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Experiences of a new Mavic Air Owner
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3560 64 2018-8-12
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f1alan
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Flight distance : 105197 ft
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This is my first post but I have been reading for a while and thought I'd introduce myself and tell my story having bought a Mavic Air around 3 weeks ago. Sorry if it is a bit long, I didn't expect it to be when I started!



I have been toying with the idea of buying a drone for some time, initially having ruled out the Mavic Air in favour of the Mavic Pro or possibly the upcoming Mavic Pro 2. However, I decided to revisit the Mavic Air having read a lot of positive reviews and watched hours and hours of YouTube videos about it! The main reason that I initially discounted the Mavic Air was due to the possible range issues with the Enhanced Wifi but what sold me in the end was the compact form factor. I'm pleased to say that range isn't a problem for me and is well within anything that I ever expect to use it for as I'll be sticking to the current UK drone rules of line of sight and 400ft etc. Another slight concern was the battery life but I went for the fly more combo and with the three batteries I am confident that I'll have enough to capture what I want in a day's hike or cycle ride. I can always buy a 4th battery if I wanted but I don't think that'll be necessary. I'd definitely recommend the fly more combo, if only for the batteries alone and the charging hub. I also bought the official car charging adapter for added flexibility. Now onto the main reason for this post...

As you will be aware, there is a vast amount of information and videos about the Mavic Air and other DJI drones. I was able to sift through that and make a balanced decision about which drone to get, whether to get the fly more combo or not and all of the accessories that I'd buy. Having done lots of testing over the past few weeks, I am more than happy with the decisions that I made so I thought it would be useful to consolidate everything that I ended up buying in the hope that it is helpful for other prospective Mavic Air owners.

Before I bought the drone I just assumed that I'd use my iPhone 7 to control it - it is one of the supported devices and should be more than capable of handling the DJI GO 4 app (I'd read that it is a very intensive app and needs a powerful device to handle it). However, the first thing is that my phone is in quite a thick notebook style case (I like this as it protects the phone when it is in my pocket and in case I drop it) that doesn't fit very well in the controller. I thought about getting a slimmer case or taking it out of the case but these were just compromises that I didn't want to make. I also considered that the app would run down my phone's battery so started looking for cheap phones on eBay etc. I also thought that a tablet would be a better option to give me more screen space. Having read lots of forum posts I decided that the Acer Iconia One (B1-790) 7 inch tablet was the one for me. I didn't really know how it would perform until I could test it myself as the only video that I could find was from last year and was with a Spark:

However, taking everything into account I decided to buy a refurbished one (when I say refurbished it looks brand new and is less than a year old). I chose to uninstall / disable all apps that came with the tablet to leave as much RAM as possible for the DJI GO 4 app. I can say that I am more than happy with it and I have been able to fly the drone confidently with it.



The next question was how was I going to attach it to the controller. As it is a 7 inch tablet, it will fit in the controller legs with a squeeze but I wasn't 100% happy with that and instead ended up going for a mount that folds up into a package the size of a phone and fits into the built-in mount on the controller with the tablet elevated above. This seemed like the best configuration for me. It is easy to assemble and take apart but I just leave it assembled in the top of my rucksack so that it is quicker to get setup when I want to shoot.



I got a 30cm micro USB cable and it is just the perfect length to reach from the tablet to the normal USB socket on bottom of the controller - the mount has a nice hole that I can route the cable through, keeping it out of the way from the joysticks. The tablet does charge from the remote which was a bit of a surprise to me but there is nothing that can be done about that without "rooting" the tablet which I didn't want to do. That being said I understand that it is only a trickle charge that it takes from the bottom socket and it hasn't left me short of battery in all of my tests. The 3 drone batteries will be depleted long before the controller and tablet are and I always keep everything topped up once I'm finished so not a problem.

One concern that I had about the tablet was how it would perform in daylight. It is obviously not going to be as bright as I'm used to with my iPhone 7 but I hope this photo shows that it is definitely usable outdoors. If brightness did become an issue then I'm sure some sort of hood could be used to help with that but I've not felt it necessary so far.



