Hi all
I've been doing a fair bit of testing on how the PRO and the AIR adapt and cope in strong winds over the last few weeks, discovering how the differ quite significantly when not in Sports Mode.
So in the last of my trio of windy videos, I use my PRO to explain what you can do to reduce the risks of flying in strong winds, and explain how disabling the Obstacle Avoidance sensors helps so enourmously when flying the Pro not in Sports Mode.

As ever, hope it's helpful to those in windy climates

Cheers
Ian

Great advice, personally I don't do wind whenever possible as is best avoided, but if you must fly in winds this tutorial will help combat windy conditions.  Thanks for sharing.

Sadly people will still ignore this advice and another 'I lost my drone in high winds' will appear in the forums.

thanks - good video

Great tutorial, thank you Ian!

Watching you talk with your hands and shaking the Mavic around without the lock in place...  
Great tips though.

Is it really beneficial to turn off obstacle avoidance on the Mavic Pro, I understand the speed increases from ~22 MPH to ~36 MPH, but how much more stability does it provide in GPS mode compared to having it on, or just flying in Sport Mode? Thanks.

Great work again Ian and appreciate you posting this. Definitely concurs with everything I experience in strong winds with my MPP and I usually turn off OA even in low winds - I find doing so extends the flight time over sport mode, enhances stability and makes the stick controls less sensitive. I also find flying in strong wind is the most common cause of depleting the battery power quicker - even faster than in sub zero temperatures. Good advice all round.
Andy

Ian, Thanks for the lesson in High wind flying.

Every helpful hint makes us all better pilots.

I will take your advise the next time I encounter high winds.

Good job, you should also do MavAir wind test, some changes in MavAir in RTH you can now lower altitude and fly forward using stick to go faster in RTH mode not many are aware of this I’ve seen two cases here on the forum that could have been saved if this was known.

Good work!

davidmartingraf Posted at 2018-3-16 10:43
Is it really beneficial to turn off obstacle avoidance on the Mavic Pro, I understand the speed increases from ~22 MPH to ~36 MPH, but how much more stability does it provide in GPS mode compared to having it on, or just flying in Sport Mode? Thanks.

Hi David
As some have mentioned, the advantages of turning off the OA could outway the benefits of leaving it on... All down to personal choice, but knowing the options in the first place is key....  
I'm still of the opinion that OA is only useful if you're flying around trees and people... Which I try not to...

Cheers
Ian

hallmark007 Posted at 2018-3-16 11:30
Good job, you should also do MavAir wind test, some changes in MavAir in RTH you can now lower altitude and fly forward using stick to go faster in RTH mode not many are aware of this I’ve seen two cases here on the forum that could have been saved if this was known.

Cheers again Hallmark!  
I've done my three windy vids.... I'm moving on now to ND filters next!  But thanks for the good words and the advice on the Air.... I have found it great to be able to amend the speed and height in RTH mode!  
Speak soon

Ian

A CW Posted at 2018-3-16 11:05
Great work again Ian and appreciate you posting this. Definitely concurs with everything I experience in strong winds with my MPP and I usually turn off OA even in low winds - I find doing so extends the flight time over sport mode, enhances stability and makes the stick controls less sensitive. I also find flying in strong wind is the most common cause of depleting the battery power quicker - even faster than in sub zero temperatures. Good advice all round.
Andy

All true points!  Cheers as ever CW

Ian

Wellsi Posted at 2018-3-16 12:11
Hi David
As some have mentioned, the advantages of turning off the OA could outway the benefits of leaving it on... All down to personal choice, but knowing the options in the first place is key....  
I'm still of the opinion that OA is only useful if you're flying around trees and people... Which I try not to...

Thanks Ian for providing the input. It's just that if you don't enable OA wouldn't it maybe interfere with RTH OA, if you go from not having it enabled to wanting it enabled in the event Fail/Safe RTH or Smart RTH, I just get nervous, even though having more speed and touch at the wheel makes for smoother flight, the sanity check knowing that if for some reason on the way home there's a path that the Mavic Pro needs to ascend before it can hover over and pass the obstacle, if the setting isn't enabled I just get nervous in the event you lost transmission connection on your phone so you don't know if there's an obstacle in the way or if the Mavic Pro is hovering until its battery is critically low in the event it will self-land, the dilemma is you don't know where the drone may be, and it likely is standing in front of an obstacle and didn't self raise itself because OA was enabled perhaps, and therefore the Mavic Pro was forced to hover until the battery fully drained, in which case it came down from the sky in a precarious position, possibly crashing or having some type of rough landing, most of all potentially in an area you have no idea where it is, at least if OA is constantly enabled you won't run the risk of this happening? This is just my primary concern why I don't disable OA.

