What's the best thing to do after you realize you shouldn't have flown up into that fog?

[Dangerly]

I know better now, but I've got questions.

It was a foggy morning when I thought I'd shoot a 320-foot dronie off the back deck on a foggy morning. No problems filming the actual dronie, and it even was flying back on its own just fine. But when it got close to the starting point, I took over manual control and tried to land. That's when I discovered the Air 2 saying, "Landing" when it was 30 feet up. It didn't look like that much fog, and it was only 30 feet up, but it couldn't tell where the ground was.

Having never encountered this situation before, my immediate thought was, "it's going to think it's on the ground at 30 feet up and then cut power and crash." So I cancelled the landing, tried again, and the same thing, and I cancelled again. Eventually I figured out that if I just kept it trying to land, it wouldn't cut power, so I moved to a safe place and landed from 30 feet up. So I've got questions now:

1. Is there a way to get the Air 2 to descend normally when the bottom sensors get fooled by fog?
2. Can I switch the bottom sensors off mid-flight, then maybe switch them on again?
3. Will a return to home in the fog work?
4. Is there any way to fly safely in fog?

 

[Trippp]

You can just hold the left stick down, if that's what is controlling altitude, some peeps use the right stick for that. You can cancel the RTH also by hitting the pause button. Pull the left stick aft and descend manually. I would think descending manually overrides the auto land, so the downward sensors are not active

 

[Dangerly]

You can just hold the left stick down, if that's what is controlling altitude, some peeps use the right stick for that. You can cancel the RTH also by hitting the pause button. Pull the left stick aft and descend manually. I would think descending manually overrides the auto land, so the downward sensors are not active

That's what I thought, but once is says "Landing" at 30 feet up even if you pull down on the left control stick it won't descend any faster than the "landing" rate.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Being in Sport mode will help with this , its no different than flying in the dark .

Phantomrain.org
Gear to Fly your Air 2 in the Rain and Fog.

 

[Dangerly]

Being in Sport mode will help with this , its no different than flying in the dark .

Phantomrain.org
Gear to Fly your Air 2 in the Rain and Fog.

I was in sport mode, and the Air 2 would follow all control stick commands perfectly accept going down - whenever I went down, at any altitude, it says "landing." I've flown in the dark before and haven't had any problems.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Whilst the drone is in the air it will sense its movement and it will not shut the motors down. (Unless you use the CSC position with the appropriate response setting)
If you are confident hand catching etc. it is fairly easy to confirm this.
Hold the drone in your hand with a good firm grip, start the motors with the CSC and then wobble your hand a bit. If the movement is big enough the motors will rev ( the drone thinks it is in the air and tries to hold position) add a bit of throttle until it is definitely trying to climb out off your grip.
Once you feel that keep wobbling the drone and close the throttle and hold it closed. If you are wobbling the drone enough the motors will not stop. Stop wobbling your hand and the drone will think it has landed and stop the motors.
This works for me on the Mavic 2, the Mavic Mini, the Mini2 and I think I have done it with the FPV.

If the fog weakens the GPS signal you could run into difficulties with an RTH, it needs GPS to RTH.
Also you most likely have no VLOS on the drone nor ANY of the surrounding airspace, i.e. what else is up there?????

 

[Dangerly]

Whilst the drone is in the air it will sense its movement and it will not shut the motors down. (Unless you use the CSC position with the appropriate response setting)
If you are confident hand catching etc. it is fairly easy to confirm this.
Hold the drone in your hand with a good firm grip, start the motors with the CSC and then wobble your hand a bit. If the movement is big enough the motors will rev ( the drone thinks it is in the air and tries to hold position) add a bit of throttle until it is definitely trying to climb out off your grip.
Once you feel that keep wobbling the drone and close the throttle and hold it closed. If you are wobbling the drone enough the motors will not stop. Stop wobbling your hand and the drone will think it has landed and stop the motors.
This works for me on the Mavic 2, the Mavic Mini, the Mini2 and I think I have done it with the FPV.

If the fog weakens the GPS signal you could run into difficulties with an RTH, it needs GPS to RTH.

Wow, did you figure that out yourself doing experiments? That is really useful info. It's really good to know that other than a CSC the drone won't shut off the motors unless there's no motion.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Oh forgot, after wiping off all the moisture you can can see, stick the drone somewhere warm for a good few hours.
I don't know what your temperatures are like but you might like to google "prop icing".

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Wow, did you figure that out yourself doing experiments?

Yes, I was UNHAPPY with my understanding of the FLY App's CSC and the "EMERGENCY ONLY" response mode. People had made comments about a hand held drone fighting them and I put two and two together and experimented. I also had a hand caught Phantom fight me a time or two.

 

[Dangerly]

Also you most likely have no VLOS on the drone nor ANY of the surrounding airspace, i.e. what else is up there?????

Definitely no VLOS, however I'm very familiar with the property and knew there were no trees or wires or towers, and I was over land with no people or obstacles under it. I am kinda going on the maybe unsafe assumption, that if you're flying over your own property in clear airspace and you know there are no people or obstacles, and you're within a few hundred feet, it's okay to relax normal VLOS guidelines. I would love to hear from anyone if you think this could be unsafe as I'm always open to learning.

