So here I am out before dawn, waiting for the sun to come up for a flight. .problem is it’s raining.
Not a a drizzle but not pounding it down, somewhere in between.
What do you all think about flying in rain?? Possible or no go?
Don’t do it. When you fly ANYTHING always think safety. Your drone is basically a highly computerised flying machine, if small droplets of moisture get onto the circuit board, sucked in by the cooling fan, the result could be a loss of control and fly away to heaven knows where. At the very least if you get away with it after flying in the rain, any moisture that dries off the circuit boards will start a corrosion which may not manifest itself until many flights in the future. There will be people who no doubt say they have happily flown in the rain with no problems (so far), or have water proofed their drone with some mystical spray or covering. Flying is all about safety and common sense. A bit like covid. Some say don’t wear a mask because they don’t always work. Well parachutes don’t always work, but if I jump out of a plane I sure as heck want to be wearing one.
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The answer is NO. Please read your machines manual carefully. Its the number one rule of operating.
Should also be familiar with CAP722
https://publicapps.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP722%20Edition8(p).pdf
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Nope, not got one of those…so the rain stopped but it wasn’t great anyway so I had a short flight and then called it. Fog came in pretty bad and with it lots of moisture anyway. Disappointed as I wanted to give the drone a good flight today and didn’t even manage to drain one battery…got a few shots, I’ll post them in a bit.
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It will depend what IP (Ingress Protection) values the components of the drone have. Most are not suitable for flying in any moisture let alone driving rain. Very sophisticated and expensive drones have fallen out of the sky due to short circuits and short sighted pilots.
I’ve got the Spry+, nice little machine. It’s fun to fly, the waterproof casing makes it quite robust. However it’s not as wind-resistant as my M2E so it’s for urgent close-proximity phots in wet/damp/foggy but calmish weather.
The drone is IP67 rated and the controller is IP66 rated- but you still need a dry spot to change the batteries (gets about 10 min flight on 1 battery). So you need to get your van as close as possible to the TOLS… 
The camera is in a sealed binnacle affair, works surprosingly well in most sorts of damp, so long as you’re looking down somewhat it doesn’t seem to be too badly effected by rain on the cover.
GC
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Absolutely. You can also watch your TV out in the rain.
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Just when you think you’ve seen it all…
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I’m not aware of any regulation that restricts flying in the rain, I did a word search on CAP722 with zero hits for rain, but I may have missed something.
I have a PowerEggX Wizard which is happy flying in the rain, and apparently report my every movement (excluding bowel) to the Chinese CAAC 
.
As previously mentioned any water ingress into the internal electronics could result in a death sentence for most drones, it’s not the water itself (pure water is an insulator) but rather the impurities (salts and such) that result in conduction. Brushless motors will happily work in water.
Nidge.
Hi - just wondering has anyone been caught out with a sudden downpour? Did the drone survive , was it unscathed?
What about mist etc.
I assume in the Ukraine war that the drones venture out in all weather, so can the drones be made to be waterproof?
TYIA
Wow, a question 5 years later. Yes, I have been caught out in the rain.
It had been raining all day at Barnard Castle, and it stopped for a short while. So I started filming it with my Mini 3 Pro. Got 10 minutes in before it started again, so I whacked it into sport mode and brought it straight back.
Dried it out before putting it away. I sold it 3 months or so later to upgrade, and it was fine at the point of sale. 
The general advise is no. Certainly for consumer level DJI stuff.
A couple of thoughts.
A little drizzle probably wont harm much but it is a gamble. If you do then be sure to pull the battery and dry is out before folding it up and putting the gimble guard on. I find a cars footwell with the blower on high heat n flow for 20 30 minutes works well enough.
If ypu have dji care then even with the worst case you can get a replacement for a small amount of new english pounds. Assuming it doesnt fall out of the sky and cant be recovered. You can still get a replacement but for significantly more of the afore mentioned pounds 
Imo. It is a risk. However arguable the level of risk is. Bringing it directly back if it starts to rain is one thing. Taking off in the rain is another.
Mist, again arguably is worse than rain but either way it’s still moisture which can bite you in the bum further down the line. I’ve done board repairs on drones and other stuff that started to give issues months after the device got wet. If the customers story is to be believed.
The military drones used in the Ukraine and other wars are usually sent on one-way trips!
Mist, clouds, and drizzle are probably worse for getting inside your drone than proper rain with big raindrops, and you need to keep an eye on relative humidity & the consequent condensation as well (UAV Forecast & Airdata apps show this).
I’ve had the drone land dripping wet from condensation on a cold dry day. Dried it off in front of a fan heater when I got home (you could do this in a car), in the hope of blowing the moisture away before corrosion set in, and I seem to have got away with it! But best practice is obviously not to let the drone wet in the first place! On the other hand I’ve flown briefly in light rain with no problems at all, though not for long periods (it started to rain so I landed and went over the pub!).
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Hehe,
Agreed on all counts COUNTS..
sorry
Would I fly my drone in the rain?
No.
It is a Matrice 210 as used by HM Constabulary who had a habit of crashing them in wet conditions:
For rain this (around 4k basic) might be the answer:
4d… first compact drone…
Pfft
Thats the dock version. Compact drone with, effectively a charger that you’ld have trouble fitting in the boot of a small van. Not to mention powering it… compact… pftt m30 is clearly superior ;p
Why on earth would anyone want to fly a drone in the rain. 
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You can also use the conventional 240watt charger, the dock is not essential.
Can I spray your M30 with a hosepipe when next we mee?