Greetings everyone!
Hope you all had a great start to your week!

After a lot of debating I finally decided to upgrade my drone. I've been flying the original DJI Mavic Pro for years and I was trying to hold out for the Pro 3 (which has been delayed multiple times). Along came the DJI AIR 2S and it basically checks all my boxes.

Camera upgrade ✅
Multiple sensors✅
Compact & light weight (I travel a lot)✅
And new features✅

Needless to see I was (and still am) very eager to test it out. I decided to jump right into it (I'm an experienced pilot after all)! My main concern is the wind here on the island, it can get harsh and if you make the mistake of flying down wind in the beginning (meaning you have to fly back against the wind) you can lose your drone. The air 2s is a bit smaller that the mavic so there is a danger it can't handle the same wind speeds.
Up till now though, and yes after a few semi-heart-attacky- flights, I saw that it was stable and came back easily.
So the level of trust is there...

Now to test the camera...

What better place than the historic inner city of Willemstad Curacao???
UNESCO world heritage tag and all!
My focus was distance (yes the remote connection) and height (luckily there are limited restrictions here so I could go all out).
I shot some of the popular landmarks in Punda (established 1634) and a bit of Otrobanda. You'll notice that most of these names are Dutch (royalty) which has everything to do with the colonial history. Curacao is still part of the Dutch Kingdom, although now as a sovereign country.
I'm also adding unedited videos (give them a while to load 😁).

The Handelskade

Known for its colorful skyline (it is really the most popular shot in Curaçao).
The place has a rich history. Handel is trade in Dutch, and it this is where ships used to dock to trade a lot of their goods back in the day (read centuries ago).
Now it part of the business side of Curaçao and these colorful houses are mostly in the hand of (international) companies.
One of which is Penha, which the iconic yellow building on the corner!

The floating Queen Emma bridge

(also known as the swinging lady).
The bridge was originally built in 1888 and restored in 1935.
It the deck basically sits on multiple floating 'boats', and it opens up to let in the cruise ships, tankers or cargo shops that go through the St. Anna Bay.
When it's open, there are two ferries that help people cross to the other side.
Before the building of the larger Queen Juliana Bridge the swinging lady was used as the main road to cross to the other side, allowing cars and trucks.
Nowadays, it's only for pedestrians, bikes or at the most a scooter.

The Queen Juliana Bridge

Opened in 1974, it's a four lane bridge spanning 500m and 56m high.
As mentioned before, it was built to accommodate the increasing traffic from Punda to Otrobanda.
Normally you'd get shots from the ground but I got a little creative with the drone!

Extra shots

This is actually a fort and it houses the local government.

That's it for me today! I wanted to show the shots but I realized I couldn't just skip the mini history lesson 😂.
Hope you enjoyed it!

As always, feel free to connect with me in the comments for tips, questions or anything else.

Cheers,

Gyanno