The next thing to consider was filters. One of my hopes is that I can capture "cinematic" and professional looking footage that I can share with friends and family. We have a lot of nice scenery in Scotland that I look forward to exploring with my drone. Again, I watched countless videos and and read reviews of filters. I did look at cheaper filters but in the end I opted for the Polar Pro Vivid collection which are a trio of ND4, ND8 and ND16 filters. I wasn't sure if this was going to be enough but thought that I could always add an ND32 if I needed it later. So far I've not felt the need and have been impressed with the results that I've had with the ND16 on sunny days. The ND4 and ND8 have been useful for darker days and I expect will be used more in the winter months. There was a choice between the Shutter collection and Vivid collection, the difference being that the Vivid ones are polarised (this can be enabled by rotating the filter to get the desired effect). I liked the fact that the polarised ones reduce glare on water and I thought that it would be the most flexible option because I can enable or disable it depending on the position of the adjustment ring. One other reason that I went for the Polar Pro was that I'd heard that some of the cheaper filters are not compatible with the gimble auto adjustment sequence and need to be added after this has completed. I don't know if this is true or not but I didn't want to take the risk as that would have been a bit of a hassle.




When I first got the drone, I was taking off and landing on grass but I knew that there would be situations where I would want to take off or land on rougher surfaces. For this eventuality I wanted something to protect the propellers from any stones being blown up into them.  I opted for a cheap foldable landing mat from eBay but they are available from lots of places. The one that I got is 54cm and only 20cm when folded (requires a bit of a knack to start with!) and I feel that this is a perfect fit for the Mavic Air and stores nicely in the rucksack.




Although the fly more combo comes with a carrying case, it really wasn't much use to me. I wanted something that would take the drone and all of my accessories so went for a rucksack. I went for this one from Amazon and it does the job for me. Plenty room for the drone down below, the controller above and all of the batteries, spare propellers and charging cables. I've had it on my back for a few hours when hiking and when cycling and it is very comfy. There are more expensive options worth considering but I felt that this one was very good value and I'm glad I chose it.







I have some travels coming up and want to make good use of the drone. One of the things that I wanted to get sorted out first was the best style settings to use. I've read mixed views about this, whether to leave everything at 0 or different variations on the contrast and saturation. I don't mind having to post process and I've been playing with Davinci Resolve for this purpose. In the end I liked the results in this video:

I bought his LUT and used the suggested 0 sharpness, 3 contrast and 2 saturation values on the D-Cinelike colour profile. This combined with my Polar Pro filters shooting 25fps and 1/50th shutter speed gives me the results that I was looking for. Some people might not want to post process and the style settings of 0 are probably fine for that. I recommend experimenting with this, finding a setting that you like and sticking with it.

Finally,  I thought I'd share some stills that I took yesterday. These were taken in RAW mode (apart from the panorama) and post processed. Originally I thought I'd be taking mostly video with the drone but I think stills will be a big part of my usage too.






I hope this post has been interesting, if a bit long... I'll try to keep any future posts to a shorter length


2018-8-12
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DJI Gamora
Administrator

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Hi, thanks for sharing your story about your new DJI Mavic Air. Have a safe flight always.
2018-8-12
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rolling56
Captain
Flight distance : 138310 ft
United States
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Welcome and glad you had a good experience. This forum is not really a good place to come for positive reviews. It's more of a place that people come to with bad experiences and hope to become a good experience if you know what i mean. Have fun and fly safe!
2018-8-12
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Amjad1983
Second Officer
Flight distance : 310489 ft
United Arab Emirates
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Welcome to DJI forum and congrats for new MA and i hope you will get a positive experience  from us
2018-8-12
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LordoftheFlies
lvl.4
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You should have made a video review instead of a constitutional forum post.
Screen Shot 2018-07-30 at 23.26.51.png
2018-8-12
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nixuspix
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Flight distance : 2864974 ft
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Latvia
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Welcome to the forum and fly safely
2018-8-12
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f1alan
lvl.3
Flight distance : 105197 ft
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LordoftheFlies Posted at 2018-8-12 07:33
You should have made a video review instead of a constitutional forum post.

Ok, thanks. The reason for my post was to help others searching Google. That’s what I tend to do, and I found several forum posts here and elsewhere useful during my research. I thought I’d be helpful and write some text that people searching Google might find. I didn’t mind spending a few hours of my time documenting my experience but maybe I’ll not bother making such ”constitutional” posts in future if this is the reaction that I can expect here.
2018-8-12
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f1alan
lvl.3
Flight distance : 105197 ft
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nixuspix Posted at 2018-8-12 07:44
Welcome to the forum and fly safely

Thanks. Will try to!
2018-8-12
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Dirty Bird
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f1alan Posted at 2018-8-12 07:46
Ok, thanks. The reason for my post was to help others searching Google. That’s what I tend to do, and I found several forum posts here and elsewhere useful during my research. I thought I’d be helpful and write some text that people searching Google might find. I didn’t mind spending a few hours of my time documenting my experience but maybe I’ll not bother making such ”constitutional” posts in future if this is the reaction that I can expect here.

