# My DJI Mavic Pro and Me Willdom Lee · 2021-06-12 [HTML](https://willdomlee.com/en/articles/dji-mavic-pro) · en > Last night, Xiaohui and I watched a few spectacular drone videos. He asked, “Have you been flying lately?” I said it had been a long time; both time and enthusiasm had been getting scarcer. “You should edit your footage,” he said. So I decided to write down a few stories about my drone. If I cannot travel, at least I can revisit these places on the page. In September 2016, DJI's Mavic Pro arrived as a game changer. In early 2017, I finally got the drone I had been waiting for. Believe it or not, I did not buy it: my company awarded it to me. That year's third prize for innovation was a DJI drone plus an Apple Watch. Very cool. I was grateful—and my life as a pilot began. DJI makes excellent Chinese products, and I wanted to do more than admire one from afar. Over the next few years, I took it all over the place: 123 flights, 85 kilometers, and 16.5 hours in the air. I became a fairly experienced pilot. I am pleased that it can still take off and land normally. ![](https://willdomlee.com/assets/a/dji-mavic-pro/01.webp) Flight records as of June 11, 2021 Looking through my photo library, I can see how many happy moments the Mavic brought my family, friends, and me. Here are a few stories that have stayed with me. ## 1. Luzui Resort, Nan'ao, Shenzhen The first time I went to Luzui Resort in Yangmeikeng, Nan'ao, I was stunned by the scenery. It was a little paradise: mountains, sea, wooden cabins—I hear the mosquitoes are plentiful—and sunrises. On the nearby beach, we could catch fish and crabs. We never wanted to leave. Then one day I brought the drone and pressed the shutter, and saw it all in a new light. Take a look. ![](https://willdomlee.com/assets/a/dji-mavic-pro/03.webp) Luzui Resort, May 2017 A friend saw this photo and asked which scenic destination it was. How could it be so beautiful? I said it was right here in Shenzhen. Sometimes you just need to look at the world from a different angle. ## 2. Xijiang Thousand-Household Miao Village, southeastern Guizhou In 2012, my job moved me from Wuhan to Guizhou, and I fell in love with the place. Ironically, I had resisted the transfer at first. Guizhou has so many beautiful mountains, rivers, and wonderful people. Outside work, Xijiang Miao Village was the destination my friends and I visited most often. A few years later, work moved me again. Some time after leaving Guizhou, I finally found a chance to return with an old friend. We headed back to Xijiang in Mr. J's powerful 2.7T V6, eating hotpot and singing along the way. After a few bursts of full throttle on the highway, we joked: what is the fastest car? Someone else's! Back then, we could still listen to Li Zhi's music. We launched the drone early in the morning to see the whole village, and named that quiet scene after his song: City in the Sky. ![](https://willdomlee.com/assets/a/dji-mavic-pro/04.webp) An early morning in 2017, Xijiang Thousand-Household Miao Village ![](https://willdomlee.com/assets/a/dji-mavic-pro/05.webp) At Xijiang's 998 Inn: a song after a can of Heineken. The owner said to leave whatever we thought the drinks were worth at the front desk. ## 3. Zhangjiajie In 2018, a company trip took us to my home region, western Hunan—though my actual hometown is quite a distance from the scenic area. I had been looking forward to the mountains and 500-meter stone pillars of Wulingyuan in Zhangjiajie. I even rented a pair of DJI Goggles. I was well equipped, and it turned out to be the right decision. We ran into a 30-kilometer no-fly zone around the airport and days of rain that kept us grounded. Just as we were getting disappointed, the weather cleared. Mist curled around the mountains, and the view was breathtaking. I immediately took out the drone and launched it among the monkeys. Once it reached the 500-meter height limit, we took turns wearing the Goggles, marveling at what nature had made. The DJI app did not yet have an automatic orbit mode, so I flew the circles manually. It was reasonably smooth. ![](https://willdomlee.com/assets/a/dji-mavic-pro/06.webp) A ridge from one angle—what from another? ![](https://willdomlee.com/assets/a/dji-mavic-pro/07.webp) DJI Goggles opened up a new sensory world. [Watch this video in the original WeChat article ↗](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/a9rsv4IEZr_RLbQDeB0tsg) Flying manually around a 500-meter stone pillar ![](https://willdomlee.com/assets/a/dji-mavic-pro/08.webp) A moment above the river at Biancheng in western Hunan, on the journey home ## 4. The Hulunbuir grasslands For our company trip in 2019, everyone chose the Hulunbuir grasslands. In May, the grass had not yet turned fully green, but good company was enough. That trip stands out because it was also the closest I came to crashing or losing the Mavic. I launched from the top of a hill in Erguna Wetland Park. A sudden gust blew the drone hundreds of meters away, and it kept drifting farther no matter what I did with the sticks. Watching its marker recede on the map, I almost gave up. Then I calmed down, lowered it closer to the ground, and switched to Sport mode to force it home against the wind. I got it back into my hands just before the battery ran out. Ever since, I have had a little more respect for flying. [Watch this video in the original WeChat article ↗](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/a9rsv4IEZr_RLbQDeB0tsg) Looking out over the grasslands: a clear mind, an open heart, and endless horizons ## 5. The drone and my work Everything above was, admittedly, for fun. But for at least a year, we also explored how drones could help with my work. My colleagues and I tried many scenarios and ran numerous trials. We eventually gained valuable experience using drones for outdoor wireless site surveys at large tourist attractions, and using high-precision 3D drone mapping to support professional solution design. Several years of collective effort helped establish Sundray's leading position in wireless networking for scenic destinations during that period. ![](https://willdomlee.com/assets/a/dji-mavic-pro/09.webp) Companion software guided the Mavic through an automated flight to capture hundreds of images, which a high-performance computer then rendered into a 3D model. ## 6. A closing thought If the world took away everything I owned, I think all I would need—apart from the people around me and life's essentials—would be books and a drone. The Mavic's batteries are now fading, its camera's white balance is misbehaving, and it has reached retirement age. I will treat each flight as if it might be the last. A line for my old companion: even an old horse at rest still dreams of a thousand-mile journey. ### To finish, a few more photographs—quite a few, so please be patient. ![](https://willdomlee.com/assets/a/dji-mavic-pro/10.webp) Bali: a thousand sails setting out ![](https://willdomlee.com/assets/a/dji-mavic-pro/11.webp) Bali: where mountains meet the sea ![](https://willdomlee.com/assets/a/dji-mavic-pro/12.webp) A determined band on the summit of Wutong Mountain ![](https://willdomlee.com/assets/a/dji-mavic-pro/13.webp) The hometown that raised me ![](https://willdomlee.com/assets/a/dji-mavic-pro/14.webp) An abandoned bridge in Tea Stream Valley, OCT East ![](https://willdomlee.com/assets/a/dji-mavic-pro/15.webp) The flower fields of Tea Stream Valley, OCT East—sadly now closed ![](https://willdomlee.com/assets/a/dji-mavic-pro/16.webp) Car versus drone ![](https://willdomlee.com/assets/a/dji-mavic-pro/17.webp) Following the M3. In a sense, these two are kindred machines, and their paths will surely converge in the future. This account is for interesting stories. --- Originally published in Chinese on WeChat, 南山独唱团. [Read the original](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/a9rsv4IEZr_RLbQDeB0tsg).