I was out In Palos Verdes, CA taking some test shots with my new Mavic Air. I took off and brought the drone to about 50 ft above me and moved it out over the cliffs slightly. As i was checking all my settings and getting ready to fly out over the water I heard my girlfriend exclaim "Oh my god!" and I looked up to see a large hawk pulling out of a dive and just barely missing my drone. I got lucky this time so i suppose my biggest gripe with the Mavic Air, thus far, is that it seems to be just about the same size as hawk food.  

Here's the footage I ended up with from that day out. I avoided that area after the near miss in an effort to respect the bird.
No color Grading, Out of the box settings. Enjoy

-Chris

Wow, incredible footage! I'm also in LA, and I've been wanting to do some flying in PV. I noticed that it's one of the few coastal areas where you're not in some sort of restricted airspace! Will definitely be checking it out one of these weekends.

wow, awesome..!!!!!

4K? Nice vids. Must have been a great day to be out.

Very nice. And nicely put together. My wife sez, “let’s go!” ;)

That is awesome! Great video.

I didn't see the hawk. What is the time of the hawk scene?

Very nice.  Great video footage

djiuser_9ZForQHFzsot Posted at 2018-2-6 17:50
I didn't see the hawk. What is the time of the hawk scene?

It happened while i was checking my settings and wasn't rolling unfortunately. I thought it was worth sharing the story even without having captured the footage.

Trip Astute Posted at 2018-2-6 16:37
Wow, incredible footage! I'm also in LA, and I've been wanting to do some flying in PV. I noticed that it's one of the few coastal areas where you're not in some sort of restricted airspace! Will definitely be checking it out one of these weekends.

It's definitely worth a little trip. Watch out for big birds with sharp talons

Nice video. The weather has been amazing in the SoCal area this week. I need to get out to that area it seems nice and wide open for some great flying.

title should be CLICK BAIT!  

May I ask what were you camera settings?

Dangerousdavekincaid Posted at 2018-2-6 22:15
May I ask what were you camera settings?

This was all done on auto.  gimbal sensitivity slightly reduced. I couldn't see my iPad screen all that well because it was so bright so i didn't want to mess with it too much.

Wow! Nice fotage, nice place! My compliments, also for respecting the hawk area!

Beautiful video! I grew up in the PRC, but never made enough to afford a parking space in PV, let alone dreaming of living there. Thanks for sharing, and great job of controlling the drone; I've heard that it's behavior can be unpredictable over water. Nice to an expert do it right!

Fantastic footage, thank you very much!

Beautiful video!

Great video!   

Stunning ....... nice footage... keep it coming.....

So jealous that area looks amazing! I wish i had more terrain that was as eye pleasing as that here in Oklahoma lol

Awesome footage

I was in school for 4 years in the la area we used to fly sailplanes out there. We had a few times where a hawk would come check out a foam flying wing. We used to see seals down from Fermin all the time do they still hang out their? Could get some cool videos of them!

Change the title

I am impress of the quality of the mavic air

Pretty nice video!

Great video, but am I seeing the "Spark / iMovie" jitter?  You can fix that by either only dragging video in to the project after trimming a bit off the beginning or changing the speed of the clip and then setting it back to normal.

Looks great. You should be very pleased with the images you have filmed.

Looks like an awesome place to fly. Nice video.

Good job! Glad you didn't get caught

Tom_A Posted at 2018-2-7 19:34
Great video, but am I seeing the "Spark / iMovie" jitter?  You can fix that by either only dragging video in to the project after trimming a bit off the beginning or changing the speed of the clip and then setting it back to normal.

Ah thank you! Gotta be honest I haven't used iMovie in years, but throwing together something in 4k in Premier takes way more time than i have for these quick "end of day" edits. I did trim the clip before importing but noticed there's one particular clip thats sped up that just drags. Thanks for the tip . happy flying!

I get lots of air traffic with the wild life around me. There are about 15 vultures that hover around my valley at all times. They come and check out the drone, even do fly by's but have never came closer than 10 ft or so. A bald eagle gave it a look once as well, that was amazing. It had just finished picking at a dead deer, and that bird is massive! The birds I worry about are the humming birds and the finches. They look like they actually touch my drone. They move so fast, they avoid the props.......so far. They tend to be closer to the ground, and the hawks are usually several hundred ft up. Spring time is worse, as they are protecting the nest.

I used to worry, now I just fly and ignore. They are just curious it seems.

Great footage!  Especially without any color grading.  Some great shots in there. I specifically bought the 'RED' Mavic Air because birds kept attacking my DJI Spark which was 'WHITE'.  I'm hoping the red deters birds from attacking it.  I've had red tail hawks (Multiple), pigeons, and seaguls come after my Spark.  Birds seem to be very territorial (I'm not a bird expert)....LOL  Great stuff!!