Is it posible for me to fly my drone in the winter?

[Anh Do]

I have my mavic air, but I want to fly it in the winter season, it is good to fly? Since the temperature is very cold.

 

[JDawg]

I have my mavic air, but I want to fly it in the winter season, it is good to fly? Since the temperature is very cold.

Yes, use the search function and 'cold'.

 

[Astom22]

I would worry about moisture with takeoff and landing, but cold not so much. I worry more about heat in the summer. Now, I'm sure others know better than I, but that's my two cents.

 

[tcope]

As mentioned, lot of threads on this subject.

It is the temp of the battery that matters. DJI Go app will let you know if they are too cold.

 

[neggy]

watch the humidity, I had a problem recently where I was flying in low temps ( near freezing) and high humidity, my props started to ice up , the drone was NOT happy about it. Luckily I got it on the ground ( albeit with a hard landing) before it fell out of the sky

 

[JDawg]

watch the humidity, I had a problem recently where I was flying in low temps ( near freezing) and high humidity, my props started to ice up , the drone was NOT happy about it. Luckily I got it on the ground ( albeit with a hard landing) before it fell out of the sky

Rain X, stuff is great.

 

[Former Member]

Monitoring battery temperatures.

Any sub-zero (F) flights?

 

[Docfly]

I have my mavic air, but I want to fly it in the winter season, it is good to fly? Since the temperature is very cold.

Remember that propellers are rotating wings and thus subject to icing in high humidity cold environments.

 

[Canuk]

I fly in the cold all the time . If there is any fog in the winter I won’t put the bird up .
-25 c is my limit for flying so that’s around -13 f .
Biggest thing is keep your battery’s warm . As soon as you launch look at your battery temp . If it’s below 15 c land and pick a warmer battery . If your battery is above 15 c go easy until you see 20 c .
This has worked for me [emoji41]

 

[Tbredhed]

Agree with Canuk I fly in the cold all the time, I might be a little more adventurous than he is, I have flown down to -35C/-31F and not experienced any difficulties.
As he pointed out make sure your batteries are above 20C at takeoff and you will be fine.
Cheers

 

[old man mavic]

one other thing worth saying with reguards to moisture if you fly in very cold conditions dont take your drone into a very warm place as condensation can form inside and possibly damage the internal boards let it warm up gradually

 

[dgronjord]

I have my mavic air, but I want to fly it in the winter season, it is good to fly? Since the temperature is very cold.

As others already have written it is no problem as long as you keep the FC batteries warm. I store them in my coats inside pocket until the minute I'll fly. And I let the FC hover a minute or two at low altitude before starting the mission. This works well in below 0 C temps.

Ice buildup on the propellers can happen when you have high humidity and cold in combination. Look out for fog when it's cold.

After flying put the FC in a closed bag before bringing it inside into warmth to stop condensation building up inside the FC and the camera.

 

[Anh Do]

thanks alot guys.

 

[TimberWolf775]

Anh Do. I live in Canada. My rule of thumb is if it isn't too cold for me to stand there for 20 mins then it isnt too cold to fly.
I keep spare batteries in pockets inside my coat so they are toasty. I don't fly in high humidity in the cold. When I get home I disconnect everything and let it all air dry completely before packing it away.

All that being said your manual says don't fly under 0 deg C. I am sure there is a valid reason for that to be in the manual so just keep that in mind.

Enjoy

 

[Anh Do]

Anh Do. I live in Canada. My rule of thumb is if it isn't too cold for me to stand there for 20 mins then it isnt too cold to fly.
I keep spare batteries in pockets inside my coat so they are toasty. I don't fly in high humidity in the cold. When I get home I disconnect everything and let it all air dry completely before packing it away.

All that being said your manual says don't fly under 0 deg C. I am sure there is a valid reason for that to be in the manual so just keep that in mind.

Enjoy

I live in Canada too thanks for helping me!

 

[Former Member]

While we are on the subject of flying in cold weather, can anyone of you folks who live in sub 0 temperatures tell me what happens in every day life when it gets that cold? Do you find any plastic or rubber pieces breaking easily on your car or other equipment? Does it tend to make things more brittle?

 

[Tbredhed]

While we are on the subject of flying in cold weather, can anyone of you folks who live in sub 0 temperatures tell me what happens in every day life when it gets that cold? Do you find any plastic or rubber pieces breaking easily on your car or other equipment? Does it tend to make things more brittle?

Where to start, so many things. If you live where I am you need to plug your car in, not because it's electric but because if you don't warm the engine block it probably won't start. Most plastic becomes a lot more brittle the colder it gets.

When it's really cold, getting towards -40, your tires have a flat spot on them for a minute or 2 till they warm up.

The suspension on your vehicle will be a lot firmer, plus the roads also gets what we call frost heaves in them so obviously my truck rides like a bucking bronco.

If you buy cheap Chinese stuff to use outdoors in the winter it's probably going to break, just not designed for the kind of cold we have here.

A picture of what we have to do for our short haired dog so she can go for a walk in the cold, she has pyjamas a winter coat and booties on.

Have a good chuckle at our expense we don't mind.
Cheers

 

[CanadaDrone]

While we are on the subject of flying in cold weather, can anyone of you folks who live in sub 0 temperatures tell me what happens in every day life when it gets that cold? Do you find any plastic or rubber pieces breaking easily on your car or other equipment? Does it tend to make things more brittle?