 

[Dangerly]

Oh forgot, after wiping off all the moisture you can can see, stick the drone somewhere warm for a good few hours.
I don't know what your temperatures are like but you might like to google "prop icing".

Doing that right now!

 

[Phantomrain.org]

I was in sport mode, and the Air 2 would follow all control stick commands perfectly accept going down - whenever I went down, at any altitude, it says "landing." I've flown in the dark before and haven't had any problems.

I had this happen only once in a full tilt blizzard, and I did what you did canceled the landing sequence many times and continued to fly thru it using sport mode. Sensors do get confused in the Rain and the Fog and Snow, so there may be no direct approach other than what you took.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain.

 

[old man mavic]

@Dangerly couple of points with regards to your flight ,seeing as you have asked for comments
firstly cold foggy conditions and i dont mean freezing fog ,can depending on the dew point cause ice to form on the props ,which can impact on the drones ability to stay in the air secondly if you take the drone up above the fog ,the downwards sensors can be fooled and think that the fog is actually the ground and then the drone will decide not to descend ,and the last point with regards to the moisture content of the fog this can have a detrimental effect on the drones internal electronics ,with regards to the VLOS question ,you already know the rules on that ,so i will not comment on that myself

 

[BigAl07]

the aircraft is seeing the FOG as a solid surface and it very well could (as many others have found out the hard way) think it has landed and CUT POWER! Not a good idea.

The moist air being taken into the aircraft could ultimately play havoc with metal components. Not a good idea.

You're flying outside of VLOS which which is a clear and intentional FAA Violation. It's #3 under

49 U.S. Code § 44809 - Exception for limited recreational operations of unmanned aircraft​

49 U.S. Code § 44809 - Exception for limited recreational operations of unmanned aircraft

www.law.cornell.edu

(3)
The aircraft is flown within the visual line of sight of the person operating the aircraft or a visual observer co-located and in direct communication with the operator.

You must be ABLE TO SEE the aircraft for the duration of the flight. Obviously flying in such a manner as putting fog (low flying cloud) between you and the aircraft you are unable to see the aircraft which you have readily admitted in your posts above.

It's important to know that the moment you do NOT follow every aspect of ~44809 you are now 100% liable for every aspect of Part 107.

 

[theDRONEranger]

Purposely flying in the fog!?!
You asked for trouble from the very beginning.
Not sure, but I think you lost VLOS from the start, on purpose!

 

[Cymruflyer]

Whilst the drone is in the air it will sense its movement and it will not shut the motors down. (Unless you use the CSC position with the appropriate response setting)
If you are confident hand catching etc. it is fairly easy to confirm this.
Hold the drone in your hand with a good firm grip, start the motors with the CSC and then wobble your hand a bit. If the movement is big enough the motors will rev ( the drone thinks it is in the air and tries to hold position) add a bit of throttle until it is definitely trying to climb out off your grip.
Once you feel that keep wobbling the drone and close the throttle and hold it closed. If you are wobbling the drone enough the motors will not stop. Stop wobbling your hand and the drone will think it has landed and stop the motors.
This works for me on the Mavic 2, the Mavic Mini, the Mini2 and I think I have done it with the FPV.

If the fog weakens the GPS signal you could run into difficulties with an RTH, it needs GPS to RTH.
Also you most likely have no VLOS on the drone nor ANY of the surrounding airspace, i.e. what else is up there?????

Fog is NOT going to weaken a GPS signal, if that were the case you could not use your phone or car GPS if the sky was cloudy, because fog is just a low cloud, think about it. GPS can only be degraded or lost by solid objects like thick tree coverage or inside a building, but not under a cloud or in fog.

 

[MARK (LI)]

As mentioned...fog is just a low flying cloud...so, ignore the VLOS regs all together for the moment...those were mentioned by @old man mavic aand @BigAl07 ...the regulation regarding clouds is this ...you must stay 500 feet below them...and 2,000 feet away from them horizontally ...that means you shouldn't have taken your drone out at all until it cleared.

 

[JoelP]

Flying in or near a cloud is forbidden and fog is just a cloud at a lower level. It is worse if that fog can lead to frost.

Some think that ice on a wing or prop is the most problematic, but frost is even worse. Many years ago a sailplane in my club flew with frost in the wing when the pilot learned the hard way that frost totally disrupts the laminar flow over the wing. That plane spun to the ground from 1000’. Be warned that frost on your props could cost you your drone.

 

[Crashdummytest]

It has happened to me many times. Important to just relax and fly it in slowly, counteracting any landing attempts or ascending. Try get it down below the fog and voila, problem solved. If not possible just work it like a fishing rod with catch on, it has never really been any real problem for me other than self inflicted stress.

 

[Yaros]

I'm curious: If it says landing when it's high up, does that mean it will go down 1 meter and crash? Or does it have some detection based on motor output force or something else, not only sensors?