Hi everyone

Has anyone ever experienced such a problem? It was a windy day at 16mph a Few days ago and I used my mini 3. I had a really good signal connection, but a message popped up on the screen that the drone can't return to the home point automatically and I had to do it manually, it was 50 meters away from me, and nothing was interfering between the drone and the control point. I was pushing the directional joystick to return it manually, but the drone got stuck in the air and even worse one was the wind was dragging it around, it stressed me out, I thought the wind would have taken it away and crashed it. I barely managed and return it to the home point. Firmware on the N1 remote control and the drone are up to date.

Easy answer, the wind was too strong. Don't fly in that much wind. Use UAV Forecast or another app to check wind velocity before flying.

a message popped up on the screen that the drone can't return to the home point automatically and I had to do it manually,
That message is very badly worded.
It should say that you might have trouble in RTH, depending on the strength and direction of the wind together with your battery level and distance to home.


it was 50 meters away from me, and nothing was interfering between the drone and the control point. I was pushing the directional joystick to return it manually, but the drone got stuck in the air and even worse one was the wind was dragging it around, it stressed me out, I thought the wind would have taken it away and crashed it.
If you want to know more about your incident, what happened and why, and how you could have handled it to reduce risk and bring the drone home, post your recorded flight data.

To do that ....
Go to: https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
... where you'll find instructions to upload the data to that site and it will give a report
For help interpreting the data you can post a link for the report here.
Or just post the .txt file.

Mobilehomer Posted at 4-20 18:13
Easy answer, the wind was too strong. Don't fly in that much wind. Use UAV Forecast or another app to check wind velocity before flying.

Thanks. I downloaded this app, and it looks pretty helpful.

Labroides Posted at 4-20 19:09
a message popped up on the screen that the drone can't return to the home point automatically and I had to do it manually,
That message is very badly worded.
It should say that you might have trouble in RTH, depending on the strength and direction of the wind together with your battery level and distance to home.

Thank you. The first comment author is right. According to DJI, mini 3 wind resistance is Level 5 which translates to 24mph. I mentioned 16mph, So I am not gonna use it again in windy weather. It just can't handle it. The drone was close to me and it wasn't returning to the home point and that one scared me.

Remember wind speed tends to increase with height above the ground so a high RTH height may send the drone up into winds that it can not handle. Also I think you should check in the manual how distance from the home point changes RTH behaviour,

Had the drone started a RTH and then you tried to take over manual control?    If so sometimes you have to push the stick release and re push the stick to start the drone moving again.   16mph wind is nothing for the Mini3 Pro. You would only see that it was slowed a little at top speed.

DAFlys Posted at 4-20 22:33
Had the drone started a RTH and then you tried to take over manual control?    If so sometimes you have to push the stick release and re push the stick to start the drone moving again.   16mph wind is nothing for the Mini3 Pro. You would only see that it was slowed a little at top speed.

Your post brought something to mind, the OP should also check which stick movements cancel an RTH and in what phase of the RTH they cancel the RTH.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 4-20 22:52
Your post brought something to mind, the OP should also check which stick movements cancel an RTH and in what phase of the RTH they cancel the RTH.

Stick movements dont cancel a RTH.   Most are ignored.  

DAFlys Posted at 4-20 22:58
Stick movements dont cancel a RTH.   Most are ignored.

Sorry but page 17 of the 1.6 manual
"During RTH, the speed and altitude of the aircraft can be controlled using the remote controller if the remote controller signal is normal. However, the aircraft cannot be shifted leftward or rightward. When the aircraft is ascending or flying forward, push the control stick completely in the opposite direction to exit RTH, and the aircraft will brake and hover."

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 4-20 23:11
Sorry but page 17 of the 1.6 manual
"During RTH, the speed and altitude of the aircraft can be controlled using the remote controller if the remote controller signal is normal. However, the aircraft cannot be shifted leftward or rightward. When the aircraft is ascending or flying forward, push the control stick completely in the opposite direction to exit RTH, and the aircraft will brake and hover."

Odd,    Ive played with that before and I could only effect the altitude.   I will have to test that again.

Yep that was introduced to FLY a while back and is, IMO, a pain in the derrière.  Previously I think it was something to the effect that, if the drone was above 20m and still climbing to RTH height, moving the throttle would stop the climb and start the flight home, which, I think, is MUCH more sensible.

davitzakari Posted at 4-20 19:53
Thank you. The first comment author is right. According to DJI, mini 3 wind resistance is Level 5 which translates to 24mph. I mentioned 16mph, So I am not gonna use it again in windy weather. It just can't handle it. The drone was close to me and it wasn't returning to the home point and that one scared me.

According to DJI, mini 3 wind resistance is Level 5 which translates to  24mph.
DJI's stated wind resistance is meaningless.

I mentioned 16mph, So I am not gonna use it again in windy  weather. It just can't handle it.
You really need to post flight data so you can find out what happened and be able to avoid this in future.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 4-20 23:30
Yep that was introduce to FL:Y a while back and is, IMO, a pain in the derrière.  
Previously I think it was something to the effect that, if the drone was above 20m and still climbing to RTH height, moving the throttle would stop the climb and start the flight home, which, I think, is MUCH more sensible.

