I took my Mavic up to do a shot thru some fog and when I landed it after maybe 10 min all the blades were starting to ice up. I am glad I didn’t keep going.

Has anyone or seen anyone be up so long in the cold it froze up and crashed?

Fog will turn into moisture on the props and if temperatures are around 0c it will ice up the moisture on the blades - this will lead to the props becoming unbalanced and things like motor errors and excessive vibrations will start to happen.
More importantly, the battery can also start having voltage drops mid air and the gimbal motors can freeze too. You should never fly in fog, rain or when it's snowing. Not meaning to scare either but when LiPo's get wet they actually set fire and combust... Be very careful in the winter and only fly in dry conditions. Snow settled on the ground is OK but don't land on it.

A CW Posted at 2017-12-12 11:53
Fog will turn into moisture on the props and if temperatures are around 0c it will ice up the moisture on the blades - this will lead to the props becoming unbalanced and things like motor errors and excessive vibrations will start to happen.
More importantly, the battery can also start having voltage drops mid air and the gimbal motors can freeze too. You should never fly in fog, rain or when it's snowing. Not meaning to scare either but when LiPo's get wet they actually set fire and combust... Be very careful in the winter and only fly in dry conditions. Snow settled on the ground is OK but don't land on it.

I call BS on your when lipos get wet they combust. I know from experience they do not. I have ran rc trucks in the snow and had them totallly covered on snow and they did not combust. Ever see crawler guys rin thru water??? The battery gets submerged in water.  I have flown in the snow several times without a problem. I would however not fly in the rain. And with fog you just have to be careful of icing.

jreynolds5 Posted at 2017-12-12 12:05
I call BS on your when lipos get wet they combust. I know from experience they do not. I have ran rc trucks in the snow and had them totallly covered on snow and they did not combust. Ever see crawler guys rin thru water??? The battery gets submerged in water.  I have flown in the snow several times without a problem. I would however not fly in the rain. And with fog you just have to be careful of icing.

BS, Really? Well - this is an extract of someone else's experience with a LiPo: -

I have a brand new Lipo, 2200 mah, 4s. Flown it in a 250 quad maybe 2, 3 times max...decide to check my setup in the Naza Lite asst, turn on Tx, plug in quad (props removed of course), plug into PC...looking through settings, then "SSSSHHHHHSSSSHHHSSSSHHHH" sound and SMOKE like a smoke bomb! Oh and it STINKS! I was sitting at the bar in my kitchen, lipo was on granite top, entire family is asleep...oh crap! Its smoking like a train! Front door is close, its cold and wet outside, gotta get this thing outside ASAP before it catches something on FIRE! I reacted...grabbed it (stupidly) and chucked it out the front door into the wet lawn where is smokes and flames up and its TOAST.

Just because it never happened to you doesn't mean it won't happen - that isn't BS but fact!

It did not combust from the wetness. it was in the process of catching fire thats why he thru it out the door. It had nothing to do with the wetness. There was something else that caused it.

jreynolds5 Posted at 2017-12-12 12:44
It did not combust from the wetness. it was in the process of catching fire thats why he thru it out the door. It had nothing to do with the wetness. There was something else that caused it.

It is a known, scientific fact that the hybrid LiPo's used in drones (quite different to RC trucks) uses both dry and wet chemicals to facilitate the reaction at the rate necessary to power high-energy consumers such as drones. If the internals of these batteries become wet it won't just smoke but combust - which is exactly what happened in the previous case I stated - smoking indoors then - boom into fire when he through the battery out into the rain (which even the writer considered a stupid thing to do). By the way - snow is frozen rain... probably why DJI clearly stipulate in their battery maintainance guide and flight manuals NOT TO FLY WHEN IN FOG, RAIN OR WHEN IT IS SNOWING. I personally don't consider the advice from the company who actually made my drone to be BS - do you?

Good thing you didn't continue the flight with ice forming on the props or we would've talking about thread titled 'Crashed Mavic".

I read (don't remember where) that if you wipe down the props with Rain-X it will help keep the props from icing. I've used it on my windshield for years so it sounds reasonable.

Hi Tribe, according to the specs, the operating temp range for Mavic Pro is 32° to 104° F (0° to 40° C), please don't fly or keep flying when there is too cold with too much brume, so please kindly take good care of the drone.

