Ice on the Typhoon H

CAPTAINDRONE · Oct 11, 2016

This morning I woke up to ice on my car. It was -1 Celcius (30 degrees Fahrenheit).

I wanted to catch the sunrise along the water so I took the Typhoon out to the beach. The water was much warmer than the air which created an interesting low cloud formation. I flew out to film the rising sun over the water and eventually lost sight of the Typhoon as the cloud engulfed it. I just saw white on the controller display so I hit return to home.

When the Typhoon H landed I noticed that there was a thin coating of ice on parts of the arms and landing skids. That was a surprise. I could easily flick the ice off.

First two pictures are of the low cloud. Third picture you can just see some ice on the skids (looks like water drops but it's frozen).

Battery flight time with the cold appeared to be about normal for me.... 15 to 16 minutes.

azpilot61 · Oct 11, 2016

Cool pictures!

DroneClone · Oct 11, 2016

Those inversion clouds can really mess things up! I flew my P3 once in very cold/moist weather and like you , landed and the whole thing had a 1/6" layer of ice all over it! I toweled it off cause I was afraid when it melted it get into all the circuitry! Never again!

KBflyer · Oct 11, 2016

Had the same thing happen to my Q500 with carbon fiber props. They got a layer of ice on them. Kind of scary when you think about it.

Hunter_Michael · Oct 11, 2016

What? You lost visual site of your H? You know that's agains...lol... Pretty Cool Pics CAP!

CAPTAINDRONE · Oct 11, 2016

KBflyer said:
Had the same thing happen to my Q500 with carbon fiber props. They got a layer of ice on them. Kind of scary when you think about it.

Yikes! Ice on the props would not be good for continued stable flight. That is scary!

CAPTAINDRONE · Oct 11, 2016

azpilot61 said:
Cool pictures!

Those are snapshots from the video. Some of the video is pretty cool looking.

CAPTAINDRONE · Oct 11, 2016

DroneClone said:
Those inversion clouds can really mess things up! I flew my P3 once in very cold/moist weather and like you , landed and the whole thing had a 1/6" layer of ice all over it! I toweled it off cause I was afraid when it melted it get into all the circuitry! Never again!

I'll stay away from them in future!

CAPTAINDRONE · Oct 11, 2016

Hunter_Michael said:
What? You lost visual site of your H? You know that's agains...lol... Pretty Cool Pics CAP!

I lost sight of my car in the parking lot as well!

Marky · Oct 11, 2016

Wow really cool pics

Satellite View · Oct 11, 2016

Hi CAPTAINDRONE, Interesting about the ICE but what about the photos I think they are fantastic.

Cheers, JV

FlushVision · Oct 12, 2016

I took a flight in January 2015 above moorland on the Lancashire-Yorkshire border in England using a Phantom 2 Vision. I took it up to some height (I was unclear about the law then...I won't do it now) but I noticed it becoming unstable so I brought it in to land. After I landed it I noticed that it was covered in ice with some actually on the rotors. I recon I was lucky not to crash it and if it had have crashed I would only had myself to blame.

vr-pilot · Oct 12, 2016

Cool (and freezing cold)! Do you have a video link?

Sent from my SM-T719 using Tapatalk

CAPTAINDRONE · Oct 12, 2016

vr-pilot said:
Cool (and freezing cold)! Do you have a video link?

Sent from my SM-T719 using Tapatalk

I was debating if I was going to post the video (I took 3 batteries worth). I think I'll save some clips for a future follow-up video I plan to do on white balance & exposure to capture the perfect shot.

K2BLS · Oct 15, 2016

KBflyer said:
Had the same thing happen to my Q500 with carbon fiber props. They got a layer of ice on them. Kind of scary when you think about it.

Yeah, ice on an airfoil can be a bad thing. Many full scale aircraft have gone down because of it. Maybe a thin film of wd-40 would help.

KBflyer · Oct 15, 2016

K2BLS said:
Yeah, ice on an airfoil can be a bad thing. Many full scale aircraft have gone down because of it. Maybe a thin film of wd-40 would help.

I was flying really close to a water fall on a very frosty morning. When I landed there was a very thin layer of ice on the props and body. I will just not do that again when is so cold out.