Shooting lightning

[lilewis]

I live in an area where I have a poor view of the sky from inside my house because of high trees, lots of telephone poles and power lines and I'd like to use my M2P to get some thunderstorm lightning shots. Last night I drove to an empty church parking lot and started filming from a height of 150 ft with the drone aimed at the darkest cloud. After 15 minutes of hovering, I captured some video of what I thought was only one strike. After viewing it I realized there were 3 strikes in less than 1/2 second so I grabbed screenshots of each strike and combined them into a composite which I'll try to upload here after I finish this post.

Now for my question:
Even though this storm seemed to be far enough away that I thought I was safe, I know it's never really safe if you can see the lightning. I also recognize the risk to the drone from lightning, rain, and high winds. But I'd like to continue doing more of these kind of shots and am wondering -- as long as I keep a VLOS on the drone, if it is generally not wise to try to control the drone from inside the car with the door closed, where I can at least mitigate my own personal risk? I don't even want to test it without first reading comments from members here who have more experience with this topic.

I'm not planning to do fancy maneuvers.. just go straight up 100+ ft, aim the camera at the storm while filming till I get to 30% battery (or sooner if I get a wind warning), then straight down to the ground, then leave.


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[Taylor1430]

This doesn't answer your question....but did you just go to the height and let the camera roll? I ask as I'd love to get some lightning strikes and didn't realize it was that simple.

 

[lilewis]

This doesn't answer your question....but did you just go to the height and let the camera roll? I ask as I'd love to get some lightning strikes and didn't realize it was that simple.

Yes. That's all I did. Then back at my computer I cropped the 15 min video to a few seconds before and after the lightning. Then I used Sony Vegas to slow the video, so that I could more easily grab screen caps. At 30fps, it's hard to stop the clip right at the lightening strike frame.

 

[EyeFlightDrone]

Awesome. Thanks for the advice.

 

[lilewis]

Yes. That's all I did. Then back at my computer I cropped the 15 min video to a few seconds before and after the lightning. Then I used Sony Vegas to slow the video, so that I could more easily grab screen caps. At 30fps, it's hard to stop the clip right at the lightening strike frame.

This doesn't answer your question....but did you just go to the height and let the camera roll? I ask as I'd love to get some lightning strikes and didn't realize it was that simple.

BTW, this was taken at dusk. My original plan was for a nice sunset

 

[Huckleberry]

Ever fly while it's 95 degrees out with a heat index of 110? I do. It sucks. So, I fly from within the AC of my truck on a regular basis. Granted, I normally have my window down while the AC is blowing full blast but I have never had any reception issues operating this way. If you're just planning on launching straight up 100ft, do so with the comfort of knowing that you shouldn't experience any issues.

 

[lilewis]

Ever fly while it's 95 degrees out with a heat index of 110? I do. It sucks. So, I fly from within the AC of my truck on a regular basis. Granted, I normally have my window down while the AC is blowing full blast but I have never had any reception issues operating this way. If you're just planning on launching straight up 100ft, do so with the comfort of knowing that you shouldn't experience any issues.

Thanks Huckleberry. That's what I needed to hear. I'll start practicing soon to find my comfort level doing this.

 

[Taylor1430]

BTW, this was taken at dusk. My original plan was for a nice sunset

Thank You! I'll give it a shot. This time of year, we have regular storms that move through...I'll give it a try and see what happens.

 

[Dan C]

It's extremely unlikely (though not impossible) for your drone to be struck by lightning. Being airborne, it is effectively insulated from any earth. Aircraft do get hit, but generally when they are "up there" much closer to the clouds, and the bolt simply flows along their outside skin on the way to where ever it will eventually earth.

Plus, the metal in your drone is minimal. There's not a whole lot to attract a bolt.

And, it appears you are not super close to the thundercloud.

Stay away from the church, or any trees (which could attract a strike, and thus your drone might partake in the path), and I'd say your chances are heavily on your side.

But it is of course not impossible it'll get hit. Lightning is a funny creature.

P.S. Thanks for the idea. I'm sitting here asking myself, "Why didn't you think of that?". Next storm, I'll have my Mavic Air up there shooting 1080p 120fps.

 

[Bfowler826]

I live in an area where I have a poor view of the sky from inside my house because of high trees, lots of telephone poles and power lines and I'd like to use my M2P to get some thunderstorm lightning shots. Last night I drove to an empty church parking lot and started filming from a height of 150 ft with the drone aimed at the darkest cloud. After 15 minutes of hovering, I captured some video of what I thought was only one strike. After viewing it I realized there were 3 strikes in less than 1/2 second so I grabbed screenshots of each strike and combined them into a composite which I'll try to upload here after I finish this post.

Now for my question:
Even though this storm seemed to be far enough away that I thought I was safe, I know it's never really safe if you can see the lightning. I also recognize the risk to the drone from lightning, rain, and high winds. But I'd like to continue doing more of these kind of shots and am wondering -- as long as I keep a VLOS on the drone, if it is generally not wise to try to control the drone from inside the car with the door closed, where I can at least mitigate my own personal risk? I don't even want to test it without first reading comments from members here who have more experience with this topic.

