Flying Mavic in Iceland, things to prepare?

[jordandhs]

HI All,

newbie here who just received my very first DJI drone, the Mavic Pro,

i had been flying my 3DR solo (bestbuy deal) before with around 10 hours experiences and the Mavic Pro size caught my eyes, been waiting for 2 months and finally bite the bullet and bought one.

My trip to Iceland will be in 2 weeks, estimate temperature would be around 20F-40F.

my main goal will be flying over the cliff and do some video footage of the waterfall, northern lights, scenery, follow-me (rental car following on road).

my concern is, what are the chance the prop will ice and freeze up? and what can i do to prevent them from happening? i googled around and people were saying silicone shoe spray will do the trick.

i flown my solo up Mt. Charleston (mid 20F) quite a few times and I was never aware there were such thing with prop icing up, the drone flew perfectly fine and i enjoyed every second of it.

I will be bringing both my 3DR solo and my Mavic Pro with me and mainly will be using the Solo as my main drone as I had a lot more confident flying it since its big and heavy, and knock on wood it won't be a big loss if things DOES happen.

what are the best setting if i were to fly at night to capture northern light?

what else should i be watching out for?

Thanks in advance

 

[asnaptoremember]

Awesome! You're going to have a great trip! I was just there back in November. The temperatures I experienced were about the same as what you are expecting.

- Prop icing wasn't an issue, but I wasn't flying in waterfall mist in sub-freezing temperatures either. It was slightly warmer when I decided to do that...maybe 36F or so lol. Also, I didn't prepare at all for icing props.
- Keep your batteries warm and charged. You'll be using them a lot.
- Watch out for the wind! It can be ridiculously windy at times. Like waterfalls going sideways windy!

I didn't fly during the northern lights as I was running my DSLR instead. If you fly just make sure to turn up your ISO so that the aurora is visible. I've seen ISO 1600 Mavic footage at night and it looks really nice for the tiny camera.

Most importantly, have an amazing time! Fly the solo & mavic as much as you can. The country is absolutely gorgeous and the people are great too!

Here's the video I shot if you're interested:

 

[jordandhs]

Awesome! You're going to have a great trip! I was just there back in November. The temperatures I experienced were about the same as what you are expecting.

- Prop icing wasn't an issue, but I wasn't flying in waterfall mist in sub-freezing temperatures either. It was slightly warmer when I decided to do that...maybe 36F or so lol. Also, I didn't prepare at all for icing props.
- Keep your batteries warm and charged. You'll be using them a lot.
- Watch out for the wind! It can be ridiculously windy at times. Like waterfalls going sideways windy!

I didn't fly during the northern lights as I was running my DSLR instead. If you fly just make sure to turn up your ISO so that the aurora is visible. I've seen ISO 1600 Mavic footage at night and it looks really nice for the tiny camera.

Most importantly, have an amazing time! Fly the solo & mavic as much as you can. The country is absolutely gorgeous and the people are great too!

Here's the video I shot if you're interested:

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!! this video make me even more excited! love those music in the end lol, how was the temperature like, were there ever anytime or moment the drone scare you for a bit?

how was the tourist/local react to drone flying? in US most of the place i flown drone people were curious and positive, but I read from forum youtube most people had negative feedback from people around.

 

[asnaptoremember]

You're welcome! The temperatures we had then were right around 30F-40F. The wind is the concerning part for your Mavic. Not sure if you saw the high waterfall being blown sideways in the video, but my Phantom 3 had troubles in that wind. So much trouble in fact that I got about 50ft away and brought it back. That was the only time I had trouble.

Tourists & locals didn't seem to mind. Near the waterfalls, you couldn't hear the phantom anyway. But always be respectful of people's property and as usual don't fly over people. I only ran into one "no drone" sign and that was at Kirkjufell (mountain in the last shot).

It's an amazing country with unbelievable scenery! You're going to have an epic time!

 

[jordandhs]

@0:47 when you fly close to water fall, do you rely solely on your phone screen, or you got a perfect visual of your drone? i am planning to do the similar shot but i have fear of flying too close to waterfall and water splash on the drone with the cold weather water start freezing up, or water get in the electronic and things go crazy, sound like a risk but i really want to take that shot (if you know that feel)

 

[asnaptoremember]

I did maintain VLOS while flying in Iceland. For that waterfall it was actually pretty easy to do as the top of the waterfall was easily accessible by a short walk. You can see in that shot that I did have some overspray hit the UV filter. The mist started getting the camera from quite a long way away from the actual falls. The wind was against me getting a clean shot I guess haha. I've flown in extremely thick fog before and the drone came back completely soaked and everything was fine. Overspray really isn't an issue, but frost definitely could be. You're going to have to make sure to keep an eye on the conditions while you're flying or just stay out of the mist altogether if its that cold.

 

[NYCMAV]

Just keep your fingers crossed that you're able to fly your Mavic AT ALL!

I was there 3 weeks ago on a 2 day layover and it rained (HEAVY) the entire time. my Mavic got ZERO flight time.

 

[cardplayer71]

Just keep your fingers crossed that you're able to fly your Mavic AT ALL!

I was there 3 weeks ago on a 2 day layover and it rained (HEAVY) the entire time. my Mavic got ZERO flight time.

The same thing happened to me with respect to weather! I was able to use the Mavic Pro for 2 days (then it got destroyed - that's another thread). Subsequently, I bought a Phantom 3 Pro in Reykjavik, but the weather totally prevented its uses for the rest of the trip. It was either insane wind, or horizontal rain, or sub-zero temps (C). It's OK - it was an awesome trip!

Here are a few of my videos:
Iceland with Mavic Pro

 

[Galaxydreamer]

Same thing happens all the time. I live here in Iceland. Its always in the car if I am out and about.