- Drone's broken, can't get it up.
And we're running out of time.
We're so close.
Yeah, it's frustrating.
[Narrator] In September, I got an email from DJI
asking if I wanted to test out a few new products.
The Action 2, the Ronin 4D
and the most exciting, the Mavic 3.
I knew this was gonna be a big launch
and I wanted to get a wide range of footage.
So I called up my buddy, Jake Sloan, in Alaska
to see if he wanted to meet up and go shoot some videos.
So the next thing I know it,
I'm on a plane headed north.
(rain pouring)
- Some people are crazy
'cause what's better than hiking to an ice cave
but doing it in the wind and the rain.
- I was in California yesterday morning.
Now I'm in the freezing rain of Alaska.
(Jake laughing)
- Freezing is a relative term.
- [Narrator] So Day 1 did not start well.
The weather is a gamble in October
and I happen to show up in the middle of a storm.
So, we made the best of the situation.
And our goal for the first day was just a film a vlog
comparing the DJI Action 2 and the GoPro Hero 10.
- That section where I'm following Jake as he's walking,
I was starting like this and it got kind of rocky soil,
went like this and I was kinda like this,
just trying to keep my footing
and here you can see the results.
(water flowing)
Oh, you gotta be kidding me.
The camera just formatted the card.
- [Narrator] So after a few hours of filming,
I ended up losing everything.
The camera was on and by my side
and somehow I ended up on the format screen
and cleared the card.
So we scratched the vlog idea
and decided just to explore the ice cave.
(electronic music)
That's wild.
(electronic music)
(water running)
- Glacier water is definitely best water.
It's just coming off that.
We definitely have a major problem.
I just got back to the hotel room
and I needed to update the app for the drone
to be able to fly it
because for some reason it stopped working,
come to find out it's iOS 15.
And I just contacted DJI,
there's no app for iOS 15 yet.
So I'm in Alaska.
We have a boat trip plan for tomorrow.
We have a helicopter plan for the next day
to go get footage for this drone
and I don't have an app that works.
So technically this is bricked.
I need to find an Android device
or phone that hasn't been updated yet
otherwise we're not gonna be able to fly.
(rain pouring)
Well, it's a rainy day again.
(opening door)
(closing door)
It's raining.
- It's pouring down rain here
but 30 miles that way it's not raining at all.
- All right.
- At least not yet and hopefully it stays that way.
- Yeah, hopefully.
- [Narrator] Last night, Jake was able to find
an old iPhone and a Pixel.
So we had two different devices
that we could install the pre-release DJI Fly app.
But on our way to the dock, there was an accident.
So we had to stop and wait.
But it did give us some time to test the drone
and make sure that it was flying.
(upbeat music)
It seemed to be working.
However, there was some bugs with the software.
But overall, I was able to get a few good shots.
So once the wreck cleared,
we drove through mountain and ended up
in the town of Whittier with just enough time
to catch the boat and start our Trek
out to Blackstone glacier.
- Okay. So that was really scary.
I just took the drone up and try and get some good shots.
And it tried to land in the water
and had an update needed to do
and tried to force the update.
And it's just like,
that's one of the issues when you're doing like,
working with pre-release products,
just stuff happens and it's just not good.
I mean, it looks like it's working now though.
Let's see.
This might be the last time we fly this drone.
Let's take it off.
- Alright, here we go.
The best place to test the drone
is out over open water in the middle of nowhere
where there's zero chance of recovery
if anything goes wrong.
- Let me restart the drone one more time, just to make sure.
I really like to not lose this thing.
- [Jake] You don't wanna try this,
like over the shore somewhere or you could like,
- I mean, we could.
- crash landed into the beach at least.
- Maybe that would be a good idea, right?
- [Jake] I mean, - It's probably a good idea.
- [Jake] Okay. Yeah. - Yeah.
- All right. Well, we'll put the Air 2S
in the air to get this shot
and then we'll try this where we have a chance of recovery.
- We have another drone.
- Yes.
(soothing piano music)
(drone blades whirring)
- [Man] It's super stable.
(boat engine starts)
(indistinct)
- Thank you, sir.
(boat engine running)
I just cannot believe the weather.
It is so beautiful back here today.
- So the goal is to onto this beach,
test the drone because it's not working.
And then if it's working,
we're gonna climb up on the rocks,
trying to get to like the sides.
We get a side view of this glacier.
- Easy.
Easy.
- Easy.
Ooh, check this out.
There is a fish carcass.
Oh, it's got sharp teeth too.
Ooh, it smells bad.
(drone blades spins)
Hate to do this but we might need go get that phone.
It won't come out of slow motion mode
and like, it keeps flashing.
Yeah.
It's like not working at all.
- Okay.
- So now that we're here on the beach,
the software won't even work,
just flashes on and off, on and off, on and off.
So we actually have a Pixel on the boat
and Jake's gonna run back out and grab it
and we have the software on that as well.
So we're hoping that,
it worked earlier when we flew in that traffic.
I mean it was buggy but it was working.
So, we're hoping that at least we can get it functioning.
(boat engine revving)
It's just some of the most epic views,
some spectacular drone footage.
And you know, I can't test this drone.
