DJI Mini 3 Pro drone - getting started

With the plans to expand my website and YouTube channel with tips and advice as soon as we get to Barbados, I continue to collect my audio-video equipment together to be able to do this. Once we are on the island of Barbados it will be much harder to shop for them and get them delivered there. There are trade-offs to living there, but in my mind, so worth it to live on such a beautiful Caribbean island.

The latest addition to my kit is a DJI Mini 3 Pro drone. I hope to be able to get some great footage of the beaches and tourist spots, so I can give everyone visiting any tips and tricks I discover while living there. The footage these drones produce is near cinematic quality, yet the drone weighs just 249g and folds up small enough to take anywhere. I also got the DJI “Fly More” Kit with additional batteries, rotor blades and a padded carry case. I’m sure I will crash it a few times while I’m getting used to the controls, so having spare rotor blades and additional power will be handy. I don’t want to get to a great location to just have to leave and recharge after 15 minutes.

Before I even opened the box, I made sure I read the rules and regulations for England and found out what qualifications I needed to take. I have also checked the regulations for Barbados and will ensure these are done before I arrive.

As the drone is less than 250g, but not a toy, I had to get an operator's licences which also gives you a flyer ID number. This shows I am the owner and the person responsible for the upkeep of the drone. The operators licences requires you to pass a test and pay the fee of £10 and lasts for a year, plenty of time since we will be leaving soon.

This is all done through the civil aviation authority website. Here is the link, as it took me a while to be able to find the website and details: Prepare for the theory test | UK Civil Aviation Authority (caa.co.uk) It is a multiple-choice test that requires you to get 30 out of 40 questions correct. It is an open-book test, meaning you can have the Drone and Model Aircraft Code open to refer back to while you answer the questions. You can also take the test as many times as you need but I found it was quite simple, as long as you read the information before taking it and have some common sense.

Table showing Registration requirements for drones | UK Civil Aviation Authority (caa.co.uk)

Since the drone is so small any other flyers don’t need a flyer ID, but OH has taken his, just so we both have the knowledge to fly safely. I would recommend anyone with a small drone to do this, even though it is not always a requirement, as the website gives some useful information for people wanting to fly a drone.

With licence in hand, I unpacked the box. It has the drone, battery, controller, spare blades, and the tool you would need to change them. You are asked to load an app called DJI Fly onto your phone, which has additional resources such as the training academy and maps, though I haven’t really used it much so far.

The first thing we had been warned not to do was try to fly inside, even as a first practice as there are walls and a ceiling. Seems obvious. We were also told that everyone should use another app to check the conditions are good for flying. We have been using the UAV Forecast which gives you the next 24h in the free version but it does have the ability to check anywhere in the world not just where the phone or drone is located which is really handy but there are lots of different ones available so find one that works for you.

Before we could go out and fly the drone had to do its software updates. Just connect the controller to the wifi and it will add what it needs to. I will admit I was holding onto the drone for dear life just in case it fired up and shot into the sky. It did wiggle its little propellers a few times but nothing more, thankfully.

The academy in the DJI Fly app has lots of videos on how to set up all the features and suggestions before you go for your first flight. Just a point to note, the Academy is free to access through the App, but the course it took me to was not in English, although there were English subtitles, which is handy as my language skills would have left me struggling without them! There are also some great videos on YouTube, made by people with lots of flying experience who made the mistakes so you don’t have to. I watched some of these and made the changes as they described them. I found this really helpful, as you can pause and rewind to make sure you understand what the settings do and why you would need to change them. The main things I needed to check were the “Return to home” function and the obstacle avoidance settings. The return to home function is great for beginners and experienced flyers alike, because if the drone goes out of signal range or is getting low on battery it will return to the “home” point where it took off from. The obstacle avoidance function allows the sensors on the drone to automatically fly safely around any object it detects in its path and then carry on flying in the direction it was going once the danger has been passed. I also reduced the distance the drone can fly from me for now so I can practice with it close by. As I get more experienced I can fly it further and further away from me. I feel I have prepared myself as fully as I can. I’m now ready for my next day off with good flying conditions and will then let you know how it goes.