I've read the Mavic 2 Pro/Zoom Safety Guidelines and general flight advice - so I should imagine my intended use of a drone is probably not a good idea.  I'm 74-years old.  I used to enjoy climbing on the roof, going up on ladders to inspect the state of our 2-story house for which the upper part has a relatively steep 12:12 roof (45 deg angle).  Live Oak trees are overgrowing the house roof but they have been trimmed to be at least 6 feet above the roof, usually more like 10 to 15 foot clearance in most places.

The basic instructions say to fly the drone in an open area.  So I should imagine flying around the house to inspect window trim, gutters, roof, etc., is not advisable.  Given the steep rise of the roof, I should imagine that even if flight for house inspection were possible, it would have to be done on an almost windless day, given the steep rise of the roof and the building as an obstacle.

I'd very much appreciate advice from DJI Support or experienced forum members.  If flying near and about a house were possible under rigorous visual control after a lot of training, I'd like to know whether the Pro (for its higher resolution and wider exposure range) or the Zoom (for its optical zoom) would be a better choice - or maybe a cheaper and more "expendable" DJI drone would be a better choice for a more risk-prone flying application?

TIA for any advice anyone cares to give.  Didn't want to rely entirely on what workmen tell me about state of upper house.

P.S. Additional question is how great a risk is there to a drone from birds of prey?  We have a number of pretty good-sized hawks in our neighborhood.

Ive done a few roof and gutter inspections with the M2P without any issues.  Obstacle avoidance will keep you away from most hazards and drive you potty with the beeping.    If you want to avoid getting too close the zoom would be helpful.

Heres an example of checking out a blocked gutter.  This was scaled down 40% to be able to post here.

You can see the left hand side is full of water and the right hand side is full of weeds.

I recently used a M2P to inspect my Mothers' roof, gutters and flashing. In Tripod mode, photos and video as close as 3' is quite easy with some prior experience. Personally I'd say the M2P, as it will provide you with more possibilities (better camera) down the line.

Thanks for the examples and the encouragement.  Here are thumbnails of the type of tree coverage around my house that I'm referring to.  If links to OneDrive work and you want to see higher resolution versions of the pictures, I've put VIEW ONLY links to the full-sized phone pictures on my personal Microsoft OneDrive account.   I guess I'm worried about wind and the steepness of the roof - the canopy of the 2nd story level of trees has basically been trimmed to follow the slope of the roof so if for some reason I needed in a pinch to fly up between the overhead canopy and the roof, I'd have to fly forward at a consistent 45 degree angle going up.  I'm also worried about how likely the drone is to be attacked by hawks.  We have some that live in the neighborhood.  I read somewhere that early morning hours are best to avoid raptors as there are little or no thermals then.

Front of House

https://1drv.ms/u/s!ApngLox0gfb7jIgYCX2R8bmU9zdvKQ?e=84xuhA

Left (south) Side of House

https://1drv.ms/u/s!ApngLox0gfb7iaARuPR9W1WDqFxKsg

Right (north) Side of House

https://1drv.ms/u/s!ApngLox0gfb7jI4sSH0Sl5aEb0Opnw

Back of House (from northwest)

https://1drv.ms/u/s!ApngLox0gfb7jIR_y8HX1ckR78OsVg

I did find a video on a Chinese website that illustrates the Mavic 2 Pro's obstacle avoidance capabilities, basically showing what DJI says.  Within the limits specified that front, back, up, down work ~OK but never trust the right and left obstacle avoidance.   

DJI Mavic 2 Obstacle Avoidance & ActiveTrack 2.0 Test
https://youtu.be/2f6RZHd3GDs

So right now I have 0 hours, 0 ft in the air (I just got my DJI Mavic 2 Rotor Rotor Guards late today!   I have a lot of practicing to do before I'm going anywhere near my house in Tripod mode.   Thanks again for the advice.

With a few hours behind the sticks, you should really have no problem inspecting your house. First things first, get very comfortable controlling the bird in open spaces. Tripod mode will only allow you to fly about 3MPH and will enable all obstacle avoidance sensors. Position mode and Sport mode will NOT have side avoidance. With all due respect, the video you linked really doesn't fully illustrate the abilities of the sensors.

Russ over at 51 Drones does some very detailed videos on all kinds of drone subjects. This video might be a good launching point for you: https://youtu.be/tOS7ERHZuvA . Also, be sure to check out Ken Heron on YouTube. Fantastic videos with a ton of humor.  

As for birds, I find that Sparrows are very attracted to my quads and seem to just get very close and try to intimidate it. There are Red-tailed Hawks in my woods, but I have never had an instance of attack (just the rabbits).

Additionally, do be very careful using prop guards around trees and branches. You may find the quad gets hung up on something you didn't even see coming. Take it slow, and you will be buzzing the roof in no time! Enjoy!!!

