There's a saying among sailors that, if you haven't been aground, you're not a sailor yet.
I bought a drone a few weeks ago. It's a DJI Mavic Mini 2 and it has, uh, a learning curve. After a couple of weeks of careful flights, I thought I was starting to get the hang of it and took off into the woods with a little more speed. Splat! I hit a small tree and the drone fluttered to the ground.
It broke off one of its four rotor arms. I couldn't even find the missing pieces.
No problem, I'll order a part and fix it.
Ordering was easy. $28 wasn't terrible. Plus a $16 soldering kit.
The arm came today and I attacked the project with a lot of confidence. I've soldered before. I didn't count on having to disassemble so much of the drone and on all the ridiculously tiny screws. I had to get my best glasses to even see them.
Three hours later, it's back together. I took it for a little test flight and that worked, so I put the shell back on it and took it for a longer one. Miraculously, it came back in one piece. It has a few scars to show from the first accident, and my ego is a little bruised, but it flies!
