So I finally got my new Mavic Air combo yesterday!
Charged all the batteries last night and today took it to an open field for it's maiden flight...

Good grief.  Deju vu from my old Phantom, lots of fiddling around to connect the remote to the craft (couldn't some kind of handshake be done in the factory? Couldn't all the signing in and naming the craft be done off-line and indoors, before attempting the 1st flight? Anyway...) Standing under the hot sun while it decides to "update firmware" for 20 minutes, then gave a compass error. I calibrated the compass OK, then it wanted me to download flight restrictions, but no not here because not WiFi, along with messages about my local telecom provider offering a discount deal on KFC chicken, my friend asking about a fishing spot on Whatsapp and an email about a parcel despatched. Which part of "Do not disturb" was difficult?? And yes, DND WAS set. I'd liked to have used flight mode but was expecting it to demand the internet and yeah, it did. Then, peering at my dim, overheating phone noticed "main controller data error" on the display.

I don't know if they mean the controller unit, the phone or the craft? Anyway tried going through menus and it wanted the compass calibrated. I just did that? Did it again and it seemed OK, but some "IMU error" and in red "Restart the craft" or something.

So I restarted it.

"IMU error" and in red "Restart the craft"

So I restarted it.

"IMU error" and in red "Restart the craft"


So I gave up and came home, where I am now, on here, asking "Wut next?"

Am trying again at home, in my office, which is right next to my Wifi router and obviously indoors, so not ideal...

OMIGOD! The cooling fan kicked in; I thought it was taking off! I should read the manual and figure out how to remove the props...

Right, update the flight restrictions things... Done.

OK... now it's showing "Ready to go (vision)"

No errors?

I presume if I were outdoors it would say GPS instead of vision?  Yes, it just did seem to find some satellites and tells me my home point is recorded. OK...

Not sure where in the app to find or check for any errors. It seems happy now.

Other than putting in a fresh battery (53% at the mo) how to test if everything is OK? It's not showing any errors at the moment?

Well too dark to fly now, so it goes back in the box as I'm flying (in an airplane) tomorrow.

Try again when I get back next week I guess.
update - the IMU can be calibrated too. Lot's of questions to this guy's vid, which he hasn't answered:



Like I say, I'm not getting any errors now, so hopefully OK but i'll go through this process, see how it goes and if any errors come up during it...

All seemed to go OK, without any errors.

So, Maiden Flight, Attempt 2, next week. Unless I take it with me to Sabah...? Mmm.

Well I know I'm talking to myself here, but where else to rant, without boring my friends on Facebook etc?

So yes, I took it to Sabah. Hardly managed any flying at all, as it demanded I "update the firmware". Again.

I know enough about drones from my Phantom to know you must never take off with a semi-discharged battery, as it can cause a fatal voltage drop and the craft falling out the sky, so let it update firmware yet again, then gave up and went back to the hotel.

Next day tried again...  Get it out of the case, fit controller arms, attach phone, unfold the drone, pull out the little landing legs, gimbal guard, the whole shebang. Finally, I get to fly my lil Mavic!

"Inconsistent firmware found. Update firmware".

Are you f kidding me?

So updated firmware, packed it all away, went home. Screw this.

Next day, without much time, try again. figuring maybe it's because I have to keep changing batteries because I have to keep updating firmware is why I have to keep updating firmware and changing batteries? Because, you know, the firmware thing? Jeez...

Seems maybe it is the batteries themselves that need updated firmware because FINALLY I'm able to set up and and actually take off.

Didn't do much, mostly just checking it out and making sure the drone actually worked, so literally just up, spin around, back and forth, come down again. No time left for anything else, catching a flight that afternoon.

So, back home, I take it to some open space, try again.. except I can't, because all 3 fully charged batteries are now showing only 3/4?  Is it normal for them to discharge so fast, even when not even slightly used? So that was another day in which I didn't get to fly, but hey, I did get to charge my batteries, again, so that was.. annoying.

OK, batteries fully charged, all firmware updated, let's go to the local park, try this baby out... Wahoo! I was able to connect and... "Calibare compass". What? I did that already, twice now? So I try again... won't accept it.

