How does the Mini do in clouds?

[Piecar]

I live in an area with an accessible high hill (and mountains) and regular low cloud activity. Yesterday I thought I'd go fly my drone through some wispy cloud formations.....and then chickened out and dodged around the clouds. I got to realizing that clouds are suspended water vapour and shoving an exposed device into cold steam bath might be bad. I've been told that the Mini handles light rain okay. (i'd never do it) But what about clouds? Any thoughts?

 

[scro]

If the clouds are thick enough the VPS system can see the cloud immediately below it, get confused, and think it needs to land. Taping over them would remove this risk.

There's water vapour everywhere in the air and in warm air there can be more total water vapour than in cold air with clouds. Temperature is the key factor for that vapour condensing - the warm parts of the drone will not get as damp as the cold parts. Water vapour/ice forming on the blades is another point to consider as it could impair their performance enough to bring the drone down.

 

[old man mavic]

apart from the water vapour considerations of clouds how would you maintain VLOS in clouds

 

[Piecar]

I'd fly it around the edges and thru wispy clouds. I'm not running it thru cumulo-nimbus monstrosities. I understand the roolz. No actual insights or advice, though?

 

[THE CYBORG]

I flew in fog once my poor drone was dripping wet when I landed so fog & clouds are out for me.

 

[Motorcycle Rider]

apart from the water vapour considerations of clouds how would you maintain VLOS in clouds

Uh Oh...Here we go...lol

 

[Rchawks]

Uh Oh...Here we go...lol

Laser Vision, some people (mostly Drone Pilots, have it in the Videos!)

 

[Hegemone]

The sponsored vendors casual comments/ads for their product are worse. Much worse.

Regardless I flew through the edge of some ground fog and noticed some altitude fluttering. Condensation on the lens ruined any possibility of a cool shot. I meant to skirt the edge of the fog but clipped it a bit. Now if you owned my product it would have been perfect and wouldn't have risked the AC.....

Side note, there was actually a question on my 107 exam regarding the legal distance away from cloud base and cloud walls... So I wondered about that and the same about VLoS on first read of op. Risk management just becomes automatic for a lot of people when dealing with expensive equipment.

 

[Motorcycle Rider]

All I know is that anything on this forum once it starts down the road of vlos, generally becomes a heated argument. Best to just let both sides make their own decision on keeping their drone in sight, or not. Sometimes it is best to say nothing, and keep the peace. I saw a guy at the cardlock today, filling up his pickup with marked diesel, which is illegal since he was obviously driving it on the road. Came close to saying something to him, but managed the self control in the end to just shut my mouth lol

 

[Rchawks]

Best in this day and age I think.

 

[old man mavic]

In this instance i think my comment was perfectly justified ,as the OP was asking about flying in clouds, and he got several answers on the perils of doing so,,and my reason for mentioning VLOS was one of those perils

 

[BokiFly]

It's not a Mini but it looks nice

 

[scro]

Maybe it's a Mini with a wingsuit ?

 

[Flytelandon]

It's not a Mini but it looks nice

Wow whay amazing flying and footage

 

[Hill Top Rez]

For the FFA rules, sUSA must be kept 500 ft. below clouds and 2000 ft. horizontally from clouds.

 

[Piecar]

Thanks for that. I just looked at TC, the Canuck version of the FAA and they mention clouds in a way that indicates you shouldn't fly in one that can obscure the VLOS that everyone is on about. So it seems to differ a bit, place to place. Whelp. That's good enough info for me, then.

 

[gajman]

For the FFA rules, sUSA must be kept 500 ft. below clouds and 2000 ft. horizontally from clouds.

Exactly right.

 

[Drbobk]

It's not a Mini but it looks nice

Awesome! What are you flying (racing drone?) and how did you learn to fly like that? You must have gone through a lot of drones learning how to thread the needle like that.

 

[BokiFly]

Not my video

 

[FL Mike]

I'd fly it around the edges and thru wispy clouds. I'm not running it thru cumulo-nimbus monstrosities. I understand the roolz. No actual insights or advice, though?

If you honestly understood the rules you never would have posted this question.