I recently updated my drone selection with the Mavic Air 2, and gotta say it’s been a ton of fun to fly. As with my previous drone, I have several batteries to be able to “fly more”, which is honestly worth it in my opinion, especially if you plan to fly multiple times in one day, or for extended times.
With the old drone I just penciled on the order of use, so 1-4, onto the batteries directly. I’m mostly a simple minded person, so I thought, maybe I’d upgrade these ones with tape instead of writing directly on them. Then I realized I have a laser! Don’t worry, I didn’t engrave the casing of the batteries Almost a year ago a friend of mine had some scrap Koa wood veneer laying around, so he gave me the pieces. I haven’t used them for anything, since I’ve not really had anything to use them on. Koa is sort of a big deal here, so I thought it would be cool to use some of it to help label my batteries, and I think it came out pretty nice.
I love veneer wooden labels a very practical cut. I tried something kinda similar, I made my own hot sauce then engraved some labels for the bottles but it was a bit of a fail at the time.
Nice, I used the laser to make my FAA tag for mine. I have some engravable brushed silver adhesive film, worked great. Your veneer battery trick is pretty cool, I might do something like that.
My father in law makes some good salsa, we missed out on it this year since current events prevented us from traveling, but veneer labels would be cool! I labeled one of my machines once, but it got a warranty and I never saw it again
That sounds sweet and probably something I should add to my drone. Totally spaced the FAA registration with this one…
I came from the Phantom 3 Pro, and had been looking at getting the Mavic 2 Zoom for those really cool zoom shots. I was struggling justifying the price difference between it and the Air 2, and they released a software update to be able to do video zoom on the Air 2, so it made the decision easier to make and I’m happy with the purchase. The portability of the Mavic line is nice, the newer remote to drone connectivity is superb, and having obstacle avoidance is nice, even if I don’t plan on testing it out (though I did prove a point to my wife by trying to fly it directly into me, luckily it didn’t work). Oh and it’s so much quieter than my last drone. The 48mp stills come out super crisp, and the raw files need such little tweaking that this is an overall win in my book.
I was the first person in my friend group to own one, and as far as I can tell, am the only person after the 4-5 years of owning one, to still be using one. As far as I know, nobody crashed or broke theirs (one did lose theirs to a flyaway), they just don’t have any reason to fly them I guess. I love the feel of seeing the world around me from a different angle. That, and when we go on trips, it’s a lot easier to get the exact “selfie” that we want without the worry of a stranger dropping our phone or not getting the right shot.
There are plenty of repair shops throughout the states, but you’d have to check if there were someone local to you. There are also communities that help out when it comes to learning, so that’s an option of you ever want to hang out with like minded people. They’re a ton of fun when do you get to fly them!
I know right? You realize not only can you do better, but you have the absolute best tool for it!
Yeah, it used to take a helo to get shots like that. I got a $60 toy that you really have to fly compared to a real drone. First thing I did with it was chop up a houseplant.
Then I got a Tello which is still a toy but has position holding and much easier to handle. I almost bought a Mavic, but then I saw this. Its obstical avoidance is killer, so good that if it crashes they fix it free.
An option is a pocket fob that it will track. Watch this 3-minute video…
Almost bought one for my daughter’s Jamaica wedding, but, yeah - $Wedding$
One of these days…
Yeah, that’s the competitor. The optics are better on the MA2 though (and it’s been getting some neat updates to the app & firmware just like the GF).
I started with DJI (an original Phantom that I no longer know where it went - a lot of years ago). I’m down to 3 now - all DJIs. A P4P, MA2 and Inspire (because who doesn’t want a drone that does the Klingon Bird of Prey move? ). The MA2 is super convenient though - small and like you said, pretty quiet relatively speaking.
It’s hard switching ecosystems once you’re in it - you get to know the app (or apps, they’re pretty similar) and how the controllers work and it’s one more barrier to switching.
You ever do any FPV flying? I have a friend who builds his own racing drones, and has shown me video of his FPV adventures that blow my mind. Full speed right at a tree and straight up through the branches, pivots 180 and screams back through the tree going level just before it hits the ground.
We used to do that at our old Makerspace. The new Makerspace hasn’t reinstated the program (they’re more start & run a business oriented - FPV drone racing is a huge hacker oriented activity). In fact that was one of the reasons I joined the old one.
We even hosted a racing series at an old sports stadium in the city. But the stadium was renovated for professional soccer
I missed out on a deal to get some FPV goggles, but I’ve seen some incredible shots with what people can do with their racing drones. This was a really cool video done recently that made me a little jealous, especially with the 360 camera attached to it:
Almost a year ago a friend of mine had some scrap Koa wood veneer laying around, so he gave me the pieces. I haven’t used them for anything, since I’ve not really had anything to use them on. Koa is sort of a big deal here, so I thought it would be cool to use some of it to help label my batteries, and I think it came out pretty nice.
a very practical cut. I tried something kinda similar, I made my own hot sauce then engraved some labels for the bottles but it was a bit of a fail at the time.
). The MA2 is super convenient though - small and like you said, pretty quiet relatively speaking.
