Why no course lock?

droneworx · Jan 31, 2018

Janjelmer1 said:
A DJI official has just confirmed (https://forum.dji.com/thread-132344-1-1.html) that the following 8 modes are available on the Mavic Air:

(Normal)
ActiveTrack
QuickShot
SmartCapture
TapFly
Tripod Mode
Cinematic Mode
Point of Interest

No 'Waypoints' (it was listed wrongly on the DJI comparison list before, but they have adjusted it to POI), No Home/Course Lock, No Terrain Follow and No Follow Me mode.

Follow me Mode I expect to drop off all drones in the future, its antiquated and is reliant on a GPS signal from the transmitter. As ActiveTrack gets better, this becomes a mostly useless function. I know it doesnt have Terrain Follow.

So I need to amend my statement on the locks.
My Go4 (from the screenshot above, right bottom corner) was from the Mavic Air's flight modes. Indicating that Home/Course lock was available. HOWEVER, when I did a Go4 update (which I didnt do when I first unboxed it) those disappeared. So it appears that when I chose "Mavic Air" from the drop down on the equipment selection page, it just inherited the Pro's flight modes until it picked up its own.

So NO home / course lock on the Air.

LivinLarge · Jan 31, 2018

droneworx said:
Follow me Mode I expect to drop off all drones in the future, its antiquated and is reliant on a GPS signal from the transmitter. As ActiveTrack gets better, this becomes a mostly useless function. I know it doesnt have Terrain Follow.

So I need to amend my statement on the locks.
My Go4 (from the screenshot above, right bottom corner) was from the Mavic Air's flight modes. Indicating that Home/Course lock was available. HOWEVER, when I did a Go4 update (which I didnt do when I first unboxed it) those disappeared. So it appears that when I chose "Mavic Air" from the drop down on the equipment selection page, it just inherited the Pro's flight modes until it picked up its own.

So NO home / course lock on the Air.

Active track will fail when there are trees to occlude the subject or shadows which change the appearance. Also sudden direction changes will cause it to lose the subject. It may be improved but will never get around these limitations. Follow me mode (using GPS) does not work that well on the Mavic but it does work extremely well on some other drones. I think DJI needs to work towards improving this feature.
Just my opinion...

sberfield · Mar 2, 2018

Really sort of PO'd that I didn't realize there was no course lock or waypoint support before I bought. Hopefully these will make it in some day.

Skewif · Mar 2, 2018

sberfield said:
Really sort of PO'd that I didn't realize there was no course lock or waypoint support before I bought. Hopefully these will make it in some day.

My money is on these features coming to the air once the pro 2 with its massively improved spec is out. Time will tell though.

sberfield · Mar 3, 2018

I hope so. So far, I am pretty happy with the Air (though I would love just a little more battery life). But I was surprised that SW features I had on my home built quad 4 years ago aren't on this brand new beast.

Skewif · Mar 3, 2018

I’m happy with mine too. Stunning amount of tech that fits in my pocket and so easy to fly. The Pro 2 absolutely has to be a big step up in hardware (and price) to distance itself from the air. Once out no one will care if the air has a few more flight modes added as it’s the hardware people are buying. Look at the MacBook lineup, all run the same software and can do the same things. You buy the hardware to suit your needs. If every DJI drone had the same software/ flight features we would all still choose the hardware that suits our needs / budget. I’ll eat a straw hat filmed as a point of interest if in time DJI doesn’t add what is so obviously missing.

Ledg · Mar 4, 2018

droneworx said:
Follow me Mode I expect to drop off all drones in the future, its antiquated and is reliant on a GPS signal from the transmitter. As ActiveTrack gets better, this becomes a mostly useless function. I know it doesnt have Terrain Follow.

So I need to amend my statement on the locks.
My Go4 (from the screenshot above, right bottom corner) was from the Mavic Air's flight modes. Indicating that Home/Course lock was available. HOWEVER, when I did a Go4 update (which I didnt do when I first unboxed it) those disappeared. So it appears that when I chose "Mavic Air" from the drop down on the equipment selection page, it just inherited the Pro's flight modes until it picked up its own.

So NO home / course lock on the Air.

I find active track to be useless, id much prefer a good follow mode. For mountain biking active track seems to loose its lock far to easy, I just don't bother with it as you always miss the shot you want when trying