Flying above arctic circle

[Baldo91]

Hello guys,

I’m planning a trip to Lofoten and wanted to bring my Mavic with me.
Despite the temperature that will be a problem, I also heard about some problems that could occur due to the interferences of Earth’s magnetic field.
I know the drone assume to be flying over a vector of magnetic field which he thinks it must be parallel to the surface, but northern of 66° parallel the vector of this magnetic field angle could be greater than 45° so the vector of the magnetic field points to the ground, resulting in the drone flying with no control.
I am quite concerned about losing my drone so, that said, do somebody can help me out confirming my thoughts? Have somebody lost controls of its drone inside arctic circle for an apparently unknown reasons? Do the drone warn you with some message before takeoff?
Did somebody already flown in northern circle (above 66 parallel) with no problems?
Any suggest will be appreciate, thanks!

 

[zocalo]

I've flown a borrowed Mavic Platinum much further up the coast than Lofoten (mostly around Senja / Tromso, but as far north as Nordkapp - 71° N) and it's been fine - can't wait to get up there again with my M2P!

My biggest issues were batteries due to the temperature given the time of year (March, so flight times of 10 minutes were typical) and wind speed being too high to fly, but didn't notice any specific issues I'd pin down on the latitude. The issue is supposedly that the difference between true and magnetic north becomes significant enough to mess up navigation, so the advice I got was to recalibrate the compass once you get to Lofoten, even if not prompted to do so, then push the boat out slowly. Hover the drone for 10s or so right after takeover to make sure everything is working correctly as you should be doing anyway, then do a quick test flight over safe ground to make sure it goes where you expect, finally test that RTH works and has a safe altitude set, just in case you need it. It wasn't my drone so I did that every time - if it was mine I'd probably just do it once every few days, or after any significant change in location. I also stuck to VLOS and manual flight profiles though, so absolutely zero chance of an autopilot-based fly away; it was either hovering or being controlled by me at all times.

 

[RayOZ]

I’m planning to go to tromso in Feb. I’ll have to be extra cautious if I decide to fly my MP.

 

[Roylee]

I've flown a borrowed Mavic Platinum much further up the coast than Lofoten (mostly around Senja / Tromso, but as far north as Nordkapp - 71° N) and it's been fine - can't wait to get up there again with my M2P!

My biggest issues were batteries due to the temperature given the time of year (March, so flight times of 10 minutes were typical) and wind speed being too high to fly, but didn't notice any specific issues I'd pin down on the latitude. The issue is supposedly that the difference between true and magnetic north becomes significant enough to mess up navigation, so the advice I got was to recalibrate the compass once you get to Lofoten, even if not prompted to do so, then push the boat out slowly. Hover the drone for 10s or so right after takeover to make sure everything is working correctly as you should be doing anyway, then do a quick test flight over safe ground to make sure it goes where you expect, finally test that RTH works and has a safe altitude set, just in case you need it. It wasn't my drone so I did that every time - if it was mine I'd probably just do it once every few days, or after any significant change in location. I also stuck to VLOS and manual flight profiles though, so absolutely zero chance of an autopilot-based fly away; it was either hovering or being controlled by me at all times.

Beware of very low tempratures. Had a aquaintence I met tell me his propeller cracked/broke because of the plastic proprller on hid ph4 becoming brittle in - 25c.

 

[Baldo91]

Thanks to all for the advices guys! I will do like zocalo said, testing my drone a bit more before starting the “mission”.
Also recalibrating the compass is a great advice I got from another pilot I know.
And maybe I will fly during day and not night to avoid -25 degrees like Roylee said, although I had thought of filming northern lights also by drone if this could be possible.

 

[zocalo]

I've not tried it yet (it's right up near the top of the drone bucket list though!) but you should absolutely be able to capture the northern lights from a drone. The main issue is that the max exposure time is limited to 8s, so that's going to need a combination pretty bright auroral display, high-ISO, and noise reduction/exposure lifting in post processing to bring out a decent image, so definitely shoot in Raw to maximise your headroom for this.

For timelapses, assuming all the above can be met, then you are going to have approx 1 frame for every 8 seconds of flight, but if you drop the frame rate down a bit (you don't *really* need 25fps for this) and are really lucky on the conditions you can get maybe 0.5s of video for every minute in the air, or about 10s per battery allowing for a shorter battery life due to the temperature. That's enough for a decent clip within a larger video, but you'll want to think about what you're going to do once in the air before getting it out of the bag to maximise your mission time, and try to keep spare batteries at a decent temperature until you're ready for them.

 

[amitlondhe]

i will be going in january...this post is very helpful!! thank you guys...

anyone travelling between 17-20 january?

 

[markun]

GPS reveivers provide variation (difference) between magnetic and true north. I would assume manufacturers utilize this information with drone compass also.

 

[DanielMavicPro]

I've flown a borrowed Mavic Platinum much further up the coast than Lofoten (mostly around Senja / Tromso, but as far north as Nordkapp - 71° N) and it's been fine - can't wait to get up there again with my M2P!

