Hello everyone,
New guy here from St. Charles, MO, which is a suburb of St. Louis. I actually grew up in central Pennsylvania but moved to Missouri back in '95 to continue my aviation career.
I'm a 50 something commercial pilot that grew up flying r/c airplanes and helicopters. I decided to switch gears a bit and recently purchased a Mavic Pro Platinum. I'm hoping to use it to take photos and videos of my wife and kids while we're camping/fishing and vacationing. Family stuff......
Holy cow these things are incredible! Compared to r/c airplanes, and especially the collective pitch helicopters, the drones are incredibly stable and easy to fly (relative). Hovering with the drone vs hovering a cp helicopter are two entirely different animals, lol.
I have so much to learn about all the various modes. I've been watching tons of tutorials and reading on this forum. One of my biggest priorities is making a pre-flight checklist. I've already made a rookie mistake on my 3rd flight and managed to turn on the drone before I removed the gimbal lock. Geez that's frustrating! I purchased an Aterox gimbal lock and cover (it's a one-piece unit). Tonight I modified it so hopefully I won't make the same mistake twice. Let me know what you think...
So far, I'm running with an iPad Mini 4 on a MavMount 3.0 and it works great. I tried using my iPhone 6 but the phone battery only lasted about 30 minutes before the battery died. I have the dreaded old Apple battery.
Anyhow, just wanted to check-in and say hello. I'm looking forward to soaking up as much info as I can from you guys and gals.
Wilkie
New guy here from St. Charles, MO, which is a suburb of St. Louis. I actually grew up in central Pennsylvania but moved to Missouri back in '95 to continue my aviation career.
I'm a 50 something commercial pilot that grew up flying r/c airplanes and helicopters. I decided to switch gears a bit and recently purchased a Mavic Pro Platinum. I'm hoping to use it to take photos and videos of my wife and kids while we're camping/fishing and vacationing. Family stuff......
Holy cow these things are incredible! Compared to r/c airplanes, and especially the collective pitch helicopters, the drones are incredibly stable and easy to fly (relative). Hovering with the drone vs hovering a cp helicopter are two entirely different animals, lol.
I have so much to learn about all the various modes. I've been watching tons of tutorials and reading on this forum. One of my biggest priorities is making a pre-flight checklist. I've already made a rookie mistake on my 3rd flight and managed to turn on the drone before I removed the gimbal lock. Geez that's frustrating! I purchased an Aterox gimbal lock and cover (it's a one-piece unit). Tonight I modified it so hopefully I won't make the same mistake twice. Let me know what you think...
So far, I'm running with an iPad Mini 4 on a MavMount 3.0 and it works great. I tried using my iPhone 6 but the phone battery only lasted about 30 minutes before the battery died. I have the dreaded old Apple battery.
Anyhow, just wanted to check-in and say hello. I'm looking forward to soaking up as much info as I can from you guys and gals.
Wilkie
