Hi voltage power line effects?

[scottoftheforest]

Anyone have experience with the effects of flying in proximity with high tension power lines?

I have an incredible ocean/wildlife scenery location in mind to fly, but there are high voltage aerial cables strung up to service the islands within 200 feet of where I'd hope to fly.

Would really appreciate any info or opinions on how far away from the cables is prudent to be without the nav/gps going all to heck.

I'd rather not watch my P3P go swimming in a 6 knot tidal river.

Thanks!

 

[Mark The Droner]

When I was a N00b (I still am actually) I was curious about this and tested the interference with an EMF meter from a short distance away. What I found was there was more interference from the passing cars on the road I was parked along then from the wires nearby. There was very little interference detectable from the wires.

My understanding is you don't want to run into them and you also don't want to put them between your controller and your aircraft. Other than that you should be fine. MHO

 

[Dave from Ok]

If there are 4 wires, 3 in a kind of triangle and a 4th above or below, you will have less interference than a typical 2-3 wire pole. 3 phase transmission lines are designed to cancel out EM leakage as much as possible. Not because they care about us . It reduces line loss and saves them money


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[scottoftheforest]

Thank you. Apparently my search skills are lacking too! Just found a bunch of previous posts on the subject too. The app version of phantompilots for Android is pretty clunky compared to the main site I find- so apologies for asking an oft asked question. So many answers of a somewhat conflicting nature!

I've only had one loss of control incidents, and it was with a P2 and happened to be about a hundred meters (laterally) from some huge recent installation transmission lines. Bird dropped out of the sky and I regained control about 5 meters from ground after it twirled downward juuuuust missing the outer branches of trees into the small clearing I was in. Not anxious to repeat the process, especially since this will involve water.

And I have seen the lit up fluorescent tube phenomenon- unbelievable until you've seen it with your own eyes. Thanks again for your kind and thoughtful responses.

 

[Tigercda]

Mine ended up in the river. Try to stay away from now on. P3p survived and flies like new


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[Dave from Ok]

I played with some power lines yesterday (don't judge me [emoji851]) I did not lose control, but,,,it made me lose my compass reading and dropped me out of p- gps!! Went to atti for about 20 sec, while I got away from them...20 mph gusts almost blew me into some trees before I could react. Gps really spoils a guy in windy conditions



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[Dave from Ok]

I was vey close to them so maybe I would have lost control had I been farther away,,lost signal, and no gps would make RTH hard,, just hope it drifts away and picks up one or the other


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[Dave from Ok]

Update,,,guess I'll find out about those power lines,,,,An Engineer from construction (I work for an Electrical Utility) wants me to fly and inspect some power lines about a mile off the main road. I told him it depended on elevation and he said he could get me within 1/2 mile if we went off road. We will use the footage to help draft a proposal to begin using Drones for storm recovery and substation inspections
I will keep a good altitude, I'm looking for trees not broken insulators

 

[scottoftheforest]

Excellent! If you think of it, let me know how that goes. Hope the experiment works. Up here above the 49th, Transport Canada recently gave their blessing for our RCMP to lend an operator and their heavy lift drones to search and rescue units for trying to find stranded mariners or hikers.

Hopefully it's a first step up here for getting trained civilian SAR volunteers to use Phantoms for short range marine searches to. I'm on Vancouver Island, and friends with the SAR coordinator who was discussing that kind of thing last night.

Shoreline searches are tough if the coastline doesn't allow a close in approach to search for people onshore.

Good luck with your first power line flight and thanks for sharing. I had a great day flying over a raging river in a deep rocky ravine (spring runoff has begun), and second river and wetlands via a beaver dam. All of the deciduous tree leaves are just opening with a riot of green mixed in with the evergreen cedars and douglas firs.

More to add to the editing pile!