Whinging about the weather

[Lyndon5]

I live near the New South Wales-Queensland border in Australia. The last several months have been extremely bad for for many Australians, with huge bushfires, floods, strong winds and very high temperatures. Luckily, my home has been largely unaffected - but I haven't been able to fly my drone. With frequent heavy rain, high winds and temperatures exceeding 33 degrees C (92 F), I haven't been able to fly for weeks. What is the maximum temperature you would fly in to avoid overheating?

 

[zocalo]

I've not really pushed the bounds of temperature that way yet as I usually fly in colder climes, but will be doing so later this year. Once you are moving the air flow through the vents and internal heatsinks/fan will both work to help keep the aircraft's electronics and battery cool. Temperature also tends to fall with altitude, so that could also be worth a degrees or two if you are flying nearer the aircraft's ceiling than hugging the ground.

Still, DJI rates the aircraft to 40C, so I wouldn't fuss too much about flying at 33C, but I'm still not planning on pushing things too far until I got a feel for how warm the batteries are getting in operation, especially for longer flights where I'm dealing with wind and there's a higher current draw. I also keep an occassional eye on the aircraft's environmentals regardless of conditions just in case there is a problem developing that might require me to curtail the flight.

 

[Lyndon5]

Thanks for that. The battery gets very hot, very quick, in the 33 degrees C sun, so I have been wary of flying in that heat. It's a great idea to go higher than usual - it might be cooler up there!

 

[zocalo]

Thanks for that. The battery gets very hot, very quick, in the 33 degrees C sun, so I have been wary of flying in that heat. It's a great idea to go higher than usual - it might be cooler up there!

As an additional suggestion, it occured to me that maybe a wrap with a reflective upper and good thermal conductivity might help in such scenarios where you are flying in strong sunlight. It seems reasonable that if you can maintain the convection/ventilation of heat away from the aircraft/battery *and* reflect a lot of the sunlight that will also be warming it up away, then you should see a reduction in the aircraft's operating temperature. As a bonus, with the right angles, having it reflect sunlight might also make it easier to locate in glare, etc.

 

[Thomas B]

Thanks for that. The battery gets very hot, very quick, in the 33 degrees C sun, so I have been wary of flying in that heat. It's a great idea to go higher than usual - it might be cooler up there!

In the Arizona desert I have no difficulty flying when ambient temps are 40C (104F). I do notice decreased flight time. I also keep batteries out of the sun as much as possible and I allow my M2P to cool until no motors or other parts are warm to the touch. Maybe overkill, but no problems have occurred.