Wind effects on the TH

[JulesTEO]

So, today my city received some considerable winds from the north.

I decided to do a small test having this particular post in mind. I have flown the H in similar conditions before, so I know the H can handle it; however, hadn't I planned to share this with you guys I wouldn't fly under these conditions, as it can be unnerving.

The only real issue I experienced after not being able to perform a smooth landing, is that the H refused to idle, before idling the H was still trying to compensate for the wind, so I had to kill the motors. (I guess under this scenario I would consider grabbing the unit on the air)

I tried my best to show you the remote's input on the botton right corner so you can make your own conclussions about the effect the wind has on the H.

The colors in the input mean:
Blue - positive
Green - negative
The gradient of these colors represents the "strenght" of the input
Red - Start/Stop button
Purple - Angle mode

Greetings!

 

[eric bee]

today i get proud of my H

i know how crazy phantom can go in wind, but the H is near rock solid in the air. no problem to land, to start, to hold positions...of course difficult to do slow movements in wind .

so i have had a job today and all was perfect. wind was around 30kmh with gusts. the sky was blue with clouds but deep rain clouds are coming and was beside me (left side dark clouds / right side blue)...

i have seen an inspire in wind more stressed then the H. would be great if yunnec give us a cam with 1" and better electronic.
after turn to PEAU 3.97 no more problems with the white balance. now auto wb works too

 

[Windluv]

The wind is a little interesting from the FPV point of view.

The first 3+ years of flying drones I would always check the wind speed and pick up the drone and not even fly if over 10mph. The drones where just to hard to control in all aspects.

With the H, the wind truly poses no issues as far as stability : 25 mph winds at the coast and she is very stable. FPV is terrific as I can count on the H remaining in position without drifting (the side to side and backwards drift are problematic without a solid reference point).

The issue in FPV is the downwind side : no forward pitch and you are truly going very fast. With the H, stability is fantastic, but you need to start applying reverse pitch to slow it down if you are trying to stay at a 'turtle' pace so to say.

 

[Rubik]

today i get proud of my H

i know how crazy phantom can go in wind, but the H is near rock solid in the air. no problem to land, to start, to hold positions...of course difficult to do slow movements in wind .

so i have had a job today and all was perfect. wind was around 30kmh with gusts. the sky was blue with clouds but deep rain clouds are coming and was beside me (left side dark clouds / right side blue)...

i have seen an inspire in wind more stressed then the H. would be great if yunnec give us a cam with 1" and better electronic.
after turn to PEAU 3.97 no more problems with the white balance. now auto wb works too

Nice pics, Eric. Did you do any sharpening in post?

 

[John Dube]

D- drone. Your initial complaint was drifting in the wind. The subject slowly changes to the H's ability to fly in high winds. It is true the H can fly rock steady. I have flown in 30+ mph and it holds rock steady. But your problem was initially answer as a possible calibration issue and your comment on drifting would indicate this is your problem. In earlier months of the TH, many blogs talked about calibration, how and where to complete the calibration, etc. But many still are not aware of simple things that can affect calibrating. After calibrating the Accelerometer (on a smooth flat surface), you want to calibrate the compass. Here is where some people make the mistake. They keep the TH away from metallic surfaces such as their vehicle, power lines, metal buildings, etc, but they do not consider the simple and not so obvious metallic items. Watches (especially smart watches), keys, cell phones, blue tooth ear pieces, etc. You need to remove these items and all metal/electronic items from the vicinity of the TH by at least 20-25 feet. And do not forget staying away from cement sidewalks, parking lots, and walls as these have rebar in them. All or any of these can affect your compass calibration.
I leave the above items in my vehicle. I usually find a park or field to calibrate. After calibration, I shut off the TH then turn it back on. Start it up and raise it to about 10-15 feet. I will give it a quick flight forward about 40-50 feet and stop to see if there is any drift, then backwards, and to both sides. If there is any drift (such as a very slight right hook at the end when it stops), I will recalibrate. If it flies and stops straight. I repeat it a couple of times. If there is no drift, I am good to go.
One other point on calibrations, if you have not flown for a few weeks you will need to make sure the GPS almanac is current, I will let it sit powered on (not motors) for 12.5 minutes to ensure the GPS almanac updates it register. This does not have to be done each time you fly.
I have had my H hover at 150 feet in 32-35 mph winds and the video look as if it were a photo. It is a Solid Bird you can be proud of.
Good Luck and Happy FLying!

 

[Rayray]

One other point on the compass, if you have not flown for a few weeks, I will let it sit powered on (not motors) for 12.5 minutes to ensure the compass almanac updates it register. This does not have to be done each time you fly.

Good post, I like it. This part (above) I believe you meant GPS and not Compass.

 

[John Dube]

Good post, I like it. This part (above) I believe you meant GPS and not Compass.

Correct. Thank You RayRay. Will correct it.

 

[John Dube]

So I've had my H pro for about 2 weeks now, I decided to fly it around the house this weekend and it was a little windy, but not bad. My H seemed to drift excessively while hovering and and flying around. Drifting was bad enough I didn't feel safe flying it as I didn't have complete control and at one point though it was going to drift into the side of the house. So is this normal if there is a little wind, or is it something else? Any thoughts or advice would be great thanks!

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

D- Drone. I posted a reply below that may help with your drifting.

