I am so happy that you all enjoyed my Drone shot!
It is enormous fun to fly this thing but there were quite a few new rules and new skills I needed to learn.
Trees are a big problem for drones and they are a major issue in this heavily forested area.
After the first couple of flights, I foolishly deemed myself to be an “expert” so took the drone into a small clearing next to a pond in the forest.
All went well until I tried to use automatic “Return to Home” when it promptly crashed into tree-branches and broke its camera .
That was within the first 48 hours of my ownership.
Fortunately the manufacturer will replace the drone for one's first two crashes.
Back to studying the on-line manuals and the Youtube videos.
I learned that I really need to take-off and land manually — particularly in a tricky spot like this one which was on a very steep rocky shore under overhanging trees. (The Launching spot looks flat in the photograph but it is actually a steep mini-cliff!)
After Lift-off from the flattest available rock, I took the drone up vertically to about 15 feet (so that it was below the overhanging branches) and then flew out horizontally over the water until the drone was well clear of the forested shores on both sides of the water.
Once it was clear of the obstacles, I sent it flying up and down the reservoir at an altitude of about 300 feet (100 metres).
After about 20 minutes, one gets a “low battery warning” so I took it back to a point close to me (but out over the water) and then brought it down using the joysticks manually so that I could then fly back below the tree branches and land it back on the original flattish rock
There are some fairly strict, but sensible, FAA rules which must be obeyed here in the U.SA. such as no flying above 400 feet or over restricted zones or near airports.
And no flying of drones which weigh more than 250 grams (until you have passed a lengthy pilots' exam!) so my drone is the very small DJI Mini 2 but its tiny little gimble-mounted camera seems to be surprisingly good. A big advantage of using such a small drone is that is extremely quiet: I can barely hear it at all once it is about 20 feet away.
