Snow Drones

Its almost time for the holiday break and I’m wrapping up projects.  One thing I’ve yet to do is take some cold weather video from a drone of campus covered in snow.  Yesterday on my drive to campus I couldn’t help but notice that it was beautiful with everything freshly covered in snow.  I was able to throw a flight plan together super quickly, get permission from BCC Security and the Pittsfield Airport to make sure policy was followed, and headed out about 1:30 to start my flight.

At first some snow squalls moving through delayed me.  And then the wind picked up, however I was still able to get in a brief flight and get some OK video.  It was also cold out, and one needs to take extra precautions when flying in the cold like making sure the battery is warm and stays at a warm temperature after takeoff.  Today is super cold compared to yesterday’s 20 degrees, so yesterday was my only opportunity.  Another thing that is suggested when flying in the snow is to hand-launch and hand-land to protect the craft from the snow, something I’ve gotten pretty good at with the Mavic Mini.

Here’s the full video.

The best portion is probably at about 6:25 where I get a combination of movements in the flight.  I hope to get more practice with cold weather flying in the future.

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