Tankman

I offered... but I dont work for free. WTF... seriously! I contacted CSA last year offering media coverage. Photo, Video Interviews, Live Streaming.... CSA always starts the conversation with the same words: "We have no budget.... but No, speak to HA Toere we have nothing to do with SA's" Ha Toere told me I am welcome to come and take photos and sell them online afterwards... :lol: Seriously?! Travel to the middle of nowhere, accommodation, food, petrol, the actual work I need to do, being away from my business for 5 days... suuuuuuuure, I will do it for free. I found it is much easier to avoid any events where CSA is involved because... I have no budget!

Sweet, got a new Mini back! Also figured out a way to force the Mini into FCC Mode meaning 5.8Ghz frequency Doubt that this will extend the range, never needed more range but this will ensure a much more stable connection in areas with loads of wifi interference! Cheerio... gone flying!

South African Road Championships does have a nice ring to it but might sound a bit daunting as a first race for a noob.

True that!

Even if they reduced the distances to 3km's it still wont bring Hoedspruit anywhere closer to somewhere, it will remain in the middle of nowhere!

Somone dug up on old fred here! It is on like donkey kong for 2020! Wiv a proper route too!!

Just another day in Africa, mind the cows!

Nope, unfortunately not. I enjoyed it for the couple of weeks when I had it but after crashing into a building during 94.7 my Mini was sent back to DJI China, there was no physical damage on the outside but the local guys could not get it going again. News is that DJI is indecisive as to repairing under warranty or charging me for the repair. My Samsung S8 restarted for some unknown reason during the flight, I lost all control and the drone chose the shortest way to the Return to Home position, straight through a building. It was my fault for not setting the altitude higher than when I was testing it out in the open the previous weeks. Seems that there is issues with Samsung and the DJI app. My phone would normally be on for months, start the DJI app and it restarts ever so often. Not ideal when piloting a drone! Not the best time of the year to have something sent to the other side of the globe. I still feel that this is the best drone to start with but I have already seen the potential for needing obstacle avoidance sensors and other more professional functions for recording video and photos. Not that there is anything wrong with the quality of video or photos on the mini, it is truly impressive and more than enough for insane footage. Since video and photo is in my field, having the capabilities of the big brothers interests me personally. It is able to handle some pretty rough winds but you need to be sensible too, fly out against the wind and fly back with the wind. Also dont try and fly 3km away and then complain that you lost signal and lost your drone due to the "wind", you lost it due to being a dumbass. Oh one more tip, make sure to get insurance on your drone, it is easier to crash them than you think! Not a lot of household insurance companies or even my insurer that specialize in professional photographic gear, will insure them. I found an online app, Pineapple and insured through them. If they are any good, I will find out once I get feedback from DJI I guess!

Strongs Lincoln, not cool bud!

The idea is to take this shot and add motion to the background

Thanks man! Still playing around with some others but loosing way to much data when converting to gif It looks pretty cool in video cause I can stretch out the movement much longer but here you'll get the idea...

Not the final_final_final.jpg edit yet but almost there!

Bit of a shameless plug... For anyone keen on some action!

What I am interested in, how big is a 4hr file? How does your battery last 4hrs? How long does that take to export, presuming you imported, overlayed and then exported? How long does it take to upload to the tube? Looks like you shot in 1080p 30fps? Sorry but I could never watch a 3h44min youtube video, it was hard enough trying to remember what I wanted to ask you I tried to keep it short n sweet...

Think I have figured out why it is good to have the 15% battery left and not to change it. If your drone decides to take shortcut THROUGH a building unsuccessfully and you activate the find my drone beep, that gives you some time to find it! By the time I eventually found it, there was only 3% left and without the beeping, I would probably still be looking. I was looking all around the building, expecting pieces everywhere, until I heard a very soft beep coming from somewhere two stories higher than I was standing....

Ok so this was a little less play and a little more work... Just not sure why it looks pretty crap in 720p on youtube, it was shot in 2.7k and exported as full HD... looks much better when you click it over to 1080p in youtube. Oh and I still went into Sports mode here and there, just couldn't help myself

Oh another note to self. When you take off somewhere and then start walking away from there, remember to update your home point! I took off and started walking 10min, into my walk, my phone decides to restart for some unknown reason. Signal lost, RTH activated and the drone starts flying waaaaay back with me running after it like a crazy person with no way to control it!

Thanks man, I have some X-box hours on my name! But... I crashed already too! Not my fault though! When the RTH mode gets activated and you have lost signal to your phone, the drone chooses the shortest route Home, no matter that there are buildings in the way! Well this was a big ass building, my RTH is set at 15m, which was plenty when I was playing in the bush... but not enough when playing in between 30m high buildings. OOPS!! This is where obstacle avoidance would be very handy! With a strike of luck, it crashed into the building and fell (not sure how far) onto a balcony on the 2nd story... if it would have fell all the way to the ground... I and the drone would be in pieces right now. I saw those settings in the app somewhere to slow down movement of the gimbal, will have a play around... when everything is working again... (is there a facepalm emoji here?)

I was going to write a report but I had so many cameras with me.... This is not a drone review and this is not about the footage, I flew in sports mode most of the time, why not, I was there to play with the drone, not to shoot video. :D All shot in 2.7k at 30fps, I would definitely use Cinema mode and maneuver a lot slower when shooting video footage. I had a couple of issues on the first day but it is all sorted now! :D (Tip: update the software to the drone through a desktop, the phone update was unstable)

Yea I am sure what ever there restrictions might be currently... some hacker will sort us out in a week or two! Anyway ... I got up to 350m today with out signal interference! Which is pretty good and the thing is so tiny, I have difficulty keeping an eye on it! Look like the first software update I did through my phone and the remote, did not update on the drone after all. When I connected the drone to the desktop app it said that there is an update available. That seem to have sorted out a lot of issues... happiness.

Oh and the reason why I would have liked to have done some indoor flights... to make sure everything is working. Everything was not working once I got to the middle of nowhere and it could have saved a lot of time and frustration if I sorted all that out at home and was ready to jet once I got to the fly zone.

Yes the no fly zones are loaded in the app, cant get around those. But not really trying to get around them, I would at least like to do some indoor flights in my own bloody home. Or they could restrict the drone to max 10m height. I had a look on the DJI site where you can apply for zone unlocks, some are easy others you need authorization certificates and what not but the Mini is not even listed. Once you have applied for the zone to be lifted it is only for 24 or 48 hrs and some of them still has height restrictions. But no Mini

There is no option to change the frequency... 2.4Ghz remains even if you choose a manual channel

Ok, this is what I have learnt from the Fake GPS app so far. I think someone with more hacking skills than me would need give it a go! I run the fake gps app, in an open field in Texas somewhere, (gps on my phone is off), the remote connects and on the map in the DJI app, I am in Texas. So far so good. But as soon as the Drone connects, it activates the gps system in the drone, the drone is located back in SA in the no fly zones plus I still have the feeling that this is a hardware limit... that this remote can only handle 2.4Ghz. See, thats me in Texas and my drone in restricted airspace... come on man, I just want to play indoors!