New "nervous" Mavic 2 zoom owner in Plymouth UK

[RickJH]

Hi Guys,

I recently picked up a Zoom recently when the offers were on & had some Amazon gift vouchers to go towards it so all in all, I am happy with the £850 (inc vouchers) purchase as it has now gone back to £1075!
I have waited to "collect" some essentials such as prop guards, prop straps, a nice case, leg extenders, spare battery etc. & a Fly More kit (which makes 4 batteries in total).
I also have taken insurance including public liability, so in effect, I'm ready to go.

Here's where the nerves kick in...
After watching loads & loads of video tutorials, reading comments on here, I am feeling quite nervous about my maiden flight! I have done many "props off" checks, & reading/trying the menus etc. but there is so much to check before take off (& do while flying).
It is presently set to beginners mode & yes I am aware of lookin out for overhead wires, distances/heights etc. when I eventually switch over to normal.

My question is, I have been trawling the internet just for an absolute beginners step by step checklist from getting out of the case to getting it into the air (correctly setup) & cannot find anything suitable (I bet you will tell me there is one on here now!?!).

I am visiting my brother & his family in August & have set myself a task as he owns a narrow boat & they often chug along the canals in Lancashire at a very slow pace & I would love to take some aerial footage, preferably using the follow me function while taking in the lovely surrounding countryside.
My dilemma is that I feel that I should walk along the towpath, as being onboard would make it a moving landing area & would definately be freaked about doing a hand landing.

I probably would feel more comfortable about doing a return to controller while I am on terrafirma.

SO, my learned dear experts, am I being over nervous?? Having a simple step by step checklist which I can take with me would be superb, we have wonderful wide open areas here where I am wanting to get some practice in before I embark on my first quest.

Thank you all in anticipation!!

Rick

 

[Rattydude77]

Welcome

 

[Gryphon962]

You didnt tell us if this is your first drone, as if it is, the first thing you will have to learn is how to control it. The good news is that compared to drones without a GPS and autopilot, MP2 is very stable and will just hover rock steady if you leave the controls in the middle.

For you maiden flight, go somewhere like a sports field where there are no wires and no trees. Carefully remove the camera gimbal clip and cover before you turn it on. Make sure the Sport mode switch on controller is OFF. Get it started and wait until you see 12+ satellites before you take off. When its in the air, remember that if you dont like where its going, let go and it will stop and hover while you figure out which control to move next. You have plenty of time - the battery lasts over 20 minutes.

Just get used to driving it around, close to you, slowly, for the first few batteries. Then come back with questions before you turn beginner mode off.

 

[RickJH]

You didnt tell us if this is your first drone, as if it is, the first thing you will have to learn is how to control it. The good news is that compared to drones without a GPS and autopilot, MP2 is very stable and will just hover rock steady if you leave the controls in the middle.

For you maiden flight, go somewhere like a sports field where there are no wires and no trees. Carefully remove the camera gimbal clip and cover before you turn it on. Make sure the Sport mode switch on controller is OFF. Get it started and wait until you see 12+ satellites before you take off. When its in the air, remember that if you dont like where its going, let go and it will stop and hover while you figure out which control to move next. You have plenty of time - the battery lasts over 20 minutes.

Just get used to driving it around, close to you, slowly, for the first few batteries. Then come back with questions before you turn beginner mode off.

Hi Gryphon962

Many thanks for your reply - it is very much appreciated!

As far as drone experience is concerned, I have an early Parrot AR drone in my loft & that's it!

This will be my first "professional" drone so naturally I'm cautious. I imagine controls being reversed when returning can be quite daunting.

Your advice is so simple & I like that. Thank you. You are right, just letting go of the controls gives you time to get your head into gear before moving on. I am planning to have a practice on the moors we have near us, no trees, just miles of shrub as far as the eyes can see. I'll pick a calm early evening (while it's still light) & update you all of my progress.

I did check here & there are some checklists but I need to dig deeper as it has to be completely idiot proof - so much though that I can laugh at it when I look back after being more experience!
As you know, it's a lot of money to lose in one go.

Thanks again!

 

[dirkclod]

Welcome to Mavic Pilots .
I hope you will find our site helpful and look forward to any input , photo's/video's you might post .
Don't be shy and ask anything if you can't find it by searching .

 

[Sleepy]

Hi and welcome to the M2Z world, I am fairly new to this too and tried the beginner mode but found it way too restricting. The tripod mode gives you a lot more room to learn and slows the controls down and makes it easier to control plus turns on all the sensors which helps.

