Cold-weather drone work is mostly battery psychology and knowing when the answer is no. The checklist, as it currently stands:

  • Batteries leave the house warm, in the inside pocket, and go in at the last second.
  • Ten-minute margins become twenty below minus fifteen.
  • The lens goes outside half an hour early or it fogs on climb-out.
  • Gloves you can feel the sticks through, or don’t bother.
  • Below minus twenty-five: it’s a photography day from the ground.

Every line item is a story, and two of them were expensive.