A fun informal share... bored on a high windy weekend.
This has often been discussed, various videos created in an attempt to capture the differences, etc.
To my degree of acceptance, I wasn't seeing convincing data that overwhelmingly showed one over the other.
As noted in various threads, I'm one of the ghost traitors... I use both Yuneec & DJI depending on the need.
We've recently had some extreme windy days, with the sun setting fast the time to experiment after getting home form the other job is gone for the year, which leaves the weekend.
If it's an extremely windy weekend, optimistically it's an opportunity to explore. Last weekend the winds were 28mph with 35-45 gusts... and the gusts were often long winded.
I knew it was close to or slightly over the safety limits of the birds, but thought I'd experiment with hover, head wind flying, a quick orbital and zipline style shoot.
Note: This is a fun & informal afternoon, didn't get the inertial gyro instrument mounted... Windy day to simply observe.
The Mavic Pro with Platinum quiet blades was a quick test... it could barely get itself back home flying zig zags, and could barely overtake a direct headwind with a ground speed of 2-3mph. The Mavic Air (my least favorite AC) surprisingly did better than the MavicPro, it was able to penetrate the headwind with 8-10mph ground speed. I think it's extremely small size and proportionally large motors was able to over come the strong winds. The ability to hold hover or maintaining a autonomous program's route wasn't acceptable, even the Hanger's AutoPilot App that takes into account the winds couldn't keep it acceptably close to on track.
Fired up the Inspire 1 and it had the power to easily overcome the wind but it too couldn't hold a decent route with strong winds... it's older stabilization & speed of sensor technology was evident. The evolution of technology is fast; the Inspire 1 (2014) released 1 year prior to the Yuneec H920 (2015). The Inspire 2 had more head wind power compared to the Inspire 1 but you could really hear it above the wind, it made a better attempt to run the autonomous routes, good for a cinema type shoot but not accurate for technical routes.
Brought out the H-Pro, it lifted off great, drifted around a bit at first...something I've noticed with initial take-off for the H-pro in my driveway until 5-6ft off the ground... I believe it's magnetic interference, it quickly stabilized and held a decent hover. In head wind flight, it would take a position with strong nose down angle but could pull itself through the wind better than the previous Birds mentioned. Using the ST16's tools, I did roughly equivalent flight routes and the H-Pro performed the route the best out of the group. You could really see the gimbal tilting hard with the strong winds, but the video was mostly stable... there were a few mid-40 winds that slightly tilted tbe video.
The Inspire 2 has several strong benefits but 40mph gusty winds is not one it specializes. The H-Pro Hex takes the honors in windy hovers, the hex design benefits are evident. Head wind speed is a toss up between the H-Pro & Inspire 2. The H-Pro was much quieter during it's head wind attacks, the I2 generates a power prop noise into strong head winds. Landing was a little different... the DJI birds are no issue, they land without a hint of problem due to low profile that includes a stance basically the same dimensions of props. The H-Pro was perfectly landable, but you needed to give a bit more attention. As example: If applied a RTH landing, would have no concern for the DJI Birds self landing, but I don't think I'd suggest a RTH unassisted H-pro landing in high winds. Interestinly, I tried the H-Pro with skids into the wind and skids 90 degrees.... and tried Steve's Kill Sw technique. Skids into the wind would be a full scale bird's method but the H-Pro did better skids @ 90. I think the skids width of spread is greater than the skid's length for balance.
As a comparison, granted not close to an equal equipment comparison... tried the Matrice 210... no comparison, but in fairness I think it's a lot to do with the available reserve power. I've read the M210 is very stable, and several SAR outfits use it in very nasty weather: high winds, snow and rain with high success. You defiantly hear the power in the motors & props reacting to wind. Like the H-Pro, at times it would tilt strongly but it would hold nicely; more impressive was the speed at which it reacted and recovered. The main area the M210 shinned was head wind performance with the huge props and large motors. It's not a lot physically bigger than an Inspire 2 but props jump from 15" to 18" and a much larger cord. Didn't try the big Hex or Octal, requires large gimbal & camera to balance out.
I will have to admit, the Pro-H was impressive overall... it has it's frustrating other points but handling high wind; it out performs the wind test better than Birds 2-4X it's price range.
I've done similar tests in 15-20mph winds and couldn't see an significant difference... well within the power limits of the quads.
So from a DJI flyer... gotta say, the H-Pro gets the 35-45 mph high wind victory!
