Wind , Rain, Snow - What Are Your Experiences?

Discussion in 'General Drone Forums' started by Mystery.Shadow, Dec 2, 2015.

  1. Mystery.Shadow

    Mystery.Shadow Active Member

    Nov 17, 2015
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    Although I try not to fly in high winds, sometimes Mother Nature throws a curve....
    Normally I check http://uavforecast.com/ for weather, and it's nice to check weather at altitude as well. But there are times when it looks all calm on the ground, only to find out it's three, four or even five times windier at 300 feet!

    What are your experiences with windy weather?



    Description from the YouTube video: Flying a DJI Inspire 1 at South Beach in Sea Pines Plantation on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Got a little windy at 400 feet altitude. The Inspire caught a nice tailwind at 4:40 and traveled 54 miles per hour! (87 Kilometers per hour)
     
    Jonathan likes this.
  2. Mystery.Shadow

    Mystery.Shadow Active Member

    Nov 17, 2015
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    How about rain? Anyone ever fly in the rain? Whether on-purpose (like this video below) or accidentally, as if Mother Nature snuck up on you.

    Note: This is not my video.
     
  3. Jonathan

    Jonathan Drone Expert
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    Aug 31, 2013
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    We went to fly in the rain the other day, but then it stopped when we got there!
     
  4. Ragnarok

    Ragnarok Member

    Jul 28, 2015
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    It is windy here often, Netherlands, but there are not any mountains so perhaps not so extreme.
     
  5. Mystery.Shadow

    Mystery.Shadow Active Member

    Nov 17, 2015
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    You meant you on-purposely went to fly in the rain?!

    But how windy is too windy?! I've flown in 20 mile-per-hour (32 kilometers-per-hour) winds without too much difficulty. How about you guys?
     
  6. Jonathan

    Jonathan Drone Expert
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    Aug 31, 2013
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    I prefer to stay below 15mph, just safer, more relaxing and better for video quality usually. In fact no wind is best. I've tried pushing it though just to see. Inspire copes okay, but I've had the phantom being pushed away by the wind at 20ish, where I've had to go lower and tack like a sail boat to get back. :)
    P.S. Yes, we wanted to try flying in the rain.
     
  7. Mystery.Shadow

    Mystery.Shadow Active Member

    Nov 17, 2015
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    You're a braver one than I. Don't think I would want to on-purposely attempt to fly in the rain. But if/when you do, I expect to see video!
     
  8. Jonathan

    Jonathan Drone Expert
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    Aug 31, 2013
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    Definitely. :)
     
  9. Mick

    Mick Member

    Oct 15, 2014
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    Fly'n in rain, not a good idea, most of the machines around aren't waterproof or moistureproof,(electricity v water!!!!) as for fly'n in wind, not that enjoyable.
     
  10. Jonathan

    Jonathan Drone Expert
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    Aug 31, 2013
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    The idea is to keep water away from the circuit boards, the inner gubbins and ESCs. The motors don't mind water, in fact they work underwater.
     
  11. Mystery.Shadow

    Mystery.Shadow Active Member

    Nov 17, 2015
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    Big snowstorm forecasted for this weekend! Has anyone (on purposely) flown while it was snowing?
     
  12. Jonathan

    Jonathan Drone Expert
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    I flew in light rain on a job last week, and it started snowing as well but only a bit. It was very cold though. Everything was fine. Most annoying thing is getting water drops on the lens, so I had to point the camera more downward facing than usual.
     
  13. Mystery.Shadow

    Mystery.Shadow Active Member

    Nov 17, 2015
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    Was worried that GPS and GLONASS would be effected by the snow. Would this effect the KP Index?

    As for the droplets, I heard flying your drone "in reverse" (camera still pointed in the direction you're flying) would greatly help keeping drops off your camera lens.
     
    Jonathan likes this.
  14. lotusteve

    lotusteve Member

    Oct 28, 2015
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    i flew on sunday in sheffield with winds at 27mph average and gusts of 42mph, I got the figures from healthy drones... it was not fun. should not have flown but wanted to run my batterys down. got to say the phantom advanced performed great but i could tell it was struggling a bit. (WONT DO THIS AGAIN)
    crap video but here it is.
     
  15. Jonathan

    Jonathan Drone Expert
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    Yeah, it can be pretty scary and quite stressful. I did one flight with the P3 where it didn't want to come back it was so windy. I had to get down low to the ground, stay calm and even tack a bit, to get it to come back. Not ideal at all. :)
     
  16. Mystery.Shadow

    Mystery.Shadow Active Member

    Nov 17, 2015
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    Heard of some people taking their DJI's off of GPS Mode and into ATTI Mode, this will allow them to pitch forward more and give it more "ooomph" to fight wind. Have not tried it myself, not had to, yet.
     
  17. Photoworx

    Photoworx Guest

    We got a pretty good snowfall this past weekend and I captured this video. I waited till after the snow finished, but, there was freezing FOG and my P3P got a bit wet and the Blades started to get ice forming on them. When I landed I had to wipe the drone down and get the ice off the blades ASAP. You can see the ice on the camera lens. I was really lucky I didn't crash!

     
  18. Mystery.Shadow

    Mystery.Shadow Active Member

    Nov 17, 2015
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    How cold was it when you took that video?!

    Here's my video from Winter Storm Jonas. I'm in Maryland from the United States.



    It was surprisingly warm, about 30 Fahrenheit (about -1 Celsius) when I took my video. No problems with the lens fogging or ice forming here. But the skies were clear in my neck of the woods! Good to know the Phantom is pretty ice and humidity resistant.
     
  19. Photoworx

    Photoworx Guest

    The Weather was pretty cold @ 25 degrees and overcast. Light winds @ 7-10 mph with moderate fog which was freezing and I didn't
    t know that at the time. I try NOT to fly in bad weather like high winds or even lite rain.
     
  20. Mystery.Shadow

    Mystery.Shadow Active Member

    Nov 17, 2015
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    Me being stupid. Flying in the cold, snow, and wind!
    The temperature was 15 Fahrenheit (-9 Celsius), winds about 25 mile-per-hour (40 km per hour), and you can see the snow (storm!) in the distance and clearly when the Inspire lands.



    The DJI Go App constantly warned about low battery temperature and low voltage. The DJI Go App and Inspire 1 seriously limited power output to protect the TB47 65 LiPo Battery.

    Although I had the battery stored at normal room temperatures, it was quite cold that day, and I did take off and hover the Inspire 1 for several minutes to 'warm up' the LiPo Pack and then land again before taking video.

    My flight was cut short due to battery warnings.
     

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