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Mavic Air - Slow performance in Sports Mode
3871 20 2018-5-6
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Adam_B
lvl.1
Flight distance : 5969790 ft
Australia
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I recently purchased the Mavic Air and was disapointed in its capability in SPORTS Mode, when comparing against my Spark and M-Pro. When flying into a mild head wind, I can achieve 34 km/h in Sports Mode and get 30km/h in GPS (normal) mode in the same flight. I would have expected a greater difference between the two Modes. Yesterday, when also flying into a Mild Head Wind, my SPORTS Mode could only achieve 12km/h, however it increased to 19km/h when I flicked it into GPS Mode. When flying downwind, I can achieve 67km/h in Sports and 45km/h in GPS mode, which clearly shows an expected difference.

Are there settings in the Go4 App that would impact on the Mavic Air in Sports Mode when flying into headwind, or does the Mavic Air perform poorly in Sports Mode when flying into the wind?

Grateful any suggestions.
2018-5-6
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hallmark007
Captain
Flight distance : 9812789 ft
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Ireland
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You have to set all flight modes in your app, this can only be done on the ground while aircraft is turned on.
2018-5-6
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DJI Thor
Administrator
Flight distance : 13602 ft
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Please refer to Hallmark's reply, enable multiple flight modes on the main controller settings. Try to calibrate the IMU and vision system first. Besides, please try to switch to Sport mode after takeoff. See if it helps.
Warm prompt, please don't continue flying if the wind speed exceeds 10m/s, be cautious when flying in Sport mode since the OA system is not working.
2018-5-13
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Adam_B
lvl.1
Flight distance : 5969790 ft
Australia
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DJI Thor Posted at 2018-5-13 19:55
Please refer to Hallmark's reply, enable multiple flight modes on the main controller settings. Try to calibrate the IMU and vision system first. Besides, please try to switch to Sport mode after takeoff. See if it helps.
Warm prompt, please don't continue flying if the wind speed exceeds 10m/s, be cautious when flying in Sport mode since the OA system is not working.

Hi Thor,

Thanks for your response. I have enabled Multiple Modes to get Sports Mode. I have recalibrated IMU and Compass, with no change.

Even yesterday when flying in a very mild wind, I achieved 67kmh downwind, but could only achieve 38km/h when flying into a mild headwind. I know that when flying my Spark and Mavic Pro, I could achieve a lot faster Sports Mode speeds when flying into similar headwinds. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks.  

2018-5-13
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GDL
First Officer
Flight distance : 2768694 ft
Singapore
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Can you upload the flight log for check?
2018-5-13
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Adam_B
lvl.1
Flight distance : 5969790 ft
Australia
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Hi GDL,

I haven't uploaded my Flight Logs before. I can see that I can upload the Flight Log as a CSV file. Is that how its done? If not, grateful for instructions etc. Thanks.
2018-5-13
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LookAt_Wictim
Second Officer
Flight distance : 2621982 ft
Slovakia
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Max speed 73,3 km/h my record with mavic air. With mavic pro i have only 71.6 km/h

2018-5-13
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GDL
First Officer
Flight distance : 2768694 ft
Singapore
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Use the link below to upload flight log. You can post upload log link for someone to check.

http://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
2018-5-13
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Bokepacha
Second Officer
Flight distance : 149265 ft
Netherlands
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700m altitude...i wish I could go that high xD
2018-5-13
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Adam_B
lvl.1
Flight distance : 5969790 ft
Australia
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Hi GDL,

Thanks for the link. I will upload and post the Log for others to check. It does seem strange that I can't get any good headwind speed when in Sports Mode, particularly when I see others do on You Tube. My Spark and Mavic Pro had great downwind speeds with their headwind speeds being comparable, albeit slightly less. However, my Mavic Air has at least a 40-50% reduction in speed when facing a mild-medium headwind. A week ago, I was struggling to achieve 12km/h in Sports Mode into a stiff headwind. Drained the batteries very quickly.
2018-5-14
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GDL
First Officer
Flight distance : 2768694 ft
Hong Kong
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Is your Air go faster when switch to spot mode? I can see my Air fly much faster on sport mode by comparing with P mode. I got maximum 58.5 km/h from my MA.
2018-5-14
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Breezer74
Second Officer
Flight distance : 20072 ft

