Today I took my phantom pro 3 to an open field in heavy and gusty wind and tested it out. The results surprised me. Very good.

Wind (based on an airport less than a mile away) was between 20 and 30mph, with gusts at the time up to 40mph. Copter was still able to keep its GPS-locked station really well, and the gimbal gave ridiculously stable video. I was still able to maneuver, though not very fast up wind. I don't remember if I was at max forward speed when I turned towards the mountains and moved, but I was close to max speed if not exactly on it.

Had mine down on the California north coast this past weekend - pretty windy - flew and maneuvered great, steady video too.  I was pleased.

Good and interesting test

phinchman Posted at 2016-4-5 18:12
Had mine down on the California north coast this past weekend - pretty windy - flew and maneuvered g ...

What part of Norcal coast?

I have had great success flying in conditions that I would never have thought possible to fly.

AG0N-Gary Posted at 2016-4-5 21:25
What part of Norcal coast?

I was over at Tomales Bay/Point Reyes.

The video shows no sign of winds to that level; in the trees or the guys playing frisbe...
I prefer to fly under 15mph it's just no fun with stronger winds.  The p3p sure holds well with GPS.

Bhujang Posted at 2016-4-8 00:57
The video shows no sign of winds to that level; in the trees or the guys playing frisbe...
I prefer ...

look at their shorts... blowing like crazy.

fatalPORKshank Posted at 2016-4-7 18:56
look at their shorts... blowing like crazy.

yes it was gusty for sure I saw that later on a second watch, also some of the trees were swaying with gusts.  Not my favorite type of flying... But the p3p hold well for sure. Very good bit of kit ;)

Yep it holds up great even with the guards. This was shot a couple months ago under similar conditions. Winds were around 30 mph and speed dropped to below 10 mph.

"Wind (based on an airport less than a mile away)"

Well, so much for no fly zones (NFZ)...

phinchman Posted at 2016-4-7 11:11
I was over at Tomales Bay/Point Reyes.

Thanks.  Raised in Eureka.

KEvans Posted at 2016-4-8 01:05
Yep it holds up great even with the guards. This was shot a couple months ago under similar conditio ...

seemed like no issue at all. But why do you fly with those horrible prop guards on...? I think they look awful personally and would never use them. They don't provide them when you buy the p3p for a reason ;) ha ha but joking aside if you collide the props are the least of your worries and cost pence compared to the other stuff that could get trashed

This video was shot in 30mph winds.  Take off in an open area and the Phantom just flipped.  Had to take off downwind of one of the trucks.  Note the dust from the combines.  Flight is all downwind.

hummingbird.uav Posted at 2016-4-8 09:57
This video was shot in 30mph winds.  Take off in an open area and the Phantom just flipped.  Had to  ...

Very nice work!

Phrogz Posted at 2016-4-8 14:39
Very nice work!

Thanks Phrogz.

Just a note of caution.  Very fast shifting, high gusty winds can move the P3P quickly and unexpectedly under the right conditions.  In my case - I was just too close to a windmill and got blown into it - took all of 2 seconds and it was over.  No major damage but all four props were toast.

Generally, the P3P camera remains really stable in winds we have no business flying in.  I'm very pleased with the results I get but learned the lesson about flying in wind.  Too much wind - no flying - gusty winds [I'm in NM soo--] open areas only or I just don't fly.

Bhujang Posted at 2016-4-8 21:59
seemed like no issue at all. But why do you fly with those horrible prop guards on...? I think the ...

I agree completely and took them off several weeks ago.

So the problem with flying in wind is that the phantom is really good at it, except for when it isn't.

With a top speed of 35ish mph theoretically it can do 10mph in 25mph wind
The gimbal sends misleadingly smooth video back which calms you into making bad decisions

There are a few things that can happen

You are flying with the wind doing 35mph and the battery is reporting you've got tons of flight time left as it is windsurfing, then you turn around and all of a sudden it changes from 15 minutes left to 6 minutes left and you are coming back at 6mph but it took you just about 6 minutes to get there resulting in having to make some very quick decisions, and possible mistakes

You could also be flying and everything going just fine and then the wind changes or starts getting gusty and a thousand dollars of drone crashes because you just couldn't wait another day to film

I say don't do it, but if you are gonna fly in wind higher than 15mph here are some tips

Watch the horizon on the bottom left in the dji go app, if you are at a high pitch you are really fighting the wind
Set c2 to switch from follow to fpv mode and every once in a while change it so the gimbal doens't fool you into thinking its better than it is
Stay away from everything, because weird eddies form
If you are coming back and worried about battery lower the altitude
give yourself an extra buffer on the battery, normally I don't like to go under 40 percent, but I change that to higher, I've got 3 extra batteries so I can play it safe