Flying over Clear Ice

[Duckhunter50]

So I went for a drive yesterday and came across a lake that was partially frozen over. I figured this would be a good place to practice some flying in a wide open space and with the ice I didn't have to worry about dumping it in the water. I did a lot of flying with it just a couple of feet over the ice because I wanted to see if it would drop some once I got going. I didn't notice much elevation change even at high speeds as I tried it in sport mode although it would drop maybe a foot. Now I was only flying about 2-3 feet off the ice anyway so a 1 foot drop is significant but it didn't go lower than that. I did bounce it off the ice once and I'm not sure what happened to make that happen.
A couple other observations. I did notice at times the app indicated an elevation of say 10-15 feet where it would really only be 4-6 feet above the initial take off point. Also I tried landing a couple of times on the ice and it would not let me take it down. I could tell that the machine could tell something was there but couldn't quite tell where it was. I found this interesting since earlier in the fall I was over some water and trying to get lower and it went into landing mode. But over the ice it would not even try to land but lower a few inches and spring back up to where it had been hovering.

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[Repaid1]

So I went for a drive yesterday and came across a lake that was partially frozen over. I figured this would be a good place to practice some flying in a wide open space and with the ice I didn't have to worry about dumping it in the water. I did a lot of flying with it just a couple of feet over the ice because I wanted to see if it would drop some once I got going. I didn't notice much elevation change even at high speeds as I tried it in sport mode although it would drop maybe a foot. Now I was only flying about 2-3 feet off the ice anyway so a 1 foot drop is significant but it didn't go lower than that. I did bounce it off the ice once and I'm not sure what happened to make that happen.
A couple other observations. I did notice at times the app indicated an elevation of say 10-15 feet where it would really only be 4-6 feet above the initial take off point. Also I tried landing a couple of times on the ice and it would not let me take it down. I could tell that the machine could tell something was there but couldn't quite tell where it was. I found this interesting since earlier in the fall I was over some water and trying to get lower and it went into landing mode. But over the ice it would not even try to land but lower a few inches and spring back up to where it had been hovering.

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Pretty cool shot, what were you flying? I know on the M2 series you can toggle off the landing system saftey...not sure why one would unless it kept giving it where you normally know it is safe and it didn't allow landing with system in place. Barometer and Air control reading in App, seems like the in aircraft baramoter encountered temp flucations and miss reported altitude perhaps.

 

[Duckhunter50]

I was flying the Mavic 2 pro. I didn't try messing with the landing system since it wasn't important for me to land on the ice. I'm not even sure what mode I was in considering that I kept changing modes. I just thought it was interesting that it wouldn't go down. It was something I thought wouldn't be an issue.

 

[Repaid1]

I was flying the Mavic 2 pro. I didn't try messing with the landing system since it wasn't important for me to land on the ice. I'm not even sure what mode I was in considering that I kept changing modes. I just thought it was interesting that it wouldn't go down. It was something I thought wouldn't be an issue.

On shots like that I would fly tripod and speed it up post, I get very nervous flying that low, in fact I would have flown twice as high and used 4X zoom... Or better yet, no disrespect cause it was cool, but if that low I would have filmed handheld with a gimbal.


P.S. like you said if you crashed there at least you would have something to send to DJI for the Refresh program, if ya had it.

 

[DanMan32]

M2 uses barometer for altitude which can drift several feet.
There's also the IR on the bottom that measures elevation. When you're within VPS range, display changes where distance from remote becomes distance from ground as per VPS.

VPS can get fooled by smooth surfaces such as water or ice.

 

[Duckhunter50]

I think the ice was only a couple of inches thick so there was no way I was going to go out on that ice. (My minimum is 4" thick to skate on)

Flying at that speed that low was well within my risk tolerance. I figured that if the drone took an unexpected dip it would just skid on the ice and not do any real damage. It was a lot of fun going full throttle in sport mode flying low over the ice.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

I was going to say cool but then realised it would be a horrible pun, so, nice shot! What are the white lumps?
Was this flown using the screen rather than VLOS?
I am just wondering if flying backwards might have been safer for the camera lens and obviously that would get a bit tricky if you were using the screen to see what was coming.

 

[Duckhunter50]

I watched this flight only checking the screen ocassionaly to see if i was getting what i wanted. I stood on the shore and flew it straight out from where I was standing. I also did another shot right after this flying backwards. I did other shots flying from side to side so i could watch how level the craft flew.
The nice thing about this area was that it was level with nothing to crash into for thousands of feet. Way further away than I was going to fly.

The white spots are frost buildup. They wipe away almost completely.

 

[bumper]

I think the ice was only a couple of inches thick so there was no way I was going to go out on that ice. (My minimum is 4" thick to skate on)

Flying at that speed that low was well within my risk tolerance. I figured that if the drone took an unexpected dip it would just skid on the ice and not do any real damage. It was a lot of fun going full throttle in sport mode flying low over the ice.

If those little chunks of ice were frozen in place, as I suspect they would be, a dip might not have it simply skidding on the ice. An impact to the landing gear leg could go real bad real quick.

 

[Duckhunter50]

Here is the craft coming down and skidding across the ice. It sustained no visible damage.

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Here is a higher perspective of the lake.

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[Doug3601]

I'm surprised that the sensors would actually allow that drone to skip off the ice like that!

 

[Duckhunter50]

I might have had it in sport mode who knows. I was switching back and forth as i was flying.

 

[Chrislaf]

I might have had it in sport mode who knows. I was switching back and forth as i was flying.

You are a brave man - and doing it with a M2P!

Flying over low over THIN ice would be just as risky as flying over open water doing the same thing. If your drone takes a dump, how are you going to get to it? Obviously it won’t sink but I sure wouldn’t be heading out on thin ice to retrieve a downed drone.

The two lakes where I live usually freeze up just after Christmas (depending on how cold it has been) but the ice is usually not safe to go on until the weather has been consistently well below 0C for a number of days.

Chris

 

[Duckhunter50]

I don't know what to tell ya. I only had plan A. It worked fine though. I guess I hoped I'd be able to take off again and bring it back if things went south. But it turned out fine.

 

[passedpawn]

I don't know what to tell ya. I only had plan A.

Haha, awesome. I thought the video was worth the risk. Nice job.

 

[NG Wildman]

Nice video...sometimes they are worth the risk. Ice doesn't bother be because I have other drones to retrieve a downed drone and RC vehicles if the ice isn't not too thin. Nice job.