OK, so heres the point.
I was flying around a few days ago on a little hill here in my area. There was not much wind, UAV Forecast also displayed that all is fine. The Mini, whyever, really struggled to maintain its position on this day and i got a Strong-Wind-Warning. I decided to leave it, eventhough i barely couldn't feel the wind by myself. The warning already got displayed in like 4-5 meters height.


Today it's very very windy here. way too windy for the Mini to actually handle it (I guess like 50km/h winds and more today), so I walked to another hill with a wide open area where it was really twice as much as on a rough day at the beach. ;-)


First of all, it was very interesting to see the Mini fighting the winds, pretty awesome that it actually could handle it. I didn't think about serious flying, I just wanted to abuse it so that i can see, when the Mini really reaches its technical limits. I'm very impressed that it could handle it, that gave me a little more confidence in what I can do and what i can't with the Mini.


Anyways, what I'm wondering is, that I didn't even get a Strong-Wind-Warning today once. Nothing.
How/where does the Mini measure, if it's too windy or not? It seems like I can't trust the App, when theres simply sometimes no message/warning. I mean, sure, it was obvious, that it's horribly windy today, everybody would have realized that it's not possible to fly (at least I hope so) ^^


But I should be able to trust the App/Sensors/whatever measures it, shouldn't I?

I think as you say you can’t trust the app, and from experience I can tell you that UAV as well as your fly app will not be accurate, however you got warning at 5 metre this could be from a simple gust. And why you didn’t receive warning could be just problem with app.

But why I think it’s important that pilots don’t trust apps like weather wind at altitude and silly magnetic apps, they should preform there own checks. For instance you could clearly see how craft was preforming in the wind and you can make best calculation as to how safe it is in your environment to fly.

I’m not telling you to ignore app but don’t bank on it, you will always make better decisions if you can figure out how your mini is flying, having some simple failsafes if something is not right is always useful, just like safe area to land or hit Rth but keep finger on the trigger to get maximum speed.

I think you used your own instinct and this is a good way to fly drones.

One thing I will add wind warnings throughout dji craft and apps are regularly false and while you need to heed them you can also use what you actually see happening.

hallmark007 Posted at 2-9 05:31
I think as you say you can’t trust the app, and from experience I can tell you that UAV as well as your fly app will not be accurate, however you got warning at 5 metre this could be from a simple gust. And why you didn’t receive warning could be just problem with app.

But why I think it’s important that pilots don’t trust apps like weather wind at altitude and silly magnetic apps, they should preform there own checks. For instance you could clearly see how craft was preforming in the wind and you can make best calculation as to how safe it is in your environment to fly.

Yeah, you're right.
I'm actually this kind of person who never spends too much trust in technical stuff like Sensors and so on.
I'm more like expecting Bugs and try be prepared as good as possible for it, as you already said, with using my eyes and mind.

Mizzu Posted at 2-9 06:57
Yeah, you're right.
I'm actually this kind of person who never spends too much trust in technical stuff like Sensors and so on.
I'm more like expecting Bugs and try be prepared as good as possible for it, as you already said, with using my eyes and mind.

Agree, but no harm using app, I use UAV paid app to try to work out when I might be able to get out flying , but it has its limits but a lot better than nothing, the fact that your already able to work out for yourself shows your well on the way to figuring most things for yourself .

UAV is a useful tool as already stated, I’ve taken the Mini up in some fairly sketchy wind while out in the hills hiking, I always get the Mini up hover and look and listen to the Mini, you can usual tell if it’s really struggling.  If I then decide to fly out somewhere I’m always against the wind, super careful, always maintain VLOS while not flying stupid distances and always have a good idea of terrain and where I can do an emergency landing should I get into trouble.  If you respect the Mini you can manage safe flights with minimal risk.

TDZHDTV Posted at 2-9 07:17
UAV is a useful tool as already stated, I’ve taken the Mini up in some fairly sketchy wind while out in the hills hiking, I always get the Mini up hover and look and listen to the Mini, you can usual tell if it’s really struggling.  If I then decide to fly out somewhere I’m always against the wind, super careful, always maintain VLOS while not flying stupid distances and always have a good idea of terrain and where I can do an emergency landing should I get into trouble.  If you respect the Mini you can manage safe flights with minimal risk.

Yes. I totally agree. At the moment I really don't see a point in flying like 50000000km far away.
Also I don't feel confident when the Mini is out of sight to be honest. And I also have no need for flying Kilometers high in the Sky, since everything looks crappy and similar then anyways. ;)

Could you already gather some experience if the Mini is actually usable in locations everybody want's to use it? (like Mountains, Beach and so on...)?

Its common for the wind to be different at different elevations,  the drone doesn't have a sensor for wind,  its using the attitude of there craft when trying to keep level to decide that there is a wind force spliced to it.  Sometime if flying forwards or backwards very quickly a light wind can cause enough attitude to trigger the warning.

Hello and good day Mizzu. Thank you for sharing these information and for sharing your experience in flying your DJI Mavic Mini in a strong wind condition. Just a friendly reminder that the DJI Mavic Mini has a Maximum Wind Speed Resistance of 8 m/s ( Scale 4 ). Have a safe and a happy flying always.

I have the same experience, You can see and hear that motors are fighting the wind, so it is smart to stay low and close in these conditions. No wind warning in my case as well. But I was suprised how good can light Mini handle stronger wind (that was very uncomfortable now in winter for OP on the ground).

virtual Posted at 2-12 02:26
I have the same experience, You can see and hear that motors are fighting the wind, so it is smart to stay low and close in these conditions. No wind warning in my case as well. But I was suprised how good can light Mini handle stronger wind (that was very uncomfortable now in winter for OP on the ground).

Yes, scary and impressive at the same time to see the little Device fighting for its life in the wind.

The mini maintains its GPS position or VPS position by compensating for wind, adjusting its attitude. So under some wind the mini tilts at certain angle to keep its location the same. This tilt is measured by the gyro. Users can also cause tilts and that is what your right stick does if you fly with American hand configuration.
Now, this is what you wanted to know, if the gyro detects a tilt not caused by the user then it is caused by the wind. Therefore it knows what kind of wind it is fighting and will issue on-screen warnings accordingly. But from experience, those warnings are very conservative. They will keep you safe but you won't have much fun. So be your own judge if you wanna have fun.

Mizzu Posted at 2-12 03:41
Yes, scary and impressive at the same time to see the little Device fighting for its life in the wind.

To be honest I believe Mini wasn't on the edge in my case, no drifting away, but I was definitely scared and impressed!

Yeah I've experienced weather APPS not giving accurate info, better to judge by yourself.
Currents are also hard the predict and invisible, all in all the mini is quite capable.