KLRSKIR Posted at 7-30 10:17
With a few hours behind the sticks, you should really have no problem inspecting your house. First things first, get very comfortable controlling the bird in open spaces. Tripod mode will only allow you to fly about 3MPH and will enable all obstacle avoidance sensors. Position mode and Sport mode will NOT have side avoidance. With all due respect, the video you linked really doesn't fully illustrate the abilities of the sensors.

Russ over at 51 Drones does some very detailed videos on all kinds of drone subjects. This video might be a good launching point for you: https://youtu.be/tOS7ERHZuvA . Also, be sure to check out Ken Heron on YouTube. Fantastic videos with a ton of humor.  

Thanks for the advice and the link to Russ at 51 Drones.  His advice is very efficiently and intelligently presented - I noticed that he's storing his drone with props on vs. DJI's advice and has the older advice to put the FAA registration number inside the battery compartment whereas now it has to be on the outside.

I did find two more very impressive videos on Mavic 2 obstacle avoidance although they are with Active Tracking in play using APAS so I'm not sure exactly what's going to happen in Tripod mode with me manually steering the drone instead.  But the obstacle avoidance, at least going forward and backward is extremely impressive.  I think I will be hovering my craft a little off the ground and testing stuff of various shapes and sizes around its perimeter at a safe distance to see what the drone senses and reports to the Smart Controller.  Thanks for the tip on the prop guards possibly catching up the drone, that could be a life-saver for the drone!

P.S. The irony of my house and the drone for me is the back side of my house is the most tree-free and also the safest for me to climb on myself.  The roof on the front side of my house, where I've never gone myself for fear of fallling to my death for its steepness and height, has the most tree limbs and branches in the way of drone flight and seeing things with the camera!  But that's where I'd like to use the drone the most!  I'm wondering how easy, if at all, I'll be able to see clogs inside my LeafGuard gutters, which only have a very narrow, not even finger-sized slit for an opening.  Too bad the drone does not have something like an LED spotlight/flash associated with the camera although I realize that would be pretty useless almost 100% of the time.

https://youtu.be/f1Kyn9iUkhk  and  https://youtu.be/CMLhcIwpmOE

Another worry that I forgot to mention: Wondering how flying around my house with lots of tree cover is going to affect drone hovering in Tripod mode?   Even if good GPS coverage is rapidly lost and gained, does the DJI IMU keep the drone steady or basically, if without good GPS the drone drifts in the wind, will I be counting on obstacle avoidance to keep me away from bad stuff?  Have no good overall idea how GPS and IMU interact to let drone hover.  Is IMU just all about which way is UP?  If there is a great video or text explanation somewhere of how GPS, IMU, and COMPASS all work together that would really help me.  The other thing, at least in my Mavic 2 manual, although DJI gives visual angles of detection for the sensors and detection ranges, it gives no good explanation of how close to an object along any axis one is going to come before the sensors tell the drone to stop and hover - and it doesn't mention if those parameters are adjustable limits.  So, IMHO, while the Mavic 2 Pro is an incredible piece of tech at an incredible price point for what you get, DJI, as far as teaching one everything you really need to know about it to fly it safely as a rank beginner comes up a bit short.

On the tree foliage, perhaps a Texas live oak is so sparsely foliated as compared to an East Cost red or white oak or maple that I don't need to worry too much about loss of GPS signal under live oaks?  We shall see ....  The trees in my yard are usually relatively starved for water and not fully foliated as it costs a fortune to irrigate one's yard profusely, as it should to help conserve resources.

Just popping back to see how things are going for you?

Thanks for asking.  I got the drone and it's GREAT!  Really impressed by the tech.  And have flown it a bit, only in the early morning hours as it's too hot during the day, really, for the batteries (40 deg C, 104 deg F).

But in the meantime, I got Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 - so there went my time with the drone for just now!

Here are some entertaining pictures and video.  In the video, I like my wife exclaiming, "Jim!  It's too high!" - when it's only 15 ft or so off the ground!

A very cautious initial flight!   

Pictures of house and trees from the air:

View From the North   https://1drv.ms/u/s!ApngLox0gfb7j4IOmzCbu6IH_wpxWQ

View From the South  https://1drv.ms/u/s!ApngLox0gfb7j4IP9bYw0NEKCRjzvA

Oops!  Haven't earned enough status to include functional links with text labels in my post, I guess.  Have just added link text above instead and, strangely enough, that becomes live links with no directly associated text labels!?

We have many birds of prey  where I'm at in Idaho;  I lost an FPV drone to a hawk strike.  Seems like they're more interested in the late spring/early summer but fast climb is the best avoidance tactic.

Hi! I am a professional roofer. I've been working as a roofer for over 10 years. You can drone inspect the roof of any house. The main thing is experience and good weather.

Hi! I am a professional roofer. I've been working as a roofer for over 10 years. You can drone inspect the roof of any house. The main thing is experience and good weather.