My biggest issues were batteries due to the temperature given the time of year (March, so flight times of 10 minutes were typical) and wind speed being too high to fly, but didn't notice any specific issues I'd pin down on the latitude. The issue is supposedly that the difference between true and magnetic north becomes significant enough to mess up navigation, so the advice I got was to recalibrate the compass once you get to Lofoten, even if not prompted to do so, then push the boat out slowly. Hover the drone for 10s or so right after takeover to make sure everything is working correctly as you should be doing anyway, then do a quick test flight over safe ground to make sure it goes where you expect, finally test that RTH works and has a safe altitude set, just in case you need it. It wasn't my drone so I did that every time - if it was mine I'd probably just do it once every few days, or after any significant change in location. I also stuck to VLOS and manual flight profiles though, so absolutely zero chance of an autopilot-based fly away; it was either hovering or being controlled by me at all times.

Great post Zocalo!
When you say "manual flight profiles" what do you exactly mean by that?
On my Mavic Pro Platinum it switches automatic between GPS or ATTI mode (when GPS signal is lost). I have no flight modes in settings that say "manual".

 

[old man mavic]

Great post Zocalo!
When you say "manual flight profiles" what do you exactly mean by that?
On my Mavic Pro Platinum it switches automatic between GPS or ATTI mode (when GPS signal is lost). I have no flight modes in settings that say "manual".

flying the drone yourself not using waypoints or other auto modes

 

[Simmo]

u cannot, without changing parameters, change into Atti mode on a mavic. You can with a Phantom.

 

[DanielMavicPro]

flying the drone yourself not using waypoints or other auto modes

Aah, that that makes sense now

 

[zocalo]

Aah, that that makes sense now

Yep, Old Man Mavic was right - none of the programmed auto-flight modes. That was mostly because it wasn't my drone though and I didn't want to take any risks, but I don't think there would be any problem with them. If I were up there with my own drone, I'd probably do a few quick test flights first just to make sure everything was OK with GPS, etc. then use them as normal.

 

[old man mavic]

Yep, Old Man Mavic was right - none of the programmed auto-flight modes. That was mostly because it wasn't my drone though and I didn't want to take any risks, but I don't think there would be any problem with them. If I were up there with my own drone, I'd probably do a few quick test flights first just to make sure everything was OK with GPS, etc. then use them as normal.

thanks zocola its good to pass on knowledge to others one of the best parts of being on this forum

 

[DanielMavicPro]

Exactly, that’s why I ask. I don’t want to lose my MPP

My biggest concern is the compas will be confused. I’ve read in other threads that a compas error could cause a lost gps signal and a fly away...

 

[old man mavic]

Exactly, that’s why I ask. I don’t want to lose my MPP

My biggest concern is the compas will be confused. I’ve read in other threads that a compas error could cause a lost gps signal and a fly away...

i think if you follow zocolas advice in post#2 you should be able to fly successfully take things slow and get to recognise how the drone is responding to stick inputs

 

[DanielMavicPro]

i think if you follow zocolas advice in post#2 you should be able to fly successfully take things slow and get to recognise how the drone is responding to stick inputs

Yes, you are absolutely right

 

[sar104]

Exactly, that’s why I ask. I don’t want to lose my MPP

My biggest concern is the compas will be confused. I’ve read in other threads that a compas error could cause a lost gps signal and a fly away...

Compass errors don't cause the GPS position data to be lost, but may cause the drone to fly erratically and/or switch to ATTI mode if it cannot resolve the errors.

The problem at high latitudes is that the magnetic inclination is large - i.e. the magnetic field vector is nearly vertical. That doesn't leave much of a horizontal component for the compass to use to determine the direction of magnetic north.

 

[Baldo91]

So guys I’m here, sorry for the late answer.
Everything went fine, the drone did his job wonderfully. Before the first flight I did a recalibration of the compass and checked if the drone was doing what I was asking through the sticks. Seems I was at home in Italy, no problems at all. I was keeping spare batteries in my backpack or in the car, however at good temperatures and exposing them to cold only when replacement was needed. Wind was quite an issue, especially one time when I had to fly the mavic down at about 1meter or less above the sea level to carry it home: in the middle of the fjords there is some strong wind at high altitudes. I have flown it at -15 Celsius degrees in Finland, not less than that. My mavic is setted to have ATTI mode and not SPORT mode, because having GPS always on sometimes gives you not smooth footage. I only flown it under my control, no auto-flight done. Unluckily I haven’t flown it during northern lights (we were very lucky on March 7th, a show that never replied in the next days, only weak ones in the next days) because I was the photographer of the group, and wanted to use my reflex to be sure to bring some results home. And I did it, luckily. It was my first Aurora and I was impressed as it was dancing above us.
We travelled from Kiruna, Sweden, to Lofoten islands, to Tromso and back to Kiruna passing through Finland. I did a video with the best scenes I saw, it contains some drone footage of course but also some time lapses of northern lights. Just want to share it with you guys! Please let me know what you think about it! Any advice is appreciated

 

[sas8888]

Nice video.
It looked very cold, especially when you were driving with your face out the window. the windchill must have been pretty low