I’m an old fart and have never been around these things.  My dear wife bought me one of these things for Xmas.  I intend to use it to monitor our 50 wooded acres.  I’ve been doing much reading and viewing about the issues with these things.  My question now is; what issues should I consider when adding landing skids and prop guards with relation to the added weight.  It’s cold and snowy now, so any practice will be indoors......

Well, I will start this off if you like. Firstly, when practicing indoors, be very careful often you do not get any GPS reception inside and that makes the aircraft quite unstable. With regard to prop guards and landing skids, I would advise against putting them on a small drone like a Mini, as it can adversely affect the flying properties of the aircraft. The Mini is quite prone to being blown away, so don't fly it in strong winds, nor get it too high where the wind is stronger.

Geebax Posted at 12-29 17:44
Well, I will start this off if you like. Firstly, when practicing indoors, be very careful often you do not get any GPS reception inside and that makes the aircraft quite unstable. With regard to prop guards and landing skids, I would advise against putting them on a small drone like a Mini, as it can adversely affect the flying properties of the aircraft. The Mini is quite prone to being blown away, so don't fly it in strong winds, nor get it too high where the wind is stronger.

I’m considering my lack of skills and environment in wanting the added safeguards.  But, are you saying that I’ll have less control around trees and rough landing areas with these added items?  Seems like a no win situation.....

may i suggest the mavic mini fly more combo which includes propeller guards which are ideal for use indoors.

Hey welcome to the hobby! While it's cold and snowy it won't hurt to watch as many as youtube videos as you can and learn from the experts(not all of them are experts) you will learn the process of elimination when you start watching.  Good luck and have fun and trust me this won't be your last drone.  Hopefully you don't live near an airport.

Lucas775 Posted at 12-29 18:48
Hey welcome to the hobby! While it's cold and snowy it won't hurt to watch as many as youtube videos as you can and learn from the experts(not all of them are experts) you will learn the process of elimination when you start watching.  Good luck and have fun and trust me this won't be your last drone.  Hopefully you don't live near an airport.

Thank you! No airports or anything else around me.  I’ve read that the cold and/or wet is not conducive to good operation.  But now it sounds like even practicing indoors is an issue.....

Hello there Rechrgd. Thank you for reaching out and welcome to DJI Forum. Just a reminder that if an accessories are mounted to the DJI Mavic Mini, it is recommended to enable the Payload Mode for enhanced safety. Please note that the Maximum Service Ceiling above Sea Level is 1500m and the maximum flight speed is limited when the Payload Mode is enabled. In addition DJI does not recommend using a 3rd party accessory or modifying your DJI Mavic Mini for safety purposes. Finally, I hope that you will get the best feedback from our DJI co pilots with regards to this matter as well. Thank you and have as safe flight always.

Rechrgd Posted at 12-29 17:57
I’m considering my lack of skills and environment in wanting the added safeguards.  But, are you saying that I’ll have less control around trees and rough landing areas with these added items?  Seems like a no win situation.....

Personally, I don't see any need for 'landing skids', the Mini lands just fine as it is. Prop guards might be useful when inside, but I would not install them outside. If you are flying indoors and you cannot receive GPS satellites, the aircraft behaves quite skittishly, because the GPS satellites allow it to hover in the one place quite effectively. But without GPS, the aircraft will be under full manual control.

When outside, the prop guards act like a sail, so if the wind gets hold of your Mini with the guards on it, you might find it being blown away, and not able to return home.

Also an old fart (but having flown many drones).

The real problem with prop guards outdoors is that they will put the little drone into Payload mode and that will seriously reduce the flying range. You probably won't be able to go more than 160 feet away and that won't work for your 50 acres coverage. The same may be true for the skids, depending on their weight.
If you really want to use the guards, You may be able to find some lightweight ones (I did) that may fool the drone into thinking it is not loaded. I still would not bother in this case.