I live in Alberta and a few things that come to mind:

-30C with -40C wind chill where I am right now (note that wind chill does not affect non-living objects but you probably know that). I would never even consider flying my drone in half these temperatures, but I realize some people still risk it. Cold wreaks havoc on plastic, batteries, etc. - basically everything a drone is made up of.

Plastic of all types becomes VERY brittle in these temperatures, for example someone hit my parked car last year in similar conditions and my bumper cracked and shattered instead of just denting as it would have in warmer temperatures. I've left phone charging cords in my car that have snapped in half like a piece of uncooked dry spaghetti.

My car's block heater cord that is apparently rated for these temperatures is completely rigid within 2 minutes if I have to park outside - if you bend it too fast it will crack.

If you have a chip or crack in your car windshield, using the defroster in the car often can make it crack or worsen an existing crack. Heated seats (especially if you have leather) and heated steering wheels are must-haves.

My normally soft/pliable faux leather sunglasses case snapped in half when I tried to open it after leaving it in my car in these temperatures.

Many people don't understand that winter tires aren't just for snow, and they drive around on rock-hard all seasons ("all season" tires DO NOT include Winter, they are strictly Spring/Summer/Fall), so they still can't stop properly even on bone dry pavement. There are tons of accidents and everyone drives around way below the speed limit because they are too cheap to buy proper tires or they don't understand what happens to rubber in these temps. Some provinces have mandatory winter tires but here in Alberta we (inexplicably) do not have that requirement.

Synthetic oil for your car is a must - regular oil is thicker than molasses at -30C but good synthetic will pour like water down to -50C or so and most people just have block heaters, not oil pan heaters, if they park outside.

Good batteries are important if you can't plug in your car, getting an AGM battery is a really good idea. That is the most noticeable thing.

Everything protests / squeaks / cracks in temps that cold - doors, cars, hinges, equipment, etc. Nothing is truly designed for it and it's VERY hard on everything. You will hear noises you have never heard before from your car after you start it in -30C and drive around a bit. Many people also don't realize that EVERYTHING in your car needs to warm up, not just the engine, so when they let their cars idle to warm up and then drive around like it's summer, it's extremely hard on the vehicle. The suspension, transmission (especially if it's a manual), steering, etc. are all extremely firm and unnatural feeling. If you have an automatic, you might notice it takes an extra second or so for the car's transmission to go from Park to Drive.

Our roads are horrible and full of cracks and potholes because we get 30-40C temperature swings regularly (it can be -30C one day and +10C with a Chinook the next), and Canadian cities pour roads really thin when they build/pave them. Not only that they cover them in salt and gravel to combat the snow/ice which makes it worse.

Sometimes water mains freeze/burst and cause major problems in the city. I used to live in a Condo building and every single year at least one person would crack a window in these temperatures, the radiator heating would burst and flood half the building - it was a nightmare. That is 100% avoidable though, people are just idiots.

The insides of our windows ice up sometimes at home because the condensation freezes - you can mitigate this with triple pane windows but those are expensive. It gets very dry, usually around 10% or less humidity, because all the moisture is frozen. Lots of moisturizer is needed to keeps hands from cracking haha.

Brushing snow off cars and scraping ice off windows sucks. Touching anything metal outside sucks the heat out of your skin so fast it feels like touching fire.

Shoveling snow, especially wet snow, is a shockingly common cause of heart attacks in older folks due to over-exertion.

In Southern Alberta anyway, we get 2-3 weeks of this crap every year but it rarely lasts longer than that and gets much more reasonable. We've actually had an incredibly warm winter with almost zero snow up until about a week ago, so I can't complain. I don't mind the cold, I just hate the snow. Summers can be hot as most other places in North America at 35-38C, melting all our igloos

 

[TimberWolf775]

Where to start, so many things. If you live where I am you need to plug your car in, not because it's electric but because if you don't warm the engine block it probably won't start. Most plastic becomes a lot more brittle the colder it gets.

When it's really cold, getting towards -40, your tires have a flat spot on them for a minute or 2 till they warm up.

The suspension on your vehicle will be a lot firmer, plus the roads also gets what we call frost heaves in them so obviously my truck rides like a bucking bronco.

If you buy cheap Chinese stuff to use outdoors in the winter it's probably going to break, just not designed for the kind of cold we have here.

A picture of what we have to do for our short haired dog so she can go for a walk in the cold, she has pyjamas a winter coat and booties on.

Have a good chuckle at our expense we don't mind.
CheersView attachment 62125

I agree with all of it,.... right up to what they do to their poor dog.... that **** is wack!
The colder you get and the farther North you go, things just typically dont hold up as well.
the real difference is down south help is right next door, no matter what the issue,
You get way up there, up where winter is 6 months long and never totally goes away.... up there it is all on you!

 

[NAVMAV]

Um, we believe "CanadaDrone" succinctly covered things adequately, 'n accurately.

Only thing left out was a 'happy thought' for those needing to take The Dawg out for a late night Pee before Bed Time.

Really looking forward to that. The entire property is covered in glare ice, nicely polished by 30-50 mph wind gusts.

In the earlier walk tonight, we enjoyed the Thrill of sliding 10' backwards, down a driveway ramp, despite wearing ice cleats. Those will be replaced before The Dawn.

Rgds, NAVMAV