My second structured training flight had four objectives:
1) Test sun shade, properly attached
2) Toggle between map and live view
3) Go to the rocks on the other side of the canyon
4) Point at home, then RTH
Almost got 'em all!
1) The sunshade works GREAT. Not perfect, but great. I'm actually learning about my Samsung Galaxy S20 Note at the same time I'm learning to fly the Mini-2, and I decided to check something. I did NOT have the brightness set to max. The S20 has a slider for brightness, starting with a "blue" range on the left, and then shifting to a "red" range as you get near max. It was only at the top of the blue. So now I have to find out what that red range means. If it just means that it eats battery power faster, I don't care. The little beast has excellent battery life. I just want to confirm that there's no risk of screen damage if I crank it to the top of the red.
2) AWESOME! It toggles effortlessly between the map view and the live view. If I zoom out the map view a bit, I can see just where the drone is relative to me, and which way it's pointed. As a bonus, I'm starting to integrate the information from me looking at it, what the live view tells me, what the map view tells me, and what I can *HEAR*. Even when I temporarily lose sight of it in the ground clutter or the bright sky, I can hear it from quite a distance, particular if I climb a bit to rev the engines up. Bonus #2: I started playing with the built-in zoom on the camera...works great. Bonus #3: The map view tracks all of your routes, and displays them!
3) This one got aborted. The other side of the canyon is way higher than my house. I got up to 350 ft elevation above my house, and I still see dirt if I look straight ahead. When I got to 600 ft distance, I figured that was far enough for this run. But that prompts a regulatory question: Is the 400 ft AGL restriction from the launch point, or relative to the actual AGL of the drone, where it is? It pretty much has to be AGL at the drone's location, or it wouldn't make any sense.
4) I decided to punch RTH first, and it rotated to face home all by itself. It still didn't follow the path I was expecting, but close enough.
Lesson learned: When the remote yells at you about low power in the drone, bring it back RIGHT NOW. I did that this time, but even still had only a bit over a minute left at touchdown.
Every time I fly, my sense of integration with the machine increases, as does my situational awareness....from the drone's point of view. It's still early in my training process, and I expect that integration to continue getting better quickly for a while.
Last flight for the day. Places to go, and people to see.
More tomorrow!
TCS
1) Test sun shade, properly attached
2) Toggle between map and live view
3) Go to the rocks on the other side of the canyon
4) Point at home, then RTH
Almost got 'em all!
1) The sunshade works GREAT. Not perfect, but great. I'm actually learning about my Samsung Galaxy S20 Note at the same time I'm learning to fly the Mini-2, and I decided to check something. I did NOT have the brightness set to max. The S20 has a slider for brightness, starting with a "blue" range on the left, and then shifting to a "red" range as you get near max. It was only at the top of the blue. So now I have to find out what that red range means. If it just means that it eats battery power faster, I don't care. The little beast has excellent battery life. I just want to confirm that there's no risk of screen damage if I crank it to the top of the red.
2) AWESOME! It toggles effortlessly between the map view and the live view. If I zoom out the map view a bit, I can see just where the drone is relative to me, and which way it's pointed. As a bonus, I'm starting to integrate the information from me looking at it, what the live view tells me, what the map view tells me, and what I can *HEAR*. Even when I temporarily lose sight of it in the ground clutter or the bright sky, I can hear it from quite a distance, particular if I climb a bit to rev the engines up. Bonus #2: I started playing with the built-in zoom on the camera...works great. Bonus #3: The map view tracks all of your routes, and displays them!
3) This one got aborted. The other side of the canyon is way higher than my house. I got up to 350 ft elevation above my house, and I still see dirt if I look straight ahead. When I got to 600 ft distance, I figured that was far enough for this run. But that prompts a regulatory question: Is the 400 ft AGL restriction from the launch point, or relative to the actual AGL of the drone, where it is? It pretty much has to be AGL at the drone's location, or it wouldn't make any sense.
4) I decided to punch RTH first, and it rotated to face home all by itself. It still didn't follow the path I was expecting, but close enough.
Lesson learned: When the remote yells at you about low power in the drone, bring it back RIGHT NOW. I did that this time, but even still had only a bit over a minute left at touchdown.
Every time I fly, my sense of integration with the machine increases, as does my situational awareness....from the drone's point of view. It's still early in my training process, and I expect that integration to continue getting better quickly for a while.
Last flight for the day. Places to go, and people to see.
More tomorrow!
TCS
