A lot of people have the idea of learning on a starter drone. But the thing is, the Mavic and Spark have the same brains. And the brains are good! You don’t have to give much input, the drones almost fly themselves. It’s not like remote control helicopters where you have to give it input to hold it steady, the drone wants to just sit there, perfectly steady.
Not to speak badly about the Spark, but if you later upgrade, I don’t think you will find yourself using the spark at all. The arms don’t fold, so it takes up the same amount of space as a mavic, in terms of going in a pocket. The gimbal is 2 axis instead of 3, and the battery life isnt’ as good.
If you want to start with one and later upgrade, I would start with the Air. It’s basically Pro quality, but with less range. That way, you might even find that the range is ok for you, and never “upgrade.” Or, if you do upgrade, then you might find that you carry the Air with you on any sort of trip or vacation, and save the Mavic for dedicated long distance runs. For example, when you want to take photos of Cayo Levantado, but from Samana Port, which the Air won’t do.
Regarding getting in trouble… look, if you fly well, you won’t have problems here. And I don’t know what sort of idiot would have his drone confiscated. First thing first, be polite and apologize for causing problems. If they still want to take the drone, offer them $500 pesos. If they don’t accept, try mil pesos, maybe dos mil. Then if all else fails, of course you insured your drone with State Farm, right? Well, all of that negotiation beforehand should happen with the drone in the air. If they insist on confiscating it, crash the drone into a nearby tree and let them take it…
I have only had one angry confrontation in the US or DR, a lady mad that I was taking pictures of her kids at the beach. I wasn’t taking pictures of her kids and offered to show her the photos, but she stormed off after my friends rallied behind me to ask what the problem was. But I work hard to stay polite and inconspicuous. The drone sounds annoying, so I get it up and away as soon as possible. For example I have flown at Cayo Levantado often. No problem, no complaints, just up and away so no one notices it. The only time I was told to land, the guy admitted it was cool and he was just doing his job, no malice, no anger, no confiscation. Just don’t be a jerk, and life goes better for you in general.
The limit in US is 5 miles from an airport. I wouldn’t fly too close to airports, not because of the rules, but because of common sense. If you have a drone on the newest firmware, in the US atleast, it will block you from flying in a lot of places because of airports. I think Canada just changed it to 1km, which is better. 5 miles is way too far of a restriction considering the 400 foot height limit.
One more thing to be careful of here in towns or beaches even, is low flying helicopters. My advice: Know the maximum height of buildings around you, and if you ever hear a helicopter, descend to that height ASAP. Flip the gimbal up and spin 360 degrees while you lower yourself to see if you can spot the aircraft, while descending.
Also, turn off the downward facing sensors if you fly over water. They get confused too easily and can crash. Remember that the RTH doesn’t take into account any wind. I am pretty comfortable flying in crazy wind, the type where in GPS mode, it won’t stay in one spot, and you have to use Sport.
I have almost 100 flights with the Mavic Pro, 18 hours covering almost 250,000 meters. In sport mode, during windy days, I have gotten her up to almost 79 kilometers per hour. With an old Phantom, by now the batteries were puffed up and useless, but the Mavic batteries seem fine. Most of my flights are 20 minutes and I land with 20% remaining.
If you want to fly outside, I recommend you google the “wonder phone” that Walmart sells for $50 or so. Has a brighter screen than an iphone.
If you want to take photos, use Raw in 4:3 mode, and pay the $10 a month for Lightroom CC Classic. The Classic is important, it has panoramic stitching. Lightroom CC does not do stitching. Litchi will take 27 photos to stitch into a true 360 but for me, normally I flip the camera into portrait mode, and take 3-12 photos, and that’s enough for a nice wide angle photo, plus it’s much, much faster. Litchi is still nice for the circle flying modes. For example, set it to circle you while you are swimming at the beach, or to spin around the Monument in Santiago. I would say Litchi is worth the money but I really only use it when I’m only there for photos. If I’m at the beach to enjoy the beach, I use 1 battery and take a few shots and that’s it. I rarely use all 3, but I rotate so I don’t use the same one all of the time. The bag in the Fly More kit is nice, not worth buying on it’s own but it does a pretty good job. Also once it fell into the ocean (or the ocean fell into me. Depends who you ask) and it was zipped up, nothing inside got wet.