Got a new drone! Mavic 3 Pro! :)

[ShadowsPapa]

To those who have the dji mini 3 pro - what's the best way to learn to fly the thing and not have to order spare parts in the first hour?
It's cold, it's winter, so maybe patience until warmer weather is best........

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[Shopshirt]

Cold will impact the battery life and flight time for sure. Start in a wide open space at eye level don't go high and far right away!

• Make sure you calibrate every time you start a new flight
• Vertical axis up and hover down and land a few times ( left stick)
• Stationary spin left and right (left stick)
• Shift left and right (right stick)
• Go forward and back several times about 10-15 feet together used to the perspective(do this drone facing you and facing away from you)
• Do that several times then add some slight s turns as you fly forward and back (do this drone facing you and facing away from you) that should get you started

Have fun the mini is super stable. I'll try to dig up some of the videos on maneuvering that are helpful.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Cold will impact the battery life and flight time for sure. Start in a wide open space at eye level don't go high and far right away!

• Make sure you calibrate every time you start a new flight
• Vertical axis up and hover down and land a few times ( left stick)
• Stationary spin left and right (right stick)
• Shift left and right (left stick)
• Go forward and back several times about 10-15 feet together used to the perspective(do this drone facing you and facing away from you)
• Do that several times then add some slight s turns as you fly forward and back (do this drone facing you and facing away from you) that should get you started

Have fun the mini is super stable. I'll try to dig up some of the videos on maneuvering that are helpful.

Thanks. I can easily start in an open area, moving away from our trees and to some even ground.
Good tips as far as keeping at eye level at first. Will make it much easier to see what results of moves are.
This one came with the remote that uses my phone for screen and software.

This is the default mode it comes in - mode 2 -

I'll have to get used to the mixing of up and down with turns but the right stick makes sense - forward, backward, move left (without turning) or move right (without turning)

Hope my hand tremor isn't a problem - dealing with essential tremor in right hand and a bit in left but as long as my hand is resting on something, it's not bad, so actively doing something should be ok.

 

[antwon412]

Nice. Just upgraded to a Mini 4 Pro myself.

 

[RavensEyeOffroad]

My wife listens......... but I never figured in a million years she'd go for such a thing let alone spend the time and effort to find anything out and actually get one - I just opened up one of my presents under the tree (we're busy and gone much of tomorrow) and to my shock, a new dji Mini 3 Pro
Now I know nothing, nada, zip about them, so it's going to be a huge learning curve and all, but my guess is that she didn't get the first thing she found online.
She said she was discussing it with a quilting friend who instantly called her son - and he contacted a friend who does drones and recommended this one.

ha!
thats awesome!

Take it slow and just learn how to move it around. put it on cine mode for slower movement.
Also when you are ready for your part 107 please give this course a consideration! I am affiliated with these guys and the course is really good.
Pilot Institute - Part 107

 

[Stuntman Mike]

Last shot I took with my Mavic Mini ...

 

[SpeedNeed]

For anyone who wants to do some basic drone photography but doesn’t want to learn to fly one, this is a good simple alternative:

https://thehover.com/

 

[antwon412]

Odd product. For $400. You can get a proper drone that’s VERY easy to fly and can do much more.

 

[Shopshirt]

This series is old but has some great coordination basic flight exercises

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I was feeling good enough today and things were fully charged (including my phone) so I connected phone into controller, turned on the drone and the controller and it pretty quickly went through activation and said there were updates for the control and the drone itself. That took some doing being out here with iffy slow internet but it was successful. Boy was the drone's battery hot after that update which took some time. But now they are both up-to-date.

Watching videos and reading trying to get all the info I can before even letting it spin the props for the first time.
It's not clear - I see instructions for getting the motors running (both sticks to the rear and inward) but it doesn't say if that's necessary or if simply touching the screen for take-off is all that's needed. In other words, is it like a golf cart - press the pedal and it goes, or more like a car - start the engines then move it.
Guess I'll find out LOL
It was interesting that when the controller first connected to the drone, I had the drone on the floor (after removing 2 of the 3 Christmas trees, it left about 4 square feet of open floor in the living room) - anyway, before it started into the activation and update processes, I could tell the camera worked as I got a cat's level view of the walk-out bay window area. Well, lower than a cat's eye view since the drone sits right close to the floor.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Nice. Just upgraded to a Mini 4 Pro myself.

