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Dronin' On

This blog does not focus solely on the mechanical repair aspects of our Volkswagen Bay Window Type 2, but also on the supporting equipment that we will be taking on our epic (to us) journey south to Route 66. Part of that equipment a drone to help document our journey, both for the blog and for personal memories. To whit, we now own a DJI Mavic Air drone (MA). We took our drone out yesterday and, for the first time, attempted to use the Active Track ("follow me") feature of the drone. Here's what happened.

Attempt 1: We arrived at our test location - a quiet farm road - and pulled the VW Bus over to the side of the road. With the MA fully charged and 200 ft in the air, hovering, my daughter set off driving the VW Bus at 15 mph. First mistake, as sen in the video, due to fear of losing the drone, we had set the MA to a top speed of 12 mph and so the VW Bus gradually pulled away from the drone until the drone lost the targeting of us.

Bye, bye, VW.




Attempt 2: After a turnaround, we placed the Active Track in Profile mode. In Profile mode, the MA takes a side-shot of the targeted object and cinematic-ally pans around the vehicle. This feature worked very well, especially as we now had the top speed of the MA set to 30 mph - so lots of extra speed available, if needed.

OK, getting better.




Attempt 3: Encouraged by Attempt 2, we now got "confident". We set the MA in Profile mode again and drove towards some tight'ish corners. The MA performed flawlessly and so on we went. That is, on we went until we drove under a large tree. Because the MA could not "see" us for a second or two, it instantly re-targeted on to a vehicle parked in a residential yard, and then ignored us as we came back into view and merrily drove down the road.

Example of the finished product. Note: Apologies for the mediocre quality, Blogger limits video file size.


Conclusion
The DJI Mavic Air is a tremendous piece of kit. The produced video is stunning and as close to cinema-like that you will find in an over-the-counter drone. Letting the Mavic Air decide the settings was the thing to do. As soon as we started second-guessing the automated top speed, and so on,  the Mavic Air was not configured to keep up with the VW Bus. Next time, we will accept the defaults.
Note that a flaw with the Mavic Air and Active Track is that the drone tracks the visual object that you select. If that object disappears because of trees or other, the drone re-targets a similar object and, in theory, could follow a strangers car home. Other DJI models have GPS built in to the controller and the drone then follows the GPS signal from the controller - so no losing virtual track. But then, the Mavic Air's controller is small and portable, and the whole reason we went with the Mavic Air in the first place - portability for the trip.

All in all, a lot of fun and we will undoubtedly be taking the Mavic Air on our trip.

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