I did my first flight away from hom today and sent the drone up, over some trees and away into the distance. I took off from a pocket of open space amongst trees. The craft o to around 450m away and then threw up an antenna weakness / warning. It remained connected but I didn't like the feeling so turned it round. Is this normal - I thought the range was 10km?

I think I'm not saying anything stupid about the fact that in the UK you use the CE transmission mode but iam not 100% sure, which is given for 6km as opposed to the FCC mode which is actually given for 10km.

Then you should know that the transmission is easily disrupted by obstacles, including trees.

And finally, a friendly reminder, watch out for VLOS.

DJI Mini 3 - Specs - DJI

Over the town in CE mode expect 2000ft max distance,   but thats plenty as its so small you cant see it out that far anyway.  

Thanks, this was rural for info but there were some banks of trees. I presume CE is automatic on the handset and not something that can be changed?

Make sure you point the controller (front part) to the drone.