Hello All,

So I live in Michigan in the US and it can get quite cold here. I was wondering if it was safe to fly in cold temperatures such as -5°F to 30°F (-20°C to -1°C) and what pre-cautions I should take to flying in these conditions if it is even safe.

Thanks for reading

Dflum

Certain units do have a temperature requirement. Just to clarify, which Phantom model do you have?

Phantom 4. Sorry for not clarifiying!

Any help with this topic please?

I live at the foot of the Rockies, I've flown mine in 19F. No issues, but I tend to return home earlier than in warmer temps.   I've also flown in light snow with no issues.  I follow the guidelines about keeping my batteries warm and always start with a full battery.

Do you fly a phantom 4??

Make sure and keep your batteries warm and the flight time shorter

Thanks for the advice. Didn't know if it was safe to fly or if the cold temperatures would mess up the drone in any way.  

Be careful... use common sence.
Keep youre flight times short.
Ive flown my P3 at -10F and the bird will most definitely get cold while in flight.
I have learned to watch for certain signs such as a gradual loss in elevation.
When you start to see this... its time to land.
Flight with the P3 is rated to 14F
Anything colder and youre on youre own.. im sure the P4 is similar

Any idea where the specifications would be written at for my p4? Also, thank you for the insight!

Yesterday morning in MN it was -15 Fahrenheit (-26 Celsius)

I launched and flew around for 20 minutes at 120 meters (393 feet) till my fingers were too cold to hold the controller.....

Had no issues what so ever with the motors, battery, or anything else.

The bird did better then me, I'm frozen!

Microcyb Posted at 2016-12-16 09:55
Yesterday morning in MN it was -15 Fahrenheit (-26 Celsius)

I launched and flew around for 20 minutes at 120 meters (393 feet) till my fingers were too cold to hold the controller.....

As Micro says- My fingers tell me when to land! At  15 below celcius & after 10 minutes I can't feel my fingers!
I think Litchi warnings for battery times came quicker, but not by much. Coming home hit a snow squall so lost monitor view & I couldn't see my P3A until about 10-15 ' away, lens caked in snow, worried about moisture getting in air vents. I didn't enjoy that much & also, I couldn't record, showed the crack running through record icon, only seen that when I forgot to install card, but I had one installed.
I;ve yet to figure out why.

Hi dflum,

I'm flew my drone yesterday when it was 6 degrees out. I'm in southwest, ohio and was flying my phantom 4.  The drone itself definitely gets cold during flight. While trying to land the drone I had little trouble since the sensors beneath it where fogged up from the moisture in the air. Also, my camera was fogged up as well. There was a warning message that came across on my remote controller stating to redo IMU / compass during this time. The actual operating temp for phantom 4 is 32 degrees. This is under the Specs tab when looking at the Phantom 4 drone on DJI's website. Cheers!

its better to first hover at low altitude to warm the batteries... and as mentioned above use commonsense and be extra cautious.

Wow thanks a lot guys. Definitely helps a lot with the insight and experiences coming from you guys! Just wanted to get some neat winter time footage of some snow and rivers and stuff! Thanks again!

Dflum Posted at 2016-12-16 19:57
Wow thanks a lot guys. Definitely helps a lot with the insight and experiences coming from you guys! Just wanted to get some neat winter time footage of some snow and rivers and stuff! Thanks again!

make sure your battery is around 25 c when you start
as others mentioned a moment or so running on ground or hovering will warm it up even more.
also have many flights in the 0 to 30f range---
fingers are the definitive issue for me

good luck and have fun flying!

Thank you for reply Kirk! Seems like having the battery warm is the only concern. My fingers will probably fall off within 10 mins of flight time anyways!