Had my second flight with the Mavic Air 2 a few hours ago AND I WAS CRAPPING MYSELF!
Firstly it was at a local park which was mostly empty and I could put myself well away from the kids playing football, but I did have an uneasy feeling about people around me. As I was setting up, a dog walker and her dog were heading over so I decided to pick up the Mavic rather than have the dog pee all over it.
Then, a rather unsavoury looking youth on a BMX started taking an interest in what I was doing. I thought, “If he grabs the drone and pedals off, I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it”. I think I was very nervous to begin with, as it was only the second time I’d been out of the house in nearly four months.
As far as the flight itself was concerned, although I was recording and looking occasionally at the screen, I was mostly concerned with keeping my eye on the thing so that I wouldn’t lose it against the bright sky and these first few flights are about familiarisation with the controls and getting confident with manoeuvering and getting safely back down.
What was surprising was the speed at which the batteries had discharged since first charging them, one was at 38%, another at 56% and the third wasn’t used. I need to make sure that I discharge them properly before fully recharging. In fact, I think I won’t recharge them again until the morning of the next flight.
Well done on getting out and having a fly. Not easy to go out under current situation. New drone on top of that. I don’t think there are many that wouldn’t be nervous in your shoes.
Dogs are often a bit of a nightmare. They’re often out early with their owners, and do like to chase things.
Bees tend to take exception to vibrations - ours dislike the strimmer but take no notice of the lawnmower. I guess a drone would be similar, though I’ve not flown nears ours to see what happens
It’s only natural - I was very nervous first few times out - £1000’s worth of equipment you don’t want it to get damaged or lose it!.
I was worried it wouldn’t come back or flew off on its own!
Hope you enjoyed your flight though, happy flying, stay safe
Absolutely. I can see I’m going to get nervous taking it up beyond fifty metres. I’ll just have to get used to not hearing and potentially seeing it. Put my faith in RTH and the camera.
At first I thought it was just a bit of crud and grass from the ground mixed with a bit of moisture from the recent rain, but it would seem that a few of them met their maker.
I agree the tech is good and RTH can be a saver but once you get confidence up and a good feel for the drone learn the sticks as best you can. I found that mimicking the modes (dronie, orbit etc) are an excellent way to learn.
There was an email from the CAA this week that discussed this. They looked at an incident where an operator ran into difficulty and wasn’t entirely sure how to manually get out of the situation.
I myself crashed first time out out of lock down. I was rusty and if I’d been on form I may have handled it better.
The cost of that crash has made me make an effort to get myself better on the sticks and I make more of an effort to Fly manually. Confidence in yourself is the key. I’m getting better at the sticks and less reliant on the tech.
Trust me it’s very easy to get complacent and assume something will happen when you ask it too. 99.9% of the time it will. Better to have some confidence for that .1% though.
Correct, it’s 4 days by default with no option to change
