I couldn't resist. I had to do it, but I knew the risks. And thankfully, it all went well. MAVIC AIR.
On Saturday, we had a pretty good snowstorm here in the midwest with lots of cold, wind, and snow. It was a very wet, heavy snow that was difficult to shovel, but looked very pretty stuck to all of the tree branches. And there is a little island in town that just recently opened back up with a newly built pedestrian bridge, so I decided to check it out.
From the moment I got out of my car at the parking lot, I knew that flying in this weather was going to be challenging. Though the temperature wasn't too cold (it was very close to 32F), it felt much colder with the wind chill (wind was 20-30MPH with some gusts up to 40). My first thought was to immediately get back in my car and go back home, but the urge to get some footage in the snow was too great.
So there's a little walkway to the bridge, and then you cross the narrow bridge onto the island. On the island, there are a bunch of trails and paths, but I just walked down the main pathway that had barely been touched since the snow fell. We ended up getting almost 10 inches of snow, but I don't think we were quite there yet. Still, the snow looked stunning on the trees and pathway, so I walked down a ways into a little clearing. Here, I attempted to do a few quickshots, but ended up cutting them short because my hands were freezing, my phone and controller were getting wet, and I knew it was time to go. Somehow, I managed to change the battery without getting the components wet, and flew my way back to the car.
Crossing the bridge the first time, I met a plow and followed him. When he made his was back across, I grabbed my Air, turned off the motors, and carried it by hand to stay safe. After crossing, I took off from my hand and continued along the path. Flying across the bridge the second time was definitely a challenge. My little Snitch (what I call my Air) was tilting pretty heavily to one side trying to counter the wind, and I had to stay on the sticks to make sure it didn't fly off to one side.
All in all, I know I went against the best advice, but I also knew what I was doing and have a good deal of flight experience. I didn't take it up high because I knew the wind speeds up there were very strong. I also had my RTH setting on Hover because I was staying within line of sight and there were many trees branches overhead. And finally, I had a small towel with me to keep the controller and phone as dry as possible (though they did get wet). Surprisingly, the Air itself stayed pretty dry even after two flights.
So here's the footage I put together. It's nothing spectacular, but I especially like the look of flying down the pathway with the snow heavily covered on the trees. I was using an ND32 filter also, which likely helped with the bright now (probably could have used a 64, but I didn't actually check the shutter speed).
So NO, I would not recommend this. It's not that you can't fly in a bit of light snow, but there were two conditions that made it particularly bad to fly: high winds and very wet snow (as opposed to a drier snow that doesn't stick or melt quickly). The temp was pretty close to operating temp, but was likely a bit colder due to the wind, but I know pilots fly below the recommended temps quite often without issue. My batteries were both warm before flying, and I didn't experience any technical difficulties other than wind compensation.
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