Did I make a mistake?

[Wauwatosa Drone]

I just got my Mavic a week ago...and maybe I spend too much time on this site...because all I ever read about is people having problems.

I don't plan to fly my Mavic fi a couple more months. I bought a flightlife simulator, and practice in that. I also bout a ton of accessories. I hate to give up before starting, but this site makes me think maybe I should have gone with the Phantom 4?

Am I just worried about nothing?...or should I try to return everything while I can?

Sorry... but it's my first drone and I don't want to report a horror story with it.


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[msinger]

Why exactly does this site make you think the P4 would be better for you?

 

[Wauwatosa Drone]

Honestly...a proven product...and all I ever read in "help" and "discussions"...is about crazy stuff happening with members Maveric's. I don't know really. I spent a lot of money, and I just don't want a disconnect, an app shutting down, a hover issues that won't respond to RTH...I just want to fly a drone and take video.

I will stick with it...but as much as I love this site...it also scare me...with all the reports of the Mavic not responding.


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[msinger]

People know this is a place to come when they are in need of help. That's why you're seeing so many issues discussed here.

 

[Former Member]

Where are you located? I can 100% guarantee that if you can find a friend or mentor to help you with your first flights, the fear will go away and the adrenaline will kick in. The only way to crash it is to make it crash, it wont crash by itself. Get some insurance either Refresh or State Farm and that will make you feel better.

Also, the latest version of the DJI Go 4 firmware is pretty stable.

I fly pretty much every day and I also teach people how to fly drones probably 3-4 times a week. Im going on 400 flights and have not had a flyaway, and only crashes were op induced dumb-thumbing it.

Why arent you going to be able to fly for 2-3 months? Fear, apprehension? Afraid you will have too much fun?

When I first started flying RC helicopters a long time ago, my first bird was a Thunder Tiger Raptor 30 with Nitro motor. I practiced on the sim every day for hours, but also got out there and hovered it for a good month because I was afraid of crashing it. Well, even while hovering it I crashed a few times, so I said if Im gonna crash while hovering, I might as well try to fly the darned thing. So one day, I started in a hover, yawed it right, and climbed out of a hover into a left hand pattern. The flight was scary, but I was always 100% in control and brought it back in to a hover and landed without crashing. I thought to myself, "You could have done this on day one and been flying the whole time." Flying was lot more fun than hovering.

Moral of the story, you wont know until you try, and a sim is good practice but alot harder than flying the real thing. Find a friend and go fly it!

 

[SteveT]

There are thousands of mavics out there now and the percentage of them having problems is low. If you remove all the problems that are due to pilot error, my guess would be around 2% or less manufacturing errors. Just learn from everything on this site and then fly it. You will be amazed as I was.

 

[Anthony Viscomi]

You are doing the right thing by reading some of the posts on this site. Now you need to take what you learned (do's & don'ts) and get out there and fly your Mavic. 80% of flying DJI drones is common sense and not "rocket science". You notice that over 75% of the Mavics that seem to just "fly away" or get lost always have the same type of story behind the cause. Range/distance test, flying from a boat, flying over 30 story buildings, Sport Mode...you get what I'm talking about?

 

[motard]

90% of problems is pilot error. An other factor, because of Mavic portability , many people like me buy one, with zero experience with drones. Because of that, errors happen frequently. Top machine, don't look back, buy one.

 

[RobertD]

There are so many Mavics in the hands of novice pilots, there are bound to be many "failures and faults". If you are new to the hobby, any drone will be a challenge and you will eventually crash. Plan for the inevitable and fly as much as you can. Have fun!

 

[SteelFlyer]

Fear not, the Mavic is very forgiving and stable. Make sure you understand the settings, get good gps signal then fly. Stay close until you get the feel of it. The beauty of an advanced bird like this is that once you let off the controls it stops and hovers and gives you time to think.


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[SkyRider]

I have to agree with all of the positive comments. While I used to fly the real thing, I was also a newbie and the Mavic was my first drone. I read the manual thoroughly, watched a number of YouTube videos, and went out on a nice calm morning away from everything, and started flying. First dozen or so flights were very close on in, flying at a moderate pace, and practiced maneuvering until I got a good feel for it. Then, and only then, did I let the leash out and get adventurous. I couldn't be happier. Take your time, get help if you want it, but go fly.

 

[razors]

I would test it now to make sure you don't have video issues. You can simply just walk about with Mavic in your hands recording video with motors off obviously.

There seems to be lots of video issues unfortunately.

I just sent my Mavic back. However like others said above its likely a small percentage of issues overal.

