Flying Into Mist/Fog Will Be A Problem ?

plainman007 · Jan 5, 2019

Hi,

Will flying the MA thru mist or cloud puffs be dangerous. I mean water condensation ?

And what about very light invisible mist, like early mornings in hill stations etc. Light invisible fog but still its there even though we cant see it. Will this be a problem ?

Mossiback · Jan 5, 2019

The danger comes from losing sight of your Mavic. As for mechanics, fog should not be a problem but you should avoid mist. Water causes problems.

Rickolas · Jan 6, 2019

Apart from the fact that you must maintain visual line of sight with your drone, it does state in the manual NOT to fly in such conditions. So I would avoid flying in fog/mist due to the damage the moisture will do to the drones on board controller

Kilrah · Jan 6, 2019

Unless you disable the bottom sensors the aircraft might refuse to go down in fog (or do so very slowly).

plainman007 · Jan 6, 2019

Thanks for the inputs guys !

When i mean uniform mist, thats early in the morning only, so i can avoid that.
After 10am its bright and sunny but with small puffs of white cloud like thingys, being a hill station.
I wont be flying thru them on purpose. But say i flew out and incidentally went thru small one floating because sometimes you cant tell how far away the puff is. So have any of you flown thru small puffy white wisps like that ?

plainman007 · Jan 6, 2019

The actual weather will be something like the above. Clearer and brighter sun than the above but hanging puffy clouds like the image shows. You can see the entire sky is clear excpet for these small patches. So is it ok to fly in the clear areas steering past these ? And if i chance to get into one of them and then pull out etc will there be an issue ?

packnrat · Jan 6, 2019

not just clouds, or mist. but what about high humidity? what is too high for the computer parts?
where i live it is not a real problem some months it is below 20%.but other places it gets up to if not over 100%.

Mossiback · Jan 6, 2019

packnrat said:
not just clouds, or mist. but what about high humidity? what is too high for the computer parts?
where i live it is not a real problem some months it is below 20%.but other places it gets up to if not over 100%.

Humidity causes more problems with the camera. Condensation will form on the lens if it is not acclimated first.

Mossiback · Jan 6, 2019

plainman007 said:
The actual weather will be something like the above. Clearer and brighter sun than the above but hanging puffy clouds like the image shows. You can see the entire sky is clear excpet for these small patches. So is it ok to fly in the clear areas steering past these ? And if i chance to get into one of them and then pull out etc will there be an issue ?

Like @Kilrah mentioned, turn off OA because it may not function properly. Also be mindful of small aircraft shooting gaps in mountain passes.

Cymruflyer · Jan 7, 2019

I can tell you that flying my own aircraft (open cockpit) through little puffy clouds over the years they vary from nothing at all to freezing crystals that form ice on my goggles and all leading edges including cables, to being super wet so that when you pop out after a few seconds, you have very wet goggles to wipe off and water droplets on the metal leading edges of the aircraft. It all depends on ambient temps and dew point temps. So you will encounter varying amounts of moisture at different times and your drone could get very damp as the fan sucks that damp air into itself to cool.

abruzzopat · Jun 17, 2020

Cymruflyer said:
I can tell you that flying my own aircraft (open cockpit) through little puffy clouds over the years they vary from nothing at all to freezing crystals that form ice on my goggles and all leading edges including cables, to being super wet so that when you pop out after a few seconds, you have very wet goggles to wipe off and water droplets on the metal leading edges of the aircraft. It all depends on ambient temps and dew point temps. So you will encounter varying amounts of moisture at different times and your drone could get very damp as the fan sucks that damp air into itself to cool.

This for sure is true... not all fog is the same. I have flown through patchy fog with no problem at all and aircraft comes back dry.

Today I lost control in what started out as patchy fog. Fog got worse and the Mavic started an unrequested landing (far away) but let me cancel. Then when I told it to return home it climbed like mad but then would not return. It would also not descend, even in sport mode. Eventually in Sport mode I was able to orient it towards me and fly until it was directly above. Then I mashed the down stick until it got into landing mode and slowly descended. Eventually it broke through the fog and started descending like a mad dog. It landed all wet (see pic). No more fog flying for me.

puksion · Jan 9, 2021

Omg mine was also the same wet, and i didnt knew why it would not descent but now i know! Btw i got some sick footage, i was filming through the mist then i climbed above the mist and i could see clouds, it was the most beautiful thing i saw

DanMan32 · Jan 10, 2021

Just remember fog is basically a very low altitude cloud and both are airborne condensation.

pynkstyle · Jan 13, 2021

one year ago, 3 times (battery) fly in fog, no problems flying and landing (mavic air1)
-10°C 14°F

Cymruflyer · Jan 13, 2021

Nice, thanks for showing us.

boblui · Jan 14, 2021

Base on what I have seen in this forum, fog has effects only sometimes. There have been cases in which fog did not affect the sensors. My M2P is an example :

icecoldgin · Jan 14, 2021

Did a flight among the clouds early this year and there were no problems.

MA2 was dry when it landed.

That being said, it is a bit risky and there can be condensation. Just need to be careful and conservative about it.