I am a noob to drones, have had mine for about a month and love it! finding places to fly where I'm at (North VA) that doesn't have trees is a challenge, and I've used it primarily for photographing my job site (I'm a Commercial Construction Superintendent). I'd love to take it out and get snow shots, but don't want to risk trashing the MM.
Anyone fly their MM1 in light snow/sleet?
- Thread starter Mr. Noob
- Start date
Rich QR
Well-Known Member
The manual cautions not to fly it below freezing, and not to fly it in snow or rain.
I've broken the "below freezing" rule, but the drone itself was warm, and didn't stay outdoors for long.
Beware of airfoil icing. Visible moisture plus near-freezing temperatures can cause ice accumulation on the props, which can drastically reduce lift, leading to a crash or forced landing. Visible moisture includes clouds, fog, mist, drizzle, wet snow, rain, etc.
FlyBackOU812
Well-Known Member
Funny you should ask that this week.... ive been testing strong wind conditions with my old crashed parts mini that has no gimble and camera lens is shattered for about 6 months since the crash. I live on the beach BTW, A very wide 300ish feet wide, 5 mile mile long Beach front. Anyway its come to my surprise that in 6 months I've yet to find a strong enough wind that is to strong for the mini to handle believe it or not. So when our first winter storm this past Friday night came in I was excited cuz they were calling for 50 mph blizzard like gusts and I altho I knew it was gonna lose the battle at some point and for sure would lose it to be blown out to sea I was doing it anyway so I was all prepared to record with my camera and screen record as well as possible. Well it came in as expected alright I'll attach wind conditions at time of 15 minute flight. I'll tell ya tho they were 54 mph winds with snow blowing sideways. Im happy to be able to say I still have my crash dummy parts Mini. It ripped that sh** up until battery drained down to 10% and it lost 50% of its power and worst part was I could not get it to land to save my life, well its life. So I did have to chase it down and snatch it out the air right b4 it reached the water but im thrilled to say it was awesome. The Mini is a true beast. Let me get home and upload the video and I'll share it asap. I cant share it in here the way I've got it now. I can share the flight log right now tho. Screenrecording of it. Pay attention to my stick movements compared to when the gusts were blowing hard. You can tell whats going on
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Welcome to the forum from the deserts of Arizona! Enjoy.
?107?
brett8883
Well-Known Member
Snow is fine sleet is really bad. I’ve will form on the props and weigh them down possibly leading to a crash
Welcome to the forum.[emoji106][emoji846]I too am looking forward to flying my drone in the snow [emoji300]️. Or at least after a snow [emoji300]️ storm [emoji939]. Thought it would make some great photos and video [emoji300]️[emoji300]️[emoji106][emoji3]
Sod's law I call it! If I read it right, you set out to destroy your old mini, but the flying gods intervened and you got it back safely. I reckon if you had flown your new one, the gods would have said "let's take this one out to sea and teach him a lesson". Cannot wait to see what kind of video you captured! Stay safe!
Mathematically, I don’t understand how a MM can fly in 54mph wind when it has a top speed of around 28mph? I’m not doubting you did it, I just don’t understand how???
FlyBackOU812
Well-Known Member
I didnt set out to purposesly destroy it. In the past 6 months I havent found a wind strong enough to overtake the Mini so when I seen what they were calling was gonna be the wind I knew I had to give it a go. I dont just immediately see how far and high I can get , at first I stay as low as possible so if I need to I could force land in the sand. Plus it helps the control the lower it is and from there I start doing more and more to get the feel of it. But once again much to my surprise I was able to push it it past what most would never attempt. I dont have much more video just my 15 minute flight log and a few clips cuz I thought I was recording it all from my top front coat pocket but it wasnt facing the right way most of the time. The log is pretty impressive tho
BingErr
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I have flown the Phantom 3, Spark, Mavic Pro Platinum, Mavic Air, Mavic 2 Pro, and Mavic Mini in snow and cold temps. The Mavic Mini is the only one that had poor performance in the cold and snow. The gimbal was gittery/shakey, and the speed/lift of the drone was drastically reduced. Because of this I didn't take it out more than 4-5 times in the winter because I was afraid of losing it.
Here's some videos of various drones in the winter/cold/snow.
