Flying in snow

[Palindrone]

Hi guys, I have a Mavic Pro and was wondering about flying while it’s snowing. Is it safe? My idea was to just to put it up 20/30” for 5 minutes or less, then bring it in and wipe it down good. Has anyone done this? Does the video and pics turn out ok, or does the lens get wet and distort them. Thanks

 

[4wd]

Wet snow will make it wet, hardly worth the risk same as rain - it would be OK briefly unless you are unlucky.
Dry snow below freezing at least won't put blobs on the lens but anything drawn through that front vent could melt inside.
Putting the dome thing on might reduce the risk of fine snow getting inside.
The motors themselves would probably run under water but damp on internal circuitry could cause total failure.

 

[dirkclod]

Flying in very light snow

 

[MavicMo]

I've done it, but the snow was the light type of snow (Champagne Powder-like), coming down at a slow to moderate level. I only flew for a few minutes with no issues... I didn't go too far either...

 

[buddb55]

I took the Spark out early this year when it was 14F and light snow coming down, had no problems at all.

 

[DanMc]

Here's my opinion as an electrical engineer. The MP has a cooling fan that is pulling ambient air inside to keep things cool. So internally, the electronics will be above freezing. If you're flying with snow coming down, then snow will be getting sucked inside and will be melting as it passes through. The PCBs in these drones have a conformal coating over all the chips, etc, so a small amount of water should not create an immediate issue. However, there are connectors inside there that are probably not water tight. There could be drops of water that pool up in those connectors, and can cause some issues with signal integrity and eventually corrosion. You may think that everything is OK until the drone sits for a week or more and water has time in those connectors to do its damage. Then you power it up later and it starts to act flaky or fails outright. If you fly in a snowstorm, I would recommend to put a fresh battery into it after the flight and power it up, then let it sit for the duration of the battery to run with the electronics generating some heat and the fan going to pull air through to help dry out any residual moisture as soon as possible. You could argue that it would be better to keep it powered off and put the drone in a warm place (like maybe 120 deg F or something like that) for a day or two.

Relating to water damage to electronics: I once had a burst pipe in our home and our brand new TV was sitting in a foot of water for several days plugged in. After it had dried out for a couple months, just for kicks I opened it up to see if I could get it working again. There was blue electrolysis residue all over the place from dissolved copper. There were several circuit traces on a PCB that had disappeared and a couple components where the leads were dissolved into just little stubs. I went through it with a toothbrush, cleaned up all the blue gunk and soldered in wires to replace the missing conductors. To my delight, it worked after all the repair and the TV functioned for many years after that. The point of this is that electricity passing across two conductors that have water between them will slowly eat away at the metal, so you need to get that moisture out. The moisture could also carry with it some mineral content that has a little bit of conductivity, so just getting out the H2O may not eliminate any potential damage.

 

[Inspirephil]

Thanks for your advice about the electrical part of flying in the snow. Lots of great information about the subject and it is something that I would advise everyone to heed!! Although I have flown in the winter time when the temperature is below freezing I don’t want to take a chance at burning out the electronics inside my extremely expensive drones just to get a few good shots!!

 

[tonyb]

Thanks for your advice about the electrical part of flying in the snow. Lots of great information about the subject and it is something that I would advise everyone to heed!! Although I have flown in the winter time when the temperature is below freezing I don’t want to take a chance at burning out the electronics inside my extremely expensive drones just to get a few good shots!!

I recently spent 7 hrs flying/filming in snow conditions. Snow was dry and light, had to stamp down 11 inches of fresh snow for a take off/landing area, temperature was in the 20's. mavic flew flawlessly, no noticeable accelerated battery drain. I would have not flown in heavy wet snow or any form of rain. Common sense prevails.

 

[Krvelasco]

Hi guys, I have a Mavic Pro and was wondering about flying while it’s snowing. Is it safe? My idea was to just to put it up 20/30” for 5 minutes or less, then bring it in and wipe it down good. Has anyone done this? Does the video and pics turn out ok, or does the lens get wet and distort them. Thanks

I have a mavic 2 pro I was in Denver about a month ago during a snowstorm. I waited for the snow to lighten up and I took mine up about a hundred and fifty feet for approximately 7 or 8 minutes with a light snow on it I had absolutely no issues whatsoever I was able to video take photos .

 

[Palindrone]

Thanks for all the good advice. Being a real cautious guy, I’ll probably only fly it when it’s dry in the winter. It’s my first winter with it and I’m more excited to get snowy scenery footage than I was in the summer. I live in a rural area with lots of trees and fields. So far though, no snow! But yeah, I worry about enough potential things going wrong to add possible electronics damage to the mix. Thanks again!

 

[FoxhallGH]

Another thing to be aware of is condensation. If you take your Mavic out for a flight in the snow and cold, then bring it inside to the nice & warm, you'll get the 'cold-beer' effect. The cool body of the drone will condense water out of the air both on its inside and outside, and you'll get the same water-pooling effect as if it was flying in wet snow or drizzle. Find a way to bring it up to room temp' slowly in a dry place.

 

[old man mavic]

why not just wait till it stops snowing then go out and get those great shots the snow will still be there not worth the risk of flying when the snow is falling

 

[GunsN]

someone already tried this

 

[lweekspors]

someone already tried this

Looks like fun, think i will give it a try

 

[DrRobin]

Hi,

I have flown a couple of times in snow with a Mavic Pro, didn't have a problem, see the following:

The first video, it was snowing gently, but increased and it did get quite wet

The second video the snow was quite light and I think the light snow added a nice winter feel to the video.

Okay, so how much damage did my Mavic take during either of these? Answer none at all. The down draft from the props keeps the camera clear and after the first video I took the battery out of the AC and let it dry out on the bench.

Having ditched a Phantom in a river and it took me 20 minutes to get it out, it was amazing how much of the circuity survived intact. DJI obviously realise that the drone will be operating in damp conditions and coat their PCBs. As for the camera, that is pretty well sealed.

I am an electronic design engineer with 40 years experience of designing electronics, much of what I currently do is designed for outdoor use (24x7 remote operation) and seen how well the DJI products stand up I wouldn't be too worried about a bit of light snow.

Really heavy snow, does reduce visibility and it would be easy to get lost or loose sight of the AC, so be careful.