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Mavic high altitude and low temp test

WolfgangStiller

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Oct 13, 2016
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Age
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Colorado Springs, CO USA
I have been flying the heck out of my new Mavic since I received it less than a week ago. It has been flawless and performs amazingly. It's a total game-changer for me since filming in remote mountain locations is my thing. This was my high altitude and cold temperature test of the Mavic. This was taken just above 14,000 ft msl (4267 meters) below the summit of Mt. Democrat in Colorado. I wasn't really going for good video and was mostly testing out the DJI Mavic to see how it would perform at 15 degrees F (-9 centigrade) and 14,000 elevation (it was amazingly stable). The Mavic was very stable so you'd have no clue that it was flying in a somewhat gusty wind based on the video. I ran it through Power Director to pull out the clip and add some music but other than that it was raw footage with the default video settings on the Mavic. I am still learning but I am delighted at how well this performs. I kept the Mavic, cell phone, and controller warm inside my pack and used the formed materials from the orginal Mavic retail box to protect the quad and the controller. A warmed up gel pack and a down jacket kept everything warm on the eight hour hike. Once the Mavic started flying at the low temps it generates its own heat so it was still reasonably warm when it landed.

 
Was kinda joking because of the cold temp. Apparently the factory does the initial one in really cold temp.

That's a good point. I am not sure if it's correct, but I have read in the forums to calibrate in cold temps; otherwise if it's a lot colder the Mavic may refuse to fly (apparently this is based on the temperature when the calibration was done). I have heard this is the IMU calibration in one post and the compass calibration in another post. Perhaps it's both but I can find nothing in regards to calibration temperature in the official documentation.
 
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I am wondering about the cold temperature calibration. Has anyone actually seen any written documentation from DJI about calibrating in cold temps?
 
A follow up: I didn't make it above 14,000 ft msl (Pikes Peak) but had to turn back just below 13,000 due to 50mph winds which were gusting higher. No way, I was going to fly in those winds but did drop into the basin below Devil's Playground (just below 13,000 msl). The winds were more moderate there and I had miles of flat area so I decided to attempt a flight. Conditions were 8 degrees Fahrenheit (about -13 C) with a wind blowing about 20 to 25. I had wrapped the Mavic (with battery in place) in a down jacket with 2 3m hot/cold gel packs inside my backpack. The Mavic was still nice and warm when I unwrapped it after the 2.5 hour hike to this location. It flew remarkably stable but was buffeted occasionally when the wind would do an extreme shift. I flew about 10 minutes and tried a number of maneuvers including a short Litchi waypoint mission. Overall, I would have had some good footage even under these conditions. (I left the clear dome on as a precaution since I was flying in questionable conditions and on top of that forgot to focus the camera....rookie mistake).

Let me say, that I realize that flying in the mountains is risky. There is a much higher risk than normal that I may lose the Mavic but this is why I bought the Mavic and the risk is worth it to me.
 
Dear Wolfgang, thanks for the post and beautiful images!
However, to me it seems that your drone is suffering from misaligned lens, the far right part of your video looks soft. Maybe you would like to look more closely and report to the technical support if it's there in the original footage.
kind regards,
Chris
 
Dear Wolfgang, thanks for the post and beautiful images!
However, to me it seems that your drone is suffering from misaligned lens, the far right part of your video looks soft. Maybe you would like to look more closely and report to the technical support if it's there in the original footage.
kind regards,
Chris

Yes, I see what you mean and I am concerned about that. Thanks for pointing that out! I am going to run some tests on Saturday (working from dark to dark currently so there's no time or daylight available until then).

It's going to be painful to be without my Mavic if I have to send it in. Anyone know the turn around on repairs?
 
I determined my camera does have an issue. (Thanks! I really appreciate the heads up on this!) I shot some additional videos and still shots and the focus is clearly off on the right side of the frame. It seems others have that problem. I have a call in to DJI for a warrantee return. It's going to kill me to be without my beloved Mavic for a while. :(
 
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Interested in this post as I am curious how the unit will handle cold weather flying... Glad to see you had it out not only in the cold but also the thinner air!
 
We all appreciate you putting your Mavic to the test and sharing


Sent from my iPhone using MavicPilots

You are welcome.

I like to know in advance in what conditions I can fly and how hard I can push things. When I'm in more extreme terrain, I always fly one step below what I know the quad and I are capable of. I also push the limits of the Mavic in nice soft big open fields and fly extreme maneuvers in Sport mode as well as play with all advanced features. There a mistake on my part won't have any serious consequences. A mistake on top of a 14,000 ft summit with multi-thousand foot drops on each side, will likely mean bye-bye quad so I always get to know its limits in much safer settings and then don't push it when a single mistake can have more serious consequences.
 
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I determined my camera does have an issue. (Thanks! I really appreciate the heads up on this!) I shot some additional videos and still shots and the focus is clearly off on the right side of the frame. It seems others have that problem. I have a call in to DJI for a warrantee return. It's going to kill me to be without my beloved Mavic for a while. :(

I've heard about a Camera Focus Calibration, but I haven't seen anything in the manual yet...still looking.
 
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