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Cold weather testing! Video added!
1001 12 2016-12-29
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Trackerputnam
lvl.4
Flight distance : 5728392 ft
United States
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The starting temp at the beginning of the flight is 7 Degrees F. The flight is 15 minutes long, with a missing minute and a half because of forgetting to push the video start button. The flight is 18031' long with a rise of 1642'. I was 7740' away as I turned to return when the max elevation is reached. The drone is never more than 400' above the ground.

Just after turning for the return flight, there is a time where the drone does not move forward at the speed I expect it too. An unexpected wind is encountered causing the forward speed to drop to 1.5 to 2.5 mph. I lowered elevation and raised elevation in an attempt to help forward progression. I was thinking of moving to sport mode soon in an attempt to get some better forward progression. As the drone finally gets over the lip of the ridge below, I am able to drop it and that gets some forward movement. Speed gets back up to 17 to 21 mph where I was able to start breathing again.

I got the drone back overhead with enough battery left to do a run over the frozen landscape before me.  The temp had fallen to 0 degrees F in the 15 minutes of the flight as the sun was setting.  My daughter, my landing assistant, was complaining about the cold and asking me to return so she could get back in the warmth of the truck.  So I cut short the rest of the flight so as not to freeze my landing assistance support. I landed with 42 percent left in the battery.

I sped the video up 2x so as to help with video duration.  That increases perceived yaw movement.  But I am getting better at that with help from forum members and others.  As to the cold hindering battery endurance?  I see no effect other than making sure the battery is warm to start with.  I used a couple of methods for this.  Keeping the battery in an inside pocket or next to the skin under your shirt, or on the dash with the heat blasting.  Both methods worked well but a cold battery next to the skin takes some getting used to.  


2016-12-29
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DJI-Jamie
DJI team
Flight distance : 112405 ft
United States
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Sounds quite harrowing, but looking forward to seeing the footage.
2016-12-29
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Trackerputnam
lvl.4
Flight distance : 5728392 ft
United States
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Have the video added!
2016-12-31
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eliot may
lvl.4
Flight distance : 245367 ft
United States
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WOW! I want a christmas vacation house! The scenery is amazing! A few questions: 1.  What bird are you flying? 2. Do you use a tracking device? 3. What if you lose contact or run low on battery and it lands in that valley at the turn around point. How would you get there? At that temp in that snow I'd be hard pressed to get to it! 4. where are you? nice video, very bold experiment. I took my bird out for a 9 minute flight at my lake house in WI where it is frozen. 23 degrees. My fingers were aching by the time i got it back since i wasnt wearing gloves. I was in a lot of pain. This cold weather thing is rough! Can we wear gloves? Nice work!!
2016-12-31
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Trackerputnam
lvl.4
Flight distance : 5728392 ft
United States
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I have the Phantom 4, and I have never updated it since I have got it. It has worked well since the day I picked it up from the dealer. They did all the updating needed at that time. I see no good reason to update it right now since so many have had problems after updating.  I have had it about three months.

I do not have a tracking device. It would be a good idea, but the flight data would give me a good idea where to go get it though, with the stored gps data. But if it had gone done there, even my mountain climbing son in law would not have tried to retrieve it till summer. Which he offered if it did go down. That would not be a place to be in winter. Avalanches being the oPerative word!

This was taken in Wyoming at a vacation home we had rented for Christmas. Had all my kids and grand kids there with me.  I will have another video coming out in a couple of days with a bunch more flying and pictures taken of the whole trip.

I have been blessed with tough hands that take the cold well. I would not want to wear gloves to fly my drone. I feel I need the "feel" of the sticks to be sure of what I am doing. In fact during this flight, I kept looking down at my thumb, and at where it was positioned on the right stick, when the wind held up the drones progress..
2016-12-31
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jwt-873
First Officer
Flight distance : 6754350 ft
Canada
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Trackerputnam wrote: "As to the cold hindering battery endurance?  I see no effect other than making sure the battery is warm to start with."

Yep... I've flown in temperatures as low as -22F (-30C) and haven't' seen any noticeable decrease in battery life.
2016-12-31
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Andrew245
lvl.3

Canada
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jwt-873 Posted at 2016-12-31 10:56
Trackerputnam wrote: "As to the cold hindering battery endurance?  I see no effect other than making sure the battery is warm to start with."

Yep... I've flown in temperatures as low as -22F (-30C) and haven't' seen any noticeable decrease in battery life.

Nice video and a challenging flight,
the trick in flying cold is to be conservative on the throttle, what I do is enable the voltage meter on the app screen and do not let it go red as that is when you push your luck and may suffer a sudden battery loss of power and your drone dropping freefall .
I never push my P4 in the cold but I did that with my P3P and honestly never had a single problem...
I myself also do not plan to upgrade, my equipment works great , P4 is more stable than my P3P and the camera lever is 97% leveled... P4 is a great drone.
2016-12-31
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Trackerputnam
lvl.4
Flight distance : 5728392 ft
United States
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While the wind was stopping me as I was coming over the ridge, I was at full throttle. In fact I was at full forward throttle for the whole flight for the most part. I kept a close eye on the battery indicator to watch for any abnomilies.
2017-1-1
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MaYhEm sMiLeY
Second Officer
Flight distance : 9671732 ft
Canada
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Wow beautiful video, thanks for sharing
2017-1-1
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Trackerputnam
lvl.4
Flight distance : 5728392 ft
United States
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Thank you! They are getting better. Just hard to find places to fly sometimes. I had a couple of spots I wanted to fly but the airport near there had been upgraded and I needed a permission I had not known about.  On the other hand I had rented a home right on another airport and only had to authorize myself as to having permission to fly there.
2017-1-1
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Odan
Second Officer
Flight distance : 182913 ft
United States
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Can I ask where that lake is. To me it look like a lake just outdide Ogden Utah.  Pineview Res. I think it was called.  I used to live near Ogden and wint there often.  Just saying wht it made me think of.  Thnks
2017-1-3
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Trackerputnam
lvl.4
Flight distance : 5728392 ft
United States
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Wyoming, it is Palisades resivoir in the background as I am returning.
2017-1-3
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Dark
lvl.3
Flight distance : 154954 ft
United States
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Real nice video. Thanks for sharing it. Now I can't wait for the snow to fall in the North Georgia mountains.
2017-1-4
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