Hey, just a quick introduction as I’m new to this forum. Well, new to drones in general. I made the mistake of buying a Hexo + a few years ago on
Kickstarter. I flew it once and the lack of Manual control terrified me, so I got shot of it.
Since then I have always wanted to own a DJI drone, I remember really wanting the original Mavic but couldn’t justify the money at the time. I have an old Phantom 3 that was given to me by a friend but I’ve never flown it as the camera doesn’t work. With the release of the new Air 2 I thought maybe the time has come to get into drones. So I have pre ordered the Mavic Air 2 fly more combo and completed the CAA online course in preparation of its arrival.
However, I am feeling less enthusiastic about my decision the more I research it, the drone looks fantastic but there are a few things that worry me. It is annoying that the Airsense system has been omitted from the European release, and that they aren’t classifying the drone to comply with the regulation changes. This is where my apprehension lies, I will only get to use it for a few years before it’s use is heavily restricted. I can’t decide if that’s worth spending £950 on a piece of tech that’s legacy out of the box, or is this a silly concern? Any advice on this would be welcomed.
Cheers,
Darryl
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Hi @BernardKingsley, Darryl.
And welcome to the forum.
The current flux with respect to the proposed regulations is a bit like the British weather, wait five minutes and it’ll change, though the most recent news is not very optimistic.
Commiserations on your HexoPlus purchase. This was another unmitigated Kickstarter disaster due to the developers attempts to try and reinvent the wheel. I have one in my collection which the previous owner bricked when trying to install 3rd Party firmware via Mission Planner. One of these days I’ll try and resurrect it.
Regards
Nidge.
Thanks. It was a nice idea 
should have done some more research though. I have seen that the time frame for rolling out the new regs has moved around a bit. I just want to ensure I will actually be able to use it or it will be a similar story as the Hexo.
Your new Mavic Air 2 won’t be that useless after /if the regulations change. Still capable of being flown in many of the situations we find ourselves in, Airsense may come as an add-on.
But two or three years on your lovely new shiny will be outclassed by the new Mavic Pro 4 or the Air 5 v2. Both will have longer flight times, more megapixels, more automation (and ADS-B an will carry CE markings). Your poor old tech Mavic Ait will have depreciated in value like a second-hand motor twp years out of the showroom.
But, for the money you will have two years of flying experience, fun. learning and exploration. And two years worth of irreplaceable memories recorded as photographs and videos.
Just my two pence worth of unsolicited opinion 
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Alas no, the non-US model is shipping with missing chipsets/components.
Well, yes, I guess you could source the components yourself, but 
This post gives some thoughts about where you can fly a legacy drone after the regs change (hint: the 150m urban limit is exactly the same as today!)
Thanks I will take a look.