Mavic Air 2 as a beginner's drone or Not?

[Meta4]

I have pondered upon this law about not being allowed to carry cargo. Do most countries make an exception when it comes to carrying fish bait?

If there are rules regarding carrying cargo, a couple of ounces of fish bait is never going to be classified as cargo.

 

[MA2 317]

Do most countries make an exception when it comes to carrying fish bait?

I have no idea, other than you might need a fishing license.

 

[elborak]

Make sure you acquire the bomb drop comptration on Ebay. It will scare the living hell out of the undesirables. To be warn there could be collateral damage if not pinpointed correctly.

He's already planning on pushing the range to the absolute limit; any additional payload will only make the situation worse.

 

[NewbieNewbie]

Meta 4 thank you for this.

The situation was that we need to get a vast range for surveillance of the farm, at least 8km away and 8km return.

Then one of the members said the MA2 can be hacked to FCC mode by using an iphone and mod flyapp (not sure yet what mod flyapp is), but this is the only reason why I am now looking online for a second hand iphone.

Without FCC boost, I would have simply wasted money and this would simply have been an expensive failure.

I hope it will not turn out to be a failure.

Thank you Meta 4 for all your excellent advice

Best wishes

 

[Meta4]

The situation was that we need to get a vast range for surveillance of the farm, at least 8km away and 8km return.

Then one of the members said the MA2 can be hacked to FCC mode by using an iphone and mod flyapp (not sure yet what mod flyapp is), but this is the only reason why I am now looking online for a second hand iphone.

It's unrealistic to expect to be able to fly 8 km out and back every flight.
You might sometimes when conditions are right, but it won't be possible to do it every time.

To attempt extreme range flights as a beginner would be tempting fate.
There are several things that could go wrong if you push things to the limit.
You will need a degree of experience to know how to prevent those things going wrong for you.

 

[jigsaw]

It's unrealistic to expect to be able to fly 8 km out and back every flight.
You might sometimes when conditions are right, but it won't be possible to do it every time.

This point must not be over looked. If you are able to fly 8km, you will need to turn around and fly straight back. I don't believe there will be time to visit and survey multiple stops along the way.

I think you are going to be very disappointed when you compare your results with your expectations.

 

[SpitFire]

Welcome from Chicago the Windy City.
I am turning 75 in February, Have two MP's, love flying them.
I think every thing was covered, just take it slow, baby steps, wide open spaces, no people, no trees, no wires, practice and more practice. Don't push any buttons, unless you are certain what the drone is going to do
especially look at RTH feature, its one of the most complex features of a DJI drone. There are many possible scenarios that could occur when
RTH is initiated. Carefully review the RTH section. I only use it for emergency, always fly VLOS, bring it home manually. Please let me know if this info was informative?

 

[NewbieNewbie]

SpitFire and​

jigsaw and​

Meta4​

Thank you for all your excellent advice.

Out of sheer fear (of losing over a thousand $), I will only fly it about 50 metres away when I start learning how to use this. I am too scared, therefore it might take me a month before I can even try the long range.

When I look at all the standard (not custom built) drones, they state the total distance of the MA2 being 18.5 km which exceeds all the others, therefore it would appear this is the best possible option under the circumstances and we have to accept that (given the budget limitations, together with compact size), this is all I could do. Now we have to see (eventually after practice), what will transpire in reality.

Therefore spitfire and jigsaw and Meta4 I highly appreciate all your advice (I have realized that the real learning will only start when it arrives - those famous word: This is not the end, it is not even the beginning of the end, but perhaps the end of the beginning. The famous words of a character that some would call a scoundrel.

Luckily we are blessed to be in the company of good people at this forum.
Thank you
Best wishes

 

[lee82gx]

General rule, your drone will prompt you to return home or initiate an automatic return home when it thinks there is just enough battery power to do so.

If you are flying in a straight line forward and back, many of those times you will have insufficient battery, no kidding.

Since I also have an mavic air 2, I can say with a high confidence that an 8km flight one way will have maybe a 20% chance of not making it back. If you have the slightest of head winds on the way back its almost 100% not reaching home. Dont forget if you stress your battery close to zero, it will last much less cycles than normal.

Long story short keep your flights below 5km.

 

[NewbieNewbie]

lee82gx i highly appreciate your words of wisdom. Have you used a battery extender on your MA2 ? May I ask how many cycles does the battery last?

Earlier there was someone who wrote something that made me think it is possible to actually see how many times a battery had been charged in the past (as in buying a second hand battery). Is this possible?

