Sometimes scheduled drone flights must be postponed and rescheduled, 99% of the time it is due to adverse weather conditions. Below are some reason for postponed flights.
Why Are There Postponed Flights
There are always challenges when flying a sUAV. Most are easily overcome with flight skill experience, knowledge of flight equipment, and software technologies.
However, drone flights can run into issues outside of the pilot’s control. Sometimes scheduled flights may need to be postponed and rescheduled for another date and time. Below are the primary reasons why this occurs.
Rain, Sprinkles, Sleet & Snow
Most drones are not 100% waterproof and are susceptible to severe damage due to moisture getting inside the airframe. Rain, sprinkles, sleet, and snow also affect the drone’s rotors and flight characteristics causing control issues.
Wind
All of the drones flown by Above & Beyond Imagery are rated for level 5 wind resistance by their manufacturer. Level 5 wind maxes out at 24 MPH, and as such wind air speeds higher than 24 MPH are cause to ground a drone flight. High winds can make drones hard to control when in flight. Even drones with ‘GPS position hold capabilities’ can get blown around. This can cause the drone to impact objects and property causing unwanted damage to both the drone and whatever object was being photographed or inspected.
Lightning
Thunderstorms may be present without rain. But while there may be no rain, if there is thunder occurring then there is lightning (visibly seen or not). Lightning strikes or just the presence of high static electricity in the vicinity of a flight operations area can damage a drone severely. Lightning and thunderstorms within a ten mile radius is a reason why a scheduled flight would need to be postponed and rescheduled.
Freezing Temperatures & Dew Point Temperature Spread
sUAVs are powered by lithium batteries. When temperatures are below freezing the chemical activity inside lithium polymer batteries diminishes considerably. This causes the battery to lose power at a highly accelerated rate, which means limited drone flight operations. Instead of 25-30 minutes a flight time on a fully charged battery, they may only be 5-10 minutes of flight time. In particularly cold situations it’s not uncommon for a drone to suddenly lose power and fall from the sky, despite all indicators stating there should be enough power remaining for controlled flight.
Freezing temperatures must be carefully considered for some flights that may require longer flight times. Below freezing temperatures may or may not be a weather condition that would require a flight having to be rescheduled, it would depend on the potential duration of the flight and the actual temperature indicated below freezing.
Drone pilots also need to be aware of the dew point and current active temperature. If both the dew point and temperature are within 5 degrees of each other, there is a very high chance of ‘icing’ forming on the drone’s rotors.
The icing affect can even occur in warmer temperatures. Icing causes the ‘lift’ capability of the rotors to fail, with the end result of the drone possibly falling out of the sky.
Low Visibility & Low Clouds
The Federal Aviation Administration regulates commercial drone operations. If visibility is less than three miles in the area of the planned flight location the flight would have to be postponed until visibility increases beyond three miles.
Additionally, sUAVs must stay 500 feet below clouds. Low cloud cover may limit flights, and possibly have cause to postpone some flights until conditions improve.
Temporary Flight Restrictions
Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs) are not overly common. The FAA, which controls national airspace, will sometimes initiate TFRs for airspace around larger sporting events, presidential or other high level cabinet visits to a town or city, natural disasters, and a few other reasons.
Sometimes these things are known about ahead of time and taken into account for drone flight scheduling. However, there are times when they suddenly pop up – which we have seen happen once or twice over the years.
Rescheduling Due To Weather Conditions or TFRs
Determining if flight conditions are safe is solely up to the PIC (Pilot in Command) and final.
Sometimes adverse weather may be plainly evident and can be determined days in advance with the aid of weather forecast projections. Other times weather conditions may not be evident ahead of time and will need to be gauged at the onset of the scheduled flight time.
If adverse weather conditions pose an issue to a scheduled sUAV flight, Above & Beyond Imagery will reach out immediately to the customer to let them know if a flight will need to be rescheduled.
Depending on the customer’s needs, some flights can easily be rescheduled, but some may not be able to be rescheduled. If a flight cannot be rescheduled due to a limited availability to perform the flight, any flight deposits collected will be refunded.