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Not too much restricted air space around here. There is a pretty good sized no fly area in Burlington/So. Burlington, around the prison and BTV. I am not into flying around airports or prisons. I have open land and I don't want to get shot down by an F35. The whole Lake/shore and surrounding landscapes are available. Getting good enough as a drone pilot to catch/land the craft from a boat is what I am aiming at. A lot of practice before that happens around my open fields before we get close to any water. There are a lot of functions on the app. that we will need to learn. Yes, We are watching a lot of YouTube videos, responsibly.
Sidebar: I built and flew RC airplanes as a teen in the 70's, big ones with 4-5' wingspans. I always wanted an RC Helicopter.
I catch it on the boat but return when I still have a quarter battery just in case. I try and take off from shore Also so if it returns home to land it is not in the middle of water. It takes great photos. You can see the sun set, go up 200’ Take photos of the sun setting again then go to 390’ and do it again. I set my deck at 390 to give a 10’ fudge factor.
My Go Pro Karma drone is now a $1000 paper weight......piece of shit. Will really turn me off from buying anything from that company ever again.
So what to purchase next? I like the idea of a drone with no big brother controls....but the mavic mini looks neat too.
I will be taking my karma to a drone expert in Tampa next week to see if he can resurrect it. Perhaps I'll look at what he builds and sells and get something custom??
We almost bought the Mini but decided on the Zoom, for two reasons...1. No mini's in stock at the local BestBuy at time of purchase. 2. The ability of the zoom to fly in much higher winds than the mini. And figuring if we were going to use it while on the water, sailing, boating, it would be able to hold it's air space better. It was a busy Summer for us, and we never flew the drone near the Lake. We had planned to fly the drone over the Blueberry field during picking, but the season was over before we knew it. Flew the drone a couple of nights ago and the Lake is 10 mi. away.
The Champlain Valley from So. Hero, the Islands on the right down to Shelburne Point on the left. Taken from above my yard, at tree top level, at about 1200' above sea level. Current lake level is 93' above sea level.
I’m still rocking my Mavic Pro. Last summer I did modify it and remove some of the restrictions (all legal, of course) but for as much as I use it, I haven’t upgraded. I actually didn’t take it on the boat at all this year.
The smaller drones are very intriguing but I would probably go with the Mavic 2 Pro or Zoom this time with the Air 2 being a close second. The only shortcoming I can find at all with my Mavic is the camera resolution so the newer ones I mentioned would definitely mitigate that.
Outside of some very specific use scenarios (ie sports tracking), I think any money not spent at DJI is likely money wasted.
I have a Mavic 2 Pro, in retrospect I sorta wish I got the zoom. The Air models are intriguing, but I can't think that they'd be fighting the wind nonstop where I usually fly (at the beach or out on the water).
Mavic 2 pro here and I love it. 18 months so far.
The restrictions on it can be a pain in the ass but they’re there to keep it legal.
Dart Drone class is good I took that also.
Outside of some very specific use scenarios (ie sports tracking), I think any money not spent at DJI is likely money wasted.
I have a Mavic 2 Pro, in retrospect I sorta wish I got the zoom. The Air models are intriguing, but I can't think that they'd be fighting the wind nonstop where I usually fly (at the beach or out on the water).
Yeah, the camera really is pretty fantastic. I've gotten some pretty great shots out of it, and I only leave it on automatic most of the time. One of these days I'll really go and put it through its paces and shoot in RAW, been awhile since I dusted off my editing skills.
Yeah...restrictions are really dumb sometimes. For example...want to fly the drone 25 feet above a group for a group photo, but am within 5 miles of an airport. If there is an airplane at 25' where we are....the drone is the least of the pilots concerns...the 100' pine trees will be slightly more of a problem. So why not restrict flight to 50' or 100' 1-4 miles from an airport? Silly really.
I'm pretty certain I won't spend big money on a drone again. I just don't have the need that often. A decent 4k image will suffice for my needs. Heck...even stills from 1080 video is really all I need.
FWIW, my DJI drone does not lock down everything within 5 miles of an airport (I think it does within 1 mile, which seems reasonable). I fly nearby AC international often, and what it does is gradually reduce the ceiling height as you fly toward the airport until you reach the locked zone.
The restrictions have gotten more logical over time.
I haven’t flown my mavic pro or spark in over two seasons. I was hoping to get a true follow me drone without flying restrictions but the stakker drone site shows they are sold out and has been this way for over six months (I think they have gone out of business), I looked at the airsog site last night for the air dog 2. Their site explicitly states that they have gone out of business.
Used versions of the air dog 2 and 1 are available online but I would never buy a used drone that is no longer being manufactured unless the price was dirt cheap, like under $100 for a drone sans camera that originally sold for $1k or more. If I got that kind of deal powering the drone up would be a gamble and it flying properly with “good” batteries would be an even bigger gamble.
I've been looking at the skydio 2, the Autel Evo 8k and the DJI Mavic Air 2. The Skydio 2 really looks amazing - the concept of having a mode where it flys itself. This video gives a pretty cool background on it. My only concern is investing in a drone company that hasn't been around long....(burned by Gopro)
The whole Lake/shore and surrounding landscapes are available. Getting good enough as a drone pilot to catch/land the craft from a boat is what I am aiming at. A lot of practice before that happens around my open fields before we get close to any water. There are a lot of functions on the app. that we will need to learn. Yes, We are watching a lot of YouTube videos, responsibly.
