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Initial Thoughts on the DJI Mini SE

Byrichard

Today I went for my first flight with the DJI Mini SE and it feels very familiar, after flying a spark so frequently, until I crashed that drone. I would have replaced the spark but I didn’t because it would either cost two thirds to replace the old one, or cost a lot to buy a new drone, with batteries and the rest of the gear. I waited. I didn’t wait for four weeks, four months, or four seasons. I waited for two years, until I saw the DJI Mini SE was about to come out.


What I like about this drone is first and foremost its price, but also its form factor. In Europe drones that way more than 250 grams have stricter rules than drones below 250 grams, so with a small light drone, you can fly in more places. The other advantage is that you can go for a two hour walk, without ever been bothered by the weight. I know because that’s what I did today.


Another nice feature is that the DJI Mini SE Flymore pack comes with a three battery charger spare props, and a carrying case. Everything fits neatly into the carrying case, and the carrying case fits nicely into a 10 litre hiking bag.


With the DJI spark it was a pain because the charger was large and needed to be transported in one case. In another case I had the drone and three batteries and because batteries were good for just 20 minutes you had to have a few. In the end it was a pain to keep everything charged and ready. Thinks have improved over the last three or four years.


If you crash this drone, and break one of it’s arms you can unscrew the broken arm and replace it, without replacing the entire body. Repair-ability is important with something that can get stuck and fall from a tree onto a tarmac road, as mine did.


And finally, I have flown just once for about 15 minutes and I feel a little rusty. It feels just the same as the Spark, but maybe a little slower. I notice that between telling it to go full forward to full backwards there is a little control lag. I would consider getting a landing mat, for when landing in grass. With the Spark if you tried to start it near grass it would behave like a lawnmower. This one tells you there is a motor error. I took off from the edge of a farm road. I had good visibility and could see cars if they were approaching.


That’s it for now. I will update you as I learn more

Mavic 2 Pro – For When I fly More Often

Mavic 2 Pro – For When I fly More Often

Byrichard

The Mavic 2 Pro just came out and people are euphoric about the drone because of its one inch sensor, it’s ability to zoom and it’s omnidirectional systems keeping an eye on the environment below, behind, above and ahead of it. It also has a flying time of 31 minutes. 


I’m happy with the DJI Spark. Last Autumn as the nights shortened and work got in the way of flying the drone I felt disappointed that I would have to suspend the passion whilst waiting for the next summer to arrive. This summer came and it is now approaching an end and I haven’t flown as much as I would have expected to. It’s partially due to having to get the charger out, charge all the batteries and fly somewhere new that slowed me down. NFZs limit the number of places where you can fly. 


The issue with DJI drones is that whilst they are excellent camera drones they are not as versatile as FPV drones. If you don’t have a video project in mind they’re limited in scope. 


This being said I did get nice footage of the Swiss flags with vineyards in the background. You can tell how windy the conditions were by how taut the flag is. 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7WN41loH-4


I also got footage of golden crops yesterday. I had the sun behind me and I stayed on the grass between the field and a road. You get a nice view of the crops in the foreground and the Mont Blanc and the Alps in the background. 


https://youtu.be/wxpTAHDzT7I

A list of drones I have tried this year.

A list of drones I have tried this year.

Byrichard

Trying various drones

This year I finally bought a few drones to play with and DJI and Hubsan are currently my favourite brands. The most fun to fly indoors is the Hubsan Nano Q111 drone, or something to that effect. At first this is a hard and temperamental little drone to fly. Just getting it off the ground is a challenge., This challenge comes from the fact that it has no pilot assistance. It slews to the right and the left and it has no altitude hold. This means that constant little inputs are needed. As the battery depletes you need to give the drone more power simply to hover. With practice the drone is really fun and best of all I didn’t break any props. I only burned out two of the motors when the drone got caught in something.

I tried flying the Q4 as well but the results were disappointing.

I tried flying the Demon something by some brand and this was a flop. The problem with this drone is that the props are well protected against colliding with things but the struts are too fragile. Within just a flight or two I broke the strut to one of the props and it is now great at spinning in place rather than flying.

DJI

Earlier this year I saw someone fly the DJI Mavic pro during the IFSC World cup and when I saw how easy it seemed to fly my interest grew exponentially. I saw that it could guide itself back to it’s take off point and was autonomous. For a while I hesitated about buying my own drone until I finally decided to buy the DJI Spark. This is a really fun drone to fly. It’s simple and intuitive to use and it provides great images. I have now flown it in France, Spain and Switzerland. What makes this drone so great is that it’s tiny, ideally suited for when I go hiking and to do other sports. I have 7 batteries for a total flying time of 105 minutes. I calculate three batteries per day and one spare. I am now at my 99th “flight” with that drone, My next flight will be number 100. We’ll see how I celebrate that.

Addressing the Stigma

There is a lot of stigma around drones. People are afraid that they will be used for spying, that they can be used as weapons, that they can interfere with aviation. The truth is that most drones are small and light and that the lens is wide therefore they can be heard from a distance. People refer to the sound they make as that of a large bumblebee. Not only can you hear them but you can also see them quite easily. Rules are in place to prevent us from flying above 120 metres in most countries, around cities and above crowds. We also have to fly them within visual range. This means that whenever people can see the drone they can see us. They can ask us to stop flying or they can ask questions.

As drone enthusiasts, we can work as ambassadors to show that drones are not the stigmatised devices that they were encouraged to fear. We can show them the beautiful images and videos we can get and we can also show them that some of them are relatively easy to fly. The better we behave as early adopters the fewer restrictions we will see implemented down the road. We have a moral duty to obey the rules and sensibilise the lay public to how much fun they can be.