Flying in extreme cold weather...

[Pixeldawg]

Hello all,

I am working on a book about China and have been given the opportunity to go to North East China, near the North Korean border to photograph a special event, where fishermen take a 1km long net, break the river ice and pull it with horses. The end result is 1000 TONS of fish in a day. Really an excellent topic for the book, but the temperatures dip down to -30 Celsius (-22F). I am wondering if anyone has any experience using a Mavic 2 Pro in these kinds of conditions and if you do, what words of wisdom can you expand upon? Would appreciate any advice. I have already purchased a rain jacket and pad for it, flying over the water, but what else? Many thanks!

Cordially,

Mark Lent

 

[RadioFlyerMan]

The lowest temp for me was 12 deg F. with no problem. Not anywhere close to what you’re proposing.

I’d have multiple batteries ready, kept warm, preferably at 70 deg F. I would land at 50 to 40 percent remaining capacity to give yourself an insurance policy. Although the batteries will immediately generate some heat under load, their temperature will definitely drop off.

As far as the electronics, that may be a little more difficult and risky. They may not perform well, dunno. The RC monitor may not handle that kind of cold, so you will need to keep that warm, as well as your hands. As for my iPhone, the battery dies quickly in the cold. My guess is the drone should be acclimated to the low temp to prevent any condensation in the electronics and the lens. Place the drone in a plastic bag when coming from a warm environment to a cold one. And just to see if it operates properly, test flights are in order.

With all that, logistics become an issue. You’re going on need some help.
It will be interesting if this works. Good luck!

 

[Phantomrain.org]

We have flown in some below zero temps with wind chills , you have to keep the Battery Warm, the Air Tight Battery Covers on your Wet Suit will provide you with about 6 degrees warmer battery.

The problem you face is that you have to get the drone up in the air quickly after putting the battery in . Its the Start Up that you may struggle with as if the battery is to cold ,, than the drone will not start up.

Also you will loose some battery time and suggest you warm the whole drone after every battery change. We use the Car to keep things warm.

The drone can still fly even if the Props that are iced up some as we have shown, in many videos.

See video below for some extreme temp flying.

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[Jagerbomb52]

I live in northern Ontario where the winter temps reach -30F. The coldest I have flown is around -25F mostly because it is just to darn cold for the human body to be out in that kind of temps.
Your number one thing is to make sure your batteries are kept warm. Many different ways to do this but a cooler full of warm bean bags will keep batteries warm for a long time. If only using one or two batteries just keep them close to your body heat and they will be good for flight.
Second most important thing is keeping your fingers warm. I use a cheap controller mitt. It provides protection from the cold and wind. Adding those hot pocket hand warmers will help also.
In extreme cold you might run into camera gimble problems. Things don't like to move smoothly in the cold but I only experienced this once.
Good luck and stay warm

 

[old man mavic]

the low temps will greatly shorten battery life and flight time ,so try to stay close to your home point if you can, and remember that the cold will have a bearing on your ability to control the drone

 

[slup]

If you haven't seen it yet ... it's a lot to get regarding temperatures from both the user manual & the battery safety manual for the Mavic 2 series.

This is what said about the craft itself ...



This is regarding the Controller ...



And this is for the battery ...



And to add in to what's said about the battery ... first of all, putting a battery to use in really cold temperatures with a lot of amp draw will wear them down & shorten the usable service life due to an increase in the batteries internal resistance ... you will pay the price for colder use later on even in normal temperatures.

Then also ... if the battery already is worn & not new, they can possibly be much more sensitive to colder temperatures already to begin with ... making a cell fail airborne, dropping below 3v & initiate a Forced low battery landing that you can't stop.


Then pay attention to the dew point ... if the dew point is near to the air temp that is near or below freezing, the risk for prop icing isn't anything you should ignore. If ice will start to build up on the props the props will lose thrust, making the motors rev faster to counter ... & when the rev. is on max & that isn't enough, your Mavic 2 will come down as a rock.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

At what temperature do the plastics used in the drone and propellors become 'brittle'?

 

[Flycaster]

One also has to take into account the effect of "hypercooling" of the props.
Flying even "close" to freezing temps 36/37F, you can experience prop icing.
Humidity in the air, close to freezing temps, and spinning props can create the condition to ice up the props.

 

[slup]

...The drone can still fly even if the Props that are iced up some...

And that ... "iced up some..." you have zero control over, suddenly it's to much & down it comes.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

We have many times tested the Prop icing and although it could happen, we were never able to make it happen and We have tried many times.

This was a freak ice storm that came off the lake , the temp dropped from sunny to freezing temps in minutes.
I think what saves the drone from Prop icing is that 25 minutes is not enough time for the Props to truly ice up and even when we purposely wet the drone and flew in the extreme cold , It was not enough for the props to pull down the drone. Its not really a concern anymore for the Mavic 2 or the Air 2 as we could not get it to fail.

