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3 FOG AND DRONE CAN BE A RISKY COMBINAISON

Vue D’Oiseau

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Last weekend I've been getting up with thick fog in the morning so I decided to charge my batteries over night and get ready to fly the next morning. Lucky enough I didn't stay up more than 12 min. and ended up with 10 clips for 4.5 min of footage. I admit I lost sight of the drone a few times even with my Firehouse strobe, but the view was so beautiful I couldn't resist. After watching what I got I realized I would need a wider variety of shots, like a hyper lapse, etc. Since then mother nature didn't reward me with another opportunity so I started writing a theme to match the footage, something peaceful. Where I live by a lake it's either mountains, lake or forest and tricky to fly in the fog, I was careful but lucky. So here is the link hope you like and I'm always open for comments. It's 3:25 min or so.
André
 
Oh how we love the Fog, the Mist , the Mysterious Vale and how can we forget the Movie , lol

The temptation to fly thru and over the Fog is overwhelming but the Result are beautiful and make one of the Best Screen Savers on the Large TV as its almost hypnotizing to watch.

You might consider getting the Wet Suit for the Mavic 3 as the Fog can soak your drone and thus compromise the drone.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain, Thru the Fog and Land on the Water.
 
Oh how we love the Fog, the Mist , the Mysterious Vale and how can we forget the Movie , lol

The temptation to fly thru and over the Fog is overwhelming but the Result are beautiful and make one of the Best Screen Savers on the Large TV as its almost hypnotizing to watch.

You might consider getting the Wet Suit for the Mavic 3 as the Fog can soak your drone and thus compromise the drone.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain, Thru the Fog and Land on the Water.
I see what you did there with your signature :D
 
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Many years ago I witnessed a fatal sailplane accident where the smallest amount of frost killed the lift on the wings an caused that plane to spin to the ground. The same can happen to the props on a drone where the props become unstable.
 
Ice on the props is a very real risk. Had it happen a couple of time over the years. My x-star landed but it was not a very graceful landing.
View attachment 156658
Do you still have/fly your X-Star or are the batteries gone by now? I still have 1 battery I trust and the other 2 get to stay real close in open areas.
 
Last weekend I've been getting up with thick fog in the morning so I decided to charge my batteries over night and get ready to fly the next morning. Lucky enough I didn't stay up more than 12 min. and ended up with 10 clips for 4.5 min of footage. I admit I lost sight of the drone a few times even with my Firehouse strobe, but the view was so beautiful I couldn't resist. After watching what I got I realized I would need a wider variety of shots, like a hyper lapse, etc. Since then mother nature didn't reward me with another opportunity so I started writing a theme to match the footage, something peaceful. Where I live by a lake it's either mountains, lake or forest and tricky to fly in the fog, I was careful but lucky. So here is the link hope you like and I'm always open for comments. It's 3:25 min or so.
André
Beautiful flight. You could get some beautiful stills for framing out of that video.
 
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Wow, that's some amazing footage. The music really sets the mood too!

I live in a valley at the foot of a large hill/mountain and we I have seen similar things happen here where the fog sits at the bottom of the valley and the hills pop up out of it. I flew through it once only because where I was it wasn't that thick.

Here's what it looks like around these parts...no mirror-still lake to reflect the sky :(

 
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Do you still have/fly your X-Star or are the batteries gone by now? I still have 1 battery I trust and the other 2 get to stay real close in open areas.
Yes I still fly it on and off. Maybe once a month. I have 3 batteries left out of 4 and once a month I will top them off to around 50%. One actually still 100% battery life left in it.Screenshot_20221022-092857.png
 
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Lovely video. Well, flown and well edited. Are you saying you created and performed that music? if so, GREAT!!!
At about 1:50 into the video, that's where I want to live, in that small cabin. Think their selling?! ;-)
 
Other risk of fog other than just visibility is that as we get closer to winter, those water particles can ice up on the props.
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.
 
Just lovely!!!
 
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.
 
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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.
 
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