I was getting some aerial footage of my land, had 12 sattelites locked in, everything was great. I always calibrate compass first, then I walk around a bit to make sure I have a good connection with sattelites.  Only light wind, perhaps a little more higher up, but I was low enough to see a butterfly flutter by without getting taken by the wind . . . so I don't think it was over a few MPH up there.

I still have it in Phantom mode, as it was out of the box, and it's held position great before.  I noticed that it was drifting substantially in the wind.  I recently did all the new updates.

I'll be testing again tomorrow, and going thru all settings again, but I'm not sure I want to try NAZA just yet (even though I know with s1 and s2 at full up is basically the same thing as phantom).

Any particular places I should double check? Or is does this just happen sometimes?

Thanks!
J

How high above the ground were you?

Would you have been in a position to notice any layered currents? (e.g. seeing it take off vertical, and then start drifting above a certain altitude)

I've been a paraglider pilot and periodically to test the winds aloft we'd release a helium balloon. Most of the time it would drift smoothly upwards, other times it would drift smoothly until it hit a different layer and either switch directions, accelerate laterally, or both.

If it isn't different layers to the winds aloft, you've GPS lock, and a calibrated compass, I'm at a loss for anything that isn't just a very slow/inconsequential drift due to expected dispersion of precision.

How many feet is substantially?

Glitch: I like the balloon idea . . . I'll test that to see if it was more wind than I thought.

Gerry1124: It traveled good 20 feet. I have found some commentary from other forums about getting some drift that gets locked in after a few minutes. Could be that. I'll fly longer tomorrow and see--I didn't want to stay in the air yesterday just in case.

J

Mine never drifts except by a small amount, say 2ft in either direction with a slight wind, on a calm day it doesnt move at all

same as crash, with wind i drift 2-4ft at times, with no wind i drift zero.  ive seen a 10-15 foot drift a handful of times with gusts in the middle of high wind conditions but i think that was just that the gust moved it faster than the gps could figure out it needed correcting.

Hi Jonathan, here is a good video/tip from Dronecamps when flying in windy conditions - lessons learned from kite surfing

godfrey.dayo@po Posted at 2015-3-14 08:13
Hi Jonathan, here is a good video/tip from Dronecamps when flying in windy conditions - lessons lear ...

This should be required viewing for newbies like me! I discovered the Wind Shadow by accident a week ago . . . cannot believe I didn't think of that! Thankfully I kept control of copter and set it down. Whew!

jonathan@gatehe Posted at 2015-3-14 08:30
This should be required viewing for newbies like me! I discovered the Wind Shadow by accident a we ...

There are other good reading material in the 'net that says that even with good sat lock, the system is only 99% reliable. The other 1%, well, you'll need to be on the alert I suggest that you also practice flying in ATTI Mode so when an emergency situation does come up (no time to think very long or look into the manual), you'll have a good chance of bringing your phantom home in one piece.

godfrey.dayo@po Posted at 2015-3-14 08:42
There are other good reading material in the 'net that says that even with good sat lock, the syst ...

Thankfully, I have been flying a little hubsan x4 h109L for about a year and practicing in the wind. . . learning not to panic and how to regain control even if I can barely see the little guy.

Doing similar in ATTI mode now--practicing how to maintain some degree of steady manually, etc.

I'll check out the other vids!

J

You say you did all the updates? Did you advanced calibrate the IMU and was the table level? That's what happen to me I had changed one of the landing gear but it was for the vision plus and was 3/8 of an inch longer then the stock gear anyway my phantom drifted so bad I almost crashed it.

godfrey.dayo@po Posted at 2015-3-14 08:13
Hi Jonathan, here is a good video/tip from Dronecamps when flying in windy conditions - lessons lear ...

Godfrey,
Great little video,
I was flying today and it was rather windy at one point, I raised up to a about 120' and went into ATTI to see how fast the wind was blowing (approximation i know), Phantom was drifting anywhere between. 10-15mph at one point...and I managed to catch it and went into GPS and rode it for a bit and hit just over 39 mph on the screen, near crapped my drawers...anyhow the explanations on several items made sense and definitely worth the watch.

Northofthe49th Posted at 2015-3-15 09:53
Godfrey,
Great little video,
I was flying today and it was rather windy at one point, I raised up  ...

Actually, my wife made me watch all those videos during the 4 day wait from ordering to receipt of the Phantom. Hahaha .... gotta go, good weather, flying the Phantom with my co-pilot

tonyray955 Posted at 2015-3-15 09:09
You say you did all the updates? Did you advanced calibrate the IMU and was the table level? That's  ...

Ya, Did the IMU etc. Went thru everything  and even checked table with a level to be sure.  I'm thinking that it just had to reacquire the gps as I was flying in wind today and it drifted, and I let it, and then it stabalized out ok. Did this every once in a while.