I have flown a couple more practice sessions with the Mavic Air and am getting comfortable with the controls. I now trust it enough to put the remote down and take pictures of it in flight with my Nikon P1000. It's cool to just leave it hanging in the air while I walk around it snapping photos. It hold it's position extremely well. I reminds me of the Douglas Adams quote from The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy:
The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't
On my third flight I turned off beginner mode. That removed the height limit of about 93 feet. I flew it up to a little over 200 feet where it is just a speck on the sky. It was a bright day and I couldn't see the lights on the drone. I had to depend on the controller display to know how it was oriented. That works fine and is an important technique to get used to.
On the third flight I also did some experimenting with video and still photos. It is easy to change the camera settings while the drone takes care of itself. I will have to do more experimenting to get the best combination of settings but each situation but, for a first try, I was happy with the results. I do need to pay more attention to composition though. This photo would be better with the horizon line higher. I tend to forget about the gimbal control. I will get used to using it eventually.
I will be doing more practice flights but I would already be comfortable taking the Mavic Air with us on any trip we might go on. It is easy enough to fly that anyone can get decent results with it after just a couple sessions. On the other hand, it is so capable that there is always going to be more to learn and master with it.
I haven't even started working with the built in intelligent flight modes yet. That will open up a whole lot of new possibilities.
It will only get better from here!