Back in the air

Following my misadventure with Lily (the start up drone that failed to see production line) i went for the obvious choice, Mavic.

Its the portability of Mavic that attracted me straight away, fits in a small Pelican case, or in a dry bag. I hoping to push this little beast, but i am still in the "baby step" mode...Its not exactly cheap, and it needs time to know and put into practice all that Mavic has to offer. Thanks to Youtube there is a crazy amount of guys flying it and putting up some cool tutorials. But i still feel uneasy having over a 1000€ flying over water.

The very first thing i'm practicing is to hand launch and land to be able to take Mavic with me on my pontoon , boat or float tube. It looks easy, but i know its going to be a totally different story doing these manoeuvres sitting in the middle of a lough or river. So, practice makes perfect and i don't want to get my fingers chopped..
 Putting this aside,Mavic looks like a fantastic piece of tech.It does not feel cheap, its sturdy, flies very well, stable , responsive and the camera is fantastic.But now a new season starts for me at the lodge, first guests are arriving this afternoon, that's me busy until mid june...Be patient my friends, i will try to fill the blog as much as i can.

For those who are interested in the procedure i use to hand launch and land, i think i am doing it the easiest way possible. If you know of a better way please do put it in the comment below.
Mavic is equipped with obstacle avoidance sensors in the front and underneath its body. So if you try to catch it, the bottom sensors will see your hand coming towards it and the drone will fly upwards to try to get away from you. I have seen many videos where guys go into the settings and disable the bottom sensors, but why paying big money for all these extras and not using them?..One easiest way it to use the take off option on the app (DJI GO 4 ) to launch and to use the auto landing from the app as well to catch it.Even if your hand is under, by confirming that you want to land the drone, the sensors will not see you as an obstacle but as a landing platform. Mavic will go down about 20cm and will pause for about two seconds to initiate the landing, all you have to do is position your hand under ( away from the blades and your face) and catch it as it lowers itself, then shut off the motors by holding your left stick down.Simple....well we'll see on the water, for the moment i keep doing this over and over in my garden.