At AerialPixels everyday is truly an adventure. No matter how hectic things can get, I never lose sight of how important our customers and clients are. When Fabio walked through our door just five minutes to closing, I had no idea how much of an impact he would have on not only myself, but also the entire staff at AerialPixels. Unable to speak more than a few words of english, we used Google translate on our phone to communicate. To our amazement, Fabio had driven his BMW motorcyle to Los Angeles to have his Mavic repaired. That may seem like no big deal until you consider that his trip began in Brazil! His story went on as he explained his trip of a lifetime would take him north to Alaska. His final destination would be Miami, where his belongings and motorcycle would be shipped back home. Throughout the trip his wife and children flew to various places like the Grand Canyon to meet with him.
The trip of a lifetime certainly deserves to be documented in style, but Fabio’s Mavic had a bit of a rough ride and was suffering from the typical gimbal issues that plague many Mavics that have taken a bit of abuse. Since Fabio was passing through and had no address for shipping, we took his Mavic to the shop and assessed the damage. Fabio decided LA would be a cool place to kick it for the night and enjoy some dinner, so we helped him find a great place to stay for about $65 bucks and told him to meet us at the shop in the morning after a well deserved night of sleep.
As you can see, the ribbon cable on Fabio’s Mavic Pro had delaminated and bubbled up. With copper traces damaged, the gimbal shook and vibrated while the DJI Go App reported hardware errors and other camera related problems.
When Fabio rolled in around 11 am the next morning, his Mavic was as good as new. We updated the firmware, calibrated the IMU, obstacle avoidance sensors and performed a test flight. Just for good measure we also like to shoot a few seconds of video to confirm thats working as well.
Fabio was overjoyed. Much of his family will never have the opportunity to leave their small town. The video and images from this epic trip are irreplaceable memories. Everyone at AerialPixels is deeply appreciative we could make such a profound difference.