Par for the course .

 

[Glen e]

You are having what I call "forum hypochondria". It is happened on every site that I've ever been on that involves a hobby. And that is, people read too much bad stuff, not realizing that people only post here if they're having a problem. So it looks like everybody under the sun is having a problem. Plus this forum is world wide, so it magnifies the people that have problems. There are many that are not having any problem at all. What you're experiencing is totally normal.

 

[Anthonyk]

I wish people that are not having issues would take the time to post. I know with all the Mavics sold not all have issues.


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[cheekymonkeyman]

The only problem I've experienced is jealousy from my wife.... this thing is amazing! Best Buy in years and no issues whatsoever.... agree wholeheartedly with advice about finding a big open space away from observers and keeping it close in until comfortable.... also don't panic when those inevitable things happen like losing sight when you look away for a moment.... stay calm... look at the map if you lose position and most importantly of all land when the 30% battery warning goes off.... that alarm which keeps beeping can cause onset of fear in itself!


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[stafvh]

There are thousands of mavics out there now and the percentage of them having problems is low. If you remove all the problems that are due to pilot error, my guess would be around 2% or less manufacturing errors. Just learn from everything on this site and then fly it. You will be amazed as I was.

Not in Belgium there are. Still not available. Should be any day now. Was on the verge of buying one. The problem posts I read here, as well as the stringent regulations in my country, made me change my mind. 1500 euro remains a lot of money, not to be spend lightheartedly. I will"try" to wait for the Mavic 2, with sideways and backward collision detection, a less fragile gimbal , better image quality/check , as well as a crash free app for Android. ( too stupid that only the IOS app works as it should)...[emoji6]

 

[AC Flyer]

Only you can decide if the Phantom 4 is better for you. But I can tell you this: I've experienced zero problems with my Mavic Pro. It's an amazing machine. And the portability is a HUGE part of appeal - you can easily take it with you so many places, easily. You simply won't get that from a Phantom.

 

[fizzlefish]

I do not have my Mavic yet but I have owned several Phantoms and built multiple copters with the Naza units. Only one loss of control happened to me and it was with a phantom i bought that came out of a lake that I got working again. While I did lose control in GPS mode I immediately knocked it into atti and gained control again. I think it is very very important for people to learn to fly in atti and or manual in case the copter decides the GPS is giving it bad information and wants to take off. When i fly race quads I keep my failsafe switch ready at all times to drop it from the sky if i lose control. It sounds like your fear is keeping you from enjoying your model aircraft. You need to just go out and fly safe with it until you feel comfortable. You can play a simulator all day but it will only get you so far.

 

[Wombat55]

I just got my Mavic a week ago...and maybe I spend too much time on this site...because all I ever read about is people having problems.

I don't plan to fly my Mavic fi a couple more months. I bought a flightlife simulator, and practice in that. I also bout a ton of accessories. I hate to give up before starting, but this site makes me think maybe I should have gone with the Phantom 4?

Am I just worried about nothing?...or should I try to return everything while I can?

Sorry... but it's my first drone and I don't want to report a horror story with it.


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I think that you're overthinking things. The Mavic is easy to fly. It's much easier to fly than a simple, inexpensive quadcopter that doesn't have GPS and which you have to manually compensate for wind conditions. And the Mavic is much, much easier to fly than an RC airplane with which you have to be constantly making split-second, real-time decisions on which way to turn in order to avoid stalling or hitting the ground or flying out of the range of your controller. If you start getting overwhelmed with decision-making when flying the Mavic, normally all you have to do is let go of the control sticks and let the Mavic just hover still in the air while you figure out what to do. In fact, the Mavic is so easy to control that I'm not even sure if controlling it should be dignified with the words "piloting" or "flying". To me, it's more like operating an elevator in the sky that can go up or down, left or right, and forwards or backwards.

 

[Wauwatosa Drone]

I sure appreciate everyone's encouragement. I do think I have been overwhelming myself with reading all the problems. It was simply a thought, that maybe a bought a technology too early in its release, which is why I was asking if I made a mistake...and should have purchased a Phantom which has worked out all the bugs.

I mentioned waiting a couple months because I understand you should not fly in cold weather. We have. Nice weekend coming up, but don't want to take a chance with my new hobby doing something it's not supposed to, do to cold weather.

In any case, I'm going to practice ice with my computer simulator, and venture out in a month or two when the weather is better. I did by the DJI care policy, so if I have any issues, I hope they will take care of them promptly.

Thanks for all the positive comments. I will keep my Mavic.


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