davidmartingraf Posted at 2018-3-16 12:25
Thanks Ian for providing the input. It's just that if you don't enable OA wouldn't it maybe interfere with RTH OA, if you go from not having it enabled to wanting it enabled in the event Fail/Safe RTH or Smart RTH, I just get nervous, even though having more speed and touch at the wheel makes for smoother flight, the sanity check knowing that if for some reason on the way home there's a path that the Mavic Pro needs to ascend before it can hover over and pass the obstacle, if the setting isn't enabled I just get nervous in the event you lost transmission connection on your phone so you don't know if there's an obstacle in the way or if the Mavic Pro is hovering until its battery is critically low in the event it will self-land, the dilemma is you don't know where the drone may be, and it likely is standing in front of an obstacle and didn't self raise itself because OA was enabled perhaps, and therefore the Mavic Pro was forced to hover until the battery fully drained, in which case it came down from the sky in a precarious position, possibly crashing or having some type of rough landing, most of all potentially in an area you have no idea where it is, at least if OA is constantly enabled you won't run the risk of this happening? This is just my primary concern why I don't disable OA.

Have a look at the visual navigations settings in DJI Go 4. You can disable Obstacle Avoidance, then if you look in the Advanced Settings in same menu. You will see that RTH Obstacle Check can still be enabled, which, as the note says :-

"When ambient light is sufficient, aircraft will automatically ascend to avoid obstacles. After enabling RTH Obstacle Check, even if obstacle avoidance is disabled, aircraft will still automatically check obstacles in RTH."

So you could have obstacle avoidance off and RTH 'Obstacle Check' still active to avoid objects on way home.

Aardvark Posted at 2018-3-16 13:46
Have a look at the visual navigations settings in DJI Go 4. You can disable Obstacle Avoidance, then if you look in the Advanced Settings in same menu. You will see that RTH Obstacle Check can still be enabled, which, as the note says :-

"When ambient light is sufficient, aircraft will automatically ascend to avoid obstacles. After enabling RTH Obstacle Check, even if obstacle avoidance is disabled, aircraft will still automatically check obstacles in RTH."

Got it. Does anybody know how to turn off the settings that create red highlighted lines on the FPV of the smartphone. I try resetting my camera settings on the App but it keeps saying Reset Failed. I just want to record my screen and not see those red lines running down the screen and so if I replay the screen of the phone it will have a clear picture that one would get flying another DJI drone such as the Spark?

Thank you.

davidmartingraf Posted at 2018-3-16 13:54
Got it. Does anybody know how to turn off the settings that create red highlighted lines on the FPV of the smartphone. I try resetting my camera settings on the App but it keeps saying Reset Failed. I just want to record my screen and not see those red lines running down the screen and so if I replay the screen of the phone it will have a clear picture that one would get flying another DJI drone such as the Spark?

Thank you.

Is that the over exposure warning cross hatched lines ? If so in camera settings. Aircraft would need to be on for camera reset to apply.

That sounds like the OA radar detecting an obstacle at close range. You can turn off the radar within the app.

Aardvark Posted at 2018-3-16 14:08
Is that the over exposure warning cross hatched lines ? If so in camera settings. Aircraft would need to be on for camera reset to apply.

No I'm referring to the red lines that appear over areas of the image sometimes when in the FPV of your smart device. Is that a setting when you have auto focus enabled and to get it off you need to set manual focus, does it have anything to do with these settings or is it something else? I just want to get rid of the red lines that appear over certain parts of the complete image picture so that if I record my screen it's a clear image not one that has red lines highlighted over certain parts of the picture?

Question: What do you consider High Winds?

High wind here is; when gate chain is above a 30 degree angle.  

Aardvark Posted at 2018-3-16 13:46
Have a look at the visual navigations settings in DJI Go 4. You can disable Obstacle Avoidance, then if you look in the Advanced Settings in same menu. You will see that RTH Obstacle Check can still be enabled, which, as the note says :-

"When ambient light is sufficient, aircraft will automatically ascend to avoid obstacles. After enabling RTH Obstacle Check, even if obstacle avoidance is disabled, aircraft will still automatically check obstacles in RTH."

Excellent info Aardvark!  Thanks for pointing that out....  
I'm a firm believer in having a sufficient RTH altitude to avoid all obstacles anyway, but it's still good to read that it's not blindly flying home in RTH mode.

Cheers
Ian

davidmartingraf Posted at 2018-3-16 21:30
No I'm referring to the red lines that appear over areas of the image sometimes when in the FPV of your smart device. Is that a setting when you have auto focus enabled and to get it off you need to set manual focus, does it have anything to do with these settings or is it something else? I just want to get rid of the red lines that appear over certain parts of the complete image picture so that if I record my screen it's a clear image not one that has red lines highlighted over certain parts of the picture?

That is peak focus threshold which can also be turned off in the app.

Great video
Another thing to add is always remember to stop/brake way earlier when flying forward with strong tailwind.
At 5:23 of the video you stopped almost too late and it almost ended up in one of the trees.

DJT_MVSP Posted at 2018-3-17 03:07
Great video
Another thing to add is always remember to stop/brake way earlier when flying forward with strong tailwind.
At 5:23 of the video you stopped almost too late and it almost ended up in one of the trees.

