I have dreamt about this for five years... and finally, #MyFirstFlight with a real drone happened in the days around the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020, on the Italian Dolomiti mountains... and which place could be better?!? :-)
Why five years? Because it was at my brother's wedding, on August 1st, 2015, that I saw for the first time a drone in action. It was a Phantom 3, flown by a friend of my brother, and he was shooting videos during the party after the wedding, while people were jumping in the swimming pool, not much before the sunset. We were close to one of the beautiful Italian lakes in the north of the country, and so the drone was filming downwards the people in the garden of the villa, and then flying towards the sun above the lake... I remember me and a friend of my father spending all the time looking at that incredible machine flying with our heads up. In Italy we say "Colpo di fulmine", that in English would be "love at first sight".
I have spent the following years searching for all the possible informations about this new world I discovered that day, watching thousands of videos on YouTube, and almost learning all the instructional videos done by DJI about the Phantoms and later on for the other drones. But I also knew that they were machines a bit expensive for me, that I was married since a couple of years, and we just got a dog and searching for a new house... so I continued dreaming about the day in which I would have flown my first DJI drone, and the first time that I would have heard the sound when it's switched on!
A couple of years after the wedding I decided to try a very low cost drone, just to try and to have some exercize with something that I could have destroyed at anytime. And, in fact, I destroyed it. It was nearly uncontrollable, and only via the smartphone screen (no remote), and the camera was VERY bad. So it was nearly frustrating... and I forced my wife to stay there in our lovely mountains, everyday watching me going there and back again to take the fallen drone, until the last time, when it broke completely.
So, in 2019 - and being now in our beautiful new house - I decided that I would have sold my old keyboard (I'm a music player) and, if anybody would have bought that, the money were finally for the drone! It was a bit hard for me to take this step, as the keyboard had followed me for years in my concerts and musicals, and it was a piece of history of musical instruments. But I had already substituded it for years, not finding the courage to give it away. The idea was to sell it and to buy a Mavic Air, that was the smallest one available at that time.
However, finally after months of waiting, a young guy called me, tried the keyboard and, finally, he bought it on the 23rd of December! What a news! I decided that right after Christmas I would have placed the order, of course for the new Mavic Mini that was released and that was the perfect choice for me! I was just a bit sad that, right after Christmas, me and my family would have left for the mountains, as usual, and I would not have had the chance to shoot that beautiful places, covered by snow, for another year. But... on the Christmas morning, what a surprise!!! My parents shocked me with an incredible present, giving me... THE MAVIC MINI!!! I could not talk for minutes!
The next day I tried a very short and terrified flight with the drone, thinking about the old one and that I did not wanted to destroy it at the first time... but I could not believe how stable it was and easy to fly! I just flown away from my house of 100 meters and back again, in straight line, and it was great! Unfortunately I did not have the SD card to record that, and so the 27th of December I drove for maybe 40 kms around to find one in a shop, as after Christmas there was not much left, especially in the fast ones! I managed to find one at 7 pm, while we were leaving for the mountains the following night. Great!
And so... we finally came to our hotel, of course in a small no-fly-zone. :-D So I had to wait for the second day for my REAL first flight. We took the car and went in a wonderful valley called Val Fiscalina, and there the Mavic Mini departed from the top of my car and shooted the very first images... it was really scary, but at the same time it was what I wanted for a long time! In the next days I used it every day in a different place, taking always more and more confidence with it, and at the end of the week I decided to put the results of these very first flights on a YouTube video, that I love, and that will be a forever memory of this dream come true.
But hey... now that I think about it... I should try to call back the guy who bought the keyboard... perhaps he can sell it back to me!! ;-)
Many thanks to all of you! I really appreciate your kind words, and I can't wait to be able again to go flying again (as you may know, now in Italy we are lock down in our homes...).
Can't wait to be again in that places this summer, to do exactly the same video with summer colours. Stay tuned and thanks again!
Hey, thank you!
Instead, I must confess that my MacBook late 2011 is nearly dead, and on my Windows pc I don’t have programs to edit videos, so I mounted this one while I still was on the mountains, with my iPhone and iMovie...
Yes, sure! As I wrote above, I can’t wait to be there this summer, when everything will hopefully be solved, to try to record the exact same video but in summer.
Same here, I was looking with sad eyes for drones but I had a big list with higher priorities. I'm a biker and last year in May I finally got the bike I was dreaming about (R1200GS Adventure), first I got her prepared for long trips. Did a trip from Romania to Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia and Hungary. I've seen beautiful places one after another and took pictures but I really needed a drone so after I managed to save some money in December I started to look for drones. Just when Mavic Mini showed up on a local store. Got it and instantly fell in love with it. This year in June i had booked a trip in Dolomiti, I was supposed to stay in Alleghe and ride all the passes around. Sadly I don't think this year I could do that...
These are some photos from last year. Just imagine what I could do if I've had a drone with me.
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Drone Retard Posted at 4-11 10:42
Same here, I was looking with sad eyes for drones but I had a big list with higher priorities. I'm a biker and last year in May I finally got the bike I was dreaming about (R1200GS Adventure), first I got her prepared for long trips. Did a trip from Romania to Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia and Hungary. I've seen beautiful places one after another and took pictures but I really needed a drone so after I managed to save some money in December I started to look for drones. Just when Mavic Mini showed up on a local store. Got it and instantly fell in love with it. This year in June i had booked a trip in Dolomiti, I was supposed to stay in Alleghe and ride all the passes around. Sadly I don't think this year I could do that...
These are some photos from last year. Just imagine what I could do if I've had a drone with me.[Image]
Great!! I have spent one of my summer holidays in an hotel directly in front of the Alleghe lake. It has been wonderful, and that is a good place where to stay and to start visiting all the beauties or Trentino Alto Adige. I am sure you will soon get the chance to stay there!
Wonderful story and great video! Thank you for sharing. It is amazing what can be done with an aerial camera and an ipad or iphone for editing. If you hadn’t already thought of it, try holding the Mavic Mini in your hand to get some back shots that are then easily to include in your video and still shots. Looking forward to watching more of your trips.
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Stay tuned and thanks again! 
