I found Grey Arrows when reading about a “Where to fly in the UK” map in the Mavic Pillols forum. So I joined. I’ve flown a DJI 550 for a while, not particularly successfully. I’m now retired with very little time on my hands (I write a daily post for a filmmaking website) and very little money. House needs repair, debts to be paid so, when I got a tax rebate the obvious answer was to buy a Mavic Air secondhand off eBay. Just getting to grips with it and yesterday did my first overwater flight using Litchi. The Mavic was 380 metres out at maximum over tidal waters. Sphincter was going sixpence, shilling, dustbin lid but the craft was rock solid.
I did the flight again later in the evening, the wind had swung 180 degrees and was a few mph less. Data shows that the two flights were almost identical (l0.3 of a foot difference in maximum height, speed virtually the same, battery from 98 to 60 per cent in each case and fifteen feet difference in distance over a flight of one mile).
A significant number of our members also own the Mavic Air … so you are amongst good company.
If you haven’t already, take a look at the Map of Members and you’ll see there are a few other members in your neck of the woods, some of whom I’m sure will come and say Hi.
The forum’s search functions are a very efficient way to find previous threads and posts that might already have covered topics in which you are interested in learning more or answer that niggling question but, when this doesn’t turn up what you’re after, there’s a wealth of knowledge amongst the members, so ask away over on #questions-and-answers.
Also, if you’ve not seen it, check out our map of places where members have flown in the past … which, obviously, doesn’t necessarily mean they are still OK to fly and, as always, any pilot needs to check that everything’s OK before flying at any of them.
Welcome. I have a a tarot 680 pro x6. I have a bimble to mount my sony a5000 on it. Good craft. Loved building and setting up. But in all honesty it’s not a patch on my mavic 2’s.
Agreed. The Mavic series are pretty good out of the box. When combined with an app like Litchi and flight data sent to something like Airdata UAV it’s phenomenal. The 500s and the X6 are way inferior by comparison. Having said that I have always driven old vehicles for fun, modern cars and trucks are amazing pieces of tech and very comfortable but nothing to excite me when driving.
And when I get the metre-span X6 in the air with a full 6kg Load - small camera and a massive battery for a BFO strobe light I might be able to spot it at 300 metres distance
I cannot tell a lie (thtt’s a lie), I stole it. One of the boards I subscribe to which helps me prevaricate when I’m supposed to be writing, is b3ta. Nicked it from some poor contributor there.
Welcome on board - never heard of the 550 before but Googled it and that’s a bit of a beast.
Love the opening shot tough and I also fly a Mavic Air - personally, I’ve no luck with tax rebates or getting further purchases past the paymaster general
This is a great start!
I mostly fly over water, sometimes a long way out to sea filming yachts and have managed to overcome my fears. Mind you I lost one on attempting to land on a moving boat…
Like the sound of your new machine - ideal for serious work.
Like the wee French geezer on his first cross channel hoverboard attempt. (I so want one of those!)
If you mean the X6, it’s a beast compared to the MA and capable of lifting a moderate size Blackmagic or Red cine camera but lacking any of the automation features of the Mavic. I’m currently rebuilding it and looking for a few bits - a version 2 GPS for the ZYX-M flight controller will allow me to upgrade the firmware
Actually a Phantom and a Spark… The Phantom was hit by seagulls and lost part of a prop, so crashed into the sea. I spent 2 months searching the area at 20m with an underwater camera and eventually retrieved it. Sunk%20droan|375x500
Funnily enough it did not work. The poor wee Spark landed on a 50ft tree and is still there…
That’s brilliant!
LOST ONE???
