JD the DJ

This was a pre-planned waypoint mission with all the camera heading and gimbal tilts set to Manual just to see if everything worked as expected. It did. Destination was the usual Lake Shadow in the Shenandoah subdivision of Baton Rouge, LA. 4K video with the HD controller FPV video overlaid so you can check the progress of the mission on the map. Return to home and landing was a bit inaccurate. The home point coordinates automatically set by the Air 3 at takeoff were apparently off a bit, resulting in a landing backed up against the grass at the edge of the sidewalk. One propellor barely nicked the grass and dirt. No damage whatsoever.

JD stepped on his #1 Air 3, crashed his #2 Air 3 on its first flight, and now flies Air 3 #3, his third, on its first flight. Narration for this video tells all the stories. And you can watch what happened to #2 at https://rumble.com/v58pifp-air-3-2-first-flight-test-and-crash.html. If there ever was a case for buying DJI Care Refresh, this is it!

JD's DJI Air 3 #2 didn't last long. He crashed it into a river birch on its maiden test flight, putting too much faith in the craft's obstacle avoidance capability. It thought it could navigate through the heart of the foliage, but it gave up and alerted JD that the space was too narrow. By the time he got around to the stopped drone's side of the tree, a wind gust blew a branch into one of the props, sending the Air 3 tumbling to the ground. The prop was damaged, and so was the camera gimbal, permanently stuck and inoperative. The DJI Care Refresh program is a wonderful thing. JD's first Air 3 flew just fine for neaarly 7 months until he accidentally stepped on it and cracked a propeller arm. In four days, he had this replacement, which, unfortunately, didn't complete its first flight. JD now has a second replacement Air 3 (#3) which he has yet to test. That test will likely not involve this particular river birch. As fellow YouTube drone pilot Ken Heron is wont to say, "Trees are dicks!" Update: The test of Air 3 #3 is done and the video is here: https://rumble.com/v58plqt-dji-air-3-3-first-flight-test.html

JD did something stupid with his DJI Air 3 drone: he accidentally stepped on it while it was in its carry case on the floor. Oops! Fortunately, he had DJI Care Refresh coverage and DJI cross-shipped him a new Air 3 while JD returned the broken one with a cracked propeller arm. This created an opportunity to fly the old Autel Robotics EVO II V2 Pro and try out the new firmware and Autel Explorer V2 app. The app has several new features, including Coordinate Turns for Waypoint Missions. Before, the drone had to stop at each waypoint and turn to the new heading. Now, the pilot can set a turn radius at each waypoint and the drone flies the whole mission continuously, pausing only if programmed to hover at a waypoint. This video is a brief demo of the new capability. Turn radii were set to 50 feet for a flight around a rather large block with curving streets. EVO flew it perfectly , landing accurately where it took off. The mission was planned on an iPhone with the Explorer V2 App by tapping waypoints onto the map, setting the altitude (120 feet) and turn radius for each. The aircraft did not need to be turned on or connected. This mission used: Firmware: 2.4.43 for V2 Standard RC Control App: V2.0.21 for iOS - Autel Explorer V2 (2023-08-10)

By request, here's a DJI Air 3 drone trip over and around Alex Box Stadium at LSU in Baton Rouge, LA. One of JD's poker buddies is a die-hard LSU Tigers baseball fan who is known to sit out the occasional Texas Hold 'Em session to watch the Tigers play. We also do a quick orbit of the small Cub Complex field and glance at Tiger Park on the way back to our launch point west of the campus on the Mississippi River levee. 4K video. Flown 7/21/2024.

JD put his DJI Air 3 drone up over the 4th of July fireworks display at the Southern Oaks Athletic Club (SOAC). 15 minutes of great fireworks in 4K at the club in the Shenandoah neighborhood off Jones Creek Road in Baton Rouge where JD plays tennis.

A summer Sunday morning is a good one for droning LSU's Tiger Stadium. None of those pesky football fans about, little traffic, plenty of parking, and no FAA Temporary Flight Restrictions. JD launched his drone from atop the Mississippi River Levee across River Road from the campus. He didn't dare dip too low inside the stadium and risk losing RC signal. And the idea was to see it from on high anyway. He had a solid five bars of signal the whole time. With an ambient temperature above 90°, dripping sweat on the controller's touch screen was all he had to worry about. "Hold That Tiger" and other LSU football music classics aren't in the soundtrack, but what's there is royalty-free from JD's Cyberlink PowerDirector 365 video editor.