United Kingdom
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I haven't paid too much attention to the numbers, but I can say that sports mode is very visibly faster, just like tripod is visibly slower.
2018-5-14
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HAYATHAP
lvl.3
Flight distance : 47680 ft
India
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Bokepacha Posted at 2018-5-13 23:56
700m altitude...i wish I could go that high xD

Same Wish
2018-5-14
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Adam_B
lvl.1
Flight distance : 5969790 ft
Australia
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Thanks for your responses.
My Air goes much faster in Sports Mode than GPS-P Mode when flying with no wind or medium downwind, but only slightly faster tham GPS mode when flying into a headwind.
In Sports Mode, its speed is approx 64-69km/h when flying in still or with a medium downwind, but slows down to 30-40 into a medium headwind. Thats 45% slower when flying into a headwind.
In GPS Mode, its speed is approx  35-40 in no wind or flying downwind and 25-30 into a medium headwind. This is only a 17% reduction when flying into a headwind.
So when in Sports Mode the speed drops by around 45% whereas in GPS-P Mode it only drops by around 17% when comparing downwind and headwind speeds. That is a considerable difference.

Whereas my Spark and Mavic Pro did not have great variations when flying into headwinds. Grateful any ideas, thanks.
2018-5-14
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GDL
First Officer
Flight distance : 2768694 ft
Singapore
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I don’t know how do you measure the wind MA facing and compare with Spark or others. Did you fly side by side to compare? Wind can be very different on different high level and location. Hard to compare without knowing the actual wind MA facing.
2018-5-14
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GDL
First Officer
Flight distance : 2768694 ft
Singapore
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If you can fly MP and Spark on the same path with MA together. Than there will be something we can compare.
2018-5-14
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Adam_B
lvl.1
Flight distance : 5969790 ft
Australia
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All speeds were flown in the same location, and the speeds that I gave earlier were based on not receiving any High Wind Warnings, i.e. less than 10m/s. You are correct, flying at height will have different Wind Speeds than on the ground. For this reason, those figures were based on flying at less than 50m AGL. When I have flown higher or in conditions when I receive High Wind Warnings, the reduction in max speed from Downwind against Headwind is even greater, i.e. 50% less. But we both know that this is not a realistic comparison and the strong wind greatly assists in one direction and greatly inhibits in the other.

As I sold my Spark to purchase my MA and my MP is elsewhere, I will have to compare old Flight Records at the same location for all three birds. However this is not a fair comparison as they are flown on different days in different conditions. My comments are purely based on the experience and feel of 300 flights and comparing each type. With the MA, I love its compactness and camera qualities, however it really struggles when facing ANY headwind. I never noticed this issue with my Spark or MP as both were real work horses that just kept flying.
2018-5-14
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GDL
First Officer
Flight distance : 2768694 ft
Singapore
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Will be interesting to see someone can compare MA, MP and Spark performance in same windy condition.
2018-5-14
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DJI Thor
Administrator
Flight distance : 13602 ft
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Adam_B Posted at 2018-5-13 22:13
Hi Thor,

Thanks for your response. I have enabled Multiple Modes to get Sports Mode. I have recalibrated IMU and Compass, with no change.

How fast is the wind speed at that time?
2018-5-14
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Adam_B
lvl.1
Flight distance : 5969790 ft
Australia
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All of the posted speeds above were recorded when flying in mild winds without any Wind Warnings. I expect a significant drop in speed when flying into strong/high headwinds, but not when flying into mild winds.
2018-5-15
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小仙女的星巴克
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Flight distance : 4657841 ft
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United States
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mine max. Height only 46.8 ft.Lol
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2018-5-16
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