Flying in fog and above it.

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I've got a phantom 3 and it's been very foggy the last week all day and night everyday and it's kept me grounded but I've seen some beautiful shots above the fog where the sky is all blue above the fog.

I want to know how high I have to fly to get above it typically and if it's even advisable to fly up through the fog due to moisture

Anyone got any experience with this


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Some fog layers are very thin and you're up above them at 50' or 100'. I've seen mornings in FL when the airports were reporting near 0/0 conditions (0' ceiling, 0 visibility) due to fog but when flying over, you could see the tops of multi-story buildings and towers sticking up above it because it was only about 50' thick.

Other locations can have fog banks that are significantly thicker (depends on the type of fog - advection, radiation, upslope, precipitation-induced, etc.) Please be careful if you do what you're suggesting and make sure you're nowhere near airports or approach paths where you could be a hazard to manned aircraft operating IFR with low / no visibility. Also keep in mind that if you're operating Part 107 you are supposed to have 3 statute miles visibility and keep your aircraft in view at all times; these requirements would likely prohibit such an operation unless you can take off in an area of better visibility and fly over the edge of a nearby fog bank all while keeping your aircraft in view the whole time (I used to see situations like this in coastal CA all the time with "marine layer" fog that would sock in the beach up to about 200' AGL, but it'd be clear blue and sunny ½ mile away inland, for example...)

Flying (in manned aircraft) skimming right along the tops of clouds or fog banks is probably one of the coolest and most fun things you can do, as well as being a beautiful, sublime experience. I've had the pleasure several times (my assigned altitude just happened to put me right at the tops). Most times you don't get much sense of movement / speed while flying but in those cases, very much so! Very cool stuff. Watch the beginning of "The Right Stuff" for an idea of what it's like. You get a similar effect (for a shorter time) when "punching in" or out of clouds / IMC. Not recommended for drones however...
 
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The only real problems with fog are 1) You aren't in visual flight mode - you can't see the AC and nobody can see you. That makes it a technical no-no and a practical poor decision in some instances. So think clearly about where you are and what you are planning on doing. 2) is the water droplets on the lens. Not harmful but they will mess up the video. I've flown up through a dense fog layer, had the water dry off the lens as it hit the clear air with a nice video effect and then had the lens come clean enough to photograph. YMMV.
 
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