Please don’t fly your drones near wildfires to capture that ‘once-in-a-lifetime footage.’ When drones are in the air, firefighting aircraft can’t do their job safely, and you’re putting lives and property at risk. This isn’t just a simple mistake; it’s making a tough situation even worse.
Enjoy capturing great footage elsewhere and keep speculating about new gear. Thanks for being responsible.
Flying over fires can also mess with your drone’s ability to stay in the air. The heat can reduce lift, and I’ve seen videos where drones just drop into the fire.
Kei said:
Flying over fires can also mess with your drone’s ability to stay in the air. The heat can reduce lift, and I’ve seen videos where drones just drop into the fire.
That makes sense. Do you know of any examples where the footage from the drone survived?
@Ashton
Usually, the footage doesn’t survive unless it’s being recorded from another camera. I’ve seen people lose drones over small garden fires because they couldn’t recover them in time.
@Ashton
It’s the same for airplanes. In hotter climates, planes struggle to take off because the air isn’t dense enough to generate lift.
@Ashton
Check this out: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3w8Pr-QD5mI
@Ashton
Here’s an example. Looks like the surviving footage is from the video feed sent to the controller.
Briar said:
@Ashton
Here’s an example. Looks like the surviving footage is from the video feed sent to the controller.
It seems like that drone got hit by lava rather than losing lift from the heat.
Kei said:
Flying over fires can also mess with your drone’s ability to stay in the air. The heat can reduce lift, and I’ve seen videos where drones just drop into the fire.
But what about those drones people fly over volcanoes? Don’t they face similar heat issues?
@Rebel
Those drones are often treated as disposable. FPV drones are fast and can avoid hot spots better, but they still fail sometimes. Fires might be trickier because of uneven temperatures and strong updrafts.
@Rebel
FPV drones might hold up better because their propellers are thicker. Not sure how much it helps, though.
Kei said:
Flying over fires can also mess with your drone’s ability to stay in the air. The heat can reduce lift, and I’ve seen videos where drones just drop into the fire.
I watched a video of someone flying an FPV drone over a volcano. Predictably, it didn’t make it back, but the footage was incredible.
Kei said:
Flying over fires can also mess with your drone’s ability to stay in the air. The heat can reduce lift, and I’ve seen videos where drones just drop into the fire.
Hot air is less dense, which makes it harder for drones to create lift. Same reason a fan speeds up when you block the intake—less air resistance.
@Nico
Combine lower air density with sudden updrafts, and it’s a recipe for a drone to lose control.
Never fly your drone over a disaster area while it’s still active. Here in Florida, people flew drones after hurricanes while helicopters were doing search and rescue. It’s incredibly reckless.
I love flying drones, but I’d fully support technology that forces irresponsible pilots out of the sky. If you don’t have common sense, you shouldn’t be flying.
It’s frustrating seeing influencers flying in restricted areas like this. They’re making it worse for everyone.
FAA should make it so drones can’t take off in emergency zones at all.
Blake said:
FAA should make it so drones can’t take off in emergency zones at all.
There’s probably already a TFR in place, but fires spread faster than DJI can update their geofencing.