I see that one's out there. Looks like you can no longer buy the Mini 3 Pro from DJI now.
A couple of tech sites rated the 3 as the best compact drone available (as of about a year ago).
If the 4 is the 3 plus more - such as maybe some added collision avoidance, it's gonna be great.
Still - this 3 will be fine and I'm totally impressed the lengths my wife, a total non-tech person who doesn't even order on the internet, actually ended up with this for me.

I'm no pro and it's not for a business. It's for fun and actually, will allow me to check on things without climbing a ladder as with recent massive attacks of Meniere's stairs have even been fun lately. So I'll be able to check rain gutters, and I've always wondered what the heck a bulldozer was doing across the road, well out of sight, on the north side of a cattle pasture.

I have a feeling once my 80 year old neighbor finds I have this - he'll be asking me to take a look at some things for him.

Now I gotta dig and see if their "Care Refresh" or "Care Service" plans are worth looking at any further.

 

[RavensEyeOffroad]

you can launch it two different ways, there is an icon on the left side that you press and it makes a visual circle indicating it will launch when the circle is complete or you can hold the thumbsticks down and inward this will start the rotors then press upward on the left thumbstick and it will begin flying.
may as well go out and launch that thing. the more seat time you get flying the easier it becomes. Nothing to be nervous about!

 

[ShadowsPapa]

you can launch it two different ways, there is an icon on the left side that you press and it makes a visual circle indicating it will launch when the circle is complete or you can hold the thumbsticks down and inward this will start the rotors then press upward on the left thumbstick and it will begin flying.
may as well go out and launch that thing. the more seat time you get flying the easier it becomes. Nothing to be nervous about!

Thanks for that. I was wondering, looking over the 75 pages of "user guide" and it appeared to be saying there were two ways - one with the screen or the controls without touching the screen/phone.
Been waiting for winds to die down (constantly windy here this time of year) and the temps to moderate again. Last week it was all 50s to 60 (WAY above normal) and this week it's all closer to normal temps.

 

[RavensEyeOffroad]

Thanks for that. I was wondering, looking over the 75 pages of "user guide" and it appeared to be saying there were two ways - one with the screen or the controls without touching the screen/phone.
Been waiting for winds to die down (constantly windy here this time of year) and the temps to moderate again. Last week it was all 50s to 60 (WAY above normal) and this week it's all closer to normal temps.

Hell I flew mine at night and it was like 26 degrees out. Practicing night lapse stuff.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Brrrr........ it was 32 when I stepped out...... my neighbor saw me following it down the driveway we share and asked "Christmas present?" Yup.
Apparently it was into RC airplanes many years ago, thus the reason for a garden shed he calls "airplane shed", and he said he has an early drone, larger than mine. He asked if I have to trim it and keep control once it takes off or will it hover..... I demonstrated. He said he had to keep control of his as once it was in the air, it was like the airplanes he had, you had to keep a hand on the control or it would move. He also has a helicopter that he said was the same way - it wouldn't just hover, you had to "trim it" to keep it in place.

One thing I've found here is that as I was walking around the yard following it - I had to keep adjusting the altitude above the ground or it would have crashed. Even walking from in front of the house back to the driveway, by the time I got to the driveway it was almost on the driveway although I started out 6 feet in the air.

I figured it would follow the ground better - meaning I could fly it around the yard and it would always maintain the same distance from the ground. Nope, it was concentrating on sea level.
Heck, I'd not be able to have it follow me from the back door to the end of the driveway - it would run into the ground. Hmmm.

Sun going down, I was getting cold and my Meniere's was making me more unsteady just standing so I kept it short, but it is truly easy to get the basics. I'm not at all a "smooth flier" but it wasn't too bad.

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