On 3rd day of flying I tried to fly in about 30mph wind. Did not end well. I tried to land when I realized it could not keep up with the wind and hold position.

While trying to stop motors using CSC it tried to take off again on me and flipped over and blew away with the wind flipping and bouncing on the ground for 30ft while the motors went nuts and landed in a puddle. No major damage except for the water in the gimble and camera (all 4 props trashed of course, even with prop guards). I took camera and gimble apart and throughly dried and cleaned everything and eventually it all started working again after a lot of crazy and scary camera flipping out and electronic failures.  Once it dried out it was 100% and still flying perfect 50 flights later. Tough little bird.

I no longer fly in heavy winds! Not scared of what happens in the air. Just the landings lol.  If you do fly in the wind I would recommend using auto land or hold down on left stick to stop motors. CSC function is a fail.

I was flying out over lake Michigan with about 25mph sustained with gusts of 35-45mph a couple weeks ago.   It was amazing how well it handled, all things being considered, but it was tough to keep the props out of view even when just hovering (Understandably with the winds exceeding the birds top speed at times).  Luckily the only cost for this particular adventure was a new pair of underpants!!!

We're I live if I didn't fly in the wind I wouldn't fly at all.

So, when you people get in a strong wind, especially all you experts out there, would you still fly in gps mode, or would you flip into ATTI mode?
When it was getting a bit hairy for me, I actually did RTH, to see how well it woudl do, and as it did ok and I had plenty of battery, I did let it doit's thing, and just aborted and took over about 50ft above the landing location..... And I actually did manage to land on the ground, in gps mode, no fall or anything like that.. Would have been hard to hand catch as everything on me (hat, coat, screen shade for the tablet) were in a sub-flyish mode......

pantera989@gmai Posted at 2016-1-24 18:21
Whatever 35km/h equals in miles

almost 22MPH

Geebax Posted at 2015-11-26 19:18
Good question, I am thinking of getting one of those simple wind meters for my phone so I can monito ...

what? what? What is that?
wow! I just found it! Cool!!!!
https://www.google.com/?ion=1&am ... r%20for%20a%20phone

gtokarsk Posted at 2016-5-19 06:46
what? what? What is that?
wow! I just found it! Cool!!!!
https://www.google.com/?ion=1&espv=2#q=wi ...

I have been using my meter for some months now, and it is quite valuable. The only problem I find is that I have to stand there holding it for some time to get a usefull reading, and then it bears no relationship to the wind at 50 Metres off the ground.

Geebax Posted at 2016-5-18 16:10
I have been using my meter for some months now, and it is quite valuable. The only problem I find i ...

install your phone on top of the drone, then fly another drone to watch the screen.. oh wait.... that just got way too complex! ;)

Probably 20 miles per hour or so.

If you think about it, the Phantom 3 Professional has a top speed (ATTI mode, no wind) of about 37 mph.  To try to fly in wind anywhere close to that is inviting trouble.  Flying directly into a 37 mph headwind at maximum speed, you'd have a ground speed of 0.  If wind speed increased, you may never get your bird back (this happened to another drone of mine).  Little gusts of wind can be dangerous, too -- your motors are operating at their maximum power and there's very little capacity left to deal with turbulence, gusts, etc.

One thing I always wondered about is how fast you could get the Phantom moving WITH a strong wind.  Assuming a 30 mph wind (so you can get your bird back), one might assume 30+37=67mph.  I'm not sure how much conventional rotary-wing limitations like flapback and airflow reversal affect a multi-rotor with small rotor disks spinning at much higher RPM than a conventional collective-pitch helicopter...

I use the AUV Forecast app on my iPhone, or they're website
You can set the altitude to anything, to see how much wind is up there

http://www.uavforecast.com/

I use the AUV Forecast app on my iPhone
You can set the altitude to see how windy it is up there

http://www.uavforecast.com/