On May 27, 2020, newshound wrote
(in ):

On 27/05/2020 06:56, Savageduck wrote:
On May 26, 2020, Savageduck wrote
(in iganews.com):

My new Mavic Air 2 drone arrived just before noon today.

So most of my day has been taken up with battery charging, and firmware updates. I managed to get out for a maiden flight around 14:00 hrs with the temperature hovering at 104F (40C). Needless to say the heat drove me to shorten everything, and the one 4K 30fps 4 minute video I shot was OK until the midpoint when there was what looked like a ripple running through the playback. It looked like an imbedded heatwave.

Then I discovered that each of my 3 batteries had to have the battery firmware updated to match the drone system FW.

Now I am waiting for things to cool down so I can get out for a sunset flight a little longer than my first excursion in the heat.

Well it finally cooled down a bit and I tried my hand at what amounted to my first drone flying, and more than a 2 minute iPhone video. I have never flown a drone of any type before, and I am not yet fully familiar with the capability, and features of the camera in the Mavic Air 2. Definately not an example of the smoothest cinematography, but a demonstration of the potential of this drone. So with those caveats here is 5+ minutes of a hot, dry part of California.

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-8XFHcrH/0/4bc77bdd/1920/i-8XFHcrH-1920.mp4

Pretty stable, then! Was there any wind?

The wind was stronger for my earlier attempt in the heat. For the footage in the above link it was about 5 MPH with 12 MPH gusts.

The stability of the MA2 is remarkable even with a ham-handed klutz such as yours truly at the controls. There is a fair amount of automation which helps along with good GPS, and positional software. All I need now is some more practice.

I have my FAA registration ($5), and at this point I am flying under the recreational UAS exclusion, which is fine with me as I can’t see myself doing any commercial work. This is just for fun.

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Regards,
Savageduck