wasnt even planning it, just threw the mavic in the back seat friday afternoon and drove like 4 hours out into the mojave. no real plan. and honestly it was perfect - zero people, no restricted airspace anywhere near where i ended up, just massive open sky and these insane rock formations at golden hour. flew for probably 3 hours total over the two days and didnt see another soul.

only hiccup was the wind picked up on saturday afternoon way faster than the forecast said and i had to cut a flight short. thing was fighting pretty hard to hold position and i didnt want to push it. but other than that, unreal. if youre close enough to drive to any decent desert just go, seriously worth it

desert flying is underrated for sure. the light out there does something weird and beautiful in the morning especially. what time were you getting up to fly? i always try to get in the air like 20 min before actual sunrise if im out somewhere remote, the colors are insane before the sun fully clears the horizon

wind in the mojave can get gnarly fast, ive had similar situations. the forecast apps are pretty useless once you get into terrain that does its own thing with airflow. i use windy dot com now instead of whatever the default weather app shows and its way more accurate for that kind of trip, at least in my experience