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Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain / Snow / ice

 

[Flycaster]

And that ... "iced up some..." you have zero control over, suddenly it's to much & down it comes.

The prop icing, or hyper cooling, once the effects starts (as in the ice is just "starting" to form on the props, you will have very little time to recognize flight changes. It comes on quick, builds up quick, a couple of minutes. provided the right atmospheric conditions.
I've seen it happen once a couple of years ago on my neighbors Mavic, when we were up in the Sierras filming in the early morning.
What really makes me aware of such conditions, is that I've had my line guides ice up just from the false casting on my flyrod on many occasions. Same principle...

 

[DoomMeister]

The biggest issue is keeping the batteries warm prior to flight just as @Agustine said in his post. A good thread on the batteries is this one DJI Batteries and Cold Weather . . ..

Icing of the props has more to do with the temperature and relative humidity rather than just the temperature. Most any Airmen’s Information Manual will have this topic covered in detail.

Keep your flights shorter than normal to reduce stress on the batteries. It is better to have too much left in the tank rather than too little.

 

[slup]

...I think what saves the drone from Prop icing is that 25 minutes is not enough time for the Props to truly ice up and even when we purposely wet the drone and flew in the extreme cold , It was not enough for the props to pull down the drone. Its not really a concern anymore for the Mavic 2 or the Air 2 as we could not get it to fail.

All that you express here is only coming from that you plain & simple have been lucky so far ... prop icing depends on both temperature & the dew point (moist), not only temperature. When it happens & starts to build up it doesn't take anything near 25min, in goes very fast.

And before anyone believes that the Mavic 2 & Air 2 is immune to prop icing ... that's not true at all. Every winter at this forum we have several proved cases of prop icing for all kinds of crafts ... this as they all have rotating propellers they are equal affected.

And just so you know ... prop icing doesn't "pull" down the drone. When ice forms on the blades the blade geometry is changed & the props gradually lose their ability to create thrust... that is sensed by the flight controller which increase the motor RPM's to counter, when the motors are on max it's game over & the drone comes down in free fall... often with motor errors in the flight log message stream.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

We have been flying since the Phantom 4 and testing the Wet Suits in Extreme weather every since.
I think the reason for this is that the flight time might not be long enough for the ice to form enough.

You would think in flying with freezing cold rain every year that it might happen. its not luck nor the wet suit , its just going to take some incredible storm for it to happen in 25 minutes in flight or less.

So its not that much of a concern for us as it used to be , when we told repeatedly about the Prop icing.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain. Land on the Water.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

I have had icing of the props on my parrot anafi, my old yuneec Q500 & my old Autel X-star. The only one that actually came down very fast in a uncontrollable landing was the X-star. It did a 3 bounce landing very hard and cracked the shell. It happens very fast if the conditions are just right. On the ground it did not seem that bad but once in the air I lost control very fast.

 

[slup]

... its not luck nor the wet suit , its just going to take some incredible storm for it to happen in 25 minutes in flight or less.

Without a doubt sheer luck ... or you misunderstand the required conditions needed for it to happen & bundle everything into "incredible storm".

Out of last winter seasons 5 prop icing cases I investigated, none of them was in the air 10 min after take-off.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Well will keep flying in every incredible Rain/ Snow/ Hail Storms and hopefully the ship will come down. lol

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain , Capture the storm, Land on the Water.

 

[slup]

Well will keep flying in every incredible Rain/ Snow/ Hail Storms and hopefully the ship will come down. lol

You don't need to worry about that, everything that goes up will eventually come down ... gravity you know

 

[Chaosrider]

If you haven't seen it yet ... it's a lot to get regarding temperatures from both the user manual & the battery safety manual for the Mavic 2 series.

This is what said about the craft itself ...

View attachment 138183

This is regarding the Controller ...

View attachment 138184

And this is for the battery ...

View attachment 138185

And to add in to what's said about the battery ... first of all, putting a battery to use in really cold temperatures with a lot of amp draw will wear them down & shorten the usable service life due to an increase in the batteries internal resistance ... you will pay the price for colder use later on even in normal temperatures.

Then also ... if the battery already is worn & not new, they can possibly be much more sensitive to colder temperatures already to begin with ... making a cell fail airborne, dropping below 3v & initiate a Forced low battery landing that you can't stop.


Then pay attention to the dew point ... if the dew point is near to the air temp that is near or below freezing, the risk for prop icing isn't anything you should ignore. If ice will start to build up on the props the props will lose thrust, making the motors rev faster to counter ... & when the rev. is on max & that isn't enough, your Mavic 2 will come down as a rock.

Has anyone actually seen prop ice on a drone?

TCS

 

[Flycaster]

Has anyone actually seen prop ice on a drone?

TCS

Look a couple of posts above.....
Looks like they landed in time. Once the ice starts to build up, it happens pretty quick, and then no lift....