so i was out at the reservoir this morning with my Air 3, nothing crazy just a normal out and back over the water and at some point maybe 400 meters out the video feed got super choppy for like 4 or 5 seconds then came back fine. the drone itself seemed totally stable the whole time and it came home no problem. no warnings in the app really, i think there was a brief signal strength thing but it went away fast.

i checked the footage when i got back and the recorded video on the card is totally clean, no glitches or anything. so was this just interference from something near the water or should i be actually worried about this. it hasnt happened before in probably 30 or 40 flights

almost definitely just interference, happens all the time near water especially if theres any kind of boat traffic or other pilots nearby. the transmission signal is separate from whats being recorded to the card so choppy feed doesnt mean the drone was actually having a problem. if the telemetry looked normal and the card footage is clean i wouldnt stress it at all. ive had way worse than that and the Air series handles it pretty gracefully

yeah this happned to me too a while back near a marina and i nearly panicked and hit return to home lol. turned out there was some wifi equipment on a nearby boat that was causing havoc with the signal. one thing i do now is check the DJI fly app for the signal quality graph after the flight, you can pull the flight logs and usually see exactly when it dropped. gives you peace of mind at least knowing its a signal thing and not something mechanical. your Air 3 is probably totally fine