Hello everyone, I treated myself to a new DJI Mini Pro 3 and am really keen to avoid losing it!
Unfortunately I live near Gatwick so it’s locked (not a bad thing🙄) when at home. Dilemma is buying additional batteries so soon after purchasing because it’s a 20 minute drive to use it for one charge. Guess I’ll have to bite the bullet.
Looking forward to learning and advice on this forum😊
Have you seen our members map? (Click the burger-menu in the top right) You may find some pilots living near you.
We’re a well established club with many knowledgeable members so it’s very likely that any issues you come across will have been discussed here before. Our discussion forum has very powerful search features which should help you find what you need but if you get stuck you can post a new question in the Questions & Answers category.
Looking for recommendations of places to fly? Check out our interactive map on Drone Scene - be sure to log in to gain access to the full suite of features and map layers:
And please feel free to add locations of your own too.
Our Associates are able to enjoy a lot of great services for free but our Members are eligible for a whole lot more! You can find all the details about our Membership Benefits on our FAQ
Hey Steve and welcome to GADC.
More batteries is a MUST in my opinion!!! But then they’re not cheap.
When you do get out just find somewhere nice and open, quiet and as few trees as possible. It’s pretty hard to lose one of these drones if being sensible. Just keep it close by until you get the hang of the sticks, not too low (definitley above head height) Stick in cine mode and try not to venture out in too high a wind the first couple of times, even though they handle the wind remarkably well it can be a bit nerve wracking the first few times.
Hi Steve, welcome to the forum… The More Fly kit is an essential, and for the cost for a MINI3 it is a no brainer… I have it with my MINI3 Pro, and also have an in-car charger so I can charge batteries back up when travelling from location to location, which works really well. You can burn through the charge on 3 batteries very quickly, although you can also do a lot in that time - I flew in 7 locations on the way to Drumnadrochit in April, but the last 3 were very rushed flights as running on 30% batteries or less… And welcome to Grey Arrows, an amazing, friendly bunch of folks always willing to help one another out… Look forards to seeing your drone works - pics or video
Thanks Joe, I managed a few very cautious flights whilst in Wales last week and have 20 minutes of video. Very impressed with the quality. Need to master those sticks though.
Thanks Albion, certainly all adds up! I’ll order some now. What charger do you use in the car? What’s the best way of transferring data and sharing video?
try removing the sticks and using the ball of your thumb on the dome, although I “think” the sticks on the 3 are a female thread meaning it might have a bit of thread sticking out? Not sure now. I found removing the sticks on mini2 greatly increased the sensitivity.
Hi Steve, I got an old Tom Tom charger with a USB on it, rated at 30W, anything 30W will allow for a good quick charge… As for transferring data, pop the Micro USB into your computer and drag and drop it where you want it - a good external HDD will keep your computer memory from getting filled - I have a 2TB standard HDD that we picked up for about £60 that holds almost a TB of data from footage shot since August - I think I will be buying a new HDD every year to keep the footage on and save computer memory… As for processing, pictures can be any software, for video I use DaVinci Resolve 18, free to download, full of features, but a bit of learning to do and you need a reasonable processoir speed / Graphics RAM, we had to upgrade our RAM from 8 to 24 in order to get it to run at a reasonable speed… Good luck!
Hi Steve
Welcome to the club
Already lots of good advice given but for me, it was just lots of sessions in safe areas
Something I struggled with was pushing forward on the left stick thinking I was sending the drone forwards but in fact, just sending it higher and higher and then panicking to get it down again.
Certainly get more batteries. I always opt for the fly more package with DJI drones as this gives an additional 2 batteries and often a charger if it isn’t included.
You really need at least 3 in my experience - although on the mini 3 pro, I opted for the US version and got the extended batteries. Note that this does take you over 250g. The regular pack doesn’t of course.
Many thanks for supplying those links PingSpike. Gives me much food for thought since I fly mostly outside the UK far from habitation where the extra battery life would be useful and not subject to the kind of restrictions in the UK.