Flying in fog?

mrkrag · Dec 13, 2016

Caught the fog rolling in off the water last night with some long exposures, pretty good stuff. This morning it was pretty thick and I was thinking about catching a sunrise through or above it.

Does anyone here have any experience/advice/insight on flying through medium thick fog?

I'm not concerned about LOS issues, I can fly by instruments as I'm not going far horizontally and put a strobe on.

Mostly I'm wondering if moisture intrusion is something to worry about.

Just the facts, please. I can speculate on my own and already have a few theories.

Sent from my SM-N920T using PhantomPilots mobile app

Mark81137 · Dec 13, 2016

Hi, not sure where your at but here in sw colo we have fog that would cause aircraft rim ice. So I will be avoiding
winter fog for sure. Im new to the phantom and they are a lot of fun, but to much money on the line for me to
take the chance. Take care and much luck.

happydays · Dec 13, 2016

Depends on the temperature. If it's close to freezing, there's a risk of ice forming on the props which would cause aerodynamic difficulties and could cause your phantom to drop. If it's warm, then you probably would be okay, but if you get a spot of water on the camera lens then your footage will be useless.

alokbhargava · Dec 13, 2016

Another point to be noted is the signal and range gets drastically reduced by the moisture.

Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

NiallxD · Dec 13, 2016

I flew in fog last week. It was fairly thick, didn't have any problems at all apart from the compass issue which I'm hoping will be fixed when I update tonight.

See the healthy drones log for this flight here: HealthyDrones.com - Innovative flight data analysis that matters

Hope I helped!

Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

Flash3d · Dec 13, 2016

alokbhargava said:
Another point to be noted is the signal and range gets drastically reduced by the moisture.

Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

And I thought the mist will increase the signal, just tested my P3A with another remote (GL300B, original is GL300C) which I bought for modifying (DBS Maxxrange). And on the same spot near my house where I usually get a 2KM distance I now got almost 2,7KM with the GL300B. I still had signal but turned around cause of the mist. So initial conclusion was that the fog/mist is a range booster. Both runs where with a windsurfer and CE power output. Could be that the B version of the remote that I have is a tad stronger.

First post btw!

Bob Denny · Dec 13, 2016

I would worry about moisture, as fog is "little rain". Also as one poster reported, if it is below 40F/5C (ish) and there is visible moisture, you risk icing. Bad news on the rotors especially. Loss of thrust, increased power requirements to keep altitude, and eventually bits can break off and unbalance the rotors. All bad news.

royster · Dec 13, 2016

I mentioned a similar issue to this in a previous post, hit a snow squall on way home, just a white image on monitor, lens caked in snow! Couldn't even see my bird till 15-20' she appeared. I asked, if I do fly in winter/snow storms again, would it make sense to tape over the air vents, at least the top side vents? Assuming vents are for cooling, flying in sub zero weather, shouldn't cause heat issues.
I;m trying to avoid water droplets getting inside, my P3A

mrkrag · Dec 13, 2016

Zero chance of freezing anything here. Just got to the beach and its a white out again. 67 degrees on the car dash thermometer.

Main concern would be water accumulating on things from contact, then running down into places that are best kept dry.

Looks like a no go for now.

Sent from my SM-N920T using PhantomPilots mobile app

mrkrag · Dec 14, 2016

Or not...

Brought her down, dried off lens, and flew back out backward...

Sent from my SM-N920T using PhantomPilots mobile app

Neon Euc · Dec 17, 2016

Was it covered in water droplets when your bird came back down?

Sent from my HUAWEI LYO-L01 using PhantomPilots mobile app

mrkrag · Dec 18, 2016

only thing that really accumulated moisture is the arms right below the props. rest of it was as damp as you would expect any hard surface to be if taken into fog. lens had enough water on it to blur out the first shot. solution to that was to fly *** first until I wanted a picture then spin around.