First drone flight ever! (spoiler: and it survived ;) )

[mijac]

Finally on Saturday I was able to fly my MA for the first time. As I had never flown a drone before, "Beginner mode" was ON for most of the day and I was extra cautious.
As you may remember, I live in Iceland, so low temperatures and wind are the normal environment here. MA was constantly reminding me about those.
So... First battery was used for getting used to the controls and app. I had to calibrate compass and downward sensors.
Even if the conditions were not the best, I felt extremely comfortable flying the drone. It is as stable as if someone invisible would be holding it. The image quality is perfect, although I didnt play much with the settings on this regard.
It is (too) easy to get overconfident with the drone and do something stupid. DJI did a really good job with the hardware and software (as I software dev myself, I admire how they made something as complicated as flying a drone so easy).
I didnt fly too far away or high (wind was dangerous, in fact, the drone aborted an asteroid Quickshot for this reason), but still I felt hard to get used to the stick configuration (maybe due to playing videogames, sticks configuration for ascend/descend and forward/backward is counterintuitive). I will try different control modes next time.
I was also a bit concern about the noise level, and I have to tell you that once the drone is 10-20 meters away, the noise is barely noticeable. I cant compare to other drones, but I felt the noise level totally acceptable.

So overall, extremely happy with it. Powerful, easy to use, good battery duration (even with below zero temperatures) and fun to fly.

 

[synaesthesia]

Yeah I definitely agree the software on the Mavic Air (and presumably other DJI drones?) is excellent. I too initially launched with beginner mode on but that was turned off within 20 minutes - I definitely felt more confident flying mine for the first time than I should have felt and that was only after doing a couple of laps around a golf course. It surprises me that something as small as the Air can hold its position so well in the wind.

Again with the noise, I think that's largely the note it holds rather than the overall loudness and you're right, once it's moving away from you it's very easy to "not hear it". I was flying near(ish) other people who were aware and accepting of the fact I had a drone up in the air and it didn't really bother them once it was flying. Even the golfers shrugged it off and carried on playing.