The weather for drone flying has been pretty crumby lately, although yesterday there was finally an opportunity.  While it was a little windy, sustained winds about 7mph and gusts at 400 feet of up to 25mph, I believed that the little Mavic Mini could handle it.  So around 11:30am on a sunny Sunday I headed down to the causeway at Cheshire Lake which is a super short distance from my home.

There were a number of people ice fishing, some folks feeding the geese, and a quite a few individuals simply enjoying the nice sunny weather, I think it got up to almost 50 degrees yesterday afternoon!  I also used this opportunity to test out the process for pay-by-the-hour insurance for my flight.  I did some research on the different apps and companies and decided to try SkyWatch.  I went with SkyWatch for a few reasons, first the app looked well put together, second it supported logging in with my Google account which I like because I hate filling out redundant forms and this simplified the process. The final reason I chose SkyWatch is because it was recommended by another drone pilot who’s opinion I hold in high regard.

The flight itself was a success!  The Mavic Mini performed great in the wind as I had thought it would.  I did get a high wind warning several times inside the DJI app and I didn’t fly much higher than 250 feet just to be safe and stay away from the worst of the gusts.  As always, I notice things in the video that I would improve if I had it to do again, and I’m sure I will be flying at this spot in the future so there will be a chance.

SkyWatch Policy Document

I was pretty happy with the insurance process from SkyWatch as well. Not only was it quite affordable at only $10 for an hour of coverage with up to $1 million in liability coverage, but the process was super simple.  I was even able to draw a box in the area where I planned to fly to make sure the quote was as accurate and affordable as it could be.  The whole process of buying insurance took maybe 5 minutes tops including the time to download the app.  Since there was a parking lot nearby, and some gusty wind, and with it being my first time flying at the lake, I wanted to have the extra piece of mind.  In the future when I have risky flights or fly in a location off BCC campus where insurance is required/necessary, I will definitely be using SkyWatch again.

The only thing I’m not sure about is the policy seemed to cover everything but my drone itself and I couldn’t seem to find options in the app to turn that on, if possible.  There were subscription plans that the app offered and perhaps you need to signup for a tier for that to be available. Always more to research, one of the things I enjoy about technology!