Ha, nice French. Thanks for giving me a chuckle...I had a hard day today and needed one...
I'm glad I was able to provided you with some mild entertainment....<:^)
So, you gotta' do what you gotta' do, right? At least I didn't do what you see these guys on the "epic fail" videos do where they take off on their maiden voyages and slam into a brick wall at 50mph within 3 seconds. That's not "prudent....lol"...
I can't begin to express how happy I am that you weren't one of THOSE guys.
I'm a massive technology nerd and also an Industrial Designer. I've interacted with technology and machines all of my life and I'm not timid about it.
I share your penchant for technology (though I still use a flip phone because, from a strictly engineering standpoint, it seems like a much better option than today's "smart" phone offerings...but I digress....). And, like you, I'm not timid when it comes to "diving in"...unless....I can easily and cheaply mitigate risk. So, while I'm undaunted by the $5000 drone, the advice to learn the basics on a cheaper platform was well-placed. While I'm sure you took every precaution to insure against loss, "having good pilot skills in case things go South" is prudent, because, when it comes to DJI offerings, sometimes things DO go South. I'm not kidding when I say 10% of my work has resulted from other camera operators and/or overzealous real estate agents "diving in" to a platform they thought was "user friendly." Then, after a few confidence-building flights, they discover that they have become an unweary beta tester for the latest firmware update, just to discover that battery bug that drops the bird out of the sky for no reason or forces landing @ 50% battery. Just being part of this forum probably kept you from being a victim of the beta bug. Kudos to you for that level of preparedness. That said...even with 20 flights under your belt, I would STILL offer the same advice. Buy a cheap, $100 drone and fly it around the living room. This will teach your orientation and object avoidance. Extra bonus points for chasing the dog or cat withOUT getting destroyed. HA! As you can imagine, it is much more difficult to fly these little cheapie drones. But the good news is that the controls are the same! HA! You win! You get combat-level training with little to no risk. Now THAT is what I call R.O.I.!!
I'm also a professional advertising photographer and I have easily $40K in Canon's and GoPros. Everytime I strap an $8K Canon and lens to something to shoot remotely I'm risking that investment. You just have to be, as you put it, "prudent."
We strap an $80K LIDAR unit to an S1000. Talk about nerve racking! We're meeting Wednesday to figure out how to make the A2 and legacy Datalink do waypoint flying. Methinks I see some new hardware investment on the horizon. So I'm with you in that regard. Balls of steel, have we!
Prudence can be bolstered. After all, it means, "wise or judicious." By wisely taking baby steps and by judiciously adding small skills to the mix, I've had over 20 flights now without issue."
Most excellent. This is how I test new birds and/or new hardware/software updates. It's all about the baby steps, man.
I've flown in all modes and have done some very precision "sport mode" close-up inspections of subjects. The
I2 is a highly manoeuvrable craft, to begin with. You don't have to be a brain surgeon to take off and land one on day-one.
Not to squash your enthusiasm, but you're one of the lucky ones. I'm sure you've read about the
Inspire 2 failures in this forum...probably mitigated with your "baby step" paradigm. Good for you. I usually go through a whole battery without ever flying over 5'...just to test. I bet you did the same.
Yes, it's an expensive device but with "prudence" it can be a great tool. But hey, that's why the make Care Refresh so if you do crash your expensive baby, you can recover without too much anguish...right...?
I wish they had "Care Refresh" for my partner's **** S1000. HA!
I'm glad you avoided the "bad scene." Good on you. Looking forward to some of your cinematic wizardry!