Here's a Sunday morning DJI Air 3 drone flight over the Mississippi River in front of downtown Baton Rouge, LA. JD was hoping to track some river traffic, but nothing seemed to be moving. There were plenty of barges anchored on the Port Allen side, and a few anchored in mid-river with their tugs. Of course, just as JD committed to landing the drone, a tug and barges zipped by on the west side across from the takeoff and landing point. Murphy's Law. Still had battery left, but it would be a race to catch that one before it zipped under the bridge downriver. There's orbit of the USS Kidd destroyer/museum on the itinerary. Edited with and music from Cyberlink PowerDirector 365. 4K video shot with the standard color profile.

JD had a battery that wasn't quite down to storage level. So this trip out to the neighborhood pond in the Shenandoah subdivision of Baton Rouge was just to use some battery. It was also to test the auto targeting feature for ActiveTrack. That's the reason for all the pauses on the way out, just to see what targets (cars or people) ActiveTrack could lock onto. Since the controller screen isn't shown, there's not much to see for that test. Because it was Easter Sunday, JD expected to get glimpses of traditional Easter crawfish boils in the neighborhood. But there were none to be seen. Must be the high price of crawfish this season.

Here are the stills JD shot March 23, 2024 at the N'Awlins Air Show at the Belle Chasse Joint Reserve Base. It's a 3.5-minute 4K video slide show, so select 4K display quality if you can.

JD seldom drones to the southwest from the Shenandoah subdivision in Baton Rouge, mainly because it's right into the sun. But it was time to squint and do just that. He made this trip with the DJI wireless mike hooked to the RC-2 controller so he could narrate. Unlike the Saramonic Lavmicro-U mike he tried out on a similar trip, the DJI mike worked very well. The Saramonic was unintelligible. JD cut this trip short because it was just too hard to track the drone visually looking straight into the sun. A cloudy day might be necessary to drone in this direction. Here's the 4K video with the HD telemetry video upscaled and overlaid. ND16 filter used. Autofocus and autoexposure. Edited with Cyberlink PowerDirector365.

JD is getting to know his DJI Air 3 drone. This time, it's MasterShots. The drone randomly selects among its QuickShots (Donie, Circle, Zoom, Rocket, etc.) and stitches them together in a length and at an altitude range of your choice. Here's what it looks like from the FPV screen recording on the RC2 controller to the 4K video recorded in the aircraft. Narration comes from a DJI wireless mike to the USB-C jack of the controller. Edited in Cyberlink's PowerDirector 365. More at https://jdthedj.com/Fun

Here's a New Year's Day trip of JD's DJI Air 3 out to the water around Woodlake Drive in Baton Rouge, LA. ND 16 filter, 4K 60fps video.

A New Year's Eve flight of JD's DJI Air 3 the morning of 12/31/23. Tugboats, barges, riverboat casinos, the USS Kidd, and more on the Mississippi River at Baton Rouge, LA in 4K (you need to set your Web playback resolution manually here on Rumble).

JD doesn't fly out west from the Shenandoah subdivision in Baton Rouge, LA much. But this was just a short test flight of his DJI Air 3 quadcopter to try out a cheap USB microphone and an ND 64 neutral density filter for the camera. The $30 microphone was for narration, and it performed so badly, JD scrapped the audio track (it was a Saramonic LavMicro-U connected to the RC-2 controller via USB-C. in case you want to know which mike to avoid). It severely overdrove the audio circuit and has no level adjustment or attenuator. The DJI ND 64 filter required a shutter speed of 1/100s with the f/1.7 fixed-aperture 1x camera lens under a sunny sky).

Raw FPV video from DJI Air 3 RC2 controller after firmware update added Auto SmartShots to tracking mode. Flown 12/23/2023.

Here's the 4K video and still photos JD shot at the 2023 WTIX-FM Christmas Party at Jaeger's Seafood Restaurant & Oyster Bar. Rumble defaults to 480p SD, so be sure to select resolution up to 4K if you have it.

