I keep on hearing a variety of opinions on operating in cold weather. I've pushed the envelope and have had no issues other than shortened flight times and a bit longer wait for battery warm up. Today was minus 16 degrees celcius and had no issues.

Any coments from the pro's?

Thank you for sharing that.  DJI gave me the impression my P4P would fall like a brick if I tried to fly it in temperatures near freezing.  I appreciate hearing more experienced comments myself.  Maybe when I get back to the U.S... IF I DECIDE to go back... I might try flying it in the snow myself, now that I got a new landing pad for Christmas.

Your main consideration is the batteries.  They will shut down if they become too cold (or hot).  As long as they are kept warm before flight e.g. stored inside clothing and against body heat, their core temperature will be enough to keep them operating in extreme cold.  Problems will occur if you just store them on the ground, exposed to the elements, then try to use them in flight.

I had some issues in -15c gps lock had died and the gimbal became unstable at times
but apart from that the bird was fine

Was out flying my 4pro yesterday. temps with wind chill were around -5C. The battery lasted much longer than I did. After losing contact with my fingers, despite the gloves, I decided I could no longer fly safely and brought the aircraft back. Absolutely superb performance with no hint of a problem, can't say the same about the new firmware. A number of restarts were required to be able to get some of the setup menus to work. Got there in the end. New gloves arrived today too.
Go out and fly and enjoy the weather.

embayweather Posted at 2017-12-29 04:54
Was out flying my 4pro yesterday. temps with wind chill were around -5C. The battery lasted much longer than I did. After losing contact with my fingers, despite the gloves, I decided I could no longer fly safely and brought the aircraft back. Absolutely superb performance with no hint of a problem, can't say the same about the new firmware. A number of restarts were required to be able to get some of the setup menus to work. Got there in the end. New gloves arrived today too.
Go out and fly and enjoy the weather.

Same expierence as above, my fingers gave out long before a "low battery warning" at 14 minutes showed up, just as i was landing.
Mnd you, its 27 below zero here, that is celcuis.

fans987d278a Posted at 2017-12-30 11:00
Same expierence as above, my fingers gave out long before a "low battery warning" at 14 minutes showed up, just as i was landing.
Mnd you, its 27 below zero here, that is celcuis.

Thats really cold, but does illustrate how robust these machines are and how the human body is not!

Regularly fly in -ve temps ..... I have special gloves with tips for the screen - but sometimes its cold enough that touch-screen is unreliable. So best to know your RC buttons !!

Warm-up time - yes that can be a pain ... not only the battery - but the AC IMU as well ... so keep them all in the warm car as long as possible before bringing out into the cold.

Last winter .......... my P3S .....



Nigel

Thanks for all your comments! Here is the result of my last cold weather flight. This is mainland Canada's southernmost point.

embayweather Posted at 2017-12-29 04:54
Was out flying my 4pro yesterday. temps with wind chill were around -5C. The battery lasted much longer than I did. After losing contact with my fingers, despite the gloves, I decided I could no longer fly safely and brought the aircraft back. Absolutely superb performance with no hint of a problem, can't say the same about the new firmware. A number of restarts were required to be able to get some of the setup menus to work. Got there in the end. New gloves arrived today too.
Go out and fly and enjoy the weather.

One of the biggest problems in the cold is not the battery - as long as its warm when you plug in and don't hang about on the ground too long - its fine ... its the TOUCH SCREEN on your tablet / phone.

Usually they are fine because you only take out from pocket to call / read a message ... so the cold is not such a problem. But on the P3 - we have the Tablet / Phone sat out in the cold ... the screen then gets unreliable and we think its the APP not working - but in fact its fine - its the screen not accepting your touch input.

Nigel