Drone Flying in Winter Weather

Drone technology has come incredibly far in recent years, but it is important to be aware of their limitations, especially in the cold weather of the winter months. Extreme weather conditions like strong winds, frigid weather, and heavy rain can impact the battery health of your drone, visibility, and the ability to complete a successful flight.

With these obstacles in mind, it is certain that bad weather will not stand in the way of all drone pilots, and a few tips can go a long way to flying your drone safely.

Battery Management

If you have ever had your phone drop from near full battery to nothing in just minutes on a cold day, then you know that extreme temperatures can do a number on battery health. The same is true of a drone’s lithium polymer batteries. If you try flying your drone in extreme cold without proper preparation, your drone batteries could rapidly drop, potentially even making your drone crash.

Make sure to read the operating manual for your drone where you can find the recommended operating temperature for your drone model. If you plan to fly at lower temperatures than suggested, you need to understand that your potential flight time will be harder to estimate. If you plan to fly a drone in cold weather regardless, keep these tips for flying in mind:

• Before flying your drone, allow it to warm up for a few minutes. Extremely cold batteries do not perform as well as room temperature or warm batteries, and if they are not warm enough at take-off, they will not be able to warm up enough mid-flight.
• Bring extra fully charged batteries and keep them warm in your car when they are not in use. If you fly in cold weather regularly, consider getting yourself a battery warmer, as it is crucial to maintain battery health. Keep in mind that attempting to charge a battery that is too cold can cause permanent damage to your drone battery.
• When flying your drone, pay extra attention to the drone’s battery status. If the battery life appears to be draining faster than usual, make sure to fly your drone safely back to you to change batteries. If the battery drops significantly in a short time, you should land your drone and plan to fly in warm weather, as your drone may lose power at any moment.

Windy Weather

High winds can be a huge obstacle to a safe and successful flight. Blasts of wind can be sudden, and depending on the surroundings, your drone could be blown out of sight without much warning. If windy conditions reach the point where wind speeds are over 15 miles per hour, even the most experienced drone pilots could have difficulty flying safely.

If you do feel confident that you can handle the flight, these points may help ensure a safe flight:

• Before heading out to fly a drone, make sure to check the UAV Forecast for weather reports and wind speed forecasts. Forecasts can change as the day goes on, so be sure to check regularly.
• Watch your drone even more closely than you usually would. If you find yourself struggling to keep your drone in control, strongly consider landing for the day or waiting for the winds to die down.
• Try to fly in an open space with lower winds, or in areas that are more sheltered from strong gusts and wind currents.
• If your drone model has automatic settings to help with flying in inclement weather, be sure to adjust the drone so that the setting is active.
• Ensure you have a strong GPS signal so that you can locate your drone in the unfortunate event that it is blown off course.

Dealing With Low Visibility

Snowfall, overcast skies, fog, and heavy rain can all lead to decreased visibility. This can impact both your ability to visually keep track of your drone in the darker skies as well as your drone’s photographic capabilities.

Seeing Your Drone

To keep track of your drone in inclement weather, consider taking steps to ensure you have a line of sight. Make sure to not to fly the drone out of view, and to keep it even closer if winds appear to be pushing the drone off course. Also consider dressing your drone with some reflective surfaces if it does not already have any, to help you keep an eye on it in darker skies.

If your drone has automatic object avoidance sensors, there is also a chance that fog and other issues with visibility will lead to the sensors misinterpreting information and stopping mid-flight.

Camera Settings

One of the biggest allures to flying a drone is the ability to take pictures of hard-to-reach places with a mobile device. A snowy landscape can appear stunning and inspire some cheer in the cold winter weather, but without the proper camera settings, your shots might not come out as you hope.

Most drones have features such as automatic white balance settings built in, but if the automatic options do not seem to be getting you the shots that you want, consider these tips for getting great pictures:

• Try to avoid flying when the sun is not directly above in the sky. At other times of day, the chances are greater that shadows will get in the way of your images.
• Snow reflects light, which can lead to severe overexposure and ruin your shots if it is too bright of a day.
• If snow is actively falling, then it will likely begin to coat your camera lens, keep this in mind and be sure to land when needed to clean your lens.
• Adjust the exposure manually in your camera settings. Experiment to find the ideal settings for the particular day. In snowy weather, it is often recommended to overexpose the images slightly.
• Adjust your white balance settings manually. 6500k is recommended for snowy weather, though you will need to adjust as needed.
• Adjust your shutter speed so that the speed of your drone’s flight does not cause your shots to look strange.

Moisture and Frost

Like all electronics, drones are especially vulnerable to moisture damage. Moisture can cause your drone’s motors to malfunction. Increased moisture in the air due to fog, rain, snow, or other weather that can impact winter flying leads to condensation on drone motors, rotors, and electrical components.

Even if your drone is able to withstand the moisture in the air, sudden temperature drops can cause propeller icing, impeding flight performance and making a crash more likely. If you are flying in more damp weather, make sure to take some precautions.

• If flying in snowy weather, make sure to take off from a dry, flat surface such as a landing pad, and not directly from the snow. Taking off from the snow can cause moisture to get into the mobile device before you even take off.
• If you do think your drone is dealing with propellers icing or that the flight performance is not up to par, bring your drone down as soon as possible to avoid a crash.
• After a successful flight in damp weather, be sure to wipe down your drone to remove excess moisture before storing it to avoid damage occurring between uses.

Preparing Yourself for Winter Weather

Flying your drone safely in colder weather takes some preparation, and the same is true for the safety of the drone pilot. Make sure that you are ready for the weather conditions, whatever they may be. Things to consider before going out are:

• Dress appropriately, if your drone is cold, you certainly will be. Wear gloves, touchscreen gloves if needed to control your drone via your mobile device.
• Make sure you are wearing water resistant outerwear and shoes, especially in rain and snow.
• Stay warm, make sure you have as many layers as needed when operating a drone in strong winds and other severe weather conditions.
• Like your drone, make sure you stay completely dry. Standing around in wet clothes for too long, especially in cold weather, can increase your risk of hypothermia.

Whatever weather conditions you are dealing with when flying a drone, make sure you stay safe and stay prepared. No matter how experienced you may be with piloting a drone, winter flying is unpredictable. Keep an eye on conditions as they change and be prepared to return home to fly another day. It is not worth risking your drone or your health in extreme weather conditions.

For more information on working and operating equipment safely in inclement weather, be sure to look through the resources available at Baseline Equipment.