so i picked up a mini 3 pro last week after months of going back and forth on it and now that i actually have it i kind of dont know what to do first. like do i just take it outside and start flying? do i need to register it somewhere first? i live in the US if that matters. also the app stuff is confusing me, it keeps asking me to update firmware and im not sure if i should do that before my first flight or after or what. sorry if these are dumb questions i just dont want to break it on day one lol

not dumb at all, everyone starts here. yes register it with the FAA first, its called FAADroneZone, takes like 10 minutes and costs $5. you put a little label with your registration number on the drone. do that before anything else because technically flying unregistered is a fine situation you dont want.

on the firmware thing ? yeah do the updates before your first flight, just get it over with. sometimes it takes a while and your first battery will drain doing nothing but its better than having weird glitches mid-air. also do your first flight somewhere open and boring, like a big empty park or field. not your backyard if its small. the drone will do something unexpected and you want space.

i remember being exactly where you are. one thing nobody told me was to just spend time in the app before you ever take off, like actually go through the settings and understand what sport mode vs normal mode does, what the return to home height is set to, stuff like that. i flew mine home into a tree on day 3 because RTH was set to like 30 feet and there were branches. wasnt catastrophic but still.