Hot weather

[123taff]

I find it amusing using the UAV forecast app to look at the flying conditions when I look out of the window, and there is wall to wall sunshine, no wind and yet the app tells me that it is "not good" to fly based on the air temperature.

I take it it is all to do with the potential for the drone to overheat, which amuses me really in that in the UK, we are not really known for having the hottest temperatures in the world, and when we do, it is a VERY temporary situation.

This made me wonder how fellow pilots in countries where the average temperatures would have us in the UK in cold sweats, ever manage to ever get airborne.

How critical are these temperature warnings, how likely are our flights going to end in disaster if we ignore the warnings??

 

[Ty Pilot]

I fly in Florida year round and we get our share of heat. Last week the heat index was scheduled to hit 113F (actual temps mid to high 90's) here, I flew just about every day. Operationally, drones for the most part (Mine is a M2P) can handle that heat, it is just a matter not letting the drone sit idle in the sun before or after a flight and removing batteries immediately after a flight.

I did tests on several of my drones years ago in the middle of summer and found that temps of critical airframe parts like the top of the drone and the motors, were coolest when in flight but those parts can get much hotter just sitting in direct sunlight especially when temps get into the higher numbers.

Keep the drone out of the sun and as cools as possible before the flight, get airborne as soon as it is safe to do so and perform your flight then after landing get the battery out immediately and return the drone and battery to the coolest location possible to cool before the next flight. Rinse and repeat.

 

[old man mavic]

@123taff ,good advice from @Ty Pilot ,dont forget its not just the drone and batteries ,that will get hot, but also you the pilot,wear a hat and try to find some shade if you can ,and above all drink plenty of fluids,the very fact that in the UK we dont get the hot weather ,that we are now experiencing ,very often ,means that we are not acclimatised to it ,its very easy to get heat stroke ,when you are just standing in direct sunlight ,and also be aware that fully charged batteries left in a hot vehicle can become swollen and in the worst case scenario actually burst and catch fire
both extreme heat and cold, can have significant affects ,on the drones and pilots performance

 

[LoudThunder]

I find it amusing using the UAV forecast app to look at the flying conditions when I look out of the window, and there is wall to wall sunshine, no wind and yet the app tells me that it is "not good" to fly based on the air temperature.

The attached link deals with adjusting the parameters of the UAV Forecast App. It tells you how to set the allowable limits for wind and wind gusts, but the same concept is true for temperature. You decide what is the allowable upper and lower limits of the "Good To Fly" range…

When looking at UAV forecast, should I be concerned too much about wind gust speed?

I recently got a Mini 3 Pro and been using UAV forecast (app) to see when its a good time to fly and when its not I've noticed alot of times, the wind will be like 3-7 m/s but gusts will be 10-12 m/s Is that bad weather for flying or is it ok if gusts are higher speed since they're not usually...

mavicpilots.com

 

[edcMavicPilots]

I find it amusing using the UAV forecast app to look at the flying conditions when I look out of the window, and there is wall to wall sunshine, no wind and yet the app tells me that it is "not good" to fly based on the air temperature.

I take it it is all to do with the potential for the drone to overheat, which amuses me really in that in the UK, we are not really known for having the hottest temperatures in the world, and when we do, it is a VERY temporary situation.

This made me wonder how fellow pilots in countries where the average temperatures would have us in the UK in cold sweats, ever manage to ever get airborne.

How critical are these temperature warnings, how likely are our flights going to end in disaster if we ignore the warnings??

So change the thresholds in the software to whatever you want to. That is how it is designed to work.

 

[JimWest]

I fly in Florida year round and we get our share of heat. Last week the heat index was scheduled to hit 113F (actual temps mid to high 90's) here, I flew just about every day. Operationally, drones for the most part (Mine is a M2P) can handle that heat, it is just a matter not letting the drone sit idle in the sun before or after a flight and removing batteries immediately after a flight.

I did tests on several of my drones years ago in the middle of summer and found that temps of critical airframe parts like the top of the drone and the motors, were coolest when in flight but those parts can get much hotter just sitting in direct sunlight especially when temps get into the higher numbers.

Keep the drone out of the sun and as cools as possible before the flight, get airborne as soon as it is safe to do so and perform your flight then after landing get the battery out immediately and return the drone and battery to the coolest location possible to cool before the next flight. Rinse and repeat.

I had no trouble flying my M2P in Utah last month with the air temperature around 100F, except that once my phone overheated and dimmed the display so much that I had to land.

 

[123taff]

Duh, what an idiot I am. Having set all the other parameters on UAV forecast, I had forgotten about setting the Temperature one. I found it was set at 25%C so I have now set it to 30%C.

 

[Sjkieffer]

Here in Dallas, I have to pretty much take the summer off from flying because of the miserable heat

 

[Firejay27]

Here in Dallas, I have to pretty much take the summer off from flying because of the miserable heat

I'm down in Austin and summer for sure is no fly. I think we hit the max trmp for the A2S multiple times in the past few weeks.

To the OP.. check your drone temp limits and set UAV forecast for at least 10% under the top end and 10% above the bottom end. That should give you a decent margin for flying.