Experiences in the Rain with P2V

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Have any of you guys have any experience with raining while flying? What happened? Can you please share
 
artbrana said:
Have any of you guys have any experience with raining while flying? What happened? Can you please share


Haven't tried it with the phantom vision and wouldn't recommend it but for those willing to have a go i suggest covering over any air vents to prevent water getting inside.

I have flown a small quadcopter (~35 grams) in light rain and every drop that hit it would just about knock it out of the air.
Other people i've heard about have said if a drop hits one of the propellors they slow right down and the copter takes a bit to level out again.

But at the end of the day if you value your assets; water and electricity don't mix :roll:
 
The only time I've flown in rain was a couple of days ago, unintentionally. Rain started unexpectedly with my Vision about 400 feet away at an altitude of about 200 feet. Big rain drops but not hard rain, and the Phantom did not get thoroughly wet. I got it down as quickly as I could and wiped the outer surfaces with a towel when I got inside. No problem with flight characteristics during that light rain and there doesn't seem to have been any harm done, as I've flown 3 times since then.
 
My P2V got stuck in a tree and despite all attempts at throwing things at it, hooking the tree with a fishing line and pulling like crazy, climbing up the branch and shaking like a good 'un it wouldn't come free. And then it began raining. Hard. Actually V Hard. And then the wind started blowing - storm force winds and rain.

It got stuck at lunchtime and I tried retrieving it until about 6 in the evening when it got dark. I kept calling back to the park every couple of hours to see if it had blown down of its own free will but gave up at midnight. The battery had by now gone flat and all the lights had gone out. But she was stuck up there fast, in the heavy wind and rain. Irish winter storm style. Real horror movie stuff.

At about 7 next morning I went back to the site and the P2V was lying on the ground, one prop missing, one broken, the camera was detached and had pulled the cables out of the plug, the battery was ejected and the four camera rubbers had pulled out. I gathered everything up (except the missing prop) and put it in the boot of the car and went to work fearing the worst.

That evening I placed the camera in a sealed container of rice and put the P2V on a radiator. After two days, I reinserted the cables into the plug (which worked), charged up the battery (more to see what would happen) put a fresh battery into the copter, connected everything up, plugged into the Mac and lo and behold, everything worked perfectly! The first test flight was done at about 6-8 feet, but all reacted perfectly, event the iPhone display.

The flat battery works absolutely fine since recharging, I have flown without incident about ten times since. These really are tough old birds - that was about five weeks ago and all is okay since (apart from the weather which is still windy and no use for flying).

Just my experience with rain!

CBS
 
happydays said:
My P2V got stuck in a tree and despite all attempts at throwing things at it, hooking the tree with a fishing line and pulling like crazy, climbing up the branch and shaking like a good 'un it wouldn't come free. And then it began raining. Hard. Actually V Hard. And then the wind started blowing - storm force winds and rain.

It got stuck at lunchtime and I tried retrieving it until about 6 in the evening when it got dark. I kept calling back to the park every couple of hours to see if it had blown down of its own free will but gave up at midnight. The battery had by now gone flat and all the lights had gone out. But she was stuck up there fast, in the heavy wind and rain. Irish winter storm style. Real horror movie stuff.

At about 7 next morning I went back to the site and the P2V was lying on the ground, one prop missing, one broken, the camera was detached and had pulled the cables out of the plug, the battery was ejected and the four camera rubbers had pulled out. I gathered everything up (except the missing prop) and put it in the boot of the car and went to work fearing the worst.

That evening I placed the camera in a sealed container of rice and put the P2V on a radiator. After two days, I reinserted the cables into the plug (which worked), charged up the battery (more to see what would happen) put a fresh battery into the copter, connected everything up, plugged into the Mac and lo and behold, everything worked perfectly! The first test flight was done at about 6-8 feet, but all reacted perfectly, event the iPhone display.

The flat battery works absolutely fine since recharging, I have flown without incident about ten times since. These really are tough old birds - that was about five weeks ago and all is okay since (apart from the weather which is still windy and no use for flying).

Just my experience with rain!

CBS

Cool story - glad to hear it turned out alright like that :D I'll try not to repeat your horror story though :p
 
I've flown in light rain as well as snow without any ill effects. I didn't spend more than a few minutes flying, but didn't notice any change in flight characteristics. I wouldn't push it too much, but that's been my experience :)
 

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