So, feeling extremely vulnerable, I take off my expensive Garmin watch, place it on the ground along with my car keys, bag containing my wallet, my belt, meaning my pants are falling down, and awkwardly shuffle around 30 ft away from my wallet, watch, bag, belt, car keys.. (stress!) and try again.

Finally it accepts the calibration and I replace my watch, keys, bag, wallet etc. Except I only bought one battery and I'm not keen on taking off on 94% battery... I try anyway. Once again not really doing anything, just want to check out the gimbal, flight behavior, just spin around a bit, fly away from me, towards me, up a bit higher, just playing around a bit. OK, enough, bring it down, off home to see the footage.

There's no footage, because unlike my Phantom it seems you need to tell it to record? Maybe I'm wrong and just forgetting, as it was some time ago, but didn't the Phantom just record, because it was on, and flying? Maybe not, I dunno, but no, no footage at all. I didn't tell the flying camera to, you know, camera?

So today, at long last, today is The Day. I take it to some open ground, with some scenic stuff I could film, perhaps?

Take it out of the case.. set it all up, set up the controller, connect to it, lay out my little launch pad, homepoint OK. This time, very carefully, I push the record thing on the screen. Recording. OK, take off... wahoo!

...?
..

Yep, all seems good, flies around, I play with the gimbal, I take it around 100 meters or more away from me, pretty scary but hella fun! At around 60% on the battery I bring it back, perform a great landing on the pad, all is good.

Can't wait to see the footage!

Bring it home... there's no footage, other than when it was sitting stationary on the launch pad.

So at some point, without me telling it, it stopped recording?

Does anyone want to buy a Mavic Air Flymore Combo? Because I'm getting pretty sick of this thing now.

Hiya,

Don`t give up!

Use a screen recorder (i use DU recorder), at least than you have some recordings  ;-)  And you can see what went wrong l why i did not record a video.

You can always use your motorcycle to visit me for some help, i live in the netherlands. (riding a bike as well)

PS i  do no want buy another MA, i am happy with my MA and its recordings.
cheers
JJB

Well I have 2 batteries and the controller on charge, so I guess I haven't entirely given up...

It's just so damn frustrating to go through so much messing around, to get absolutely nowhere. It's easier to launch my boat than it is to launch this thing!

It's especially frustrating because I went out of my way to make sure it was record. I was, absolutely, definitely, for sure, recording. And yet somehow, while sitting on the launch pad, managed to entirely STOP recording?

It's a flying camera, it should camera. Cameraing should be the default. Only if the user tells it to STOP recording should the flying camera quit being a camera and doing camera stuff. At the very least it should have it in big red letters "NOT RECORDING" or something.

Right now it feels like it would be quicker and easier to train a pigeon to fly with a Go-Pro...

Welp, Monday tomorrow, so will be another week or so before I get the chance to actually use this thing as intended, but I won't give up, just yet.

So, so far I've managed 5 flights. Today was my best ever - but once AGAIN I forgot to 'record' most of it!

It's ridiculous. This is a flying camera. It should camera. You know, the camera thing? Recording ON should be the default! Why would I ever want to NOT record with my flying camera?

Yes, I remembered, on the way back, and so did, finally, get some reasonable footage out of this thing.

Today's question is - how to change camera settings and things, without having to turn the drone on and connect to the drone itself? It SEEMS I can do that by "entering camera view without connecting". Perfect, except that doesn't work?

I've noticed it is recording in 1080, I didn't buy a 4K drone to use 1080, yet it seems for me to possibly adjust that I have to make a mental note for next time, or, you know, do it now? Except I can't do it now, not without removing all 4 props and turning on the drone, then connecting the app via the remote control, the whole thing as though about to take off - just to adjust the resolution?

MADNESS!

Thing is, every time I DO try doing anything like that at home, indoors, to adjust anything, RTH altitude for example, it totally screws up the compass calibration.

I've flown this bird 5 times. 5 times I've had to calibrate the compass. How does that even begin to make sense?

