Received the Avata yesterday and the FPV RC2 this evening. Initially thought to first sort things out, give me some hours simulation time in Liftoff (which I downloaded yesterday), a man of age, things will be well sorted out before doing something, that might break some other things.
Around 6 PM I thougt 'F*** OFF, go for it'. Drove out of town. Got the Goggles on. And had a heck of a time!
Vita: I did some 50 easy flights with the Mini 3 Pro since may this year. Have some experience in flying planes in Simulators (most of on my PC, MS2020 and its predecessors). No experience at all in FPV flying. This was my first flight. And GOSH, this squeezed my adrenaline glands in a way that I had doing trackdays years ago.
The flight mode has been S all the time. Found N much too slow after few meters and switched to S right away and stuck there. Manual is way ahead for me, for this I will need many hours training with Liftoff.
Say what you want, but the dynamics of this little bumblebee in S are absolutely addictive! If you are interested in FPV, this is the way to start. A most entertaining way.
(Rendering in HD and 4K may still take some time at Youtube, so maybe right now it's still very low res)
On my way home I drove like an old man. Was so worn out and happy, had no need for speed anymore. For today. Only.
Hello there SeehawerB. Good day and thank you for giving out these interesting information and this cool video that you have filmed using your new DJI Avata. Again, thank you for your support and keep flying.
Thankfully I got grip on one brandnew FPV Controller 2 at ebay, For around 60% over the recommende retail price. Obviously there are some people making money out there selling overpriced remotes. The auction was "private", the package came from a well known reseller in Germany. Anyway, I don't think this first flight would have been so great with the Motion Controller. I think you do need sticks to fly this way and even more aggressive after some practice.
First thing after I got the FPV RC2 was to unhinge the left stick (thrust stick). And also tested the remote with Liftoff, which I downloaded 2 days ago.
Yes, in deed. Got a bit angry at first when I purchased this in a "private auction" and then getting a shipping notification from a commercial dealer for drones and accesories. And even more, 5 minutes after paying to ebay I got another notification that the same auction got online once again with another brand new controller! All of that is most probably not in line with the tax laws here and could have some bad time for the ones involved. But after a night of sleep I decided not to be angry anymore and better enjoying the fact that I will have the proper remote for first flights right away.
And I regret none of that. In my opinion the Motion Controller is nice for cinematic shots you aim for with, let's say a Mini 3 Pro. Fly nice and steady and enjoy the environment. But if you aim for speed, want the maximum kick, the stick controller is a must have. So I hope DJI will manufacture the next batch soon so many more may experience something like I had yesterday evening. It's so rewarding.
This sunday I was some 50 kilometers out of the city in a sparsely populated, rural area. Many kilometers around with almost no human being. So brought the Mini 3 Pro and the Avata with me and spend some hours draining 5 batteries with each of the birds. With the Avata I flew 3 batteries with the FPV Controller 2 and the other 2 batteries trying the Motion Controller from the Pro-View Combo.
My impressions:
- The Motion Controller is very fun to use. I needed some minutes to adept it, had only stick controller experience to this moment. If you give it a chance you will see this as another way of experience, a nice addition to the usual sticks. But I personally feel more comfortable and safer using the sticks if it has to be dynamic and most precise. Had some bugs pestering around my head while flying and the MC took every movement of my body and transposed it to the drone. Having a stick controller in your hands gets a more independent relative connection between the hands and the fingers, even if you move the hands , the sticks do not have to get an influence.
- The Avata is so much fun for a beginner like me. I do not think I will go to full manual in the near future, S ticks all the boxes for me now. Anyway, getting to more speed in S would be even more highly appreciated.
- Had no transmission problems this day, but the most distance I flew was shy of 300 meters and there were almost no obstacles this far away. The trees I flew past were much nearer to me. May be with more obstacles I will come to another result, will see.
- The Googles 2 are a big drawback. On the underside they sit hard on the nose, pinching it to almost not breathing anymore, and the cheeks do not touch the padding at all, letting amounts of light in the Goggles. The problem leeds to a second issue, the eyes are a bit to far from the optics, because of the poor nose space. As a result I cannot see the complete screen, and what I see is not sharp around the center of the image. I think a solution could be to completely cut out the nose part of the face pad so the housing of the Goggles directly sits on the nose. Sorry DJI, I do not know what type of human you created this for, but not near the shape of my head. This does not fit at all, it's the biggest drawback of the whole package, the only real drawback I think, but this one's simply a bummer. And obviously I am not the only one with this problem!
- Flying FPV means you WILL crash. I read this every once in a while. Now I can confirm this! 5 batteries = 4 crashes: 3 times into trees, one of them catapulting the Avata into deep grass where it layed on it's back and the crying props played lawn mower. 4th crash was into a wooden pole for electric cables over the ground. This was a hard one, video got black at once, I instantly jumped up and ran to the site. The Avata survived! At home I took away the props, two of them hat some small marks and got replaced, and then cleaned the drone with a cloth and some mild soap water. 2 new props and it looks like new, coming fresh from the box. This little thing is a hard cookie!
So, summarized, DJI Goggles 2 are really got technically, but the adaption to my head are a big time catastrophy! The Avata is a real gem, a little riot, most entertaining. And the Motion Controller would have been a nice option, but not the only standard you get with any of the combos. The FPV Controller 2 is a must-have, no doubt at all. Who ever buys the Avata may also try to get hand on one of them, even if they are sold with a solid surplus by now. You will appreciate having this.
Here are some pictures after the fyling day and after cleaning up:
The lawn mower
After cleaning (not any crash marks, kudos Avata!)
And here is some footage I took with a rather abrupt ending:
Some more trying to learn FPV drone handling this friday evening to flush the head from working week. While flying the Avata, two thunderstorms came around us, so we drove to an open view location and I took the Mini 3 Pro out off the trunk and let it rise up to have a view what's going on there.
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