Never flown + 5 week road trip, need advice (lots of it)

[UncleJT]

Family is taking a road trip through 8 states of the USA with the kids. Lots of hikes, lots of landmarks. I'd love to get amazing footage.

Today was about to buy a Mavic 2 Pro, and then I saw a bunch of accessories and realized I don't know what I'm doing.

I have zero droning experience aside from using $30 toy drones. This means I have no idea what to buy, and I have no idea how to make the best of the experience. I could use your help.

Also there must be lots of "gotchas" like "don't use the stock blades", "always RTH with 20% juice left", "never fly over a mountain", etc. Not sure if those statements are true.

The two things I've got going for me is that:
1) Budget isn't an issue
2) Lots of you have TONNES of experience

Do you have some advice on purchasing, and advice on flying?

Sorry ahead of time if this isn't an appropriate post for this forum.

Grab one and go for it . A mavic almost flys itself. FAA website for droning will provide you with factual-based info as far as rules and regs. I’m sure you’ll have a good time.

 

[irfl]

Hi Chaos.drone,

I second what some others like johnmeyers and UncleJT said: don't hesitate, go and buy the M2P (or M2Z) and enjoy your trip.

You seem to have experience with the toy drones, they are actually much more difficult to fly and hence gave you excellent training. A M2 flies so much more stabilized that it will look to you as a piece of cake.

It does this by relying on different built-in sensors, on its compass and on GPS. If it looses some input (particularly GPS and compass), it will do curious things but you will be able to regain control because of your toy drone experience. And if you observe a few things, your Mavic2 will not loose its inputs!

Remember: GPS disturbances come mostly from flying with no unobstructed sky, so avoid that (woods, near big buildings, no indoor flying,...).
Compass disturbances come from magnetic interference, either static (therefore stay away from large steel structures likes bridges and don't take off from the hood or tailgate of your car); or induced (so no flying near powerlines, big generators found e.g. in wind turbines, etc.)

You can experiment gradually with those more iffy situations later when you have more experience.

In the mean time just think and act sensibly: choose your take-off and landing spots before you fly (obstacles, wind direction, open space,...); tell your family or bystanders where you want them when you take off and land; tell them when you are about to take off and land; don't let yourself be disturbed by others when you fly (it _is_ potentially a dangerous activity - and tell them so - ); keep an eye on the (smaller) kids; fly in Tripod mode as a beginner; don't fly too far: it must be visual line of sight (VLOS); don't fly over people, buildings, big roads; always land with more than enough batterie power left … and finally, keep it legal! (I am not in Belgium and so, I don't know what you can and cannot do in the USA). BTW: A Mavic 2 will not let you take off nor fly in a No-Fly zone (near airports etc.)

If you keep those few things in mind, you should not have any problems, just enjoy.

Best regards,
Frank

 

[irfl]

I should have written in my previous post 'johnmeyer' instead of 'johnmeyers', sorry for that John!

 

[johnmeyer]

I should have written in my previous post 'johnmeyer' instead of 'johnmeyers', sorry for that John!

After almost seventy years, I've gotten used to sometimes being plural.

 

[Donnie Frank]

Family is taking a road trip through 8 states of the USA with the kids. Lots of hikes, lots of landmarks. I'd love to get amazing footage.

Today was about to buy a Mavic 2 Pro, and then I saw a bunch of accessories and realized I don't know what I'm doing.

I have zero droning experience aside from using $30 toy drones. This means I have no idea what to buy, and I have no idea how to make the best of the experience. I could use your help.

Also there must be lots of "gotchas" like "don't use the stock blades", "always RTH with 20% juice left", "never fly over a mountain", etc. Not sure if those statements are true.

The two things I've got going for me is that:
1) Budget isn't an issue
2) Lots of you have TONNES of experience

Do you have some advice on purchasing, and advice on flying?

Sorry ahead of time if this isn't an appropriate post for this forum.

My advice is simple:

1) Fly, fly, fly.
2) Practice, practice, practice.

This is the only way to learn what you don't know and flush out problems BEFORE they hose your vacation. You should have 40 flights under your belt before you even pack your bags.

D

 

[Rogerc]

Differ in opinion here. I think these drones are extremely easy to fly. Take commonsense precautions. And have a good time. Again common sense.

 

[AntDX316]

It's one thing to know how to fly w/o crashing but making movies enjoyable to watch through flying and editing is another level of skill.

It's like if you teach someone to run for the first time but now running them through an obstacle course successfully is more advanced. Just because you are in the air, if that feels euphoric enough, great but it might not mean the movies will come out to be amazing or at least in the beginning.

 

[Meta4]

Differ in opinion here. I think these drones are extremely easy to fly. Take commonsense precautions. And have a good time. Again common sense.

Yes .. they are very easy to fly.
So easy that you could be tempted to get too adventurous too early.
But there are many things that can go wrong and you need to understand what they are and how to make sure they don't happen to you.
Although it only takes about 5 minutes to learn the basics, it takes a lot of practice and experience to become proficient.

 

[ccoltmanm]

Your first few flights, fly straight up and take pictures and then come down. No need to waste the first few days.

Also, swap your SD card out every day in case you lose the drone.