DJI Mavic, Air and Mini Drones
Friendly, Helpful & Knowledgeable Community
Join Us Now

Considering MM for moto touring

Rog42

Member
Joined
Dec 4, 2017
Messages
10
Reactions
8
Age
56
G'day friendly fliers,

I've been using DJI's for moto touring/vlogging since the Spark in 2017. The Spark fit in my jacket pocket and the remote in a tank bag. Super easy to stop, fly, shoot, land, and travel almost without removing gloves

Alas I lost the Spark in a wakeboard towing, shooting, reverse incident. So naturally I upgraded to the Pro 1. Great drone, especially for battery life, video quality, speed and noise. Still portable but not as easy on the road as the Spark.

So when the Air came on the market naturally I snapped it up. Alas I fly the Pro much more than the Air. Having to calibrate the compass is a real b*tch every time I fly, and for the size, the inconvenience factor is worse than the Pro. Also, I just can't get distance on the Air compared to Ocusync.

Now the Mini looks to have many of the right attributes. Size, weight, legality, battery life (!!!) Missing some, but not critical (video quality, ocusync)

My questions are:
* Do people have to calibrate the compass regularly as on the Air?
* How good/bad is the range? Compared to the Spark, Air, Pro?
* Do you reckon I could launch, fly, shoot, and land on a motorbike without dismounting, doffing gloves helmet etc?
* On a scale of 1 - My favourite drone ever!!! Where does the Mini rate?

Thanks for your opinions [emoji41]

Rxlii
 
as the MM is so new many of us me included ,have not had much chance to get any meaningful flight time in mainly weather conditions at the moment
i can say that you would probably have to remove your gloves to get the MM airborne and your bike might affect the compass if you were still sitting on it
it is very portable, has a good flight time for its size, and for what it is a reasonable video capability
 
Thanks for the response. I figured there's not be many miles on the bird. But then I knew the Mavic Air wasn't "up to snuff" in about two flights. Ok. Maybe three [emoji57]

But first impressions are all I'm looking for at this stage, and I really respect yours, ta.

I'll be honest, the 30 min batt life is worth the dip in video quality and lack of sensors. But if I can't fly beyond 500m and/or have to recalibrate, that's going to be a show stopper.
 
  • Like
Reactions: old man mavic
I don't have enough flight time with the MM to offer any advice here. One of the factors in my purchase was how easy this could be stored on the motorcycle. I got the fly more combo that came with a case, but I may pick up a case that holds just the remote and MM for bike rides.

I'll try to do some riding and flying over the weekend and report back.
 
Thanks Blueghost. I look forward to checking out the video/photos

Here are a couple from my adventures. The first few from N Ireland and Eire your. A couple from Truk Lagoon (diving) all on the Spark

The rest from home (Syd Australia) and a tour in Wales on the Air

Cheers
Rog
16ed5d2ed61ef36ed700c50cbc4221b2.jpg
b3c228bca66e3ac5bc0fe8d8f8242d2e.jpg
ffdcfe91bba87e2c8045d565cd462edf.jpg
42bbef7a43412083dafedb65923de094.jpg
eb23084673c29d1de20b51f0ce5f4308.jpg
06eef518743eb5290eb1b33316d110f6.jpg
6fa37c43828ededa813addd992137e3a.jpg
16fb5604d3048e9614d829706c361eab.jpg
816b3ac379f1f2ae736ab4a7fba3f548.jpg
17ff52f22b21cba34a40ba589ab0de62.jpg
99decb7cbbefc7cef45ebb17523f79a0.jpg
e61755ee2ef9febd84807946bc0590c8.jpg
 
G'day friendly fliers,

I've been using DJI's for moto touring/vlogging since the Spark in 2017. The Spark fit in my jacket pocket and the remote in a tank bag. Super easy to stop, fly, shoot, land, and travel almost without removing gloves

Alas I lost the Spark in a wakeboard towing, shooting, reverse incident. So naturally I upgraded to the Pro 1. Great drone, especially for battery life, video quality, speed and noise. Still portable but not as easy on the road as the Spark.

