3 FOG AND DRONE CAN BE A RISKY COMBINAISON

[russpury]

Beautiful shots put to great music. Congrats.

 

[karlblessing]

I had a bad experience flying my new M3 in the fog over the ocean. It was not super dense fog, but it was enough to affect the landing protection proximity sensors. So when the drone was about 40’ in the air and approaching the boat, the sensors recorded a that it was only 1’ above ground (unbeknownst to myself at the time). Well, if you apply “down stick” in that situation (which I did) it initiates an auto landing procedure. I panicked, not realizing I could abort this with “up stick” but was able to get the drone over to the boat before it went into the ocean. Anyhow, just saying that faulty sensor readings, especially landing protection, is something to be aware of if flying in the fog.

Apparently it doesn't take much to keep the water away from the sensor with the phantom rain skin that builds a sort of buffer around the lens of the sensor.

Not sure how effective it would have been in fog tho considering the water particles would be everywhere and not just whisking onto the skin.

But that would make me very nervous being in a boat out on the ocean and seeing unexpected (at the time) behavior of the drone.

 

[Tim3459575]

I don’t know if the lens fogs up or if it just has trouble seeing through the fog. Perhaps both. But my experience is that fog definitely causes erratic sensor readings on the M3. And the down sensor can trigger auto landing if combined with down stick.

 

[Dmcvey]

Since fog is a cloud on the ground......FAA's Advisory Circular 107-2 on Section 107.51 Operating limitations for small unmanned aircraft. Minimum distance from clouds being no less than 500 feet below a cloud and no less than 2000 feet horizontally from the cloud.

So, if you have a cloud ceiling at 450' AGL, you can't fly, if you have cloud at 20' mmmmm. 2000' horizontally would indicate that you can't (should not) be flying through a fog bank.

 

[karlblessing]

Since fog is a cloud on the ground......FAA's Advisory Circular 107-2 on Section 107.51 Operating limitations for small unmanned aircraft. Minimum distance from clouds being no less than 500 feet below a cloud and no less than 2000 feet horizontally from the cloud.

So, if you have a cloud ceiling at 450' AGL, you can't fly, if you have cloud at 20' mmmmm. 2000' horizontally would indicate that you can't (should not) be flying through a fog bank.

500/2000 doesn't apply to recreational flight. Though flying in fog could just fall under the blanket of 'careless/reckless' if the FAA pursued.

 

[closetmonster]

Agreed. I try not to fly on days with low level fog. Yeah, you can't see the drone very long, especially if you go above the fog, but if you stay low and fly through it, your drone ends up soaking wet. With the vents and fans the Mav 3 has, I would be very nervous of getting water inside and onto the electronics.

Another risk I ran into, with my Air 2, flying in fog, was it thought it was closer to the ground than it was. I freaked out because it wouldn’t descend, when pulling down on left stick. Every time I did this it would just hover, and then say ‘LANDING’, which totally freaked me out. I finally, to get it down, kept letting it try to land then cancel. I repeated that procedure until it finally was low enough it could land. After that flight I came inside for a shot of nerve medicine (whiskey).

 

[Don Testme]

Another risk I ran into, with my Air 2, flying in fog, was it thought it was closer to the ground than it was. I freaked out because it wouldn’t descend, when pulling down on left stick. Every time I did this it would just hover, and then say ‘LANDING’, which totally freaked me out. I finally, to get it down, kept letting it try to land then cancel. I repeated that procedure until it finally was low enough it could land. After that flight I came inside for a shot of nerve medicine (whiskey).

I have had that similar experience. When the fog is thick sometimes the drone thinks it's land. Pretty freaky. I forgot what I did. I think I just kept holding the stick down, then it finally entered the fog and slowly but surely itt made it to the real terra ferma.

 

[Lister]

Helicopters fly VFR nearly exclusively. Flight through clouds is permitted for very short durations only, despite requests from cameramen in the back seat.

 

[karlblessing]

Speaking of fog there's a Canadian photographer on Facebook right now bragging about how he got some very nice photos (and they are indeed cool but...) of Windsor, Canada and of Detroit covered in fog. But the fog not allowing vlos is the least of his worries (above 400ft agl, bvlos, no airspace authorization in either locations, flying over international border from Windsor take off point to photograph Detroit, etc).

His response at a few folks calling him out was that planes fly much higher than 1000 and that he was of no danger to anyone (despite both location has pretty heavy airport traffic) and that a drone wouldn't cause any damage, Yada Yada.

Seems fog brings out even some of the worst temptation.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Speaking of fog there's a Canadian photographer on Facebook right now bragging about how he got some very nice photos (and they are indeed cool but...) of Windsor, Canada and of Detroit covered in fog. But the fog not allowing vlos is the least of his worries (above 400ft agl, bvlos, no airspace authorization in either locations, flying over international border from Windsor take off point to photograph Detroit, etc).

His response at a few folks calling him out was that planes fly much higher than 1000 and that he was of no danger to anyone (despite both location has pretty heavy airport traffic) and that a drone wouldn't cause any damage, Yada Yada.

Seems fog brings out even some of the worst temptation.

Happen to have a link?
There was a guy in Toronto that would break a lot of rules. He finally got called out enough he deleted all his videos. Think his youtube handle was something like farmboy. Can't find him anymore.

 

[Cymruflyer]

Ask yourselves why Helicopters can't fly in fog when the dew point reaches a certain level, look it up plus some Helicopters still have carburettors which can ice up, not drones but our drones can still suffer from fog and the water vapour.

When you fly an aircraft that has a carburetor, you generally also have a carb heat unit fitted, so that you can melt any ice forming.

 

[Cymruflyer]

You only get icing when the dew point temp and ambient temps are the same or very close, within a few degrees. Outside of these close matching degree points you never need to worry about ice forming. There are different types of fog/clouds too. From some being extremely saturated/wet when you fly through them and others extremely cold, being like ice crystals that will cover your goggles.

In my open cockpit, over the years, I've flown through almost all such conditions, it is amazing what the differences are when you fly through a cloud at varying altitudes and times of the year. Therefore, if a drone were to fly through them, some would not affect it at all while others could literally soak it.