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Drone crash in cold weather

My friend wanted to video a quarry blast with his mavic pro it was -25 out he put the drone up prior to the blast and it only zstayed in the air for approximately one minute and crashed due to battery failure

So you friend ignored the minimum operating temperature guidelines stated by the manufacturer and expected something different to happen? He knew he was taking a risk, unfortunately it didn't work out for him.

Some people fly in the cold with success, but keeping the batteries warm is critical and many factors are at play including condensation. At -25C I definitely would not be flying. I have read about way too many cold weather failures to take the risk myself, and DJI explicitly cautions against it. As always YMMV but personally I think it is a bad idea and so does DJI.
 
We still have no idea whether or not the crash was caused by cold weather. I would want to see the flight log before I passed judgement.
 
OK guys I have deleted a few posts and issued a warning .
Please stay civil and if someone isn't just overlook and report do not engage and I will not have to clean up after.
Do continue on but please THINK before you post .
Thank-You
IMG_7921.jpg
 
Carbon fiber props are good when you hit little tree branches...specially in cold weather. They don't break like the original. They are really stronger
ok thanks.
 
Well looks like the OP is gone was really hoping he'd post the dat files so we could see what really caused his crash!
 
Hey forum,

I lurk alot but rarely post.

I finally had to on this one.

I know a lot of people here are not a fan of -0 flying. Dji doesn't reccommend it. Failures Etc etc.

Let's be honest 90% of people do not completely follow every manufacturers guideline. They are exactly that, guidelines.

I would love to only take my mavic out in perfect conditions, but living in the center of canada we are -0c from October to May. That doesn't leave much time for perfect condition flights.

I can't just shelve this thing for most of the year.

I'm sure if you live in the beautiful warn south (I'm jealous). Then you can be a bit more selective with your flying conditions. But here we don't have that luxury.

So we go outside the manufacturers guidelines and take the onus on ourselves if something goes wrong. At no point was the OP blaming DJI for the crash. Just wondering what couldve happened.

As with many people here I have flown my drone in -20 c weather . I've taken it quading , sledding, and ice fishing. I've taken this Bird thru the beautiful snow covered mountains of British Columbia and even snowboarding. All capturing beautiful footage and All without a single problem . And as with any flight I was just as concerned that a failure could happen.

Keep in mind we have different leisure activities up in the cold. We know how to have fun when it's cold, and sometimes you want to film it.

Let's be honest, how many items have you used outside of the "manufacturer guidelines" and found kick *** alternate uses for it. ? Half of these forums wouldn't exist if people only operated under the guidelines. (Mods, height restriction removals, etc) all of these could create a failure, yet we still love to push the "manufacturer guidelines"

Just because I have flown in -20 with no problems , doesn't necessarily mean that you won't, but as other mentioned keep the batteries warm, and let it hover for a few minutes to get to a good temp. Same as you'd do with your car. Take as many precaution as you can and just be smart about it.

If it's a beautiful sunny -20 day with no wind and you really want to take her out for a short journey, by all means at your liability do so, but be aware of battery temps and times.

If it's - 5c but snowing like all hell - don't take it out. (Not saying I haven't done that, but I'm more willing to take a risk with my equipment for a beautiful shot. )

All I'm trying to say is maybe try to think how their situation may be different than yours before chastising them for not following what rules you follow.
 
My friend wanted to video a quarry blast with his mavic pro it was -25 out he put the drone up prior to the blast and it only zstayed in the air for approximately one minute and crashed due to battery failure
keep battery at 75-80 degrees
 
Hey forum,

I lurk alot but rarely post.

I finally had to on this one.

I know a lot of people here are not a fan of -0 flying. Dji doesn't reccommend it. Failures Etc etc.

Let's be honest 90% of people do not completely follow every manufacturers guideline. They are exactly that, guidelines.

I would love to only take my mavic out in perfect conditions, but living in the center of canada we are -0c from October to May. That doesn't leave much time for perfect condition flights.

I can't just shelve this thing for most of the year.

I'm sure if you live in the beautiful warn south (I'm jealous). Then you can be a bit more selective with your flying conditions. But here we don't have that luxury.

So we go outside the manufacturers guidelines and take the onus on ourselves if something goes wrong. At no point was the OP blaming DJI for the crash. Just wondering what couldve happened.

As with many people here I have flown my drone in -20 c weather . I've taken it quading , sledding, and ice fishing. I've taken this Bird thru the beautiful snow covered mountains of British Columbia and even snowboarding. All capturing beautiful footage and All without a single problem . And as with any flight I was just as concerned that a failure could happen.

Keep in mind we have different leisure activities up in the cold. We know how to have fun when it's cold, and sometimes you want to film it.

Let's be honest, how many items have you used outside of the "manufacturer guidelines" and found kick *** alternate uses for it. ? Half of these forums wouldn't exist if people only operated under the guidelines. (Mods, height restriction removals, etc) all of these could create a failure, yet we still love to push the "manufacturer guidelines"

Just because I have flown in -20 with no problems , doesn't necessarily mean that you won't, but as other mentioned keep the batteries warm, and let it hover for a few minutes to get to a good temp. Same as you'd do with your car. Take as many precaution as you can and just be smart about it.

If it's a beautiful sunny -20 day with no wind and you really want to take her out for a short journey, by all means at your liability do so, but be aware of battery temps and times.

If it's - 5c but snowing like all **** - don't take it out. (Not saying I haven't done that, but I'm more willing to take a risk with my equipment for a beautiful shot. )

All I'm trying to say is maybe try to think how their situation may be different than yours before chastising them for not following what rules you follow.

What a balanced and thoughtful reply. This is the kind of helpful personal experience that us newbies come to the forums to learn. Who knows what ultimately caused the crash described by the OP, but I would personally not like to be judged by my most questionable choices. Thanks for taking the time to share this experience.

And by the way, I live in Phoenix, so we experience the opposite conditions. It will be interesting to see if I have any flight limitations when its screaming hot.
 
Don't worry about flying your drone in cold weather. I live in Canada and I fly my MP all winter long since march 2017 . 2 TIPS to do that it's 1-replace your props(plastic) by Carbon fiber because plastic break so easily in cold weather and 2-Put you MP outside only a couple minutes before takeoff to avoid fog in the lens. My lower temp. flight was -21 celcius without any problems. I have a 1st test on Youtube mach 2017 it was -7 celcius but at that time no test available about low temp on MP.
Carbon prob doesn't cause problems of transmission on mavic air ?
 
I used two batteries in my old pro today . It was -19 out . I was sitting in the cab of my truck where it was warm .
 
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I used two batteries in my old pro today . It was -19 out . I was sitting in the cab of my truck where it was warm .
Glad there is another Canadian like me that isn't afraid to fly when the temp dips down. Would have liked to fly today but was working 7 to 7[emoji20]
 
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Don't worry about flying your drone in cold weather. I live in Canada and I fly my MP all winter long since march 2017 . 2 TIPS to do that it's 1-replace your props(plastic) by Carbon fiber because plastic break so easily in cold weather and 2-Put you MP outside only a couple minutes before takeoff to avoid fog in the lens. My lower temp. flight was -21 celcius without any problems. I have a 1st test on Youtube mach 2017 it was -7 celcius but at that time no test available about low temp on MP.
Hi Frank Mavic. Your video doesn't work (not available). Would you re-post it. Cheers
 
I'm too chicken to fly below 32°F and anything over 15mph winds. It really limits the flights living in Wisconsin, but I just don't want to see the drone go down over something I could have prevented. I'm sure plenty of people have had lots of success pushing the limits, I just know my luck when those limits are exceeded.
 
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