Non flying weather conditions?

[neoneo]

I was flying in some fog the other day and I thought that I would be fine.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/n6LhK3ULlfE[/youtube]
http://youtu.be/n6LhK3ULlfE
as you can see i was only in the fog for a little bit and my drone came back soaked from head to toe. obviously it scared the heck out of me.
I live in New Jersey where it's -4 and sunny on monday and 103 and cloudy on Tuesday. Sometimes we don't see the sun for day and it doesn't even rain but it's extremely moist outside. I'm not going to fly in the fog anymore and I'm obviously no going to fly in the rain or snow but can anyone shed light on what other conditions i shouldn't fly in.
-maybe exact temps that will cause trouble hot or cold.
-I was on the beach and it was windy and the sand was blowing everywhere kinda hard. it made me real skeptical about take off (being placed on the sand). i didn't want sand to get inside of somewhere that it would cause issues so I took of from the top of my drone case.
any info on non safe weather conditions, besides the obvious, would be great for us noobs.
p.s. i expect there to be a lot of 100+ degree days this summer. There were too many last summer.
-should i not fly as much
-give more time in between flights (how much more)
-etc.
thanks in advance for any info shared

 

[DrJoe]

Wet=Bad. Don't fly when moisture is condensing or precipitating or through clouds (fog).

Wind is your biggest factor... especially "winds aloft", which can be a whole heck of a lot more than at the surface. If your Phantom can only fly at 30 mph, and a 30 mph wind is blowing, it will not be able to move through the wind (ground speed =0). Gusts or higher winds would push it away from you (probably responsible for some of the "flyaways".

At 100 feet, the winds can be 10-20 mph stronger than at the surface, even more so the higher you climb, and the wind direction (wind shear) can be different too.

You can go to this website:
https://aviationweather.gov/products/nws/boston
and get the winds aloft for our area.

In NJ, you want to look at ACY (Atlantic City), JFK(New York). I assume you only need to look at the first column (3000 feet).

It will give the wind direction first, then the wind speed. A + or - number at the end indicates air temp differences from surface.
A first 2 digit set of numbers greater than 36 indicates wind speeds are greater than 50 mph.
A first 2 digit set of 99 indicates the winds are light and variable.

For Example:
ACY 2526 (at Atlantic City, winds at 3000 feet are from 25 degrees blowing at 26 nautical miles per hour)
JFK 2312+25 (At John F Kennedy airport, winds at 3000 feet are from 230 degrees blowing at 12mph and 25 degrees warmer.
ACY 9900 (atlantic city winds light and variable)

 

[Mori55]

Where at in NJ ? Sand will ruin it if it gets in the motors , plus salt in the sand is even worse.

 

[neoneo]

Where at in NJ ? Sand will ruin it if it gets in the motors , plus salt in the sand is even worse.

i was on brigantine beach right above AC

 

[Mori55]

I live in Linwood

 

[neoneo]

I live in Linwood

another fellow jersey flyer. I'm going to start a thread on that
her it is
viewtopic.php?f=27&t=15146&p=137813#p137813

 

[nhoover]

To measure wind aloft, hover at your altitude and flip to ATTI mode. Watch the speed for a while until it stabilizes and you're measuring wind speed. If it's over 10mph, watch carefully because your phantom is moving at that speed. When you have it, flip back to GPS mode and you're hovering in place again.

 

[neoneo]

what about max and minimum temperatures to fly in. most of december, january, and february were in the single digits here. if i had my drone then i would've wanted to fly. any input on that?

 

[Tripnman]

Back when the PV2 first came out (November, 2013) the boards were full of people posting from the Midwest and Northeast that were flying in sub zero temps. As far as I recall the only complaint was longer warm-up/start-up times as the machine's internals got up to speed. I've never read anything here about high temp issues, but there was a video posted not too long ago from Death Valley, CA. Get's hot there.

Some even flew when it was snowing, but I'd lump that in with fog and any other precipitation - a no fly conditions. Not only does visibility become a factor but the moisture can cause hardware failures that lead to uncontrolled landings. There's a video around here somewhere of a P2 that went up in a cold fog over a movie theater and the operator quickly got a hard lesson on the definition of "icing conditions" and how it applies to our small machines too.

 

[Mossie]

I've flown my Vision plus up to 25 mph no problems, but you probably have to hand land it.

My rule of thumb for flying in windy conditions is, keep the aircraft at a fairly low level and if you want to send it any distance ALWAYS FLY IT UPWIND ! The last thing you want if you get a low battery warning or a RTH, is your beloved Vision battling into a strong headwind to get home. Also and probably more importantly, if you loose GPS and get a flyaway your Vision will drift towards you rather than away from you !

As some people have already said, you can easily check the wind speed and direction before you send the Vision on a cross country by first climbing above you to the altitude you want to fly and then briefly switch to Att and note the direction it drifts.

 

[Mori55]

Seriously , you really want to chance 25 mph winds ? I worked on the Brigatine bridge fo a year. 25 mph winds there , is just getting warmed up for 35mph gust ! :lol:
I've flown lipo battery's since they came out , and they don't like the cold. Lose capacity , plus my hands are just to cold for that crap.
Maybe we could meet one day for breakfast or lunch.

 

[neoneo]

Seriously , you really want to chance 25 mph winds ? I worked on the Brigatine bridge fo a year. 25 mph winds there , is just getting warmed up for 35mph gust ! :lol:
I've flown lipo battery's since they came out , and they don't like the cold. Lose capacity , plus my hands are just to cold for that crap.
Maybe we could meet one day for breakfast or lunch.

when u say lose capacity do you mean during the cold period or the drop is forever?
the first time i flew was in 21 mph winds with gust over 30. the highest i flew was about 75 feet up. i was scared but i had to fly. the weather channel called for rain for the next 3 days smh. she handled the wind like a charm. needless to say i won't be flying about 21 again. maybe 20 lol.
there is a link to a chart about wind but that thing is like speaking another language to me :?:
all i understood what "ACY"
..and i'd have to be a late lunch. i don't usually get up before noon

 

[DrJoe]

Neo, you didn't understand the chart? And I thought I did a good job explaining it! ****. This site is a lot easier to use, check it out:
http://www.usairnet.com/cgi-bin/Winds/A ... se=azimuth

I'd hate to find out the winds exceed my ability to counter them while I'm already flying in them. Its just part of my pre-flight, but I don't fly over 400 much anyway.

BTW, Toms River, NJ here. NJ Phantom Fliers meetup would be pretty cool.

 

[neoneo]

Neo, you didn't understand the chart? And I thought I did a good job explaining it! ****. This site is a lot easier to use, check it out:
http://www.usairnet.com/cgi-bin/Winds/A ... se=azimuth

I'd hate to find out the winds exceed my ability to counter them while I'm already flying in them. Its just part of my pre-flight, but I don't fly over 400 much anyway.

BTW, Toms River, NJ here. NJ Phantom Fliers meetup would be pretty cool.

so i was reading it right. i just couldn't believe that it would be 5mph winds at 3000 feet up. When it was 14mph wind on the ground