Over wind resistance situations

[MightyMuffins]

Now I believe the drone is said to have a resistance of 31mph. I am assuming that means for it to be able to hold a spot and/or trying to fly into the wind and/or return it home.

Am curious if anyone how anyone here has handled situations where you got in a bad spot where you knew the wind was over the limits of the drone? Like it can fly and will drift badly and you can try to return home/land with the wind fluctuations going up and down the maximums limit but has anyone directly crashed cause flying when it was too windy? Like take off and it took off...flopped over and crashed from wind.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

I got caught in some 38 MPH wind gusts. It was a flight plan and the Anafi jerked around but came out of it and continued on.

Here is the part that I cut out of the final video.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Here was the final video

 

[Rocky the FS]

.....has anyone directly crashed cause flying when it was too windy? Like take off and it took off...flopped over and crashed from wind.

A couple of thoughts:
If the drone is upwind of you and encounters wind beyond its top speed it should be recoverable. If downwind, not. Rather obvious, except when the wind changes direction very quickly, as it is prone to do around storms. Get it as low as possible on the return.

My concern around thunderstorms would be vortexes and extreme updrafts rather than near surface winds. In my soaring flights I once encountered an updraft well over 3,000 feet per minute in a storm, but I was under the shelf near cloudbase. I had to point the nose down to near vertical with full dive brakes to avoid getting sucked up into it. That glider was capable of 130 mph straight down. I doubt you would encounter this if flying less than 500 feet AGL.

I also encountered a few unseen and unsuspected vortices that very nearly exceeded my glider's control-ability. This would be the likely mechanism that would cause the drone to crash, i.e. dust devils. I learned the hard way not to mess with thunderstorms! Later in my career and considerably wiser, I stayed a minimum of 10 miles away.

One more risk is hail, which I never had to fly through but many aircraft have, with generally bad results. Anything over BB sized soft hail or graupel would destroy the Anafi in a few seconds. Obvious, except that the change from light rain to hail can also happen in just a few seconds. If I was flying the drone and I looked up and saw any sign of virga, especially if it looked a bit white, I would get it on the ground and under cover ASAP! Remember, virga and microbursts very often go together.

I would never even think about letting the drone get more than 1/4 mile away from me while near storms.

Good Luck! Hopefully you will get some awesome footage without losing your Anafi. Can't wait to see it!

 

[MightyMuffins]

A couple of thoughts:
If the drone is upwind of you and encounters wind beyond its top speed it should be recoverable. If downwind, not. Rather obvious, except when the wind changes direction very quickly, as it is prone to do around storms. Get it as low as possible on the return.

My concern around thunderstorms would be vortexes and extreme updrafts rather than near surface winds. In my soaring flights I once encountered an updraft well over 3,000 feet per minute in a storm, but I was under the shelf near cloudbase. I had to point the nose down to near vertical with full dive brakes to avoid getting sucked up into it. That glider was capable of 130 mph straight down. I doubt you would encounter this if flying less than 500 feet AGL.

I also encountered a few unseen and unsuspected vortices that very nearly exceeded my glider's control-ability. This would be the likely mechanism that would cause the drone to crash, i.e. dust devils. I learned the hard way not to mess with thunderstorms! Later in my career and considerably wiser, I stayed a minimum of 10 miles away.

One more risk is hail, which I never had to fly through but many aircraft have, with generally bad results. Anything over BB sized soft hail or graupel would destroy the Anafi in a few seconds. Obvious, except that the change from light rain to hail can also happen in just a few seconds. If I was flying the drone and I looked up and saw any sign of virga, especially if it looked a bit white, I would get it on the ground and under cover ASAP! Remember, virga and microbursts very often go together.

I would never even think about letting the drone get more than 1/4 mile away from me while near storms.

Good Luck! Hopefully you will get some awesome footage without losing your Anafi. Can't wait to see it!

Yeah it wouldn't be that far away with storms coming

 

[MightyMuffins]

I got caught in some 38 MPH wind gusts. It was a flight plan and the Anafi jerked around but came out of it and continued on.

Here is the part that I cut out of the final video.

Not bad. Handled it well......what you think would have been the wind limit before you lost the drone?

 

[Jagerbomb52]

When it got to the point the motor shut off because it thought it crashed
I really would not fly in anything higher then what is recommended. Sometimes you just don't know till you get up 200 feet.

 

[MightyMuffins]

When it got to the point the motor shut off because it thought it crashed
I really would not fly in anything higher then what is recommended. Sometimes you just don't know till you get up 200 feet.

hehe well it is good to carry an anemometer too.

Also good to keep an eye on soundings too. Upper-Air page: RAP Real-Time Weather

 

[Rocky the FS]

Yeah, we used to look at soundings a lot when I was flying gliders. Since I never actually took a course in meteorology there is a lot of the science I never learned. I did read a LOT of books and have done more study in recent years, but the education I got in micro meteorology from looking at the sky whenever possible and from 1,500 hours of glider flying was priceless! I look up from the hot tub every morning to estimate wind direction and velocity from the clouds. Then I go to the computer and fill in the blanks.

 

[Vegasrobbi]

Yesterday wind gusts were over 30 MPH and during Follow Anafi started to blow downwind. Anafi was really rocking around when viewed from the ground, I'm surprised the video is as stable as it is. At one point Anafi spun around and looked like it flipped but it kept it's composure and continued on. Anafi ended up getting the shots I needed.

On a side note I usually use my Typhoon H in high winds since it can easily handle them but I was out of batteries. Anafi did better than I thought it would, amazing for a 350g drone. I'd say 25 mph winds is max for smooth usable footage.

 

[MightyMuffins]

Yesterday wind gusts were over 30 MPH and during Follow Anafi started to blow downwind. Anafi was really rocking around when viewed from the ground, I'm surprised the video is as stable as it is. At one point Anafi spun around and looked like it flipped but it kept it's composure and continued on. Anafi ended up getting the shots I needed.

On a side note I usually use my Typhoon H in high winds since it can easily handle them but I was out of batteries. Anafi did better than I thought it would, amazing for a 350g drone. I'd say 25 mph winds is max for smooth usable footage.

As long as it was able to hold it's ground between the wind bursts that's good.

 

[Zamzara]

I like the app Ventusky for forecasts. It shows the wind speed at ground level, at 100 metres, and of gusts separately. The speed at 100 metres is sometimes much higher but not always, so it's useful to be able to see these individually.

 

[d95gas]

UAV Forecast is very good for weather and more, also gives a "Wind Profile" for Wind Speed and Gusting at various heights from 33ft to 5000ft

Available for both Android and IOS, I have it on all my devices.

 

[MightyMuffins]

UAV Forecast is very good for weather and more, also gives a "Wind Profile" for Wind Speed and Gusting at various heights from 33ft to 5000ft

Available for both Android and IOS, I have it on all my devices.

Hehe i rely on soundings.