I watched a lot of you tube on these things too and one that I liked alot was Ikopa and he is from your part of the world with lots of videos on the local rules and regs, may be worth looking into.

Just putting in the air and moving it around will make you feel better about it, good luck

 

[pross]

Welcome to the forum from Exeter

Find a field or park.. go early or late so it isn't busy and just go for it! Try take off and landings .. get used to the thing. Honestly, the zoom is so easy to fly and great fun.

 

[charlas]

Like others have mentioned, find a nice flat grassy area, and get it up and familiarise yourself with it and the controls/systems, like everything practice is the only way to get any good.

Just find somewhere with little about, stay away from trees and the likes for now, and keep it in VLOS.

For the boating stuff, the active track is pretty good for the most part, so have a play with that, and as for landing you can always land it somewhere safe away from the boat and hop off and grab it (when finished filming fly it up the canal path, and find a flat area and land it there, hop off when close and pick it up)

But get it out and enjoy it, and welcome to the site

 

[old man mavic]

practice,practice,practice,find a large field with a good size clear space away from trees,make sure that it is not windy for your first flights the hardest part of learning to fly ,is because of the way the sticks control the mav it means when the front is facing you the sticks are reversed, so left stick makes it go right forwards go back and yaw is reversed as well,there are simple ways to get used to this, and one of the easiest is to fly figure of eights keep the drone moving slowly and apply rudder and the drone will turn and fly forwards at the same time use very gentle stick movements and after a while you will get to learn what a stick movement will make the drone do in response, in an figure of eight you will be doing it in two different directions, and after some time it will become natural to you, follow the drone code and download some of the apps that give you info on where it is safe to fly and any restrictions that may apply,take your time and master manual landing as well dont just rely on RTH read the on line manual and get to understand what each button does .happy flying OMM

 

[RickJH]

Welcome to the forum from Exeter

Find a field or park.. go early or late so it isn't busy and just go for it! Try take off and landings .. get used to the thing. Honestly, the zoom is so easy to fly and great fun.

Ooh Exeter!

Like others have mentioned, find a nice flat grassy area, and get it up and familiarise yourself with it and the controls/systems, like everything practice is the only way to get any good.

Just find somewhere with little about, stay away from trees and the likes for now, and keep it in VLOS.

For the boating stuff, the active track is pretty good for the most part, so have a play with that, and as for landing you can always land it somewhere safe away from the boat and hop off and grab it (when finished filming fly it up the canal path, and find a flat area and land it there, hop off when close and pick it up)

But get it out and enjoy it, and welcome to the site

Great idea about landing it ahead & collecting, will have to check the route with my brother first to see if there is a constant towpath. (STOP PRESS: just had a word & there is a path all the way!) however the boat is very slow (about 4mph), do you think flying to it & landing on it would be so hard??
It has a small open area at the back but speaking to my brother just, he says we can stop moving & if space is difficult, to land on the roof - if not we could pull in to the side & collect.

See photo attached & if you could let me know what you would do (as a beginner), that would be great.
The canopy at the back covers the open area...space for about 4 people max.

Cheers
Rick

 

[RickJH]

Welcome to Mavic Pilots .
I hope you will find our site helpful and look forward to any input , photo's/video's you might post .
Don't be shy and ask anything if you can't find it by searching .

Don't worry - this is my first port of call!

Thank you

 

[AMann]

Welcome!

Ok, so be sure to study up on what those RTH settings really mean! Such as returning to controller does not mean it will go find you after you’ve moved, it will simply return to where the controller was when you initiated RTH. I know... I thought the same thing you are about it and luckily wasn’t on a boat when I first tried it out!

 

[pross]

If you are taking off from a narrow boat you gotta remember the drone will remember the exact take off point ... if the boat move and for whatever reason you or the drone does a return to home it’s gonna go back to those exact coordinates even if the boat is gone.. you might want to take off from the tow path

 

[Shon]

Ooh Exeter!


Great idea about landing it ahead & collecting, will have to check the route with my brother first to see if there is a constant towpath. (STOP PRESS: just had a word & there is a path all the way!) however the boat is very slow (about 4mph), do you think flying to it & landing on it would be so hard??
It has a small open area at the back but speaking to my brother just, he says we can stop moving & if space is difficult, to land on the roof - if not we could pull in to the side & collect.

See photo attached & if you could let me know what you would do (as a beginner), that would be great.
The canopy at the back covers the open area...space for about 4 people max.

Cheers
Rick

Bottom line: you are new to the drone and I think it would be too much for a beginner to attempt taking off and landing from a moving object.

When “drone fever” takes over logic, you will end up paying the “stupidity tax”.

