Mavic Air For my First Drone?

Jjjj · Feb 2, 2018

I would like feedback on whether the Mavic Air would be a good first drone for me. A little background on me I am an avid bike rider. I also love anything to do with flying, when I was young I flew RC airplanes. So I am considering joining the two hobbies - biking and drone flying.

My use case for the drone would be to carry it with me in my jersey back pocket on my road bike. Ride to a nice spot then fly the drone and take pictures/videos of my adventure. So now for my questions.

- Is the Mavic air a good drone for this mission?
- Will the follow me function work with my At&t IPhone 7 (read about issues with this cell phone)?
- if you have the controller do you need the iPhone 7 for follow me?
- Do you need the controller for follow me mode?
- Can the drone be set up to follow me and take video from different perspectives (behind or in front)?
- Can you combine modes. follow me for 45 seconds then end the video with boomerang or asteroid?

Thanks for any help/guidance
John

msinger · Feb 2, 2018

The Mavic Air does not include the Follow Me flight mode. It only has ActiveTrack. The difference is that ActiveTrack follows subjects visually and Follow Me follows them by tracking the GPS location of the mobile device.

Here's an overview of the ActiveTrack flight mode:

It's not possible to automatically combine flight modes, but you can manually switch them at any time during your flight.

While it's possible to fly without a remote controller, it'll limit the range to a height of 50 meters or a distance of 80 meters. Also, it's not as easy to control the Mavic Air and/or quickly take control if something doesn't go as expected.

DefaultIT · Feb 2, 2018

If you're serious about video, the Air is probably the best you're gonna do by a fair margin. I don't think there's currently any competition for this size/camera combo.

A friend of mine with no RC experience jumped in with a Mavic Pro and has managed well enough. I was able to prevent a few stumbles he'd have made on his own, and even so, his experience has certainly not been without incident.

For complete newcomers, my advice continues to be to start with an indoor mini like the inductrix/tiny whoop range to get used to multirotor flight control and orientation with minimal consequences. They're just easy to put a lot of air time on, and fun to hand over to friends without really worrying about bumping into stuff. Since you've had some experience on the sticks you'll probably be ok...just use the same precautions you would other RC craft and resist the temptation to rely on the tech to save your butt. Make sure you're registered and keeping tabs on FAA guidelines.

I would caution about storing in a pocket, though, you want to avoid keeping any tension on the props. Since DJI fitted rigid props on the MA, and generally uses a flight configuration in which the prop circles aren't coplanar, you can introduce balance problems (manifesting in shudder) if the props take a set from being bent for any length of time. If it were me, I'd use the soft shell case it comes with, stuffed in a hydration pack (I always have one biking anyway...tools/spares/snacks, etc).

Jjjj · Feb 2, 2018

I will consider a beginner drone. I have flown a drone a couple of times already. I had no problem controlling the drone, but flew it very much like an airplane. Additionally, I was very heads up ie... I did not use the the Ipad capability much. So I will research the best way to get started wit a drone. Maybe even a used Spark would be worth considering.

I already plan on using the soft case for the drone may put a large seat bag on my bike to carry it. This idea makes me a little sick as I hate putting anything on my Pinnarello except water bottles.

Does anyone have any experience using Active Track to take bike riding videos. I am only looking for brief videos of my rides, but I will be traveling somewhat fast. 17-22 mph is a typical cruise speed for me although I could slow down for the video.

tcope · Feb 2, 2018

Jjjj said:
I would like feedback on whether the Mavic Air would be a good first drone for me. A little background on me I am an avid bike rider. I also love anything to do with flying, when I was young I flew RC airplanes. So I am considering joining the two hobbies - biking and drone flying.

My use case for the drone would be to carry it with me in my jersey back pocket on my road bike. Ride to a nice spot then fly the drone and take pictures/videos of my adventure. So now for my questions.

- Is the Mavic air a good drone for this mission? Yes. Active Track is still not perfect but it's better then the Mavic Pro.

- Will the follow me function work with my At&t IPhone 7 (read about issues with this cell phone)?Yes. Active Track uses Air's camera to "visually" track the object. There is also Follow Me mode but that is not very good.

- if you have the controller do you need the iPhone 7 for follow me? Yes, to use the Follow Me mode, the phone needs to have GPS. Active Track does not need the phone. However, I'd _not_ recommend flying without the display device connected to the controller.

- Do you need the controller for follow me mode? You would be using wifi without it, which only has a max distance of about 300'. I'd not recommend not using the controller.