This has often been discussed, various videos created in an attempt to capture the differences, etc.
To my degree of acceptance, I wasn't seeing convincing data that overwhelmingly showed one over the other.
As noted in various threads, I'm one of the ghost traitors... I use both Yuneec & DJI depending on the need.
We've recently had some extreme windy days, with the sun setting fast the time to experiment after getting home form the other job is gone for the year, which leaves the weekend.
If it's an extremely windy weekend, optimistically it's an opportunity to explore. Last weekend the winds were 28mph with 35-45 gusts... and the gusts were often long winded.
I knew it was close to or slightly over the safety limits of the birds, but thought I'd experiment with hover, head wind flying, a quick orbital and zipline style shoot.Note: This is a fun & informal afternoon, didn't get the inertial gyro instrument mounted... Windy day to simply observe.
The Mavic Pro with Platinum quiet blades was a quick test... it could barely get itself back home flying zig zags, and could barely overtake a direct headwind with a ground speed of 2-3mph. The Mavic Air (my least favorite AC) surprisingly did better than the MavicPro, it was able to penetrate the headwind with 8-10mph ground speed. I think it's extremely small size and proportionally large motors was able to over come the strong winds. The ability to hold hover or maintaining a autonomous program's route wasn't acceptable, even the Hanger's AutoPilot App that takes into account the winds couldn't keep it acceptably close to on track.
Fired up the Inspire 1 and it had the power to easily overcome the wind but it too couldn't hold a decent route with strong winds... it's older stabilization & speed of sensor technology was evident. The evolution of technology is fast; the Inspire 1 (2014) released 1 year prior to the Yuneec H920 (2015). The Inspire 2 had more head wind power compared to the Inspire 1 but you could really hear it above the wind, it made a better attempt to run the autonomous routes, good for a cinema type shoot but not accurate for technical routes.
Brought out the H-Pro, it lifted off great, drifted around a bit at first...something I've noticed with initial take-off for the H-pro in my driveway until 5-6ft off the ground... I believe it's magnetic interference, it quickly stabilized and held a decent hover. In head wind flight, it would take a position with strong nose down angle but could pull itself through the wind better than the previous Birds mentioned. Using the ST16's tools, I did roughly equivalent flight routes and the H-Pro performed the route the best out of the group. You could really see the gimbal tilting hard with the strong winds, but the video was mostly stable... there were a few mid-40 winds that slightly tilted tbe video.
The Inspire 2 has several strong benefits but 40mph gusty winds is not one it specializes. The H-Pro Hex takes the honors in windy hovers, the hex design benefits are evident. Head wind speed is a toss up between the H-Pro & Inspire 2. The H-Pro was much quieter during it's head wind attacks, the I2 generates a power prop noise into strong head winds. Landing was a little different... the DJI birds are no issue, they land without a hint of problem due to low profile that includes a stance basically the same dimensions of props. The H-Pro was perfectly landable, but you needed to give a bit more attention. As example: If applied a RTH landing, would have no concern for the DJI Birds self landing, but I don't think I'd suggest a RTH unassisted H-pro landing in high winds. Interestinly, I tried the H-Pro with skids into the wind and skids 90 degrees.... and tried Steve's Kill Sw technique. Skids into the wind would be a full scale bird's method but the H-Pro did better skids @ 90. I think the skids width of spread is greater than the skid's length for balance.
As a comparison, granted not close to an equal equipment comparison... tried the Matrice 210... no comparison, but in fairness I think it's a lot to do with the available reserve power. I've read the M210 is very stable, and several SAR outfits use it in very nasty weather: high winds, snow and rain with high success. You defiantly hear the power in the motors & props reacting to wind. Like the H-Pro, at times it would tilt strongly but it would hold nicely; more impressive was the speed at which it reacted and recovered. The main area the M210 shinned was head wind performance with the huge props and large motors. It's not a lot physically bigger than an Inspire 2 but props jump from 15" to 18" and a much larger cord. Didn't try the big Hex or Octal, requires large gimbal & camera to balance out.
I will have to admit, the Pro-H was impressive overall... it has it's frustrating other points but handling high wind; it out performs the wind test better than Birds 2-4X it's price range.
I've done similar tests in 15-20mph winds and couldn't see an significant difference... well within the power limits of the quads.
So from a DJI flyer... gotta say, the H-Pro gets the 35-45 mph high wind victory!