JD added a Holy Stone HSRID01 remote ID module to his Yuneec Typhoon H480. He had grounded it back in September, 2023 when the FAA remote ID requirement for drones went into effect and he'd been unable to find any add-on modules available in stock until a week or so ago. The Holy Stone HSRID01 module finally popped up on Amazon for $89, so JD equipped one of his two Yuneec Typhoon H's with it. He'd already tried another HSRID01 on his Autel EVO II drone. Under Part 107 commercial drone rules, one can't just swap remote ID modules from one drone to another; each drone must have it own. Thanks, FAA! JD hadn't flown the Typhoon H much at all since acquiring some newer quadcopter drones by Autel Robotics and DJI. But the Typhoon H is a 6-rotor hexacopter capable of continued flight on 5 motors if one fails. It also has retractable landing gear and a 3-axis gimbal capable of continuous 360° rotation of its 4K camera. With a second remote controller, pilot and camera operator functions can be split for a team of two. Camera performance is a bit outdated now, but it's still a useful drone. It also has RealSense® obstacle avoidance for navigating itself around obstacles.

Here's a waypoint mission JD's DJI Air 3 took out to the pond and pasture in the northwest corner of the Shenandoah subdivision in Baton Rouge. This mission was set at 15 mph. All four waypoints were set for an altitude of 164 feet except for the waypoint at the pond, which was set to 360 feet. Gimbal setting was -25°. The end-of-mission action was a return to home, and the auto-landing was dead-on accurate. Video link was solid at 5 bars all the way. While JD was flying, a passing dog-walker asked JD if he is the guy responsible for the drone video of the 2016 flooding in the neighborhood. Yes, JD is the guy for that one, too, at https://youtu.be/cwmp6EmBEgE?si=LJnztv2UFj-xfe5X. It was a different drone, a Yuneec Typhoon Q500 4K.

This spot on the Mississippi River levee just downriver from the L'Auberge Casino in Baton Rouge was a favorite droning location for JD. It was fun to capture barge and towboat traffic taking the big bend in the river. The lush pond and pasture complete with cows on the other side of River Road from the levee was fun to film, too. But now, the pasture is essentially gone, and will apparently be replaced by a significant housing development. JD captured the scene from his new DJI Air 3 drone. No river traffic or cows today, but there was plenty of work being done on a Sunday.

Same car, same lake, different drone. 2022 Corvette, Grassy Lake in Baton Rouge, LA, DJI Air 3. 4K video.

Here's a short waypoint mission test of JD's new DJI Air 3 he was forced to buy to comply with the new FAA Remote ID (RID) regs. There are still no strap-on RID modules available for his other drones. This mission had 6 waypoints he set up on the RC-2 controller map while disconnected from the aircraft. Gimbal elevation setting was a guess of -30° at all but the first waypoint. The drone automatically changes that to -90° (straight down) for the return-to-home landing, with an automatic flip-up to 0° (horizontal) just before touchdown to protect the cameras' lenses.

JD held his nose and bought a new drone compliant with the FAA's Remote ID mandate. He still can't find any Remote ID modules to strap on to his four other non-compliant drones. It's yet another trip out to Lake Shadow in the Shenandoah suburb of Shenandoah. It continues north to St. Michael's High School, then west to the pond and pasture. FPV video with OcuSync® 4 and its theoretical 20 km range was solid all the way. JD forgot to record the FPV video, though, so there's no telemetry overlay. But the 4K video in standard color profile is gorgeous.

Here's my final drone flight for now. Remote ID modules are essentially unavailable. All my drones need one if I want to fly them after today (9/15/23). The FAA says enforcement will be "discretionary" for the next 6 months due to the availability issue. To me, that means if you fly your drone without Remote ID in the next six months, maybe we'll prosecute you, and maybe we won't, depending on how we feel. I've been a Part 107 commercial drone pilot since 2016, and a private pilot since 1975. I'd like to keep those certificates. This drone is an Autel Robotics EVO II 6K Pro V2. Autel says there'll be no firmware upgrade for Remote ID for this model. A strap-on module is required. At the moment, they're 2-6 times the price the FAA planned ($100-$300 versus the FAA's guess of $50). More importantly, they're unavailable and backordered everywhere.

Southern Oaks Athletic Club (SOAC) in Baton Rouge loves fireworks on Independence Day (and New Year's Eve). JD put up his Autel Robotics EVO II Pro 6K drone to watch this year's display for July 4th. 4K video.