been flying for about 8 months now mostly at parks and fields near my house. a friend told me i should get a landing pad and i kind of brushed it off but then i had a close call last week where i nearly landed in some gravel and i could see small rocks getting kicked up near the bottom sensors.

like is this actually a serious thing or is it one of those accessories that sounds useful but you end up never using? i dont want to spend money on something thats gonna live in my bag forever. also if they are worth it which size, theres like a 30cm and 60cm and some even bigger ones and i genuinely dont know what the difference matters for a mini-sized drone

honestly yes get one, and the fact that you already had a gravel incident is kind of answering your own question. the downwash on even small drones kicks up more debris than you'd expect and its not just about scratching the body, dust and grit getting into the motors over time is a real thing.

for a mini sized bird the 60cm is the sweet spot imo. the 30cm ones feel like you're trying to land on a dinner plate and the bigger ones are kind of overkill unless you're flying something heavier. the rollup silicone ones pack down to nothing so there really isnt a good reason not to keep one in the bag. i think i paid like 18 bucks for mine two years ago and its still going strong.

I was skeptical too when I first started out but they do genuinely help, especially in wet grass. Without one my drone would pick up moisture on the sensors during launch and I kept getting weird altitude warnings for the first minute of every flight. Solved it pretty much immediately once I started using the pad. So yeah even if you dont think you need one the use cases kind of sneak up on you.