This should be interesting. . . first everything.

[ValueTactics]

Place your bets, folks!

I'm about to go for my first test flight. Never owned or flown a drone before. Got a MPP yesterday and spent all night inserting internal SD card, rolling back firmware and adjusting flight control parameters, then re-flashing current firmware, updating RC firmware, and mixing and installing a custom blend GO app. If it all works it will be a miracle.

It's 17 degrees F. Wish me luck! Will update. . .

 

[wytnyt]

if you've never flown anything before then you REALLY need more than 1 day to prepare especially the app settings but i do wish you the best.

 

[netfolks2000]

Hope you stay in Beginner Mode a few days. Lots to learn. Good in the beginning to actually have it in open clear sight right in front of you, see what controls do.

 

[Hossinn]

if you've never flown anything before then you REALLY need more than 1 day to prepare especially the app settings but i do wish you the best.

I’m curious about this comment since I’m a soon to be MPP owner/first time drone user. Why do you need more than a day to prepare for first flight? Aren’t these things “ready to go” out of the box?

Are the steps the OP posted necessary?

 

[Brojon]

So - you've never flown before and your rolling back firmware, adjusting flight parameters and somehow cobbling together a GO4 app (whatever that means)?
Methinks you've been watching too many YouTube videos before you have any real world experience to discern which adjustments are a good idea.
Good luck - there's some real winner suggestions out there. Like the increased speed mod - most folks don't mention it works by increasing tilt which can cause you to lose altitude quickly and plow a furrow with it before you can blink.

 

[ICHOTT]

Place your bets, folks!

I'm about to go for my first test flight. Never owned or flown a drone before. Got a MPP yesterday and spent all night inserting internal SD card, rolling back firmware and adjusting flight control parameters, then re-flashing current firmware, updating RC firmware, and mixing and installing a custom blend GO app. If it all works it will be a miracle.

It's 17 degrees F. Wish me luck! Will update. . .

“Rolling back firmware . . AND installing a custom blend GO app!”
So you know all the answers whilst knowing nothing?
Why? Why do you need a miracle ? Why don’t you just take it out of the box and fly it ?
I don’t wish you luck , it would be a waste of a wish!

 

[netfolks2000]

I’m curious about this comment since I’m a soon to be MPP owner/first time drone user. Why do you need more than a day to prepare for first flight? Aren’t these things “ready to go” out of the box?

Are the steps the OP posted necessary?

Yes, of course the DRONE is ready out of the box, if the battery is charged, but they meant YOU need to be prepared and it looks like you have been preparing. Just be cautious at first. You spent a lot so will want to be careful a while. That's all. We're really (my favorite word) vicariously excited with you to be doing this for the first time. It's fun.

 

[Hossinn]

Yes, of course the DRONE is ready out of the box, if the battery is charged, but they meant YOU need to be prepared and it looks like you have been preparing. Just be cautious at first. You spent a lot so will want to be careful a while. That's all. We're really (my favorite word) vicariously excited with you to be doing this for the first time. It's fun.

Thanks so much! I’m really excited.

The only thing I’m still concerned about is flying over water. I intend to do the majority of my flying and filming over the ocean, filming my family surfing. I feel much more confident with Occusync (MPP), than with wi-fi (Air), but I still wonder what the odds are of a catastrophic failure over the ocean.

 

[locoman]

Good luck, let us know how your first flight goes.

 

[mel.m]

Best of luck

 

[wytnyt]

I’m curious about this comment since I’m a soon to be MPP owner/first time drone user. Why do you need more than a day to prepare for first flight? Aren’t these things “ready to go” out of the box?

Are the steps the OP posted necessary?

yup,their ready to fly out of the box and so is everyone that fly's it but the key is flying without crashing it.
i spent tons of time learning everything possible and still chipped a propeller on my 3rd flight.
the key to it all is knowing what to do when situations crop up cause there wont be time to think about it.

 

[joejaxvic123]

I took about a week to fly. I practiced unfolding the arms, taking the gimble clamp out, putting the battery in and out and sitting there staring at it.

 

[ac0j]

Good luck with your first flight!
I am sorry you fell victim to the firmware rollback club, before you found out if it was needed or not.
You understand this is a reason to get warranty repairs denied, Who needs warranty anyway right?

 

[joejaxvic123]

Good luck with your first flight!
I am sorry you fell victim to the firmware rollback club, before you found out if it was needed or not.
You understand this is a reason to get warranty repairs denied, Who needs warranty anyway right?

We don't all live out in the middle of nowhere, firmware issues are a fact, just look on YouTube and you'll see.

 

[ac0j]

We don't all live out in the middle of nowhere, firmware issues are a fact, just look on YouTube and you'll see.

I get that some live in NFZ's and are compelled to fly anyway, and that some want to fly at 10,000 ft to get a better look at something. Thats the only firmware issues I have read about.
But, I dont have any issues with keeping current with firmware, software and IOS updates. I have no reason to believe that my mavic behaves differently to any other mavic built.

 

[joejaxvic123]

I got no desire to fly off that far, yeesh. I'm about to vomit at 1000' out at 180' high!

 

[Rnl]

How did it go

 

[Swanee]

FYI, I took my MPP up with similar below freezing temperatures, and had severe jello in the video. In normal temps, it is gone (I think). Always watch your winds aloft as they can get crazy at 200-400 feet. Sport mode may be your friend in that case, and if panic, lower altitude if possible.

 

[ValueTactics]

Why? Why do you need a miracle ? Why don’t you just take it out of the box and fly it ?

This is exactly why I wanted to make those modifications. It wasn't so I could fly over military bases or fly at 10,000 ft as some suggested. Nor was it so I could enable super sport mode or anything like that. What I wanted to avoid was needing to click off multiple notifications and warnings every time I turn the thing on. I wanted to avoid having to sign in to some company's account for some reason, just to be able to fly my own aircraft. I wanted to avoid unknown packets of data being involuntarily sent to a company whose government has access to pretty much any data they want. I wanted to have a future-proof device in the sense that how it works now, it will work in the future (barring some disaster with the GPS constellation). It's a shame I had to go through so much effort to have these freedoms, but that's how it is.

SO, how did it go? It went great! When I said it would be a miracle if it all worked I was referring to all my "unlocks," not my actual first flight experience. I was actually surprised that all the witchcraft worked and it fired up and was ready to go!

I've flown it several times over the last few days. It's been below freezing during the warmest parts of the day so I have kept flights to 5-6 minutes or under. I'm totally blown away by the MPP's abilities! Even though I've never heard a Mavic Pro in person, I think the extra $100 for the Platinum is worth it. It's so quiet! Best of all, the sound is m-e-l-l-o-w instead of the frantic bee swarm sound of other quads.

I also have a new appreciation for some of the footage I've seen online. It's true anyone can take a good crisp photo or an amazingly high-def video with these things, but it really takes skill and experience to capture the really good stuff. I have yet to tweak the camera and gimbal settings in line with the suggestions I've read about, but I'm sure that will improve my results quite a bit. I think it will also help to get that muscle memory on the sticks so I can more easily control the point of view. Last but not least, it would help to have something better than frozen, dirty, flat, Minnesota February to look at!

 

[UAVNV]

here is a preflight checklist i use as wallpaper on my ipad to get sorted before flying, created by one of the users here a while back. hope it helps