Flying in cold weather

[devinrhall]

I flew mine for the first time yesterday and the was -15F. I didn't see any problems with it at all.

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I'm not talking so much as problems during the cold weather flight, more along the lines of could it cause any type of long term damage to the battery or components, I heard cold weather can shorten a LiPo batteries overall life, whether that's true or not I don't know.


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[Casey]

I'm not talking so much as problems during the cold weather flight, more along the lines of could it cause any type of long term damage to the battery or components, I heard cold weather can shorten a LiPo batteries overall life, whether that's true or not I don't know.


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Oh got ya. No clue. Seems to be no consensus on the interwebs either

 

[JakeS]

I flew mine for the first time yesterday and the was -15F. I didn't see any problems with it at all.

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nice Casey, I live in Anchorage and have been flying but we haven't hit below 0 temps yet. I took mine into the mountains recently.

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[Casey]

nice Casey, I live in Anchorage and have been flying but we haven't hit below 0 temps yet. I took mine into the mountains recently.

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Oh sweet. I'm right off parks highways at mile 279. It's a bit colder up here. But it's still been a good winter so far.

 

[devinrhall]

Oh sweet. I'm right off parks highways at mile 279. It's a bit colder up here. But it's still been a good winter so far.

My winter just hit in WV, first snowfall last night, temp around 25 at night. Not as low as your guys temp, lol. I'm worried about messing anything up with my Mavic when I get it because I cant really afford another one. So I'm hesitant to fly it in cold weather until I see or hear how that could effect it. I've flown my racers in this weather but they don't cost $1,000.


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[The Editor]

There are no real issues in flying in cold conditions (the Mavic is rated from 0-40c) other than ensuring your batteries are suitably warm before you start.
Lipo's will not give up their charge so easily when cold since it inhibits the chemical reaction that allows them to work.
The aircraft doesn't have to be warm but the batteries must!
Throttle (current) protection will limit the amount of 'power' you are able to draw from the packs when they are around 15degrees to protect the cells and people should be mindful that full power for climb outs etc may not be available until the cells have warmed.
Packs that are below 15degrees will normally give an error message and the aircraft will refuse to start until the battery warmed.
The other thing people should be aware of is that icing can occur on the props depending on the amount of moisture in the air.
It DOES NOT have to be below freezing for ice to form on the props since the difference in pressure between the upper and lower surface of the blades causes rapid cooling and ice crystals can form so be mindful in cold conditions where there is fog or moisture in the air!

 

[devinrhall]

There are no real issues in flying in cold conditions (the Mavic is rated from 0-40c) other than ensuring your batteries are suitably warm before you start.
Lipo's will not give up their charge so easily when cold since it inhibits the chemical reaction that allows them to work.
The aircraft doesn't have to be warm but the batteries must!
Throttle (current) protection will limit the amount of 'power' you are able to draw from the packs when they are around 15degrees to protect the cells and people should be mindful that full power for climb outs etc may not be available until the cells have warmed.
Packs that are below 15degrees will normally give an error message and the aircraft will refuse to start until the battery warmed.
The other thing people should be aware of is that icing can occur on the props depending on the amount of moisture in the air.
It DOES NOT have to be below freezing for ice to form on the props since the difference in pressure between the upper and lower surface of the blades causes rapid cooling and ice crystals can form so be mindful in cold conditions where there is fog or moisture in the air!

Thanks for that info and yeah I've seen myself the blades collecting moisture and icing a little. Once I notice that I stopped flying because it puts too much stress on the motors. It hasn't happened to me often though, just one time with one of my racers. Also my racer had a lot of opening in it so it also iced over some of the circuit board, the Mavic for the most part is covered but I think those vents could be a problem at some point in certain conditions, even though the Mavic stays quite hot on the inside that means if moisture does get into those vents it could cause circuits getting watery. I don't know that for a fact, just guessing it could happen. With my racers though, snow flew right into it and even rain did because the wires and board in it are pretty much fully exposed and it never caused a problem, I have to guess that the Mavic is designed better and probably won't have problems either, the inside of it looks pretty solid and well done.


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[Max2134]

I've heard the problem with battery temperatures fairly often but in New-England winter, -5Cº, the main problem i've had is with the rubber vibration dampening parts for the gimbal. In the cold air affects them, like many other rubber parts (most notably the o-rings used in the challenger spacecraft what were not tested in the right conditions), by shrinking them slightly and making them more rigid. This brings the gimbal closer to the drone body and also in contact with the small L shaped piece that is a fail safe that keeps the gimbal from putting strain on the wires if the dampening parts were to fail. This causes the pitch or Y axis to get stuck or hit the fail safe L bracket destabilizing footage and causing the camera to stop responding to controller input while it tries to overcome the problem.

Hope this information get's back to DJI so they can address the problem and post a more sufficient warning about it.