Hi,
it can handle wind up to 40 / 50 kilometer per hour, but this depends of the size and weight of the aircraft, payload included mainly, and depends of the settings you have on it..
The reason is, by setting up the velocity ( number of G's) and maximum allowed inclination, you will either have something smooth to fly ( 0.3 or 0.4 G is the setting i use with max allowable angle at 35° ) but that will obviously be a little slow in compensating wind, or you can set it up up to 1G and allow up to 45 ° inclination ( we call it the flying saucer mode..), then it becomes really savage and will fight wind really well, but hell it will be also damn fast even with some expo lol ! Perfect for aerobatic flight, or if you want to auto drop your payload incliding your camera ( it's possible to break the camera gimbal mounts with these settings in some cases, don't ask me how i know that.. lol).
Then, biggest factor is the weight of the equipped multirotor, if it is heavy enough, then it is possible to reduce the velocity and still have something smooth ( but you need definitly a 3 axis with separate stabilisation on gimbal to keep a good picture in video, as the system will fight the wind as hard as you allow it to do, so there is a lot of sollicitation on the gimbal dampeners, which generates a large deflection of the angle between gimbal and frames, so the flight controller can not determine that angle movement ( tilt and roll), and also yaw can shake in hard wind.
Any stabilisation board manufacturer would tell you that his system is kick *** in the wind, but truth is, even with a very good position hold system, the big air blows will always disturb the barometer, as accurate could it be, by bringing a pressure fluctuation inside the barometer body itself. We use a 24 bits @ 100Hz barometer and it's very fast in reaction, which makes it more " irritable" in hard wind gusts if you do not have a cover on the multirotor that limitates the pressure fluctuation inside. And also, as we use mostly fixed pitch blades, this does not help in big gusts as when the frames are inclinated with props catching wind from below, motors need to reduce speed a LOT so the multi does not climb outerspace. This phenomena is less hard with harder frames but then the problem comes from the power requested to fight the wind blowing over the props and pushing the frame down.. This is why i use always limited size props and high KV motors on small frames to keep a steady power response and RPM's in all conditions.
Now, to show a bit the performances in wind gusts, i will wait to have some bad weather and hard wind, and make a video. But one more time, there is no secret, taking still pictures in high wind is still ok with good camera settings,for videos, i really doubt a lot as the more the system is able to fight the wind, the more it's fast and shaky especially in fast wind gusts, so gimbal is the last of it's interrest loool !
Anyway, the unit i'm using is a Beta version, that will be tested in USA by some people ( this is why i come in USA in November / december, to have it trid by a few people) as now that the unit is giving full satisfaction on a technical point of view, it's time to put it in the hands of cinematographers who are used to multirotor systems so they can give some objective comments and suggestions on some stuffs we might have forgotten or bypassed by our " technical" approach. Once this will be done, the PCB will be reworked to add some features ( mainly connectivity and visual information system) , and then, i'll be able to say what the future will be.
This unit is developped since over 4 years and can be flown in assisted mode by a 5 year children ( Daughter or the developper flies it ) . It's already used by a very few customers and mainly for high masts inspections ( cellular phot antennas and stuffs like that) and a very few ones are testing for video / photo. I really can't tell more as i signed an NDA with the developper for beta testings on one hand, and on the other hand, i am allowed to show it's performances but not to share any sensible technical details of it, which is absolutly normal. More detailed things about the unit and commercial details will come later on, once the unit is fully tested and validated in all possible conditions. I give it something like 8 flights a day actually, since a while now, and the only " problem" i have encoutered has been a slight drift in normal flight ( not position or altitude lock) after a good flip over crash - i wanted to know if it's possible to hover with 5 motors on a hexa and a heavy payload, answer is NO looool, only with limited or no payload and you need some space for taking off) : the PCB had moved 1° away on tilt / roll on it's mount lol !
Best regards and sorry for not giving more infos,
Fabien
