Sarah Mitchell

The Altitude Thing Is Still Getting Me I talked in my first post about how disorienting it was to control the Mini 4 Pro when it's up high and facing away from me. That problem has not fully gone away. What I've figured out is that my brain keeps trying to control the drone like it's a toy car — meaning I'm thinking about left and right from MY perspective, not from the drone's perspective. When it's facing toward me, the controls feel backwards and I keep overcorrecting. What actually helped this week was something really simple. I started practicing with the drone at eye level, maybe 10 or 15 feet off the ground, just hovering and slowly rotating it. Not trying to fly anywhere, just getting used to what the controls do from different orientations. Sounds boring but honestly it was the most useful 20 minutes I've spent so far. I did that in my backyard three days in a row. The other thing that's helped is using the sport mode indicator light as a reference point. When I can see which way the front of the drone is facing, everything gets easier. I know that sounds obvious but when you're panicking because it's drifting toward a tree, your brain does not automatically process "okay the front is facing east therefore left stick left means it goes south." You just freeze. The Day I Almost Rage Quit Thursday was rough. I went out to a local park — open field, perfect conditions, barely any wind — and I just could not fly smoothly. Every time I tried to do a slow arc around a tree I'd end up either going too fast or drifting sideways and having to correct, and then I'd overcorrect, and the footage looked like I was filming during an earthquake. I came home, watched the footage back, and actually felt a little sick looking at it. I know I was way too hard on myself about it. But I'd watched so many YouTube videos of people just gliding their drones around beautifully and I felt like I was nowhere near that. What I ended up doing was going back to the DJI Fly app's training simulator. I know a lot of people skip that and honestly I did too at first. But I spent about 45 minutes just flying around in the simulator that night and I think it actually helped reset my muscle memory a little bit. The simulator obviously doesn't feel exactly like flying the real thing but the stick inputs are close enough that it builds some habits. What's Actually Getting Better Okay I don't want this to be all doom and gloom because there ARE things that are genuinely improving. Takeoff and landing used to make me anxious every single time. Now it's just... not a big deal. I hit the takeoff button, it hovers, I do my thing, I bring it back. The auto-land function is really smooth and I've stopped hovering it 3 feet off the ground for two minutes before committing to landing it. I'm also a lot better at slow, deliberate movements. In my first week I had a tendency to push the sticks too hard. Now I'm barely moving them and getting much smoother results. Someone in the comments of my last post mentioned using expo settings but honestly I haven't gone into that yet — I want to feel comfortable with the defaults before I start changing things. Baby steps. The return-to-home feature I now actually trust. I tested it a few times intentionally, just to see what it does, and it works exactly like it should. The drone climbs to its set RTH altitude, flies back, and lands within a foot or two of where it took off. Knowing that's there makes me a lot less nervous when I'm flying further away. One Mistake I Made That I Want Other Beginners to Learn From I flew too close to some power lines on Monday. Not dangerously close, I wasn't about to hit them, but closer than I should have been and definitely closer than I meant to be. I was watching the drone through the camera view and not paying attention to what was physically around it. This is a mistake I've read about a hundred times and I still did it. The rule I've set for myself now is that whenever I switch to camera view for more than about 5 seconds, I pull my eyes up and do a physical scan of where the drone actually is. It sounds like a lot to juggle but it's becoming more automatic. The Mini 4 Pro has obstacle avoidance which probably would have saved me in that situation, but I'm not relying on that as a safety net. That's a bad habit to get into, especially because obstacle avoidance has limits and doesn't work for everything — it won't see thin wires very well. A Small Win Worth Sharing At the end of my Friday session I managed to do a slow, smooth orbit around a bench in the park. I combined the right stick to move laterally while rotating with the left stick. It took a few tries and the speed wasn't consistent the whole way around, but I did it. It looked like an actual intentional camera move. I sat in my car after and just felt really good about it for a minute. It's a small thing in the grand scheme of learning to fly, but three weeks ago I couldn't hover in one spot without it drifting all over the place. Progress is progress. Where I'm Headed Next I've signed up for a free TRUST certificate through the FAA (it's the recreational flier test, takes maybe 30 minutes, covers basic airspace rules and safety). I probably should have done that before I started flying but better late than never. If you're a beginner and you haven't done that yet, it's worth going through — not just for the certificate but because I actually learned a couple things I didn't know about temporary flight restrictions and how to check them. I'm also going to try my first early morning flight this weekend. I keep seeing people talk about golden hour and how much better the light is and I want to see if I can get some footage I'm actually proud of. That'll probably be my next post. If you're in week two or three of learning like I am and feeling frustrated — keep going. Seriously. It gets slightly less chaotic every time you go out. That's enough for now.