 

[D- drone]

Thanks all for the info you have shared on this topic. Today the weather was good and I had time off work to play so I went out to a open area to fly. It was windy still a little more then before but still not bad like I've seen in some of the post. I did the compass calibration again with my phone and everything else 30ft or so away. After all that was done i was ready to see how it went. So I let her go about 50ft up and hover. She did perfect, ran through 4 batteries with no issues what so ever. So again Thank you all for your wisdom.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

 

[John Dube]

Glad you were successful. It is such a good feeling to launch and watch the TH fly so well. Keep on flying well and safe.

 

[Graham]

 

[PatR]

Awhile back I flew the H side by side with an Inspire 1 on a pretty windy day. The Inspire owner clearly commented on how much more capable the H was in dealing with wind.

 

[Dr Delta]

This is my experience with the H during, what I consider, moderately strong winds. I had to make some minor corrections, but other than that it is pretty solid.

I get tangled with the Pro/Advanced naming, but this particular unit did not have the real sense module installed.

As PatR suggests, perhaps it wasn't the wind but calibrations?

Greetings!

Nothing to do with calibrations. except for the pilot's.
I VERY often see vids with same kind of 'problems' that are merely provoked by the not knowing how the air (and wind, because that is lots of air hurrying past you) works.

If you take off in clear rotor (washing-machine) circumstances as shown in the vid you may certainly ventilate your high esteem for the flying capabilities of your H.
Taking off, flying and landing in these high winds behind a cliff and in 'shelter' of your car can only be done by computer aided aircraft. As a professional pilot I can tell you that much, life threatning circumstances we call that.

Hats off for the H.

Cheers!

See for instance: this link....

 

[Rubik]

Thanks for sharing. Makes me proud to be a YTH owner!

 

[Graham]

Awhile back I flew the H side by side with an Inspire 1 on a pretty windy day. The Inspire owner clearly commented on how much more capable the H was in dealing with wind.

Yes, I remember your impressive account. I once took off from behind a wall on the top of a steep slope and the wind was blowing Force 3. When the Typhoon hit the turbulence above the wall it began rocking vigorously and was bouncing a bit, but otherwise held position. I was recording video at the time and apart from small changes in altitude, it wasn't possible to tell the Typhoon wasn't flying in its normal smooth fashion. That's a very impressive gimbal!

If I were flying 3 drones like those in the test video, I'd have the on-board videos running. I wonder if the videos from those drones is available? In particular, I'd like to know if there's movement visible in the Typhoon video and at what altitude it becomes insignificant.

 

[Graham]

Thanks for sharing. Makes me proud to be a YTH owner!

I came across it on another drone forum. The performance of the Typhoon in that wind is amazing. But, it's a shame they didn't expand the test to include the other market leading quads......................

 

[PatR]

I suppose that depends on either how much money you have or if you know people that have all the different systems. For actual aircraft stability it would go to a Pixhawk or APM most every time. For stability of the gimbal I think the H holds #1 and is not far behind APM/Pixhawk.

 

[Mutley]

I have the H and a P4, if its windy I prefer the H, its really good in the wind.

 

[Jester]

Even in seemingly easy weather one can be expensively surprised by his own ignorance.

Cheers!

Ooh, that's a good one. I am so using that. Can you come up with an excuse for me on the perfect weather days?

 

[Jester]

D- drone. Your initial complaint was drifting in the wind. The subject slowly changes to the H's ability to fly in high winds. It is true the H can fly rock steady. I have flown in 30+ mph and it holds rock steady. But your problem was initially answer as a possible calibration issue and your comment on drifting would indicate this is your problem. In earlier months of the TH, many blogs talked about calibration, how and where to complete the calibration, etc. But many still are not aware of simple things that can affect calibrating. After calibrating the Accelerometer (on a smooth flat surface), you want to calibrate the compass. Here is where some people make the mistake. They keep the TH away from metallic surfaces such as their vehicle, power lines, metal buildings, etc, but they do not consider the simple and not so obvious metallic items. Watches (especially smart watches), keys, cell phones, blue tooth ear pieces, etc. You need to remove these items and all metal/electronic items from the vicinity of the TH by at least 20-25 feet. And do not forget staying away from cement sidewalks, parking lots, and walls as these have rebar in them. All or any of these can affect your compass calibration.
I leave the above items in my vehicle. I usually find a park or field to calibrate. After calibration, I shut off the TH then turn it back on. Start it up and raise it to about 10-15 feet. I will give it a quick flight forward about 40-50 feet and stop to see if there is any drift, then backwards, and to both sides. If there is any drift (such as a very slight right hook at the end when it stops), I will recalibrate. If it flies and stops straight. I repeat it a couple of times. If there is no drift, I am good to go.
One other point on calibrations, if you have not flown for a few weeks you will need to make sure the GPS almanac is current, I will let it sit powered on (not motors) for 12.5 minutes to ensure the GPS almanac updates it register. This does not have to be done each time you fly.
I have had my H hover at 150 feet in 32-35 mph winds and the video look as if it were a photo. It is a Solid Bird you can be proud of.
Good Luck and Happy FLying!

Thanks a lot! I took your advice, and even removed my belt so the belt buckle didn't interfere.
Ever try explaining to the cops, why you're in the middle a park full of children with your pants around your ankles, spinning a device around with a camera mounted to it?