Despite the weather I felt the urge to have a good practice session but was aware that flying in the rain is a bad idea although the Mavic should survive it. Also the winds made me think the overall conditions for flying as a novice aren’t ideal. So I sat there on the spot, waiting for the rain to stop and the wind to calm down.As soon as I could see there were no drops hitting the windscreen of the car, I headed out and took off. Then, I flew around in short circles, increased the height step by step to get a sense if the drone is happy with the conditions up there.
A short moment later after flying a rather large circle it got caught in the clouds – I couldn’t see it anymore and the video feed told me I’m now completely submerged into the low hanging clouds. The only thing that kept me on course was the map and I realized at this moment I was already 230m AGL and the battery was at 50%. Not wanting to take any chances I decided to decrease the height and prepare for landing. So I turned around towards my position and hit down.
To my surprise the height increased. Shock! [2:00min mark]
I finally managed to decrease the height by turning around and keeping the stick down and soon I could re-establish visual contact with the drone…I was relieved.
…it was worth it but the lesson I’ve learned yesterday is: always take updrafts into account.