Since I'm here moaning anyway, here's my checklist and hassles to go through, just to take ANY flying footage:

Open landing pad and stake down
Remove Gimbal Cover
Unfold craft – Back legs first
Open antennas (landing legs)
Remove Phone cover
Fit sun shade to phone
Turn brightness to maximum
Turn off Bluetooth and Wifi
Turn on Do Not Disturb (Why can't the Go app do this stuff for me? So many apps ask for stupid permissions, this one time I'd happily give permission but I have to do this stuff manually?)
Open DJI Go app and select Mavic Air (Why? why? I only have the Mavic Air, can you not REMEMBER THAT??)
Connect phone cable to Controller
Turn on Controller
Go back to drone and turn it on
Go through the steps in Go, and WAIT. Don’t select “connect to aircraft”, just wait for it
Wait for 10 or more GPS
Check current home-point is same as current location (I once had a RTH that went to the previous home point, so yes, check!)
Take off and go fly, nervously...


Note something? Yeah I forgot "Turn the camera on, THE SAME CAMERA I'M LOOKING THROUGH, FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE!? SERIOUSLY?

Notice something else? From experience, you can add the following to the above list:

Get annoyed and swear a bit
Stride away from the drone, pull all the valuables from your person, your watch, wallet, everything, and dump them on the grass 25 ft away.
Hold your pants up and walk back to the drone, looking around and back nervously at your car keys, wallet, bracelet etc
Hold drone up and walk around in a circle, like an idiot.
Stride back to the controller and see if it accepted that. If so continue, if not do the idiot thing again
Walk back to the drone and walk in a circle again, trying to remember if you should have the nose up or down.
Walk back to controller, remember it was nose down, and repeat the above.
Walk back to controller again and check battery level, curse softly...
Take off, go fly around a bit and have "fun"
Return to landing point, remember that during all the above, you forgot to tell the camera you've been looking through, to camera.

*sigh

Yeah I'm moaning, but if I just sit here gushing like a fanboy things will never change, and things need to change, dammit

Thank you for this,   I can feel your pain.

Snif.

Thanks.

On the bright side...

I DID get to fly over 300 meters away (same as yards really) and still had good control and vision. To be open, with my Phantom 3 Standard, I don't think I ever voluntarily flew it more than about 120 meters. The only time I DID go further was when I tried demonstrating the RTH to the guy that bought it. It  went to the homepoint of the previous week, and I just about managed to get it back under control as it went around 470 meters away from us!

That this little buzzy thing could fly so far, under full control and so on, is encouraging. On the whole it seems to be functioning fine, just some questionable design choices, especially the software.

Can't say I'm quite so impressed with the quality of the video, but like I said it's not defaulting to 4K but to 1080. My biggest gripe is the jerky footage when turning. I'm sure my Phantom was a lot smoother. I'm guessing I can adjust the gimbal settings, but again that means connecting it all up and messing the calibration again, so I'll just have to try to remember to change it next time.

The fun I DID have, while I thought it was recording, means I'm not giving up, just giving some feedback...

Update 4 years later... I did give up.

That was my last ever flight with the thing. Just too much hassle and frustration.

I recently bought a little selfie-drone that folds up and fits in my pocket, needs no GPS etc. Been having fun with it so decided to try once again with the Mavic Air... Except while I have the 4 battery charger and 3 batteries, I can't find the thing that powers the charger, because the charger doesn't charge without a charger for charger, because.. reasons?

DJI tell me they no longer ship to Malaysia (?) and no stock for Mavic Air chargers anyway, so it's already obsolete scrap.

5 whole flights, only 1 of which did I actually get to record something 'fun', and now just throw it away? Happily I did find someone selling the 12v car charger kit, so I should be able to charge the batteries, maybe.

In the meantime, it seems the DJI Go app is now obsolete, and doesn't work on my phone anymore? I found and downloaded 'DJI Fly', but until the car charger arrives I don't even know for sure if that works with my ancient, obsolete 5 year old aircraft?

The only description I've seen says it works with the Air 2, which I don't have; I paid good coin for the Air.

The little pocket drone has got me back in the mood for droning, and I'm contemplating the Mini 4 Pro, with the Integra goggles (though at present I only see the Mini 3 Pro being usable with those? Will the 4 be included later or not?). However if my MA is truly obsolete and unsupported, after only 4 years and 5 flights, then can I buy DJI again?