I had seen a video of a Mini 2 doing 5.5 km away and 5.5km return with a critical battery (11 km in total) , then I realized that I can't buy this model, and must choose a bigger model, hence the MA2.

May I say that it's extremely interesting that you say when one flies in a straight line forward and back to home, then one actually drains the battery more (I speak as a newbie here).

Thank you lee82gx
Best wishes

 

[lee82gx]

lee82gx i highly appreciate your words of wisdom. Have you used a battery extender on your MA2 ? May I ask how many cycles does the battery last?

Earlier there was someone who wrote something that made me think it is possible to actually see how many times a battery had been charged in the past (as in buying a second hand battery). Is this possible?

I had seen a video of a Mini 2 doing 5.5 km away and 5.5km return with a critical battery (11 km in total) , then I realized that I can't buy this model, and must choose a bigger model, hence the MA2.

May I say that it's extremely interesting that you say when one flies in a straight line forward and back to home, then one actually drains the battery more (I speak as a newbie here).

Thank you lee82gx
Best wishes

Somewhere inside the fly app, when your drone is powered up and connected to your rc you can see the battery no. Of times charged.

What I mean is that if you fly in a straight line, that is the maximum distance you can hope for. However, if the drone flies that much forward it logically needs to fly back as much. For a straight line return of 8.5km, expect an insufficient battery.

I have not used an extension battery connector clip in my ma2. It should be just as poor as the one I tried for my mp1 which is bad.

As a proclaimed newbie I can only say don't fly far. Take it to less than 5km. On a flat, rf clean terrain it suppose its hard to hit 6 anyway. When you reach 5km and turn back, you would've gain some experience on whether you can actually even hit 6,7 or 8 judging from the remaining battery capacity. It seems you are dead set on hitting 8km. Just be prepared to land halfway between start point and turn around point. When you emergency land, remember to turn the camera down and snap photos.

 

[Meta4]

I had seen a video of a Mini 2 doing 5.5 km away and 5.5km return ...

In all your scheming about long-range flying I don't think there has been any mention of terrain.
To keep signal you have to maintain a clear, unobstructed line of sight.
What's the terrain like where you are intending to fly?
Can you fly from a high point with a clear view of all the land around?

 

[NewbieNewbie]

Hi Meta4 and lee82gx

Thank you for the input.

I can't do long range flights as a newbie.

I will start off with 50 metres geofencing due to the inherent fear of crashing more than a $1000. But I hope in a couple of months I will have built up enough experience and confidence to test the longer distances. I just hope a natural disaster does not "block" the arrival of this drone in the post/courier.

The terrain is fairly flat but with trees and bush on the farm.

No mountains or hills on the farm.

One of the previous members said the FCC hack must be via the iphone and mod flyapp, but now when I look at the cost of a refurbished ipad mini 64GB with 512 MB RAM, but then it says 16 GB storage, I think this will cost less.

lee82gx and Meta is this ipad mini a better option than using an iphone? Can the ipad mini also zoom? In fact I do not even know if the iphone can zoom?

lee82gx and Meta4 I highly appreciate you (and everyone else) guiding me through these beginner steps.

Thank you

Best wishes

 

[lee82gx]

Ipad mini must be gen 5 onwards. Anything less and the cpu does not perform adequately.

Any phone / tablet can download the picture and pinch to zoom.

Even with my 1 year flying experience, long range flight is something that makes me sweat.

 

[NewbieNewbie]

lee82gx I highly appreciate you giving me than answer so that I can now proceed with buying the refurbished iphone 7. In fact I saw a cheap screen magnification device one can use to get a bigger image on one's phone (much cheaper than an ipad 5, LOL).
I just hope this FCC hack does not fail when this used MA2 arrives.
Thank you to you lee82gx and to everyone else.
Best wishes

 

[Mike EH]

Dear OP,

I bought and flew a cheaper drone last year for six very enjoyable months (Hubsan Zino 117S). Lots of people have had issues with the Zino drones, but my experience was if you treat them with care they will provide you with many hours of enjoyment. However, the chepaper zinos can be a bit sensitive over 0.5km in range, so I would definiatley buy a MA2 (which I will do this March) as you need to be confident of flying over longer distances. Even when you go beyond VLOS, the RTH function of the MA2 works really well and should keep your drone safe. As ever, RTFM over and over, minimise your risks (not flyin in trees, low over water, nery pylons etc) set a sensible RTH height,and you will be fine I am also 60 but really cant wait for the spring so i can fly the MA2; good luck