So when the Air came on the market naturally I snapped it up. Alas I fly the Pro much more than the Air. Having to calibrate the compass is a real b*tch every time I fly, and for the size, the inconvenience factor is worse than the Pro. Also, I just can't get distance on the Air compared to Ocusync.

Now the Mini looks to have many of the right attributes. Size, weight, legality, battery life (!!!) Missing some, but not critical (video quality, ocusync)

My questions are:
* Do people have to calibrate the compass regularly as on the Air?
* How good/bad is the range? Compared to the Spark, Air, Pro?
* Do you reckon I could launch, fly, shoot, and land on a motorbike without dismounting, doffing gloves helmet etc?
* On a scale of 1 - My favourite drone ever!!! Where does the Mini rate?

Thanks for your opinions [emoji41]

Rxlii
Hey, I’ve had quite a couple of compass calibrations, but I was at a disused ship yard with lots of iron works and sea defences around, not as bad as my MA.
Managed to launch while sat on my mountain bike.
1200m range test (UK CE version).
I’m enjoying it more than my MA, more relaxed with flight times and significant reduction in noise.
 
Thanks. I wish I knew someone local so I could go amd fly with them to test out whether its worth the plunge
 
  • Like
Reactions: 308hjute
I wish I knew someone local so I could go amd fly with them to test out whether its worth the plunge

You may want to attend a local Sydney area drone MeetUp group. I did the same when I first flew my Mini here in my area in California. There were a quite a few people wanting to help new drone owners, and the most prevalent new drone was the Mavic Mini. Here’s a group I found in your area, with an event coming up this weekend: Drones and drinks (Sydney, Australia). And here’s a Sydney group who flies indoors, so you’re almost sure to see a few Minis wearing their prop guards: Sydney Indoor Drone and R/C (Sydney, Australia).

To address a few of your questions, I have spent a Saturday just flying from one place to another, often with dozens of miles in between, and I don’t recall needing to calibrate the compass every time. Some would say it’s good to calibrate every new location, but I usually wait till Go Fly app tells me to calibrate. My Mavic Pro seems to need more compass calibration, seemingly every new site.

As for distance, I’m not trying to make our ‘distance leaderboard’, so I keep it within eyesight. I have however been able to capture spectacular canyon views from around 800m distance. The Mini could certainly take similar pictures to what you’ve shared, with surprisingly very good results.

And I’ll agree with our gentleman friend from Wales, in that you may get compass errors launching from your motorcycle. You’ll want to pack a portable launchpad, or whatever makeshift pad for launching several feet away. You could then either land on the pad, or hand-catch, which seems quite simple with the Mini’s size.
 
  • Like
Reactions: old man mavic
I don't have experience yet taking the MM on to bike tours, but that's what I definetly plan to do this summer. During my flights around the house in the last month I had a couple of compass calibration requests but it's quickly done. No big deal. Picking up a stable GPS environment sometimes takes some time though (2-3 min). If in an authorization zone, unlocking may also take some time until you get the menu in the app to do so. Bottom line: perfectly suited. Would suggest to buy the small bags available on AZ or AE, I have one for the MM and one for the RC. Good protection to transport, in pocket as well as e.g. in Top Case.
Have fun.
 
  • Like
Reactions: pelagic_one
I have a spark, a Mavic mini and a pro 2. I have been flying drones for about 10 years. While I love the pro, I always hesitate to airborne so much money, especially when I want to take risks (I never crashed my DJI, not even broke a prop - crashed a lot in my early years with homemade drones)... I am very relaxed flying spark and mini in wind and taking risks. Spark with FCC hack has more range and mini has a better video quality 2.7K and much longer flight time. If I have to find the mini drawbacks, I would say range and dji fly app. To me, the mini is the perfect motorbike drone. You can see my spark and mini footage on glambert7777 YouTube channel: glambert7777
 
  • Like
Reactions: pelagic_one
Lycus Tech Mavic Air 3 Case

DJI Drone Deals

New Threads

Forum statistics

Threads
130,588
Messages
1,554,140
Members
159,592
Latest member
MaxRichu