I know various releases have been quite buggy.  Previously pulling the stick down to reduce altitude actually caused the drone to increase altitude but that was fixed in the .0600 release.  

Agree with all the other comments that the warning simply means that the drone believes that if it needed to RTH in the wind it was experiencing it may not be able to complete the trip.

Regarding you struggling to fly the drone back to you manually. What flight mode were you in? If you were not in Sport mode then that would have helped. Sport mode allows the drone to generate more power which can be useful in overcoming strong winds. It has saved me at least once where winds aloft were unexpectedly high even based on the UAV Forecast or Dronecast weather report.

Normal mode, battery 77%, altitude 227ft, remote signal, and GPS full. I lowered the altitude to 199ft, but I couldn't do more because I had a crash hazard. When I returned it, the hovering was unstable and it had wiggles. Unfortunately, I didn't record that moment. I always do pre-checking of my drone. I didn't see a problem.

Post the flight log or a link to it, as suggested in post #3.
Typed descriptions are subjective and not hard data.

This is screenshot

Have you looked at the page that the link in post #3 takes you to?
The screen capture tells us nothing useful.

davitzakari Posted at 4-21 07:36
This is screenshot

If you want to learn something useful from your flight incident, you need to post your flight data as I explained in my first post.
If you don't want to learn, don't bother.

Labroides Posted at 4-21 11:21
If you want to learn something useful from your flight incident, you need to post your flight data as I explained in my first post.
If you don't want to learn, don't bother.

Everything will be fine. Thank you. I just will be more careful. The drone works fine now.

davitzakari Posted at 4-21 17:47
Everything will be fine. Thank you. I just will be more careful. The drone works fine now.

Your drone always worked just fine.
But if you don't want to learn from your incident, be prepared to run into problems again in the future.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 4-20 23:11
Sorry but page 17 of the 1.6 manual
"During RTH, the speed and altitude of the aircraft can be controlled using the remote controller if the remote controller signal is normal. However, the aircraft cannot be shifted leftward or rightward. When the aircraft is ascending or flying forward, push the control stick completely in the opposite direction to exit RTH, and the aircraft will brake and hover."

I tried this again this morning,  and pulling the right stick down for me doesn't immediately cancel but IF I hold there for about 5 seconds then it starts a cancellation.

DAFlys Posted at 4-22 02:53
I tried this again this morning,  and pulling the right stick down for me doesn't immediately cancel but IF I hold there for about 5 seconds then it starts a cancellation.

Cheers, what about full throttle-closed whilst it is climbing to RTH height? I'm assuming you are a mode two flyer.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 4-22 04:50
Cheers, what about full throttle-closed whilst it is climbing to RTH height? I'm assuming you are a mode two flyer.

I didn’t try that.    So left stick down during the climb to rth?   I’ll try that on the next flight. Hopefully for sunrise tomorrow.  

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 4-22 04:50
Cheers, what about full throttle-closed whilst it is climbing to RTH height? I'm assuming you are a mode two flyer.

Left stick down during climb to rth height eventually cancels the RTH as well.

Cheers DAFlys

davitzakari Posted at 4-21 17:47
Everything will be fine. Thank you. I just will be more careful. The drone works fine now.

To be more careful you first have to 8nderstamd which aspects of this flight caused the problem.

From what you have posted, the speculation here _appears_bto be correct. You were flying in winds that the aircraft determined were too strong for it to be able to RTH automatically if that were needed.

You reduced height, as instructed by the warning, but still struggles to fly back to your home point because the wind was too strong. You were in normal mode with 77% battery remaining so Sport mode was viable and would have helped a lot in this situation by giving you more power to ovrlercome the wind

That, though, is all deduction from what you have described and the screen shot you posted (which simply confirmed the message is the one we all understood from your description).

To get a definitive answer and to truly understand and/or confirm what happened simply posting your flight log to Phantom Help as described would allow full analysis by the experts on here (JJB etc).

No Original Thought Posted at 4-23 02:57
To be more careful you first have to 8nderstamd which aspects of this flight caused the problem.

From what you have posted, the speculation here _appears_bto be correct. You were flying in winds that the aircraft determined were too strong for it to be able to RTH automatically if that were needed.

Hi,

you spelled my name incorrect, it is not JJB ect   it is JJB*    ;-)

cheers
JJB

Whoops, I too am guilty of that, sorry.

https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/11LL0QROZ8CSZGBFK5Z6

I couldn't download the flight records on my iPhone so I managed it with a windows pc with watched youtube tutorials.
.
.  
I guess it was a GPS issue and I didn’t pay attention to that.

davitzakari Posted at 4-23 06:24
https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/11LL0QROZ8CSZGBFK5Z6

I couldn't download the flight records on my iPhone so I managed it with a windows pc with watched youtube tutorials.