SPARK
MAVIC PRO PLATINUM
MAVIC MINI
Here's some videos of various drones in the winter/cold/snow.
SPARK
MAVIC PRO PLATINUM
MAVIC MINI
I took my Mavic Mini 1 out in some snow for the first time a few weeks ago, and was really surprised how well it handled.
Temp was about -1C, winds around 15-18km/hr with gusts around 25-30km. Got a couple strong wind warnings getting up to 90-100m altitude, so kept it below that.
The lesson I did learn that day is to connect the phone and remote before heading out and not in the middle of the park during the snow ?
. The iPhone gave me a couple ‘moisture in the lightning port’ warnings, so needed to dry it out between a couple flights.
Here is a video of it:
Mavic Mini snow flight
Temp was about -1C, winds around 15-18km/hr with gusts around 25-30km. Got a couple strong wind warnings getting up to 90-100m altitude, so kept it below that.
The lesson I did learn that day is to connect the phone and remote before heading out and not in the middle of the park during the snow ?
. The iPhone gave me a couple ‘moisture in the lightning port’ warnings, so needed to dry it out between a couple flights.Here is a video of it:
Mavic Mini snow flight
Not yet, Home is AZ, I'm currently working in VA, and have a lot on my plate at the moment. but a 107 in in the plans!
The Mini is useless in even moderate wind, will just blow away. You really need some flying skills to handle it, by going low and cross against the wind and so on. I do that from time to time, being aware that I gamble with the life of my poor little Mini.
FlyBackOU812
Well-Known Member
First thing you need to understand that many don't and get this confused is that 5 mph wind and 5 mph drone meeting head to head doesn't necessarily cancel each other out. It depends on the aircrafts weight and its aerodynamics. Lets say there were 2 minies side by side fighting the same head on 5 mph wind speed but one was shapped differently and wasn't very aerodynamic that didn't change the weight or power . They both will have different reactions to that same headwind. The one with better aerodynamics would cut through that wind much easier so instead of being able to travel its top speed of 30 mph that is set by the esc (electronic speed control) and not from the power of the motors so in theory the motors are capable of a faster rotation and speed than the esc is allowing so if met by a 5 mph wind it could still possibly be able to travel the esc speed of 30 mph just by increasing the props rotation speed to its full power cuz on no wind situation the motors aren't rotating their full potential at 30mph. It has a little left to give. Thats just one of the factors going on. Another one is, how much does the 5 mph headwind slow down a drone thats at its full motor speed say its FMS is 40mph if the esc wasn't a factor and didn't restrict it at all. Thats gonna be different for every style and weight drone and how much surface area of the drone is fighting that headwind. Think of 2 bullets fired at same time with same amount of gunpowder grains(the overall energy pushing the two bullets are the same and also weigh the same amount except one is half as long and twice as wide. The headwind is going to push that shorter wider one much harder therefore the longer thinner one would be traveling faster and that still doesn't mean if a bullet is traveling at 2,500 FPS against a 2,500 FPS headwind they would cancel out, bullet would still cut through the wind, it would just slow it down considerably but definitely would still be going very fast if its a slender bullet without much aerodynamic surface area for the wind to effect. Hope that now makes more since to you. And if you also factor in that those wind speeds were highest gusts not constant so the drone did lose the battle for a few seconds here and there against the strongest gusts and was pushed back briefly but mostly it gained ground during the average wind speed and really gained when it dropped to say 10 mph the lowest hypothetical speed which means the aircraft gained more overall ground distance than it lost during the heavy gusts. Again....30 mph headwind and 30 mph drone speed doesn't necessarily cancel each other out but some aircraft with twice the surface area or a ballon, if you will, on the other hand would lose constant ground to say half the wind speed as the first was battling. I know that was probably a long drawn out overkill of an explanation but I wanted to cover the topic in one explanation rather than 2 or 3 more if your mind wasn't letting in all the info that a much shorter explanation could have done it. Rather over kill than coming back pulling my hair without knowing where you things started making sense which could've been the first sentence for all I know about you lol
FlyBackOU812
Well-Known Member
To prove this ill attach my flight log with stick controls and if you look at date and time I screenshot what te windspeed within the same place and time its basically unarguable
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