Flying in High Winds

[Chris1710]

Hi Guys & Girls

As a new inspire 1 pro pilot I was wondering what wind speeds people have flown in?

What would you say the maximum wind speed to fly in is?

Thanks in advance

 

[The Editor]

Hi Guys & Girls

As a new inspire 1 pro pilot I was wondering what wind speeds people have flown in?

What would you say the maximum wind speed to fly in is?

Thanks in advance

Are you talking professionally or for fun/hobby?

If you're flying professionally your operational limits will be quoted in your ops manual.
For fun, its up to you but remember the Max wind resistance from the Inspire is quoted as 10m/s or around 22mph.
I personally have flown in sustained winds of around 24-25 mph (measured agl with an anemometer). I wouldn't call it fun but the Inspire is surprisingly stable in these conditions all be it with a good lean into the wind in P-GPS mode.

 

[Chris1710]

Are you talking professionally or for fun/hobby?

If you're flying professionally your operational limits will be quoted in your ops manual.
For fun, its up to you but remember the Max wind resistance from the Inspire is quoted as 10m/s or around 22mph.
I personally have flown in sustained winds of around 24-25 mph (measured agl with an anemometer). I wouldn't call it fun but the Inspire is surprisingly stable in these conditions all be it with a good lean into the wind in P-GPS mode.

Thanks for the reply,

I have pfaw work on a different airframe

I was going to take it out tomorrow for some more practice flying in stronger winds

Just wanted to know for sure it could take the 20mph winds

Regards

 

[The Editor]

Thanks for the reply,

I have pfaw work on a different airframe

I was going to take it out tomorrow for some more practice flying in stronger winds

Just wanted to know for sure it could take the 20mph winds

Regards

No problem at all - in fact when I've been out in 20mph plus winds I have had people come up to me and comment how surprised they were at how stable the aircraft was in the conditions.

 

[Chris1710]

Thanks

 

[RaptorMan]

You probably don't want to fly in higher winds for your first few flights, but as E said the Inspire is surprisingly good with winds and can hover fairly stably in such conditions. Perhaps a bigger problem than high sustained winds is high gusty winds.


Brian

 

[The Editor]

And don't forget, you can always practice and set the wind speed in the SIM.

 

[PrimeMotivator]

Some mad wind on beach on take off it gusted to 40.4 Mph averaged 32.4Mph at least according to healthy drones. Possibly helps I have a lot of flight time on parachutes so know to crab across so as not to end up downwind.

Wouldn't recommend it though. The video was fine and stable but did get props in the shot even with the gear up.

 

[Chris1710]

You've all been a great help

Thanks again

 

[World Media]

ONe thing to remember is that in such high winds everything can go "pear shaped" very quickly. If for some reason you lose GPS ( its happened to most of us at some point or other) then going straight into ATTI mode will very quickly have the inspire heading downwind at 20 to 25 mph with no stick input. So as others here say over and over again get familiar with flying ATTI.
I agree with other contributors it is remarkably stable in high winds in P-GPS modes but can be tricky landing with gusts.

 

[PrimeMotivator]

Also be sure that down wind isn't a dangerous place to be.

 

[jhardway]

High winds are fun, kidding around I agree with Editor, check your user guide but I have done shooting at 33 guesting, 27 substained. The copter flies fine, way better then I expected but I also would stress its for the more experienced type guys.

In my high wind siturations, when i was over 25mph and flying the copter sideways into wind there was one thing that happen that I did not see at the 20mph range. When I let off the controller and have the copter hold its position by GPS, the aircraft consistently drifted away with the wind.

I stress rule one, not to freak out just fly the copter. After understanding the situation and looking more into it, I could consistently repeat the issue, however one of the other things I found interesting. Basically all I needed to do was hold my aircraft's position sideways into the wind when I let the stick go into a neutral state where I expected GPS to take over, the copter would drift off with the wind, at 30 mph you can imagine it was fairly fast. However if you where holding your position in the wind, put your stick in a neutral state, and the copter started to drift, if I put the littlest input into my directional stick (right side) and let it back into a neutral position, the copter would then hold its position in GPS mode without any movement downwind.

go figure, high winds the aircraft does a good job.