I took the drones (yes, drones) to the beach because they haven't been flown for over a year. The mavic 2 remote isn't in great shape - it's nearly 4 years old, the battery isn't holding its charge much anymore (lasts for around 2 flights, rather than the 3 i used to get, and recently it's developed a stick error that you can only bypass with consistent powering off and on until it decides to play nice.

Also, apparently since last year DJI have decided they don't like Android phones anymore and are no longer updating the DJI app on the play store - you have to download it directly from the DJI site. And anytime there's an Android update, the app just crashes and you can't use it until DJI update it on their end.

So I get to the beach at 5pm, and set up the Mavic 2. Stick error. I spend 20 minutes just getting it to let me power the remote on. Then the app crashes. At least with the remote working I can at least fly it .... which I did, but without the app it only works in beginner mode and has height and distance limitations. I also realised that after all the mucking around, the remote battery was already down to 60%. I decided to power everything off and charge the remote for a bit while I had a play around with the Mavic Air.

Still no app access, so I figured I could at least fly the Air to test the battery and propellers etc - nope. It just sits there and flashes at me. I suspect it needs a compass calibration but to fix that? I need the app.

I also had the Mavic Mini but I know it needs a propeller replacing and I didn't want to play around with that without the app.

So ultimately, not the most successful mission. What I would have liked on a photographic level is to have shot this image but higher up and later in the evening to get the city lights, but being that I had no visibility of what I was shooting, I'll take what I can get. :)