Danger of icing when operating unmanned aerial vehicles

Abstract

The paper examines icing on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) during the flight. We chose the Mavic Pro and Mavic 2 Pro UAV by company DJI to carry out the research. Research flights are performed during the early morning hours with meteorological conditions suitable for icing. We use the AirData application to analyse flight data. The aim of the work is to find out how dangerous icing is, what meteorological conditions are suitable for icing, how fast icing is formed during the operation of an unmanned aircraft and how it is possible to suppress or eliminate icing. In introduction of this work elaborated theoretical knowledge about the formation of icing and its types. Subsequently, the negative effects of icing on the flight are described, such as changes in lift, drag, controllability of the aircraft and others. The following section describes the accidents of UAV due to the impact of icing. After analysing the data from the mentioned application, we proposed recommendations for pilots of UAV. Before the flight, we recommend checking the meteorological forecast, focusing on the temperature and humidity at the flight area, usually up to 120 meters above the Earth surface. In-flight recommendations include monitoring rotation speed of propellers and frequent inspection of propellers in meteorological conditions suitable for icing and others.