The recorded data can be read to tell the story of your flight.
It shows what you did and how the drone performed.
Here's what I see in the data.
I hope it's useful information to help you in future.

Your drone has a top speed in Normal Mode of 22 mph and can reach 35 mph  in Sport Mode - but this burns battery faster, so is not good for  fighting wind over a long distance.
The wind warning messages show up when the drone detects a wind of 7 metres/sec (15.5 mph) or more.
The message even shows when you are upwind of the homepoint and the wind woudl have no impact on your return flight.
You received the strong wind warning message a number of times.
It seems the wind was gusty as the warnings were not strictly related to the height of the drone.

One message showed at 3:32.4 when the drone was just north of the homepoint and 205 ft up.
You took the drone up to 228 feet and at full stick you pushed against the headwind (toward home) and achieved 15-18 mph without any trouble.

Another warning came at 4:41.4, withe the drone 226 feet up and downwind of the home point.
In a strong gust the drone was working hard to hold position and slowly being set backwards.
When you gave it a little less than full right stick, it was able to make (slow) headway at 4-5 mph and probably would have gone faster if you had given it full stick.

At 5:01.4, with another warning and 230 ft up, you gave it full stick against the wind and managed to make headway at 3-8 mph depending on the gust strength.
At around 6 mins and 199 ft up, you managed 7-13 mph, pushing against the wind and brought the drone back home.

I was pushing the directional joystick to return it manually, but the drone got stuck in the air and even worse one was the wind was dragging it around, it stressed me out, I thought the wind would have taken it away and crashed it.
As explained above, your drone was never overpowered by the wind and was always able to make at least slow headway against the wind.
But the slow speed and gusty wind appears to have caused some disorientation.
You can tell if you are making headwind by watching the distance on your screen to see that you are getting closer (or not).
A strong wind won't cause a crash.
At worst the drone would always stay level, but be pushed backwards.

You stayed up around 200 ft or more during your windy flight.
Wind is always stronger up higher and reducing height is a simple way to get out of the strongest wind, and is the first thing to do if you are ever having difficulty getting home in a strong wind.
If you had come down to 100 ft or lower, you probably wouldn't have had any problem and made it home even easier.

Labroides Posted at 4-23 07:52
The recorded data can be read to tell the story of your flight.
It shows what you did and how the drone performed.
Here's what I see in the data.

Thanks. I appreciate it.

A couple suggestions I can give you .  This happened to me a couple weeks ago with my Mini 2.  I was in a losing battle with the winds aloft, was I brought the altitude down to just about 20 ft above ground level and then 10 ft above ground level where the winds were not as bad as they were higher altitudes.  Next time you fly your drone look at the winds aloft and then fly.  Because the winds at surface do not necessarily tell you what the winds at 40 ft are doing or what the winds at 200 ft are doing.  It is very important to know this when flying.  By brining the drone down to a lower altitude you know the winds and are able to adjust for them better.  Second thing I would suggest to keep an eye on timing flying upwind and downwind.  This will give you some idea what the wind is doing.  When I fly airplanes I could fly a 50 mile flight in 10 minutes with a good tail wind or 1 hour with a bad head wind.  So the same holds true when flying drones.

Shawgod Posted at 4-23 08:19
A couple suggestions I can give you .  This happened to me a couple weeks ago with my Mini 2.  I was in a losing battle with the winds aloft, was I brought the altitude down to just about 20 ft above ground level and then 10 ft above grond level where the winds were not as bad as they were higher altitudes.  Next time you fly your drone look at the winds aloft and then fly.  Because the winds at surface do not necessarily tell you what the winds at 40 ft are doing or what the winds at 200 ft are doing.  It is very important to know this when flying.  By brining the drone down to a lower altitude you know the winds and are able to adjust for them better.  Second thing I would suggest to keep an eye on timing flying upwind and downwind.  This will give you some idea what the wind is doing.  When I fly airplanes I could fly a 50 mile flight in 10 minutes with a good tail wind or 1 hour with a bad head wind.  So the same holds true when flying drones.

Thanks for this tip

davitzakari Posted at 4-23 06:24
https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/11LL0QROZ8CSZGBFK5Z6

I couldn't download the flight records on my iPhone so I managed it with a windows pc with watched youtube tutorials.

If you look at the replay on the Phantonhelp page the blue thing to the right is an attitude indicator, it shows how much the drone is having to tilt to comply with your commands. It is also available though in a slightly different form in the app and live which means you can get an idea live how much wind the drone is having to fight.

davitzakari Posted at 4-23 08:24
Thanks for this tip

Good tip about the drone pitch to check in the FlyApp.

In no wind conditions, normal to see drone pitch down when flying forward. (RC stick forward)
Flying against the wind the drone needs more pitch down to fly forward.
Flying with tail wind, sometimes you see that the craft pitch UP while flying forward....

See my chart of your data, see the picth down and up  flying down and up wind leg.

cheers
JJB    [ Chart by FRAP ; the 'best' software for flightlog analysis ]