Hi!

Quite some time ago I almost lost my Mavic due to large wind speed. This is what happened.

I knew that there were strong winds but I wanted to give it a try. So I took off with my Mavic and 1m above the ground everything was OK. I was careful and flew away against the wind, so that the wind would bring the Mavic back to me. The Mavic was flying at a max speed of about 1m/s against the wind and maybe 100m away from me as a Class D airspace warning popped up. To read that message I had to let go of the sticks and due to the bright sun light I could hardly read it.

The problem that I did not notice at that moment: The Mavic was not able to hold its position above ground anymore although GPS was working fine. Let me repeat it: I could fly it against the wind but the Mavic was not able to hold its position itself! I still had the airspace warning on the screen and tapped the wrong button (more information about the Class D airspace warning). The app tried to open a web page. So while theMavic was drifting and passing me by, I was busy to get the DJI app working again.

The end of the story is short: The Mavic drifted 150m away from me and I used RTH to get the Mavic back. When it was close by I took over control and manually landed it.

My conclusion: Be very careful at strong winds. The Mavic might be able to fly against the wind, but it might not be able to hold its position automatically. Even if you think everything is under your control, bad things can happen. Let me give you an example: You Mavic is configured to hover when the RC signal is lost. If that happens, the wind lets the Mavic drift away and away and away until the bateery goes low and RTH is initiated. As the Mavic has to fight against the wind, it won't get back before the batteries are empty. Say goodbye to your Mavic!

In my opinion it would be very helpful too if DJI would handle large wind situations in a smart way.

What can I learn from this don't try to fly in winds that are not suitable for the AC I'm flying..

Or maybe don't go fly when it's so windy, if dji were to do something about holding winds at say 22mph, it would only be a matter of time before someone wants to fly in 30mph winds, maybe go for a different drone there are many which can hold in higher winds..

hallmark007 Posted at 2017-3-5 11:46
Or maybe don't go fly when it's so windy, if dji were to do something about holding winds at say 22mph, it would only be a matter of time before someone wants to fly in 30mph winds, maybe go for a different drone there are many which can hold in higher winds..

Of course you should not fly in strong winds. But winds can change with flight height and over time. If you ever get into the situation that your Mavic is not able to hold its position anymore, I hope you are  prepared to handle this situation: Don't panic, use RTH or fly it back manually (in sport mode).

Nonetheless, I still find it not-so-good, that the Mavic cannot hold its position automatically. If you lose connection and the drone is set to hover, it will be blown away (although it has the power to hold its position).

Dronoob Posted at 2017-3-5 11:58
Of course you should not fly in strong winds. But winds can change with flight height and over time. If you ever get into the situation that your Mavic is not able to hold its position anymore, I hope you are  prepared to handle this situation: Don't panic, use RTH or fly it back manually (in sport mode).

Nonetheless, I still find it not-so-good, that the Mavic cannot hold its position automatically. If you lose connection and the drone is set to hover, it will be blown away (although it has the power to hold its position).

If you have OA turned of Mavic flys at 36mph I don't know but I'm wondering would it hold better with OA turned off...

Dronoob Posted at 2017-3-5 11:58
Of course you should not fly in strong winds. But winds can change with flight height and over time. If you ever get into the situation that your Mavic is not able to hold its position anymore, I hope you are  prepared to handle this situation: Don't panic, use RTH or fly it back manually (in sport mode).

Nonetheless, I still find it not-so-good, that the Mavic cannot hold its position automatically. If you lose connection and the drone is set to hover, it will be blown away (although it has the power to hold its position).

There are very few situations where I would set my drone to hover on a RC disconnect. I would almost always want it to fly back to me. Thanks for posting your experience, I too  have seen this in high winds. If the wind on the ground is over 10mph I dont typically fly because I know that number is just going to increase with altitude. I have this cool app on my phone called UAV forcast that will tell you wind speeds at whatever altitude you set and I find that pretty useful

hallmark007 Posted at 2017-3-5 12:01
If you have OA turned of Mavic flys at 36mph I don't know but I'm wondering would it hold better with OA turned off...

What is OA?

Dronoob Posted at 2017-3-5 13:08
What is OA?

Sorry obstacle avoidance

I had an occasion where I couldn't fight the wind to come back, even it flew further... I used sport mode to fight it...