Your post was fine & informative.  Don't be discouraged by those deficient in people skills.  I look forward to your ongoing exploits with your Mavic Air.
2018-8-12
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Charissa
Captain
Flight distance : 689334 ft
South Africa
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Glad to hear about your positive MA experience. Awesome little beast when it worked for me.
2018-8-12
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LordoftheFlies
lvl.4
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Um, I did read it. Be gratful.
2018-8-12
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LordoftheFlies
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Dirty Bird Posted at 2018-8-12 08:04
Your post was fine & informative.  Don't be discouraged by those deficient in people skills.  I look forward to your ongoing exploits with your Mavic Air.

Troll.
2018-8-12
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f1alan
lvl.3
Flight distance : 105197 ft
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Dirty Bird Posted at 2018-8-12 08:04
Your post was fine & informative.  Don't be discouraged by those deficient in people skills.  I look forward to your ongoing exploits with your Mavic Air.

Thanks, hopefully I'll have some interesting footage to share in the near future.
2018-8-12
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HedgeTrimmer
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rolling56 Posted at 2018-8-12 04:54
Welcome and glad you had a good experience. This forum is not really a good place to come for positive reviews. It's more of a place that people come to with bad experiences and hope to become a good experience if you know what i mean. Have fun and fly safe!

This forum is not really a good place to come for positive reviews.

There is now one more positive review, so maybe now it is a good place?

2018-8-12
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HedgeTrimmer
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What level of Firmware are you running on Mavic Air?   

What version of GO-4 running on Acer tablet?  

Which version of Android OS on Acer tablet?
2018-8-12
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f1alan
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Flight distance : 105197 ft
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HedgeTrimmer Posted at 2018-8-12 09:20
What level of Firmware are you running on Mavic Air?   

What version of GO-4 running on Acer tablet?  

Good question.

The firmware version of the Mavic Air is currently 01.00.0400.

The version of DJI GO 4 is 4.2.21.

The Android version is 6.0 which I recall is a couple of versions ahead of the minimum. It is prompting for an Android update but I have not done that as everything is working fine.
2018-8-12
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rolling56
Captain
Flight distance : 138310 ft
United States
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HedgeTrimmer Posted at 2018-8-12 09:16
This forum is not really a good place to come for positive reviews.

There is now one more positive review, so maybe now it is a good place?

I don't know i haven't made up MY mind yet. I do have my own opinion yes? Or do you make my decisions? NOT!

I see now why you have to argue with people and get in everyone's business. So get a life and quit stalking me.
2018-8-12
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rolling56
Captain
Flight distance : 138310 ft
United States
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Sorry for the offtopic reply to the OP. Some of the people here this they know it all and can read minds and post for you. Like i said this really isn't the place to come to see good reviews. Mainly a place for people to come and gripe about what crappy DJI devices are. You will see as this thread grows and i do apologize. Thank you for the review again and have a great day.
2018-8-12
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Tviscomi
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Like a few others, I'm glad to see a positive review.
2018-8-12
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HedgeTrimmer
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rolling56 Posted at 2018-8-12 09:58
I don't know i haven't made up MY mind yet. I do have my own opinion yes? Or do you make my decisions? NOT!

I see now why you have to argue with people and get in everyone's business. So get a life and quit stalking me.

Dude take a Chill Pill.  Not stalking you.

Out of entire webpage showing replies, two replies to you.  (Not counting this one).
Here is other reply: ''Like idea.  Got a chuckle out of it too.  Imagining - Like Dude, $100!  Hold my beer, I got this!''


2018-8-12
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Suren
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Wow, very nice review, Welcome to the forum and nice shots there, hoping to see much more
2018-8-12
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f1alan
lvl.3
Flight distance : 105197 ft
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Suren Posted at 2018-8-12 10:53
Wow, very nice review, Welcome to the forum and nice shots there, hoping to see much more

Thanks. Will see what I can do...
2018-8-12
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f1alan
lvl.3
Flight distance : 105197 ft
United Kingdom
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I just noticed that the YouTube videos that I referenced did not appear in my original post and I can't figure out how to edit it...

