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Mavic Pro vs Snow

gavinski

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Has anyone flown their Mavic Pro while it is snowing? I am heading back out to the mountains and the forecast is for snow so there might be an opportunity to catch some nice footage.

I imagine that the vision system would struggle in a predominantly white environment with falling snow. The GPS signal should be fine though, right?

There is also the chance that the lens will get wet from the snow and/or condensation, so I wonder if keeping the cover on is better even though it might impact image quality. I have seen the crazy video where they fly a Mavic in a downpour, so I am guessing the moisture from snowfall wouldn't be a real problem.

I am curious though if anyone has actually tried it.
 
The Mavic manual warns not to fly when it's snowing. With that said...

I imagine that the vision system would struggle in a predominantly white environment with falling snow.
You could work around that potential issue by disabling the sensors in DJI GO.

The GPS signal should be fine though, right?
Correct.
 
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The Mavic manual warns not to fly when it's snowing. With that said...


You could work around that potential issue by disabling the sensors in DJI GO.


Correct.
may I ask wich sensors need disabling? and were they are located? ive flown my mavic a lot but I'm in so much concentration on flying and not making a costly error that ive not spent much time going throught the settings. also is the same setting a good idea when flying over water?
 
Only the front sensors are used for obstacle avoidance. So, if they are detecting snowflakes as obstacles, then they will need to be disabled in order to fly in such an environment.

You might need to disable the downward sensors if flying very close to the surface of water. If your Mavic is stable with the sensors enabled, then there is no need to disable them.
 
Somwone has posted a video in a snowfall a while ago, so it works, even if certainly not recommendable for your Mavic's longevity... Obstacle avoidance might need turning off as it may think it is going to hit the snowflakes and refuse to go forward.
 
I have flown mine in large, heavy, wet snowflakes - the vision system definitely picked them up.
In smaller snow it was fine and flew without issue.
For what it's worth, in both instances the motors were dry under the props. In fact the entire body was less wet compared to flying it in light rain.
I did hand launch/catch rather than have the drone be laid down on wet ground.
YMMV, gonna kill your mavic etc.

Personally I had no issues with any droplets on the gimbal / lens, but I imagine if you flew with the cover you'd have no end of issues.
 
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