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by bcheung 2428 days ago
I have the Mavic Pro and have issues with the wind carrying it away and not being able to navigate where I want.

Is a smaller drone going to even more issue with wind or have they improved this?

4 comments

How windy is it where you live? I've flown the Mavic Pro over the Pacific and Lake Michigan through what I would describe as a "healthy breeze". I think its max wind speed is approx 22mph, but can't find a reference for it.

I'd say rule of thumb is if you wouldn't want to eat a nice brunch in it, you don't want to fly in it.

edit: Pretty sure it uses GPS, compass, and gyro to stabilize itself relative to the wind.If gentle winds are causing it to drift too much, you might be having trouble with one of those. You might want to calibrate compass and make sure you're getting good GPS reception. I've found stabilization is not good in WiFi control mode either.

It was in the desert outside of Las Vegas. It was a pretty strong wind.
You're probably right. Too bad too, probably some good footage to be had out there!
The wind problem is physics. You can't fix that with software. At 250g this thing is a leaf.

I've flown P4P, Mavic Pro, and Spark. Only the big, heavy P4P was stable in strong winds. Even with the larger cross-section the bigger motors in the P4P make a remarkable difference.

Phantom line seems to be killed, DJI doesn't care, so welcome to unstable drones in the future. I still can't understand why did they kill their best drone series a grandpa could fly?
The Phantom was just in a weird space. Too large and expensive for casual flight photography. Not up to snuff of the capabilities of what a pro needs in the Inspire.

I’ve met plenty of photographers who go out on a casual shoot with just the Mavic Pro. The Mavic can be thrown in a photo bag. The Phantom is it’s own bag.

It was in a perfect space for me and for many people. It was still the best-selling drone, despite competition offering smaller drones. Inspire is not easy to fly by a grandpa.
I don't know if this a normal stat to list for drones, but they note the Max Wind Speed Resistance as ~18 mph. They do not list the wind resistance of the Mavic Pro.
The drone will stay where you park it unless you're flying in winds that are unsafe, which the manual recommends you avoid, and the app will actively warn you about.