in degrading conditions. The mini did all it could do and thanks to quick action, sport mode, the wonderful engineering of the mini and its capabilities it was saved this time. I have the video of the flight and I will try to screen record the log/gps info and put them together to post.

This was my fault for getting complacent and flying in high wind, the fault is solely on me and not DJI or The Mavic Mini.

Hi. Thank you for clarifying the post for me, I really appreciate this information. If you have any other concern or inquiry please feel free to post it here at DJI Forum. Again, thank you for your valued support and safe flying.

I finally finished my video about this event:

I have seen a lot of videos pop up on YouTube about the Mini flying backwards and not able to control it. they claim no winds but in videos i see trees moving. Remember, winds ALOFT are higher than winds on the SURFACE. ALWAYS! do not take that for granted as I did. Pay attention and make a mental plan  on what you will do if encountering high winds and you are not able to bring your Mini back to home safely. Make an alternative landing spot that you can retrieve it from. Plan to fly into the wind on the way out and have a tail wind on the way home. Plan your flight accordingly and always expect conditions to change. Plan ahead and you can minimize these incidents.