It's not a problem with the drone itself
especially by the time you're watching this,
all this firmware is gonna be updated.
This is the problem when you're testing new products.
It looks like he's rolling back this way.
He must've got the phone
but something happened with the motor.
(glacier ice falling)
- It's just not running.
- The motor is just not on?
- Like, I had it running and it just stopped.
- It looks like we got a phone.
We got a phone and a couple of cables.
So, let's try this.
Okay. There's another forced update happening.
Hopefully this fixes whatever problem just happened.
But I don't know why both apps,
one was for Android, one's for iPhone.
Why they would be both updating the drone
that should have been ready to fly to begin with.
You at least getting some good shots
'cause apparently I can't.
- I'm getting this is the lesson
why you always wanna bring multiples with you.
Having a backup on trips like this is essential.
You just never know what's gonna go wrong.
(gentle piano music)
- All right.
So, drone's broken.
Can't get it up
and we're running out of time.
So we gotta get back on the main boat.
It's like, we're so close.
We're so close.
I mean, that's why we came out today
was to get this footage.
I'm just gonna pack away
and hopefully when we get back into some wifi,
maybe there'll be an update or something
but this is, yeah, it's frustrating.
(rowing boat)
- So it's definitely early morning,
I'd get up 4:30, get my stuff packed
and we have to hit the road.
'Cause we are driving somewhere pretty far, I guess.
And we're gonna be meeting up with one of his friends
who has a helicopter and she has some places,
some new places, apparently
that she wants to take Jake
which basically means flying up
to like mountains and glaciers.
Yeah, I don't know what to expect.
- You wanna drive a 300 miles ish and try a drone out.
- Oh, that's what we're doing?
- Something.
(Jake chuckles)
Something will happen.
- Oh man.
So the goal of today is to, you know,
go on the helicopter obviously.
The Maverick 3 is actually working
and the goal today is to get some really epic footage.
Hopefully fingers crossed that, you know,
we don't have any of the issues that we had.
(slams car door)
- So the plan is we're gonna drive about 300 miles
to Valdez which is where a friend of mine
has this awesome helicopter
and Valdez has some of the most epic scenery in town.
- Just the town.
- Yeah, I mean, it's this tiny little town
on this flat area of land on the seaside
and it's surrounded by mountains and glaciers.
So, it's gonna be incredible.
The drive there is gonna be pretty awesome too,
three hours of it.
It's gonna be in total darkness 'cause the sun
doesn't come up for another three hours.
- Yeah. What time is it?
It's five o'clock and the sun doesn't come till 8:30.
- Yeah. Eight something.
- So, we'll see something eventually.
(Jake laughs)
- Oh man, coffee is not even open yet.
- Not yet. But we are gonna stop for coffee shortly.
- I hope so.
I need some coffee.
(wind blowing)
(gentle piano music)
- [Narrator] The drive to Valdez took all morning
but just as the sun came up,
we realized that this is gonna be
a pretty spectacular day.
Last night, I was able to get the Mavic 3 working properly.
And so far everything is working as it should.
After a long drive through the Alaskan wilderness,
we ended up at the airport in Valdez.
- Helicopter's right out there.
Sun's up, gonna be like perfect day.
But the battle is now figuring out
what we're gonna bring.
- But I paired it down to just three lenses, one tripod,
Air 2S, FPV drone and the bare minimum FPV stuff,
which would be, there really is no bare minimum.
It's always a lot of crap like getting a goggles,
another controller and all that.
But enough to do a couple of flights
with FPV wherever we go.
- Going a little bit lighter with my setup.
We don't know what we're gonna get into.
This actually is gonna be pretty awesome
'cause I've never been in a helicopter before.
This is my first helicopter flight.
And it's just like one of those things
I've always wanted to do.
Like, go take a helicopter flight,
shoot photos and video.
But I didn't imagine my first flight
would be like a private tour of mountains in Alaska
and have the opportunity to just go play
and shoot with all these new cameras that I have.
I mean, this is wild.
So we're about to take off.
Who's our pilot for today?
- Hey. My name is Leigh.
I'll be taking you to all of my favorite spots
around the Chugach mountains in Valdez, Alaska.
It's kind of boring today 'cause it's all blue skies
but I think we'll find something cool.
- Boring is a relative term.
This is pretty amazing
and I can't ask for a better day for just being out here
but let's go find some glaciers.
- [Leigh] Let's do that.
(upbeat music)
(helicopter blades whirring)
- [Narrator] As we made our way to a beach
near the Columbia glacier,
we finally had a chance to test the Mavick 3,
perfect conditions.
I got the drone in the air,
made sure everything was connected to the app
and then I just went flying.
(electronic music)
- This was only stop one on our journey
and from here we're gonna go see what else we can find.
(electronic music)
- [Narrator] Things will never go as planned.
The more adventures I go on,
the more I realized that you just have to remember
to live in the moment.
Things will fail.
Plans will get thrown out the window.
But you can't let that ruin the experience.
We could have been bummed about the weather
or the drone not working properly.
But those are things that we can't control.
Instead, I had an amazing experience hanging out with Jake,
making some new friends and being able to explore a place
that I've never been to before.
Being able to experience a moment like this
is what it's all about.
(electronic music)