Very True!
That caught me out as I'm used to allowing for overshoot in Sports Mode, but this wasn't in sports mode, so yes, tailwinds absolutely make it easy to overshoot in either mode....

Ian

Cool... tks!!!!!!!

I like this video, very educational

cool vid. this guy here flys in a hurricaine,crazy mfer  

A CW Posted at 2018-3-17 01:30
That is peak focus threshold which can also be turned off in the app.

Peak Focus Threshold yes it works thanks for the input and does anybody have feedback on what camera settings fliers use on the Mavic Pro? What Saturation, Sharpness, Color, Format, Resolution, etc?

davidmartingraf Posted at 2018-3-16 21:30
No I'm referring to the red lines that appear over areas of the image sometimes when in the FPV of your smart device. Is that a setting when you have auto focus enabled and to get it off you need to set manual focus, does it have anything to do with these settings or is it something else? I just want to get rid of the red lines that appear over certain parts of the complete image picture so that if I record my screen it's a clear image not one that has red lines highlighted over certain parts of the picture?

Focus peaking.

fans83524f36 Posted at 2018-3-17 05:32
cool vid. this guy here flys in a hurricaine,crazy mfer  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXhG9Zk1GNI&feature=youtu.be&t=3s

This is another wind video of the Mavic Pro. This was the video that convinced me to but the Mavic Pro.

Lamplighter55 Posted at 2018-3-17 09:55
Focus peaking.

OK thanks that seems to work.

Brendan1 Posted at 2018-3-16 10:40
Watching you talk with your hands and shaking the Mavic around without the lock in place...  
Great tips though.

Yes. You're right.  
I'm too free and easy with throwing the Pro around... already had one gimbal damaged on a flight...
Point duly noted for next time

Ian

B1houdini Posted at 2018-3-17 10:05
This is another wind video of the Mavic Pro. This was the video that convinced me to but the Mavic Pro.

Stormy Flight

Amazing craft. Surprised it didn't get struck by lightning. Even the battery probably would have been okay if the top seals had been covered with a waterproof tape. But seeing it in that squally weather just drifting a little really proves how good it is as a platform.

Dirty Bird Posted at 2018-3-18 10:17
I never enable OA on my Mavic  Pro or P4.  The hit in flight speed (22 mph vs 35 mph) is just too great for my flying style.  The P4A/P do not suffer this hit in performance when OA is enabled.  Not sure if OA slows an Air as i dont have one to test.

I know on the Spark, the DJI Spark when OA is disabled will go from a top speed of ~7-8 MPH to ~12-13 MPH, which is significant in GPS mode, the ~22 MPH vs ~35 MPH isn't really shaving off more of a dramatic feel of the copter.

Dirty Bird Posted at 2018-3-18 14:18
For me what is limited is the mission range.  I lose over 1/3rd of my potential flight distance with OA enabled.

I haven't seen that on the Spark flew it last month 10,000 feet with parabolic dish antenna range extenders, although I haven't flown my Mavic Pro long enough be able to differentiate whether range in OA is limited or not?

Another great informative video Ian, thanks for sharing.

Dirty Bird Posted at 2018-3-18 10:17
I never enable OA on my Mavic  Pro or P4.  The hit in flight speed (22 mph vs 35 mph) is just too great for my flying style.  The P4A/P do not suffer this hit in performance when OA is enabled.  Not sure if OA slows an Air as i dont have one to test.

That's one of the biggest differences of the AIR to the PRO as the Air auto-disables the OA when it starts to limit the pitch....  As I say in the video; no right or wrong, just two different approaches....

Dirty Bird Posted at 2018-3-19 02:01
I am not referring to RC range.  That is the same regardless of the OA setting.  I am talking about how far I can travel on a battery.  Obviously I can go much further traveling at 30 mph with OA disabled vs. 22 mph with OA turned on.

You bring up a good point, and everyone suggests if they potentially fly directly into the Sun on RTH, then the mistaken OA function thinking the Sun was an object, could potentially cause the drone to hover and stop in middle of RTH, especially with the flyer not knowing or seeing this from the FPV, leading to eventually a critical-low battery warning with the drone immediately landing upon where that hovering took place. It could be very far into your range test, distance traveled, or blind spot area where signal loss is high, in which case people have a point of disabling OA in RTH in the event the odds of this happening are greater than setting your RTH to high altitude and taking your chances the drone is high enough not to hit an obstacle?

M2Wair Posted at 2018-3-16 09:56
Great advice, personally I don't do wind whenever possible as is best avoided, but if you must fly in winds this tutorial will help combat windy conditions.  Thanks for sharing.

Sadly people will still ignore this advice and another 'I lost my drone in high winds' will appear in the forums.

I lost my drone in high winds...

Dorset_Horn Posted at 2018-3-20 12:11
I lost my drone in high winds...

I use UAV forecast and the windy.com app before heading out and an anemometer prior to launch to verify wind speed, direction etc if it is even slightly windy I fly with caution and well within the parameters the aircraft can handle. I don't do wind very often lol