First things first — I got the Fly More Combo with the RC 2 controller. I know some people say you can save money going with the RC-N1 and using your phone, but I really wanted the dedicated screen, especially since I planned on flying outside where glare would be a problem. That decision alone took me two weeks to make. I am not a fast decision maker, clearly. Unboxing and Setup Was Mostly Painless Getting everything out of the box was genuinely exciting. The drone is SO much smaller than I expected in person, even though I'd seen the dimensions a hundred times. Setting up the DJI Fly app on my phone was easy enough — I already had it from when I was using a friend's Mini 2 a while back, so it just needed an update. Pairing the RC 2 to the drone took maybe three minutes, no drama there. Where things got slightly annoying was the firmware update situation. Right out of the box it flagged updates for both the drone and the controller. I let them both run, which took maybe 20 minutes total, but then it wanted me to update again after the first restart. I'd heard this can happen and it still caught me off guard. Just a heads up if you're buying one — charge everything fully before you even start the update process, because you do not want anything dying mid-firmware. I charged both batteries and the RC 2 to 100% beforehand and I'm glad I did. The First Real Flight I took it to a big open field near my house for the first flight. I was honestly terrified. I've flown my friend's Mini 2 twice but always with her standing right next to me. This time it was just me, and it felt very different being the one responsible for a $960 piece of equipment. I kept it in Cine mode for the first session, which dampens the controls and makes everything feel slower and more manageable. That was a good call. Even in Cine mode the drone is super responsive — I expected it to feel kind of sluggish but it still moves smoothly and quickly enough that I had to consciously remind myself to make smaller inputs on the sticks. The obstacle avoidance is wild. I flew it toward a tree on purpose, just to test it, and it stopped and hovered before I got anywhere close. I did that like four times because it kept impressing me. I know you're not supposed to completely rely on it, and there are definitely conditions where it can struggle, but for a beginner it's such a confidence booster. Battery life was pretty much exactly what DJI claims for normal conditions — I got around 32 minutes on my first battery before it started warning me to come home. I had a second battery with me, swapped it out, and got another solid flight session in. The battery swap itself is so quick, probably 30 seconds once you get the hang of it. The Camera Surprised Me I'm not going to pretend I know a ton about camera settings. I shoot mostly in Auto mode on my regular camera. But even the auto footage from the Mini 4 Pro looked really good. I was flying around late afternoon and the colors looked warm and natural without any editing. I shot in 4K 30fps because that seemed like the safe beginner choice based on everything I'd read here. I did try the D-Log M color profile for a couple clips because I want to learn color grading eventually. That footage looked flat and kind of greenish on my laptop until I threw a LUT on it in CapCut, and then it actually looked really nice. I feel like I finally understand why people shoot log footage. It felt like a lightbulb went on. The 100-degree wide angle is wide. Like really wide. There's some barrel distortion at the edges but honestly for the kind of nature and landscape stuff I want to shoot, I don't think it's going to bother me much. A Couple Things I Wasn't Expecting The propeller noise. I knew drones made noise, but hearing it out in a quiet field I was surprised by how present it is. It's not horrible, but it's definitely not subtle. My neighbor came out to see what was going on when I did a test flight in my backyard and I felt very conspicuous. I'll stick to the open field for anything longer than a quick test hover. Also, the intelligent flight modes are fun but I'd suggest not just diving into them right away. I tried the Spotlight mode where it keeps the camera locked on a subject while you fly, and the first attempt was kind of a mess because I hadn't really read up on how to use it properly. The second time, after watching a short tutorial, it worked great. Just take the time to understand what each mode actually does before you're out in the field. The DJI Fly app itself is mostly intuitive, but there are SO many settings buried in menus. I'm still finding things. The map view showing nearby restricted airspace is really helpful for a beginner — I checked it before every flight this week just to confirm I was good to go. Would I Recommend the Mini 4 Pro for Beginners? Short answer, yes, but with a caveat. It's expensive. Like, I saved up for this and I felt the price. If budget is a real concern there are good arguments for the Mini 3, the Mini 2 SE, or even a used Mini 3 Pro. But if you can stretch to the Mini 4 Pro, the omnidirectional obstacle sensing and the improved low-light capability feel meaningfully better than the older options I tested. For me specifically, having the obstacle avoidance on all sides gives me a lot more confidence as someone who is still learning to fly and sometimes makes questionable stick inputs. I've already saved myself from at least one tree situation that I'm not going to go into detail about. I'm planning to post more as I learn. I want to try some sunrise shots this weekend if the weather cooperates and figure out the ND filter situation — I bought a set of third-party ones that showed up yesterday and haven't tried them yet. Hopefully that goes well. If anyone has tips for a first-timer specifically on ND filter selection for golden hour, drop them in the comments because I really don't want to mess up what could be a beautiful shoot. Thanks for being such a welcoming community. I've learned so much just from reading posts here before I even had a drone to fly.