Phantoms In The Mist

[480sparky]

No, not an Animal Planet documentary!

I plan on flying my P2V+ near some large waterfalls, which produce a large amount of mist. Anything I should be aware of or avoid?

 

[ilovecoffee]

I think you should avoid mist entirely. Not only may it be dangerous for the components, the heavy water content in the air may affect its ability to stay airborne.

 

[N017RW]

Not sure how close you plan to get but also be mindful of air currents as a result of the moving water.

 

[wattsn]

Some guy posted on here flew his close to Niagara Falls and seemed to cope OK. Not condoning it though and doubt I would do the same with mine. Don't have big enough you know whats, or wallet for that matter

 

[Hovtech]

You can test how well the Phantom will fly in the mist by taking a hose and adjust the water to a fine spray and turn the spray on your Phantom while it hovers in front of you.

 

[Mako79]

I think you should avoid mist entirely. Not only may it be dangerous for the components, the heavy water content in the air may affect its ability to stay airborne.

In regards to the ability to fly, there is a youtube video of the DSLRPRO's phantom flying in the rain (they had liquippel protection). I cant get the link as I am at work. It would definitely affect the components but as for flying it looked fine.
And please note, the DSLRPros' have modified motors (I think).

Flying around mist should be fine. Just make sure you leave it out to dry for a day.

 

[ATOMSK]

I think you should avoid mist entirely. Not only may it be dangerous for the components, the heavy water content in the air may affect its ability to stay airborne.

In regards to the ability to fly, there is a youtube video of the DSLRPRO's phantom flying in the rain (they had liquippel protection). I cant get the link as I am at work. It would definitely affect the components but as for flying it looked fine.
And please note, the DSLRPros' have modified motors (I think).

Flying around mist should be fine. Just make sure you leave it out to dry for a day.

I just looked up the video. It's pretty sweet. I they have a youtube video of them flying over the ocean and a pool separately and they land in the water and let the phantom sink to the bottom. Pretty awesome that the Phantom looks like it's still trying to turn the rotors. When they bring the phantom up out of the water, it can still fly after being shaken dry a bit.

 

[rbhamilton]

As you go over you will notice a huge gust of air blowing up from the falls and it can either spin your drone or send it off to one side or the other. Personally I think if you aren't risking your drone now and again you aren't having any fun. Here's my attempt flying over a little waterfall in Alberta. The good stuff comes at the 1 min mark in the video.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQDeNmQAI1w[/youtube]

 

[Dirty Bird]

I just looked up the video. It's pretty sweet. I they have a youtube video of them flying over the ocean and a pool separately and they land in the water and let the phantom sink to the bottom. Pretty awesome that the Phantom looks like it's still trying to turn the rotors. When they bring the phantom up out of the water, it can still fly after being shaken dry a bit.

They stopped doing the Phantoms because the waterproofing proved not to be effective long-term.

 

[TheloniousMac]

Not much water flowing on this one I took a couple of days ago and honestly I was more concerned about hand launching over a chasm than any spray. I've flown in light drizzle rain before so didn't think twice about the waterfall spray.
I got pretty close but didn't go under the water.
[youtube]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=W-wiiSlLBpg[/youtube]

 

[ATOMSK]

I just looked up the video. It's pretty sweet. I they have a youtube video of them flying over the ocean and a pool separately and they land in the water and let the phantom sink to the bottom. Pretty awesome that the Phantom looks like it's still trying to turn the rotors. When they bring the phantom up out of the water, it can still fly after being shaken dry a bit.

They stopped doing the Phantoms because the waterproofing proved not to be effective long-term.

That's too bad.


I wonder how permanent NeverWet is on electronics....

 

[GoodnNuff]

I fly in the drizzling Seattle rain several times a year, and have never had a problem, but I keep my flight times around 10 minutes max. I've flown my Phantom 1, Blade 350 & 200, and fixed wings in the rain. A lot of the RC pilots here in the Pacific Northwest dip all their electronics in Corrosion-X. They actually remove the components and immerse them for about 30 seconds in the solution. One of my float plane buddies first told me about this, and talking to guys at my flying field it is a pretty common practice in our wet climate. I've yet to try this (and I believe they advise an annual reapplication of the Corrosion-X).

 

[sbarton]

I sent an email to LiquidPel about coating my Phantom. The gist of it is that it too labor intensive/expensive to do the Phantom at this time.

Thank you for your inquiry! We used to offer the service for the DJI Phantoms, but the process was time consuming and not very convenient for our customers. Unfortunately we cannot coat the devices as a whole so customers had to send their devices to DSLRPros to be disassembled, DSLRPros sent the parts to us for treatment, we shipped the parts back to DSLRPros for reassembly and the entire device was sent back to the customer. Because we used a custom coating for these devices, DSLRPros had to send them in batches to be cost feasible and thus our customers were waiting weeks or months until there were enough units to send in a batch. Overall the process was just very time consuming and cost prohibitive to our customers. Hopefully we will be able to offer a solution for these devices in the future, but at this time we have put the program on hold until we can create a process that works better for everyone involved.

 

[Airphlix]

Nice man !

 

[Roadbugs]

I did some flying in ocean side fog. The phantom came back dripping wet but I had no control or video problems. I have also flown in ocean wave spray with no problems.

 

[djczing]

I flew little river canyon in Alabama a couple weeks ago with my son (he has an FC-40). We both dipped into the mist at the bottom of the falls. There wasn't as much water going over the falls as im used to, but the phantoms came up dry and had no issues.

I guessed that entering from the top down was the best way, as the rotor wash would provide a high-pressure bubble to protect from the mist. When you need to watch out is when you get deeper into the mist, and it starts wrapping into the topside. I guess the rotors also provide some evaporation effect (?).

The bird came out dry, and no issues were noted.

I think how close you get to the mist probably depends on the volume of water, and the height its falling from - as other mentioned the air currents could be a difficult thing, and then you have possibility of GPS lock loss as you get close to the base of the falls.

Risky, yes - worth it ? Mmm... with prudence and thought, yep !