flying in snow

[Flyhighsky]

Expecting a nasty storm monday into tuesday,,,12 to 18 inches of snow and "some" wind..(10-15mph). Was thinking of bundling up and going out on the deck and flying around the house and taking some vid's. Not going to be doing long or far flights,just want some nice vid's of freshly falling snow. Temps are going to be in the mid 20f. Anything I should be concerned about besides battery? Plan on keeping them warm in the house until needed.


Jim

 

[elborak]

Flying (M2 or MM2) while it's snowing- Precautions to take?

Before I get started I know I could purchase a "wet suit", but it's not currently in the budget. I'll get one of those in time. I don't need that answer. I've had conversations with Phantomrain. I'm looking to see if, without availability of the wet suit, I need to take precautions to protect...

mavicpilots.com

 

[nencmeister]

I honestly don't think you'd have that big of an issue flying short ranges in the snow. Just make sure to warm up your batteries before you fly. They are not kidding about the batteries draining QUICKLY. I had three fully charged batteries I charged the night before. Left my case in the back seat of my car, come 6PM when I open my softshell case to unpack my drone, 2 out of the three batteries only had 2 out of 4 lights lit up. Luckily the third was still fully charged. So make sure they don't go below 40 degrees at any point before you fly. Also I read it's good to hover it for a minute or two before you fly the drone.

But snow shots are amazing, the camera just captures it so beautifully especially if there is a bit of sun, looks unreal.

Good luck!

PS: Might want to use a low powered filter as well for saturation

 

[RoarRoar]

I’d wait till it stops snowing then throw the drone up. You also don’t have to worry about anything getting wet. Even in light snow the color of the falling snow makes it harder to establish where the drone is in the sky and in proximity to other objects (line of sight).

 

[spamgnome]

I flew my MA1 in heavy falling snow and apart from the occasional snowflake on the lens, it all worked fine. If I flew my MA2, however, I might be tempted to put a small piece of tape over the button on top, just in case. Here's a shameless link to that video.

 

[STS-Mavic-Mini]

Expecting a nasty storm monday into tuesday,,,12 to 18 inches of snow and "some" wind..(10-15mph). Was thinking of bundling up and going out on the deck and flying around the house and taking some vid's. Not going to be doing long or far flights,just want some nice vid's of freshly falling snow. Temps are going to be in the mid 20f. Anything I should be concerned about besides battery? Plan on keeping them warm in the house until needed.


Jim

The Mini manual does state:
"Do not use the aircraft in severe weather conditions including wind speeds exceeding 8 m/s, snow, rain, and fog." Also, make sure you have lots of satellites because the downward vision system reportedly may fail with highly reflective or monochrome surfaces like water and snow. I doubt if DJI Refresh would honor a repair request if the aircraft was flown and damaged due to such conditions.

 

[Tentoes]

I flew my MA1 in heavy falling snow and apart from the occasional snowflake on the lens, it all worked fine. If I flew my MA2, however, I might be tempted to put a small piece of tape over the button on top, just in case. Here's a shameless link to that video.

Very nice.

 

[Flyhighsky]

Unfortunately I didn't fly Sunday...The wind was gusting to 50mph and it was snowing so hard it was almost white out conditions. 15 inches in my driveway...didn't stop snowing til monday night.Now they say another storm this weekend that could be bigger :-/

Jim

 

[TTP]

Flies almost every day, this week down to minus 10 C (14 F), my M2P with SC works perfectly, but I as a drone pilot complain.
battery temp around 35 C (95 F).

Even if it snows, it works perfectly OK, as I am more into flying than photographing.

Now I am lucky not to have restrictions on being out and about due to CV-19.

I want to say that our drones can withstand much more than many people think.

Do not forget that we older drone pilots feel good about the exercise we get when we take our space dogs for a daily walk.

 

[Flyhighsky]

I have two Parrot Bebop2 power editions (500g's) that seem to handle wind a bit better than the MM does. Still breezy here today but a balmy 35f I have set it on the deck and flown from inside my kitchen looking out the window to the back yard at times. I'd hate to have it go bazerk and loose it's mind then I'd have to trudge thru 15 inches of snow to rescue it lol.
Space dogs...I like at!

Jim

 

[Selrahc]

mavic 2 pro , Winterpeg MB , -40 celsius , worked fine , strong winds would take the gimbal slightly off sometimes , would i always fly in these temps no.... can they? 100%

 

[Hogaholic]

I can say to not fly in sleet weather around freezing, had my blades freeze, generatad a motor error.