I'm not planning to do fancy maneuvers.. just go straight up 100+ ft, aim the camera at the storm while filming till I get to 30% battery (or sooner if I get a wind warning), then straight down to the ground, then leave.


View attachment 79948.

This is a screen capture from a video. Did not see the bolt until I downloaded it. I don’t fear the lightning strike but many storms are preceded by a gust front or high winds. Just be ready to land fast if you see the trees bending over.

 

[lilewis]

Thank You! I'll give it a shot. This time of year, we have regular storms that move through...I'll give it a try and see what happens.

Looking forward to seeing your shots. If you think of it plse post a copy here because I don't always check every new thread in the group.

 

[lilewis]

Thank you all for your comments.

View attachment 80029
This is a screen capture from a video. Did not see the bolt until I downloaded it. I don’t fear the lightning strike but many storms are preceded by a gust front or high winds. Just be ready to land fast if you see the trees bending over.

Good comment. I now think the wisest action to take (besides packing it up) is to fly just high enough over houses/trees/hills to get a clear view of the horizon, and fight the urge to be at 300/400 ft AGL. The winds might be lower and you can land faster if necessary.

 

[Skywalker]

Cool shots. Did you say you were going to post a slow motion video?

 

[lilewis]

This is a screen capture from a video. Did not see the bolt until I downloaded it. I don’t fear the lightning strike but many storms are preceded by a gust front or high winds. Just be ready to land fast if you see the trees bending over.

Good I think the wisest action to take (besides packing it up) is to fly just high enough over houses/trees/hills to get a clear video of the horizon, and fight the urge to be at 300/400 ft AGL. That way the winds might be lower and you can land faster if necessary.

Cool shots. Did you say you were going to post a slow motion video?

Cool shots. Did you say you were going to post a slow motion video?

I tried to upload it here but was unable. So I just uploaded to Youtube:
Let me know if this link works:
What I thought was one strike turned out to be 3 after I slowed it down.

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[Skywalker]

Good I think the wisest action to take (besides packing it up) is to fly just high enough over houses/trees/hills to get a clear video of the horizon, and fight the urge to be at 300/400 ft AGL. That way the winds might be lower and you can land faster if necessary.




I tried to upload it here but was unable. So I just uploaded to Youtube:
Let me know if this link works:
What I thought was one strike turned out to be 3 after I slowed it down.

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For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Schweet! Very cool.

 

[naiku]

Yes. That's all I did. Then back at my computer I cropped the 15 min video to a few seconds before and after the lightning. Then I used Sony Vegas to slow the video, so that I could more easily grab screen caps. At 30fps, it's hard to stop the clip right at the lightening strike frame.

Going to have to give this a try, I've spent many times setting up my still camera on a tripod, using an intervalometer to take hundreds of shots pointed at a storm, downloading them all and if I'm lucky getting one lightning strike captured. More often than not, it's a bunch of useless pictures.

 

[lilewis]

Going to have to give this a try, I've spent many times setting up my still camera on a tripod, using an intervalometer to take hundreds of shots pointed at a storm, downloading them all and if I'm lucky getting one lightning strike captured. More often than not, it's a bunch of useless pictures.

I've had the same frustration. Today the storm was too wild to go out with the drone so I tried a 30 minute live composite with camera on a tripod looking out my living room window. After 30 minutes I got frustrated and turned off the camera. Only one second later, a tremendous flash appeared in front of the 'off' camera. Some days you just can't win!

 

[arrowbreaker]

Try doing a series of long exposures in the same position and combine in PS

 

[FoxhallGH]

I now think the wisest action to take (besides packing it up) is to fly just high enough over houses/trees/hills to get a clear view of the horizon, and fight the urge to be at 300/400 ft AGL. The winds might be lower and you can land faster if necessary.

In most cases, storm fronts that have the towering clouds and lightning are cold fronts. That's Cold air sliding along the ground and pushing existing calm air up and out of the way. As such, you usually get sudden gusts at low level first. So as suggested, you really need to look at ground features (trees, grass, flags ...) between you and the storm to see those gusts coming. The gusts are going to make it difficult because once they reach you, it's going to make getting your drone down and back a load of fun! For that reason, it could be best to be out of your vehicle and in touch with the weather ...
And great idea about the frame-grab to get the lightning from video by the way ...

 

[JoostGT3]

In most cases, storm fronts that have the towering clouds and lightning are cold fronts. That's Cold air sliding along the ground and pushing existing calm air up and out of the way. As such, you usually get sudden gusts at low level first. So as suggested, you really need to look at ground features (trees, grass, flags ...) between you and the storm to see those gusts coming. The gusts are going to make it difficult because once they reach you, it's going to make getting your drone down and back a load of fun! For that reason, it could be best to be out of your vehicle and in touch with the weather ...
And great idea about the frame-grab to get the lightning from video by the way ...

Maybe to overcome the risk of your drone being blown away by these gusts, you can connect a long wire to your drone and hold that firmly? Maybe best to use a steel or copper wire for that? ?