A CW Posted at 2017-12-12 13:05
It is a known, scientific fact that the hybrid LiPo's used in drones (quite different to RC trucks) uses both dry and wet chemicals to facilitate the reaction at the rate necessary to power high-energy consumers such as drones. If the internals of these batteries become wet it won't just smoke but combust - which is exactly what happened in the previous case I stated - smoking indoors then - boom into fire when he through the battery out into the rain (which even the writer considered a stupid thing to do). By the way - snow is frozen rain... probably why DJI clearly stipulate in their battery maintainance guide and flight manuals NOT TO FLY WHEN IN FOG, RAIN OR WHEN IT IS SNOWING. I personally don't consider the advice from the company who actually made my drone to be BS - do you?

It was a 250 race drone and they do not use smart batteries they use standard lipos. It started to smoke in his house and he ran and thru it outside before it burst into flames in his house. If he would have left it in his house it would have still burst into flames.

In either case - lipo’s can explode when wet and you shouldn’t fly when it’s snowing and in future I would appreciate it if you don’t refer to my comments as ‘BS’ - I suggest you look up on the rules of this forum and the need to be courteous to other users before you get yourself banned...  

Be nice boys.

I’ve been nothing but...

DJI Thor Posted at 2017-12-12 21:23
Hi Tribe, according to the specs, the operating temp range for Mavic Pro is 32° to 104° F (0° to 40° C), please don't fly or keep flying when there is too cold with too much brume, so please kindly take good care of the drone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmYlKhx_-l0&t=32s

Well I won’t be taking it out again in the fog. And I wouldn’t ever fly in the rain or snow. I did have a question though because I did read that the operating limit was 32 degrees Fahrenheit but in so many videos from DJI they show the mavic being used in temps that have to be below that. The last one was an advertisement saying take the Mavic on your next winter adventure and showed it filming people snow boarding and it obviously had to have been below 32. So is there any clarification that can be made? Or a real temperature that isn’t safe to operate in because you can fly without incident in cold weather.

And I watched the video and I do all those things to protect the batteries from extreme temps and keeping them warm before flying in cold weather. I haven’t been able to fly in the heat yet unfortunately.

Technically, it is advised not to fly in temperatures below 0c but going as low as -10c can be achieved but the lower the temperature the greater the risk of voltage drops - I have flown in temperatures of -3c in 15MPH cross winds - it’s not much fun stood in that for over an hour and you are constantly monitoring the battery and aircraft status so much that you tend to take your eye off the drone and videography. Unless I am on a professional shoot I tend to only fly at temps higher than 0c.

I crashed my spark due to iced propellers. I flew in -5c and fog. After a few minutes i got "Motor current error please check propellers" then 20 seconds later "max motor speed error". The spark fell quit fast to the ground, luckily no damage.  The propellers were iced upp like in the picture above. So be careful if you fly in freezing condition in the fog!

MavicTribe Posted at 2017-12-13 05:21
Well I won’t be taking it out again in the fog. And I wouldn’t ever fly in the rain or snow. I did have a question though because I did read that the operating limit was 32 degrees Fahrenheit but in so many videos from DJI they show the mavic being used in temps that have to be below that. The last one was an advertisement saying take the Mavic on your next winter adventure and showed it filming people snow boarding and it obviously had to have been below 32. So is there any clarification that can be made? Or a real temperature that isn’t safe to operate in because you can fly without incident in cold weather.

And I watched the video and I do all those things to protect the batteries from extreme temps and keeping them warm before flying in cold weather. I haven’t been able to fly in the heat yet unfortunately.

It doesn't have to be freezing to have snow on the ground. Here in cali, skiers often ski in 60 degree F weather. Hope that helps.

Also, I fly in freezing temps all the time. I warm the batteries up on the car ride, then I stick the batteries down my shirt against my body till I am ready to use them. If you go from shirt to flight quickly, the flight itself will keep the temps up enough for flight times to remain. My cell phone however drops it's charge super quick. I heard the fix to that is getting a stick on hand heating pad and keep it on the cell phone. However my phone still outlasts three batteries, just have to charge it when I get back to the truck.
In fact, I am going out right now to my deck for a morning Sunday flight. It's 28 degrees F right now, I bet she does just fine.

One time, i nearly crashed my DJI Spark because i had ice on the props. (No crap lol) I took off with icy props and it was going fine until the drone turned 2 times or so and while that was happening, it was loosing altitude. The drone nearly hit the weeds, but i recovered it by pushing up on the left stick. (Throttle) and i tried to return it back to my hand. (Success lol) And from that day on, i never took off with icy props lol

happened to me once with my old mavic, did not crash the drone but I was getting all errors possible (motors overheat, battery draining itself and so on)..It was getting crazy in the mountains so I ''crash landed'' it in snow right by me, let it dry for couple days and it was fine! luckily. So don't fly in winter if it's foggy or such.