Flying in winter: things to watch out for?

[BenThe]

Hello everyone, I have a general question about flying drones in winter, above or below freezing temps. It's almost that time of the year again, and this will be my first winter owning a drone, and I am sure the itch to fly will kick in some time after the snow falls.

Are my below understandings correct?

1. Higher altitude = lower temps, will be a problem to battery chemistry. I have seen two videos of 7000+ meter flights to know the battery can cool from low 30 degree C (90 F) to about 15 degree C (60 F) at the top.

2. Clouds = Mass of water droplets, which can freeze on the body and especially the blades. Ice drastically reduces lift and causes a crash. We also do not have de-ice boots like a fixed-wing aircraft would have on its wings, dunno if real helicopters have those on the rotors.

3. Downward obstacle avoidance may falsely interpret clouds or other reflections as the ground and stop its propellers thinking it has landed, XXX meters/feet in the air. Result = gravity wins. Not planning to enable prop-start-at-any-angle, and even that is not guaranteed to work anyway.

4. Air is denser when cold, but no idea what this means for actual flight performance (up to 500m if cleared/with permission)

If I do fly, am I on the right track with the following points?

1. Do not fly when humidity is high(er) and temperature above freezing: during flight, the fast spinning blades can transition moisture in the air to ice and cause a decrease in lift.
2. At below freezing temps, only fly maybe 1 hour after a snow event. This is to let moisture in the air drop even lower.
3. Anything I missed?


Thank you all!

 

[GFields]

Yes to all the above. Freezing temperatures are not good for the battery, and like manned aircraft, icing up on the props could cause failure. *IMHO

 

[tstr14]

I don't know if freezing temps are "bad" for batteries per say, but they do cut down on flight time, so keep an eye on the charge level.

 

[BenThe]

I don't know if freezing temps are "bad" for batteries per say, but they do cut down on flight time, so keep an eye on the charge level.

Yes!! I did notice from that Youtube clip (couldn't find it now) the pilot was constantly checking the battery info page on the ascent and descent.

 

[MS Coast]

Be aware that icing can occur at air temperatures above 32 F surrounding the aircraft. It can happen on the props as well as the other surfaces of the aircraft.

 

[BenThe]

Be aware that icing can occur at air temperatures above 32 F surrounding the aircraft. It can happen on the props as well as the other surfaces of the aircraft.

Thanks for the heads up!

Yup, definitely not flying at near freezing temps (below or above).

 

[BossBob]

Don’t forget the pilot can suffer from frozen control surfaces and needs to keep warm as well!

 

[moldorf]

probably not a big detail, but sometimes, obstacle avoidance works fine when leaves are on trees and fails when the leaves are gone from thin branches

not that I've ever encountered that problem because I never screw up....uh huh

 

[Chrislaf]

I fly year round and have flown in temperatures as cold as -23ºC. There are some members on here who have flown in even colder temps. Winter is one of the most beautiful seasons to fly in so don't be afraid to get out and fly keeping in mind some precautions.

Here are some things that come to mind off the top of my head:
•make sure you keep your batteries warm prior to flight (coat or pant pocket works) and don't put the battery in the drone until you have set-up and are ready to start up.
•cold can affect the touch screen making it sluggish or unresponsive so use the buttons if possible and be prepared for this possibility
•if you are using an external screened device like an iPhone or iPad, the cold will significantly affect the battery and it may shut down unexpectedly. Unlike your drone, their batteries don't warm up during flight.
•fly VLOS in case your screen suddenly shuts down or goes dark. This is less of a problem now with the built in screen controllers but it has happened to me and if you are within VLOS you can easily bring your drone back
•Take shorter flights and return to land with more battery percentage left. On cold days I usually land with around 40% battery so that I don't get into a situation where the battery capacity begins to drop rapidly because of the cold temperature.
•I use hand warmers, both disposable and rechargeable. Be careful with rechargeable ones. The ones I have, have a strong magnet to hold the two of them together to make one and last winter they likely caused a compass deflection in my NEO when I hand launched with the warmer nearby.

AirData has a Dew Point indicator in the Weather tab which can be important for helping to determine whether the conditions might be conducive to icing.

Hope this helps.

Chris