I got a call during the week from a friend that owns a cattle ranch. Bought a drone about a month ago and was having problems with it. Of course I asked, “What is the problem?”
Won’t fly straight sometimes, and also battery ran dead twice before he could get it back.
He has several thousand acres, and I know his ranch fairly well, gets a lot of wind around his area. So I thought, that is silly, he doesn’t know how to deal with the wind. Then I thought, he understands as much about flight performance as I do about raising Black Angus cattle, and that is nothing
So went of to his place with my Jepson and explained to him there is nothing wrong with his drone, but once it is airborne it is moving with the air, either against it, with it, or crosswind. I explained to him if you have a 20 mph wind out of the West, and you are flying at 35 mph East bound, your ground speed coming back West is going to be 15 mph, not 35.
Also if you have a 20 mph crosswind you can not point your drone towards your destination and expect it to arrive there, you need to compensate by turning into the wind to allow for how the wind is going to push your drone.
I explained to him that if he flew down wind he had to make sure he had enough battery power to return against the wind.
For us that are pilots or have a good understanding of flight characteristics this is simple stuff. But for a beginner with no aviation experience, they are launching into a new world that lives by different principles verses driving a car.
My payment for my help, some beautiful steaks, that was a good deal.
Won’t fly straight sometimes, and also battery ran dead twice before he could get it back.
He has several thousand acres, and I know his ranch fairly well, gets a lot of wind around his area. So I thought, that is silly, he doesn’t know how to deal with the wind. Then I thought, he understands as much about flight performance as I do about raising Black Angus cattle, and that is nothing
So went of to his place with my Jepson and explained to him there is nothing wrong with his drone, but once it is airborne it is moving with the air, either against it, with it, or crosswind. I explained to him if you have a 20 mph wind out of the West, and you are flying at 35 mph East bound, your ground speed coming back West is going to be 15 mph, not 35.
Also if you have a 20 mph crosswind you can not point your drone towards your destination and expect it to arrive there, you need to compensate by turning into the wind to allow for how the wind is going to push your drone.
I explained to him that if he flew down wind he had to make sure he had enough battery power to return against the wind.
For us that are pilots or have a good understanding of flight characteristics this is simple stuff. But for a beginner with no aviation experience, they are launching into a new world that lives by different principles verses driving a car.
My payment for my help, some beautiful steaks, that was a good deal.
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