It's hard to make the jump.

[3rdof5]

I was wondering if someone has a DJI mini pro 3 that lives in the northern WV. area? I would love to see it fly and how it performs. The drone I fly is a phantom 4, but looking in to get a mini pro 3.

Im curious @WV. Rootman , btw hello, saw you many times in Phantom Pilots, why are you going from a P4 to a mini? The Mavic mini 3 pro is a very nice little drone, a friend of mine has it and we have both flown it. Well worth the price. But, both of us being Phantom owners, and knowing the stability that comes with larger aircraft, why not just get a Mavic 3? I finally decided to upgrade from my P3P and although I do love the mini, I had to still go big and get the Mavic 3 Classic.

 

[WV. Rootman]

Im curious @WV. Rootman , btw hello, saw you many times in Phantom Pilots, why are you going from a P4 to a mini? The Mavic mini 3 pro is a very nice little drone, a friend of mine has it and we have both flown it. Well worth the price. But, both of us being Phantom owners, and knowing the stability that comes with larger aircraft, why not just get a Mavic 3? I finally decided to upgrade from my P3P and although I do love the mini, I had to still go big and get the Mavic 3 Classic.

What do you mean by "stability"? The videos won't be stable?
I love flying my P 4, but as I said in my previous post, it is becoming very unstable with strange issues that keep coming up. I love flying and photography. I do it a lot. I need to be getting new batteries. I need to change the shells. I wonder if it will be able to upgrade to meet the new federal regulations. It just seeems to have seen better days. On my mountain top I fly with little worry. Most my flying is away from any towns. Not hard to do in WV. Not much I could harm if it took a turn for the worse. Some days it won't go higher then the take off. I have brought it home with a frozen/upside down screen or no screen at all. Now it won't record video, but still takes pictures. It works great as a fishing drone. I would like something I can fly on my up coming vacation to the southwest. I also would like a drone that would be a little more trustworthy in a more populated area. Stealth is a good point also. I always try to be invisible when I do any of my hobbies, metal detecting or flying. Many people in general just look for a reason to gripe as some have done without reason and having nothing that pertains to my post.
Big boys have expensive hobbies. Yes I would like the best. I'm retired and debt free, but I have to ballance price, quality, use and my wife opinion. That's why I am debt free and still married. I been married only once and I like to keep it that way

 

[3rdof5]

What do you mean by "stability"? The videos won't be stable?
I love flying my P 4, but as I said in my previous post, it is becoming very unstable with strange issues that keep coming up. I love flying and photography. I do it a lot. I need to be getting new batteries. I need to change the shells. I wonder if it will be able to upgrade to meet the new federal regulations. It just seeems to have seen better days. On my mountain top I fly with little worry. Most my flying is away from any towns. Not hard to do in WV. Not much I could harm if it took a turn for the worse. Some days it won't go higher then the take off. I have brought it home with a frozen/upside down screen or no screen at all. Now it won't record video, but still takes pictures. It works great as a fishing drone. I would like something I can fly on my up coming vacation to the southwest. I also would like a drone that would be a little more trustworthy in a more populated area. Stealth is a good point also. I always try to be invisible when I do any of my hobbies, metal detecting or flying. Many people in general just look for a reason to gripe as some have done without reason and having nothing that pertains to my post.
Big boys have expensive hobbies. Yes I would like the best. I'm retired and debt free, but I have to ballance price, quality, use and my wife opinion. That's why I am debt free and still married. I been married only once and I like to keep it that way

Sorry, I replied forgetting that your P4 is having issues. As far as stability goes I was referring to the aircraft being able to handle windy conditions, which a larger aircraft does better. But you mention stealth, in that case the mini is the way to go, it's MUCH quieter and is also obviously smaller. Harder to see which can be good or bad depending on the situation. Cheers!

 

[WV. Rootman]

Sorry, I replied forgetting that your P4 is having issues. As far as stability goes I was referring to the aircraft being able to handle windy conditions, which a larger aircraft does better. But you mention stealth, in that case the mini is the way to go, it's MUCH quieter and is also obviously smaller. Harder to see which can be good or bad depending on the situation. Cheers!

The wind plays on my mind a lot. I live on a mountain ridge. I have had challenges and fun playing with the wind. It gets windy fast as I go up in altitude. Some home have wind generators here. I have solar, but thinking about getting a wind generator to supplement. More $$$. Lol. I realized I won't be flying at my place all the time. I appreciate your input. Thanks.

 

[Stephen.s1]

I was wondering if someone has a DJI mini pro 3 that lives in the northern WV. area? I would love to see it fly and how it performs. The drone I fly is a phantom 4, but looking in to get a mini pro 3.

FWIW, As a 90 year old drone pilot who owns and flys a P-4 pro and who now is new to a mini pro 3. I'm looking for storage space for the Phantom . The Mini is a fine flying bird that's very very quiet. The controller with the built in screen is worth the price of admission alone. I'm a few miles down the road from WV (CT here). That's about the best I can do for you.

 

[Chrislaf]

@WV. Rootman what P4 do you have - the standard P4 or the P4 Pro? If you have the standard version then the Mini 3 Pro will be a nice upgrade in terms of camera features and quality. The Mini 3 Pro can handle a pretty stiff wind as many YouTube reviews have shown but as I have mentioned above take-off and landings can be a bit more trickier than with a heavier drone in gusty conditions unless you are willing to hand launch/land.

Lots has been mentioned in reviews and on the forum about how quiet the Mini 3 Pro is and it is definitely the quietest drone I have ever flown, but that combined with its size makes it hard to locate in the sky even at relatively short distances away that would be well within VLOS with a larger drone like the P4. So, my VLOS is greatly decreased because of size and sound for the Mini 3 Pro.

