Flying in the COLD -16 C ......Nova Scotia Battery life 8 mins ?

[The Brit]

So ,only managed to get 8 mins flying today , too cold I think's .
At least I got her home 1% bat life on landing , 100% at take off ,had to do some really quick thinking ,ended up flying in a big "s" to limit wind that was about 18 mph and came back down wind really FAST LOL ..

Yep thats me on the left (small black dot ) lol
Should have stayed inside I reckon .

 

[jwt873]

Flying out of the driveway. I do the same

Did you note your battery temperatures and the state of charge when you took off? 8 minutes doesn't sound right. Even in the winter.

Cold doesn't really bother the P4. The battery is enclosed and shielded from the wind. Add to that the fact that the battery makes its own heat as the craft flies and you'll find there is nothing to really shorten battery life in cold temperatures.

I've done lots of cold weather testing noting flight times and battery temperatures. (We get lots of cold where I live )

At -30C if I take off with a battery temperature of 20C (room temperature), it will always rise during the flight to around +36C. The battery is very happy at +36C (almost 98 degrees F). I've seen no degradation in flight times in temperatures as low as -35C. I've had some flights last for just under 30 minutes.

 

[The Brit]

Hi,
Did not look at Battery temp , it had been sat in my car for about 30mins so it was probably quite cold , also I must admit I did charge it about 5 days ago so It could have been on its discharge/maintenance cycle .
The thing that I first thought is that because I have not used this battery for about 2 months it might need to be run right down then charged ,which is what has been done today , I will fly again tomorrow but I don't think it is going to be so cold . I will post on the out come .
Thanks JWT .....

Flying out of the driveway. I do the same

Did you note your battery temperatures and the state of charge when you took off? 8 minutes doesn't sound right. Even in the winter.

Cold doesn't really bother the P4. The battery is enclosed and shielded from the wind. Add to that the fact that the battery makes its own heat as the craft flies and you'll find there is nothing to really shorten battery life in cold temperatures.

I've done lots of cold weather testing noting flight times and battery temperatures. (We get lots of cold where I live )

At -30C if I take off with a battery temperature of 20C (room temperature), it will always rise during the flight to around +36C. The battery is very happy at +36C (almost 98 degrees F). I've seen no degradation in flight times in temperatures as low as -35C. I've had some flights last for just under 30 minutes.

 

[Hawkwind]

Whats up Brit.Looks mighty cold up there.It was in the fifties here in the Mid Hudson Valley.We do have about half a foot of snow left;but if we keep getting this March weather in February it will be gone soon.

 

[The Brit]

Whats up Brit.Looks mighty cold up there.It was in the fifties here in the Mid Hudson Valley.We do have about half a foot of snow left;but if we keep getting this March weather in February it will be gone soon.

Hi Hawkwind
our snow should be gone by April , LOL ,,
Got the PM you sent me sorry did not answer been doing other stuff.
I looked through my albums the other day and counted 56 Hawkwind albums did not realize I had so many , Most were given to me by Harvey or Dave and lots of them signed by all members , some Bootlegs from Stonehenge too ,those were the days .

 

[Dan cutter]

1%!!!!??? If your battery is warm enough to take off with---It's not going to get colder. It generates heat when discharging. Something else going on. I fly in single digits and battery comes back warm.


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots

 

[Fester]

I think you'll find about every thing you want to know about various types of batteries here...

Discharging at High and Low Temperatures

 

[Hawkwind]

Talking batteries.I had a weird thing happen the other day.It was about 50 degrees and while flying I put it in sport mode on the way back and a warning came on about a bad cell.Got home charged it up and turned the bird back on and no warning.Checked out all 3 batteries that I have and no problem noted.

 

[Carlpembroke]

Talking batteries.I had a weird thing happen the other day.It was about 50 degrees and while flying I put it in sport mode on the way back and a warning came on about a bad cell.Got home charged it up and turned the bird back on and no warning.Checked out all 3 batteries that I have and no problem noted.

This has happened to me twice with one of my batteries, though 6 months apart the second time a week ago, haven't tried the battery since as the weather has been bad.