Hey

[Mike_B]

Hey, all and thank you for allowing me on here!
I'm a 66 y/o operator in north-central AZ (44809 flyer, don't have my 107 yet, but working on it).
We currently have a wildfire burning south of us and I can't fly because the present NOTAM/TFR extends to well north of me into the city right now (it includes my home area). I was able to do a short photo flight the other day because, at that time, the northern edge of the TFR was about a mile south of me at that point and the tankers hadn't flown all day, so I went up to about 350' agl and got a couple pics of the smoke, then came back down; within about a half hour after I landed, though, they were routing the tankers almost directly over my place to and from the fire area, so I couldn't fly again. Granted, they were most likely at/above 500' agl, but I didn't feel comfortable going back up again because of that.
Pics show what they're flying (one type) and also the pics I was able to get before they started flying again. One was taken with my phone from our local ham radio club station, located near the airport (LAANC authorization for only 50' agl there, because it's almost in a direct line with the approach/departure paths of the runways).

 

[dirkclod]

Welcome to Mavic Pilots .
I hope you will find our site helpful and look forward to any input , photo's/video's you might post .
Don't be shy and ask anything if you can't find it by searching
and stay safe..

 

[Ned Bogan]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

 

[MA2 317]

Hello from the Crossroads of America Mike_B

Welcome to the Forum.

 

[wjkrysak]

Welcome to the forum. We look forward to your participation and more of your view of the world.

 

[Mike_B]

The friend who gave me the MP had to buy another one for himself, because he had this one out on a 5 mile BVLOS flight and managed to get it back safely - after overriding several critical battery auto landing attempts - with only 3% battery remaining.
Never crashed or even landed hard, landed normally, but then he tried getting into the software/firmware and disabling the critical battery auto-land function (unsuccessfully) and for some reason, it wouldn't respond to his controller, and even his computer wouldn't recognize it, so he bought another one and gave me this one.
I downloaded the DJI Assistant 2 for Mavic Pro, connected it to my computer and it recognized it! The program allowed me to calibrate the forward and bottom optical sensors, and I did a compass calibration on it, but there weren't any FW updates available for it (that I know of).
Flies well, I'm pleasantly suprprised at how very tolerant it is of even moderate winds (see my profile picture), but I can't get any camera feed from it. Gimbal works fine both from the wheel and the 5-way button. My friend said that he had removed the WiFi module and lost the cables from it; could that be the reason for the no camera feed problem? If I replace the WiFi module (going to send it to Rekt Drones in PHX), would that help?

 

[old man mavic]

welcome to the forum

 

[EsaT]

Thumbs up for responsible flying.

The friend who gave me the MP had to buy another one for himself, because he had this one out on a 5 mile BVLOS flight and managed to get it back safely - after overriding several critical battery auto landing attempts - with only 3% battery remaining.
Never crashed or even landed hard, landed normally, but then he tried getting into the software/firmware and disabling the critical battery auto-land function (unsuccessfully) and for some reason, it wouldn't respond to his controller, and even his computer wouldn't recognize it...

Drone must have thought that this isn't going to end well for me unless I get new pilot...

 

[Mike_B]

Thumbs up for responsible flying.


Drone must have thought that this isn't going to end well for me unless I get new pilot...

BVLOS is never "responsible", especially if it's 5 MILES out!

 

[Gagey52]

Welcome to the forum from the outback of Australia. Look forward to your input on the forum.
Regards

 

[Mike_B]

Welcome to the forum from the outback of Australia. Look forward to your input on the forum.
Regards

Thanks, Gagey52, appreciate it, mate.

 

[Gagey52]

Thanks, Gagey52, appreciate it, mate.

I thought Az was having a heap of snow there at the moment, now it’s fires, stay safe, I know how treacherous those wild fires can be.
Regards

 

[Skywatcher2001]

Welcome to the forum . . . whenever I see those fires I cringe! Stay safe my friend.

 

[Mike_B]

I thought Az was having a heap of snow there at the moment, now it’s fires, stay safe, I know how treacherous those wild fires can be.
Regards

Nah, we got very little snow this past winter - we're at ~5300' MSL (~1615.4m), and the most we got in one storm was an inch or two. Last year, however, we had two 'freak' storms pass thru and they dumped over 27" (~68.5cm) total!

 

[Mike_B]

Welcome to the forum . . . whenever I see those fires I cringe! Stay safe my friend.

Taken from about 106m above my place just before they extended the TFR to cover half the main part of the city. The "Crook's Fire" is currently about 16 km south of my location.

Crooks Fire Information - InciWeb the Incident Information System

for Crooks Fire

inciweb.nwcg.gov

 

[Kendallfordguy]

Welcome from Wisconsin!

 

[careless]

Welcome from Kentucky, USA

 

[Laborous]

Welcome to the forum from the beautiful woods of Maine!
Fly safe and stay safe!

 

[Drone Master]

Welcome to Mavic Pilots! Enjoy the forum!

 

[Aerial-Pixel]

Hey, all and thank you for allowing me on here!
I'm a 66 y/o operator in north-central AZ (44809 flyer, don't have my 107 yet, but working on it).
We currently have a wildfire burning south of us and I can't fly because the present NOTAM/TFR extends to well north of me into the city right now (it includes my home area). I was able to do a short photo flight the other day because, at that time, the northern edge of the TFR was about a mile south of me at that point and the tankers hadn't flown all day, so I went up to about 350' agl and got a couple pics of the smoke, then came back down; within about a half hour after I landed, though, they were routing the tankers almost directly over my place to and from the fire area, so I couldn't fly again. Granted, they were most likely at/above 500' agl, but I didn't feel comfortable going back up again because of that.
Pics show what they're flying (one type) and also the pics I was able to get before they started flying again. One was taken with my phone from our local ham radio club station, located near the airport (LAANC authorization for only 50' agl there, because it's almost in a direct line with the approach/departure paths of the runways).

Welcome to Mavic Pilots from Dayton Ohio USA! Fly safe and have fun!