- Can the drone be set up to follow me and take video from different perspectives (behind or in front)? Using Active Track, yes. I'd not recommend using Active Track with the drone on the side as there is no collision avoidance. If you use the Mavic Air, it has collision avoidance on the back and front.

- Can you combine modes. follow me for 45 seconds then end the video with boomerang or asteroid? No.

Keep in mind, Active Track is not perfect. If something gets between the object and the drone, the drone may stop tracking. It also won't avoid all obstacles. Following from behind is _much_ more reliable.

Ian in London · Feb 2, 2018

Jjjj said:
I would like feedback on whether the Mavic Air would be a good first drone for me. A little background on me I am an avid bike rider. I also love anything to do with flying, when I was young I flew RC airplanes. So I am considering joining the two hobbies - biking and drone flying.

My use case for the drone would be to carry it with me in my jersey back pocket on my road bike. Ride to a nice spot then fly the drone and take pictures/videos of my adventure. So now for my questions.

- Is the Mavic air a good drone for this mission?
- Will the follow me function work with my At&t IPhone 7 (read about issues with this cell phone)?
- if you have the controller do you need the iPhone 7 for follow me?
- Do you need the controller for follow me mode?
- Can the drone be set up to follow me and take video from different perspectives (behind or in front)?
- Can you combine modes. follow me for 45 seconds then end the video with boomerang or asteroid?

Thanks for any help/guidance
John

I have a Susuki GSR 600, the Mavic Pro and the Mavic Air.
I've yet to do a follow-me session on the bike with either drone. To be honest, given the complete inability to use the remote when you're geared up for the bike, I would consider the Mavic Pro due to it having the 'Follow Me' mode, which uses the GPS position of the remote control rather than the vision-based tracking of an object.
This means you can set the Mavic Pro in Follow Me mode, put the controller in your pocket or case, then ride off.
The Mavic Air only has the vision-based Active Track, so if it does lose you, or worse, mistakes another passing motorbike for you, you may find the Air sailing off trying to follow the other bike...
Both modesalways keep the camera focussed on you from whatever perspective the drone is flying whilst trying to keep up. The sensors and resolution of the Pro and the Air cameras are the same. The AIR has a smaller focal length of 2.8, meaning it doesn't need the tap-to-focus, so all your shots will be in focus; the Mavic Pro has tap-to-focus and unfocussed video is not unheard of, especially if you're not viewing the control at all.

As you've said you're diving in new, the obvious tips are 1, concentrate on riding the bike, 2, concentrate on flying your drone, 3, ah...

So assuming 1 takes precedence, choose a remote area with no traffic and no trees!

Keep it rubber-side down

Cheers,
Ian

Jjjj · Feb 2, 2018

Great advice on keeping the rubber on the road. That is always job 1. The drone and video would not be on the priority list.

I would only use the drone for staged video in safe locations. Or while stopped.

I feel like the mavic pro is slightly too big. I think I would only use it on occasion.

Where as the mavic air could be used more regularly. Another use case for me is to ride to a spot fly a while then go home. It would be a nice break on my rides (30-60 miles us pretty normal for me).

The follow another bike Scenario is pretty scary. Does this happen frequently. Can you just pull the controller out and command the drone to return home.

I ride in very low traffic countrysides, but so do the other bike riders.

Ian in London · Feb 2, 2018

Jjjj said:
Great advice on keeping the rubber on the road. That is always job 1. The drone and video would not be on the priority list.

I would only use the drone for staged video in safe locations. Or while stopped.

I feel like the mavic pro is slightly too big. I think I would only use it on occasion.

Where as the mavic air could be used more regularly. Another use case for me is to ride to a spot fly a while then go home. It would be a nice break on my rides (30-60 miles us pretty normal for me).

The follow another bike Scenario is pretty scary. Does this happen frequently. Can you just pull the controller out and command the drone to return home.

I ride in very low traffic countrysides, but so do the other bike riders.

I think you may be over-estimating the size of the Mavic, but then I flew the (much) larger Phantom 3 for a year before getting the Mavic, and am still blown away at how transportable it is.
Sounds like you're aiming for the right shooting scenario. Regarding the possibilty of it following another bike, I'm simply thinking out loud here; I've defo not had experience or ever heard of that. I'm just saying that following a GPS signal will be less precise but safer overall, if that makes sense. Moving GPS can be many feet / yards out, but will always stay true. Active Track is precise, until it loses the target, then it fails completely.

I did a side by side size comparison of the Air and Mavic the other day here....
Cheers, Ian