just got back from a two week road trip through the american southwest, Utah Nevada Arizona etc. brought the mavic 3 and had a list of spots i wanted to hit. some went great, some were a complete mess

the national park thing is the obvious issue, cant fly in any of them without a permit and the permits are basically impossible to get for recreational use so dead horse point, zion, all that was just phone shots from the overlooks. which fine whatever i knew that going in

but the stuff i didnt expect was how windy it gets in the afternoon out there. like every single day by like 1pm the wind just picks up out of nowhere and im looking at 25-30mph gusts on the app. i was launching at like 6am to get anything usable. also the heat was messing with my batteries way more than i thought it would, was getting noticeably shorter flight times even in the shade

best spot ended up being some random BLM land outside moab that i found on a map app. nobody around, perfect light, landed it on my car hood because the ground was too rocky and uneven. honestly those random spots with no planning turned out better than the ones ive been saving on google maps for months

the afternoon wind in Utah is no joke, learned that the hard way at goblin valley a couple years ago. morning flights only out there fr

also yeah BLM land is so underrated for this. theres so much of it in the southwest and most of it isnt on any of those popular drone spot apps. just cross reference with the FAA map and youre usually fine

the battery thing in heat is real but honestly cold is worse imo. took mine out in Montana last winter and the batteries were draining so fast it was almost not worth it. had them in my jacket pocket right up until launch trying to keep em warm. what app were you using for the wind data, i usually just use UAV forecast but im always looking for something better