Chris

 

[WV. Rootman]

I have the P4 standard. Photography is a Passion so I would have loved the P4 pro. My style of flying is strictly looking at the screen. I've tried watching the drone but my depth perception isn't that good It would seem with some of the bad results I've had. Lol. I think I'm really good at flying it by the screen only. If I get the mini 3 pro I'll probably get the adapter to hold my ipad I love that big screen.

 

[Chrislaf]

So you will get the package with the RC-N1 controller. It’s a nice controller. I used it briefly as it came with my Mavic 3. I have since upgraded to a controller with a built in screen (RC Pro) but still have the RC-N1. I liked the RC-N1 controller better than my Spark controller because the display device sat above the controller like my Phantom 3.

Chris

 

[WV. Rootman]

I'm going to be offline for a while I'm spending the day with my four-year-old grandson. I'm gonna take him in the Jeep down mud lick hollow. He loves it. There are 13 water crossings with no bridges.

 

[vindibona1]

You are right, my Bad, I got wrapped around your boast of being able to "push a Mini 3 over open farm land, with a few trees in front of me is just under 5000' ."

I should have used the words Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) and I also should have written about Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS). Even Superman with his "X-Ray Eyes" cannot see a Mini 3 out to that distance. Even if your vision is acute enough to see that "little, bitty" dot on the horizon, you cannot see to fly it. You are in really flying FPV. At that distance you cannot see wires, cables, possibly other aircraft (ie: crop-dusters--you wrote "Farm Land…), all of which present dangers to people and property.

And then you boast again of flying even greater distances…

"With the use of strobes, with a dark sky I have kept my Mavic 2 pro within visual line of sight out to 10,000 feet without visual aids"

Yeah, a Strobe, if FAA Legal, (those "strobes" sold at hardware stores are just "blinkie, blinkie lights…" should be visible for 3-statue miles, but that is for others to see your drone, not some type of flying control device. At almost two-miles, the best you can hope for is that you do not fly in front of another strobe light on a tower, building, etc… and lose sight of your drone and cannot discriminate it from other lights on the horizon.

I do not care how you defend your flights out to that distance; you lose your video feed and you cannot tell which way your drone is facing; you crash your drone into an electrical wire or you have any type of accident and the FAA will have your "tuches" (Yiddish…).

As I've written in the past, "Just because you can, does not mean you should…"

Fly Safe!


View attachment 160956

ARC V's are rated at 3NM's. When you fly over water or 300'+ over open farmland there are no wires, trees aliens, etc. I wouldn't dare push my drones beyond what I could see them flying into. In terms of this past weekend, the nearest thing it could crash into was a mountain, way off in the distance... though bird strikes are always a possibility .

 

[Jug's Life]

I was wondering if someone has a DJI mini pro 3 that lives in the northern WV. area? I would love to see it fly and how it performs. The drone I fly is a phantom 4, but looking in to get a mini pro 3.

Im in Canada and I do lots of testing with the Mini 3 Pro if you are interested here

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[3rdof5]

My Mavic 3 Classic arrived today. Just charging it all up before first power up. For fun I compared to my P3P. Both big birds.

 

[WV. Rootman]

My Mavic 3 Classic arrived today. Just charging it all up before first power up. For fun I compared to my P3P. Both big birds.

A proud fleet.

 

[3rdof5]

Well unfortunately due to very cold weather I still haven't taken the new Mavic 3 Classic for a real flight outdoors but I have been learning alot playing inside the house. Updates and Registration, charging everything, labelling batteries, getting the proper SD cards in place, formatted and tested, and learning many of the features that the Mavic 3 has that the P3P didn't. First thing I Learned was turn Obstacle Avoidance off when indoors lol. No crashes though, and I have to say it's quieter and much more comfortable to fly indoors than any Phantom. Very stable bird. Excited to get it outside and spread her wings!

 

[WV. Rootman]

It would be hard to keep me indoors. What's a little cold weather? I'ld fly. Lol.

 

[3rdof5]

It would be hard to keep me indoors. What's a little cold weather? I'ld fly. Lol.

It will warm up to minus 5C tomrrow and will be sunny. You know what I will be doing...

 

[WV. Rootman]

I'm convinced on the m3p. I am never quick to buy anything. Car salesmen hate me.
I will buy a reconditioned one in a few days after I let it settle in a bit. I'll also use my Dji credits.

 

[WV. Rootman]

It will warm up to minus 5C tomrrow and will be sunny. You know what I will be doing...

Yeah, that's plenty warm. Lol. I have gloves with the fingers cut out for flying in the cold.

 

[3rdof5]

Yeah, that's plenty warm. Lol. I have gloves with the fingers cut out for flying in the cold.

I'll share the video of the first flight. The mini 3P is a great decision, you will love it!

 

[3rdof5]

Well I just got back home from the maiden flight. Temp was -9C in a mild breeze. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my reading glasses and my regular glasses are transitional and got so dark I could not see the screen on the remote so I couldn't play with any advanced flight modes. Sticks only lol.
No issues at all in flight, handles very differently than a Phantom, will take some getting used to. Two short flights, used RTH to come home and land on the first flight and it was flawless, landed dead center of my landing pad perfectly and softly. Second flight I landed manually to see how the landing protection would fight with me and there was no problem. I did test the recording in 4k 60fps but haven't reviewed it yet. Nothing worth looking at anyway. Just a test flight in the yard of the company I work at. I did notice the wind does affect it slightly more than my P3P but really not an appreciable difference.