Flying in Banaue rice terraces.

[jwilson]

I'm at the Banaue rice terraces now. I have my mavic 3 pro, and my new refurbished mini 3 pro. Got the mini 3 pro to work after doing a firmware update. Only flew it a little, on the street, in front of the hotel. I could actually fly from the hotel's restaurant. It has an open window, and I was able to get enough satellites. But I don't know if I will risk it.
Flew two batteries with the mavic 3 pro. No way you can get good video staying below 400 feet. I had to fly to the maximum altitude, and I still wasn't able to get above the highest mountains. I was hoping it would let me fly to 3,000 feet, but it wouldn't. No airplanes or choppers here, but their are thin wires streched across the terraces, that are hard to see. Anyway, good first day. Maybe I can put a clip on YouTube.

 

[jwilson]

Almost lost my mini 3 pro after 2 flights. I was flying real low, trying to get a shot of a guy plowing a field with a rototiller. All of a sudden, the drone was going all over the place. Obstacle avoidance was on. But I'm not really familiar, with which directions it works with the mini 3 pro. Finally it recovered. Then I tried to fly it slowly up, to avoid everything. I have to turn obstacle avoidance off to get through the window. I wasn't watching the drone, and almost hit a old lantern hanging down from the ceiling. I guess when OA is off, you should watch the drone, not your screen. After it landed, I checked the propellers, and there was what seemed to be spider web material on one propeller. It wasn't letting me set cruise control on a button. Does the mini 3 pro have cruise control?

 

[jwilson]

Here are two videos.

 

[jwilson]

Near crash is at 1:45. Just watched the crash in slow motion. It looks like I may have been ascending, and hit the pedestrian suspension bridge. So the question is, why can't the mini 3 pro have all around obstacle avoidance like the mavic 3 does? And if I did hit a steel bridge with the propellers, it's shocking that it didn't crash, and the propellers weren't even damaged.

 

[jwilson]

Flew up to 3,280 feet for the first time ever today. I'm more than 50 km from any airport. I would think decending would use a lot less battery. Will post video later.

So when i first hooked every thing up, it said inconsistent firmware. I was 15 minutes from my hotel, and had no internet. I was really pissed. So I updated anyway, and it worked. Very strange.

 

[jwilson]

Flew up to 3,280 feet for the first time ever today. I'm more than 50 km from any airport. I would think decending would use a lot less battery. Will post video later.

So when i first hooked every thing up, it said inconsistent firmware. I was 15 minutes from my hotel, and had no internet. I was really pissed. So I updated anyway, and it worked. Very strange.

Leaving Banaue tomorrow. Going to Baguio tomorrow for two nights. Good drone flying place. Already got the airport unlocked. Flew with all three apps today. Fly, Dronelink and Litchi beta. All worked ok. Seems like mini pro 3 had no cruise control, and won't let you go up to 3,000 feet. Flew one waypoint mission with fly, but didn't work good. So much elevation differences, that you need to manually control the gimbal, but you can't with fly.

 

[jwilson]

Took van from Banaue to Baguio. 7 hours. The most scenic ride I've ever takin! If you drove it with a private car, and could stop, and fly your drone as much as you wanted, you could go through 100 batteries. Huge mountains, huge valleys, rivers with giant white rocks in them, pine trees. Just unbelievable!

 

[jwilson]

Flew through some clouds in Banaue at 3,000 feet. I wanted to see if the clouds would affect the drone. All it did, is say low visibility, fly with caution. I actually think DJI should increase the maximum altitude you can fly, because you can get really nice video at higher altitudes. This observation deck I flew from, was 4,400 feet high, so when i went up to 3, 200 feet, I was actually at 7, 600 feet above sea level. I never got a high wind warning, all the time I was there, even though it was very windy at the observation tower.

 

[Rockowe]

WOW What a Fabulous trip -
Thanks for documenting it so Well....

Really felt your Pain at those near crashes -...
The 400 ft limit - (For this just start higher on a Mountain and fly down)

Thanks for Sharing jw