The first video showing the tablet with a Spark is this one:

The second talking about the cinematic settings is this one:
2018-8-12
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Dalford
Second Officer
Flight distance : 619846 ft
United States
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Thanks for the review.  I picked up some good info from you  especially on filters. Great pics by the way and welcome to the forum.
2018-8-12
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f1alan
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Flight distance : 105197 ft
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Dalford Posted at 2018-8-12 11:21
Thanks for the review.  I picked up some good info from you  especially on filters. Great pics by the way and welcome to the forum.

Thanks. Glad you found it helpful.
2018-8-12
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rolling56
Captain
Flight distance : 138310 ft
United States
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HedgeTrimmer Posted at 2018-8-12 10:33
Dude take a Chill Pill.  Not stalking you.

Out of entire webpage showing replies, two replies to you.  (Not counting this one).

With your generic avatar i must have you mixed with someone else i suppose sorry. Seems like every time i post someone bangs on me this weekend. Have a good day.
2018-8-12
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rolling56
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Flight distance : 138310 ft
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f1alan Posted at 2018-8-12 11:06
I just noticed that the YouTube videos that I referenced did not appear in my original post and I can't figure out how to edit it...

The first video showing the tablet with a Spark is this one:

I wondered why you didn't post a video instead of just pics. I thought maybe that was just your style.

And sorry again for the offtopic posts. Most of the time people are claiming to have problems more so than oh happy days. Again so glad you have had a great experience
2018-8-12
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HedgeTrimmer
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rolling56 Posted at 2018-8-12 13:02
With your generic avatar i must have you mixed with someone else i suppose sorry. Seems like every time i post someone bangs on me this weekend. Have a good day.




2018-8-12
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Lucas775
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Flight distance : 50642090 ft
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Lot to read, anyway welcome to the forum and fly safe!
2018-8-12
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Dirty Bird
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Obviously you fail to grasp the definition of that term.

Your reply to the OP was rude & could be summarized by the phrase, "taking a Constitutional."

Sorry if the truth hurt your feelings.  I do give credit for thinking of our founding document.

Have a nice day!  

2018-8-12
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LordoftheFlies
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Dirty Bird Posted at 2018-8-12 18:57
Obviously you fail to grasp the definition of that term.

Your reply to the OP was rude & could be summarized by the phrase, "taking a Constitutional."

Oh man!? I am rude? Nooooooooooo. Sorry. I am going to go flog myself in a closet, and pray on my knees over a bed of rice. -Sike- You are not the forum authority bro. I thought the post was long for not having any obvious issues and would have preferred a viddy. If you have a problem with that, chill out from the internet for a while and have a bag of tropical skittles.
2018-8-13
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PatrickM923
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Nice photos.  Where is this?
2018-8-13
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Lucas775
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This is my 2nd posting here and this time I read the whole thing and yes I did learn from your posting and that just say that we all can learn something from one another weather we are a noobie or a veteran drone pilot.  Great work!
2018-8-13
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f1alan
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Flight distance : 105197 ft
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PatrickM923 Posted at 2018-8-13 20:18
Nice photos.  Where is this?

Thanks. It is looking towards the Angus Glens in Eastern Scotland.
2018-8-13
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f1alan
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Lucas775 Posted at 2018-8-13 20:49
This is my 2nd posting here and this time I read the whole thing and yes I did learn from your posting and that just say that we all can learn something from one another weather we are a noobie or a veteran drone pilot.  Great work!

Glad to hear that you found the post useful.
2018-8-13
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CA Mavic Pro
First Officer
Flight distance : 639652 ft
Lebanon
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Very nice pictures, thanks for sharing
2018-8-13
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Atlas_Aus
First Officer

Thailand
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Hey mate,

Thanks for sharing. I too have just bought a Mavic Air and still figuring it all out. Thank goodness for youtube !

Looking forward to some Scotland scenery as I don't think I will ever get there, sadly.
2018-8-14
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Amjad1983
Second Officer
Flight distance : 310489 ft
United Arab Emirates
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We should not only consider bad experience  ,we also need to look at good experience because we get inspired by creative and innovative people so we should support each others and stand up with beginners
2018-8-14
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Amjad1983
Second Officer
Flight distance : 310489 ft
United Arab Emirates
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We should not only consider bad experience  ,we also need to look at good experience because we get inspired by creative and innovative people so we should support each others and stand up with beginners
2018-8-14
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Wachtberger
Captain
Flight distance : 261509 ft
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Thank you very much for sharing your experience and the great shots! I wish you always happy landings!
2018-8-14
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