Flying in the heat

Roaddogg · Jun 18, 2016

Quick question to the experienced flyers out there... The next few days at my flying locations the heat temperatures can soar between 100 - 118 (SF Valley - Palm Springs). Is it safe to fly in these conditions? Temps in these locations (especially Palm Springs) could be triple digits even with the sun down.

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Mark The Droner · Jun 18, 2016

Personally, I would be inclined not to fly, or if I did fly, I'd want to start with a cool battery, cool craft, and I'd keep it short.

MHO

jcknows0 · Jun 18, 2016

Roaddogg said:
Quick question to the experienced flyers out there... The next few days at my flying locations the heat temperatures can soar between 100 - 118 (SF Valley - Palm Springs). Is it safe to fly in these conditions? Temps in these locations (especially Palm Springs) could be triple digits even with the sun down.

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More than anything, you can count on your tablet overheating almost immediately. The enjoyment kind of evaporates in that kind of heat.

GadgetGuy · Jun 18, 2016

Even at 93°F in high humidity, I found that my P4 motors got too hot to touch upon landing (almost burned myself removing the props), after a brief 10 minute flight, followed by a slow hover landing. The Mini4 had likely also already overheated, as it started reporting signal loss just 20' away under some tall trees (not GPS loss). I landed immediately, and had to wait 30 minutes to put the bird away in its styrofoam case, as the burning hot motors would have otherwise melted the top of the case. No telling what damage that kind of heat does to the bird internals! Normally, the motors are just warm to the touch, after a 25 minute flight. Be careful!

Roaddogg · Jun 18, 2016

Good info... Thanks

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GadgetGuy · Jun 18, 2016

Here's another thread of similar experiences from last summer.
Flying in Heat

BrandAL · Jun 19, 2016

Negative. In fact I believe my gimbal circuit board got screwed because I left my P3A in my car in the hot Florida heat. Resulting in some weird 6 secs serious video transmission lag. Search for that thread. I replaced the whole gimbal and it's all good now.

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Alan Russel · Jun 19, 2016

I have flown in hot weather and was using ipad mini, it got hot and shut down very bad when your bird is still flying!

BVC · Jun 19, 2016

Never had issues flying in 100 degree heat.

But even then it's not enjoyable for me anyways. I'm used to Colorado and level temps. Anything above 85 is hell to me

GadgetGuy · Jun 19, 2016

It's like putting a baby out in the hot sun at those temperatures with no shade or sunscreen! The Drone Protective Services unit will arrest you for drone abuse!

Might even void your warranty, too, if anything bad happened.

ComP3P · Jun 19, 2016

My iPad Air 2 overheated and shut down with my P3P 500' out and 200' up. Had to go with RTH on the RC and landed safely. Close call on a hot Houston afternoon

Fusion2u · Jun 19, 2016

Roaddogg said:
Quick question to the experienced flyers out there... The next few days at my flying locations the heat temperatures can soar between 100 - 118 (SF Valley - Palm Springs). Is it safe to fly in these conditions? Temps in these locations (especially Palm Springs) could be triple digits even with the sun down.

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I was attending a Dartdrone flight class yesterday in Orlando, Florida. Temp was in the 90's with high humidity, The iPad minis got so hot after 10 minutes of flight that they shut down duet to over heating...all of us was surprised about that and did not think about the heat of the motors .

Roaddogg · Jun 20, 2016

Thanks everyone for your input. I took the weekend off from flying!

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FantomFlier · Jun 20, 2016

ComP3P said:
My iPad Air 2 overheated and shut down with my P3P 500' out and 200' up. Had to go with RTH on the RC and landed safely. Close call on a hot Houston afternoon

Always remember that you don't need the app to fly your quad. You should be able to see it easily at 500' and fly it home yourself.

GadgetGuy · Jun 20, 2016

FantomFlier said:
Always remember that you don't need the app to fly your quad. You should be able to see it easily at 500' and fly it home yourself.

No FPV for well-framed drone selfies, without the app, during the landing, though....

m0j0 · Jun 20, 2016

Summer is coming I have to be up at the crack of dawn to fly. Otherwise it is just too hot. I've said this before, I don't want to discover the temperature at which problems occur.

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RocketBrew · Jun 20, 2016

I flew in the afternoon when it was about 115°F (46°C) - Total 32,994 ft, Max Distance 16,100 ft - for 14 minutes 6 seconds.

On the way back, still had 3,126 ft. to go when I got Overheated During Discharge and "Warning: Propulsion Output Limited. Aircraft motility has been lowered.", and landed with 14% battery.

HD shows the Max Battery Temperature was 161.5°F (72°C).

Later I flew on an evening when it was about 100°F (38°C) at a bit more leisurely pace - Total 14,191 ft, Max Distance 3,080 ft - for 16 minutes 50 seconds. Didn't get any warnings.

HD shows the Max Battery Temperature was 143.5°F (62°C).

If the battery is spec'd to operate at 140°F (60°C) or less, even 100°F may still a bit too hot for nominal operation.

GadgetGuy · Jun 20, 2016

RocketBrew said:
I flew in the afternoon when it was about 115°F (46°C) - Total 32,994 ft, Max Distance 16,100 ft - for 14 minutes 6 seconds.
View attachment 57660
On the way back, still had 3,126 ft. to go when I got Overheated During Discharge and "Warning: Propulsion Output Limited. Aircraft motility has been lowered.", and landed with 14% battery.
View attachment 57661

HD shows the Max Battery Temperature was 161.5°F (72°C).

Later I flew on an evening when it was about 100°F (38°C) at a bit more leisurely pace - Total 14,191 ft, Max Distance 3,080 ft - for 16 minutes 50 seconds. Didn't get any warnings.

HD shows the Max Battery Temperature was 143.5°F (62°C).

If the battery is spec'd to operate at 140°F (60°C) or less, even 100°F may still a bit too hot for nominal operation.

Those are the kind of warnings I worry about, that could prevent the aircraft from returning home, to preserve the battery. It's like the battery algorithm that shuts the battery off when any cell reaches 2.99V, even if in flight, which usually guarantees destruction of the aircraft, camera, and the battery, in a vain attempt to save the battery!