Hi JPEE,
Well, congrats on the purchase of your new DJI Mavic Pro - and for helping to support our Florida economy a little bit!
You did really good with the free shipping and no sales tax - those always seem to bump the overall price up, nice to find a company that omits them for customers spending over a certain amount. Bet you'll be trying it out to get accustomed before taking it to the desert with you. The handheld unit seems a nice bonus equipment and you did a great deal of research so you got exactly what you were looking for.
Glad your not being directly affected by the fires. I see they are making slow progress in containing the majority of fires in the affected regions, so that is good news. I cannot imagine the appearance of the land, as you said - looks like a nuclear bomb went off.
Temps have begun to slowly drop - we are finally getting into the low 70's at night but highs still creep into the 90's during the day. But flying weather in the mornings is nice again and not too humid.
I did finish my Fusion maintenance and did a few test hovers in the front yard last week. Glad I did the test hovers as I quickly discovered a mistake I made during my reassembly. Apparently I installed the lower bearing block upside down and so during the second test hover the bearing fell out. You can imagine my surprise when it made this shrieking sound and began shaking violently. Got her down as quickly as possible and when I did a look over...yep, no bearing! I looked around the yard but no go, so I figured it got shot out and was never to be seen again.
I replaced the bearing, installed the block correctly this time, and did a few more test hovers with no issues. I have taken her out for some flights a few mornings this past week and have had no problems. Can't say the same for my flying as its been a while. I really had to concentrate on my orientations and lots of times I was correcting in wrong direction, so had to 'relearn' the basics. I also had to calm myself down - its not fun flying when your nerves are on edge.
This morning flights though were much better. I was very calm and feel most of my confidence was back. I was able to do most of the things I was able to do last year, but I was keeping things higher just in case. I also noticed much of my loops, flips, rolls, inverted, and some backwards flights were much smoother. I was able to do my upright flying in both CW/CCW directions and found I wasn't correcting in the wrong direction as much. Funny how some days things just 'click'.
After my time flying I stopped by our house to see how its progressing. They have been very busy and moving quickly. The concrete sidewalk and brick paver driveway were finished. The garage door was installed along with the cabinets in the kitchen. The bathroom vanities were installed and the interior had been painted. The tile flooring had been laid and today they started on the carpets. They are really shooting for a move in date around Turkey Day!
Have a good weekend!
Mark