Take it slow, get use to your drone, try this boat landing maneuver later, when you have much more experience under your belt.

After practicing in a wide open field and gaining experience, I don’t see any reason why, given certain parameters, you couldn’t. Walk the tow path while filming the boat from above and then landing in a safe spot on the tow path.

Sure... you might be just fine launching and landing on the boat, but I can think of many, many things that could go wrong, and it would definitely be a good idea to have some experience under your belt before attempting it.

I know you just spent all this money... and you are dying to take some epic shots... take it slow.... play it safe.... and you will have many, many more opportunities to take epic shots in the future.

 

[RickJH]

Hi and welcome to the M2Z world, I am fairly new to this too and tried the beginner mode but found it way too restricting. The tripod mode gives you a lot more room to learn and slows the controls down and makes it easier to control plus turns on all the sensors which helps.

I watched a lot of you tube on these things too and one that I liked alot was Ikopa and he is from your part of the world with lots of videos on the local rules and regs, may be worth looking into.

Just putting in the air and moving it around will make you feel better about it, good luck

That's very interesting, Thanks - I'll take a look & certainly try tripod mode.

 

[old man mavic]

@RickJH there are some things about what you are planning to do on the narrow boat it will be very difficult to use the follow me mode because the distance from your families narrow boat would put your drone in an unsafe position with regards to distance and height from other people on the canal, plus the fact that there will probably be many trees around your location ,and trees are the biggest killer of drones ask anyone who has hit one, i am not trying to put you off your new hobby but just to advise you of what could happen

 

[charlas]

Hand launching and landing isn't all that difficult, but landing on moving objects can be a 'challenge' so bare that in mind.

Saying that I launched and landed on a boat out at sea that was moving around a fair bit

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Like everything though, more you get used to it the better you will get at it.

Just have fun!

 

[RickJH]

Bottom line: you are new to the drone and I think it would be too much for a beginner to attempt taking off and landing from a moving object.

When “drone fever” takes over logic, you will end up paying the “stupidity tax”.

Take it slow, get use to your drone, try this boat landing maneuver later, when you have much more experience under your belt.

After practicing in a wide open field and gaining experience, I don’t see any reason why, given certain parameters, you couldn’t. Walk the tow path while filming the boat from above and then landing in a safe spot on the tow path.

Sure... you might be just fine launching and landing on the boat, but I can think of many, many things that could go wrong, and it would definitely be a good idea to have some experience under your belt before attempting it.

I know you just spent all this money... and you are dying to take some epic shots... take it slow.... play it safe.... and you will have many, many more opportunities to take epic shots in the future.

Wise words my friend, you certainly know my fears!
Thanks!

 

[4K Beaches]

I take off and land from my boat. A few lessons learned doing it.

If the boat is at anchor I can catch it.
If the boat is not at anchor there better be no current moving the boat.

If the boat is rocking up and down from waves be careful, I tried and succeeded catching the Mavic, but I got hit with the blades about two weeks ago and held on tight until the Mavic turned off. I didn’t want the thing to try and flyaway not knowing if it could fly with a potentially damaged blade.

This is what it looks like today and it’s healed quite a bit. It looked like someone used a razor blade and slashed the same some over and over until mush. There was no blood dripping all over the drone, sorry.

 

[RickJH]

Hand launching and landing isn't all that difficult, but landing on moving objects can be a 'challenge' so bare that in mind.

Saying that I launched and landed on a boat out at sea that was moving around a fair bit

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For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Like everything though, more you get used to it the better you will get at it.

Just have fun!

Oh WOW!

Just watched all of this in awe & have sooo many questions!

Mavic Pro or Zoom?
ND filter?
Did you always have it line of sight?
Were you not worried flying over such large expanses of water for so long and so far?
How you didn't lose connection flying behind the island?
Did you have any problems bringing your drone into Greece through customs, if not. how did you go about it? (obviously your holiday footage)
Greece's laws on drones? (I was in Corfu & Cyprus a few years ago & would have loved some aerial footage)
Avoiding power lines when following the road near the start of your footage - where you keeping it in line of sight from a following vehicle?
Not worried about bird strikes (I notice one was fairly close)!?
Any post production? Did you have to join video captures together & if so, what software do you use? (I have Adobe Premier Pro as I use the Adobe CC suite for my work)
Shot in 4k & other settings etc. - LUTs used?
..I could ask more but was just enjoying the views.

I did notice there were some pretty stiff winds blowing over the coastal trees & a flag getting the brunt of it too however, your shots were rock solid.

Anyway, excellent & congratulations, this is exactly what I'm striving to achieve!

Thanks!
Rick