When it comes to keeping your drone batteries warm, pilots can keep batteries stored at warm temps or use flight techniques to warm their batteries during flight. One of the key factors to consider when flying a drone in cold weather is battery performance. Cold temperatures can significantly reduce a battery’s capacity and performance, leading to shorter flight times and potentially even mechanical failures. To ensure a successful flight in cold weather, it is essential to keep the batteries warm and at an optimal temperature.

So how do you warm up drone batteries prior to flight? After all it is imperative to flying in freezing temperatures. 

There are a few different ways to keep your drone’s batteries warm in cold weather. One option is to store them in a warm place, such as your vehicle, before flying. This can help to prevent the batteries from getting too cold and losing capacity. Another option is to use a battery heater, which can be placed on the battery to keep it at a suitable temperature.  Some drone pilots have even been found to keep drone batteries in coolers.

In addition to keeping the batteries warm before flight, it is also important to warm up the batteries before takeoff. This can be done by placing them on your dashboard defroster or by flying the drone for a few minutes at a low altitude. This will help to bring the battery up to an optimal temperature and improve its performance.

How to Warm up your battery during flight.

When it comes to flying your drone on a cold day, there is one old school tip to getting the most flight time out of your batteries.  By taking off, flying low, then landing and power cycling your batteries you can increase cold weather flight time by 4-6x.  Here are the steps to do it.

1. Get ready for takeoff, place the drone in an open area, turn on the remote and the drone.
2. Wait for home point being recorded, take off but only to about 6-10 feet.
3. Let the drone hover for about a minute
4. Land the drone
5. Turn the drone off
6. Turn the Drone on
7. You should see significantly more flight time.

Overall, the key to successful cold weather drone flights is to keep the batteries warm and at an optimal temperature. By following these steps, you can help ensure that your drone is ready to fly in even the coldest conditions.

To learn how to fly in any condition, check out the Safe Operations Class, available to Drone U members and PROPS Enterprise Clients. 

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