It turns out, I was technically in the wrong, but not for the reason you might think. I wasn't flying in restricted airspace and my local council, as far as I'm aware, does not prohibit drones (some councils, like Leichhardt in Sydney's inner-west, part of the Inner West Council, ban drones entirely). I also wasn't breaching privacy laws. DJI's Mavic Air is perfect for tracking and recording, if you can find somewhere to fly it. I was, however, flying it too close to other people, and according to Australia's civil aviation regulator, CASA, you cannot do this. You must, CASA states, not fly drones within 30 metres of people unless they are part of controlling or navigating it. You also need to fly it under 120 metres, and in some places even lower to keep out of the way of nearby aircraft. Credit:Ben Grubb

Once I start complying with the law, I find that it is quite restrictive as to where you can actually fly drones legally. My local park? Nope. It has a sign which states that you can't fly model aircraft there. I ring the council to inquire whether a drone counted as such an aircraft. It does. The other park nearby? Same sign, same deal. Helpfully, CASA provides a free app for download, appropriately named "Can I Fly There?". After a quick glance I find nearby fields it says are OK to fly at, but on arrival I find council signs that prohibit the use of such aircraft. I almost give up. Frustrated, I joke on Twitter that CASA should probably change the app's name to "Where Can I Actually Fly?" According to the app, if you live anywhere in Sydney and within 5.5 kilometres of the main airport — basically every inner-city suburb, including Newtown, Redfern, Dulwich Hill, Erskineville, Stanmore, Enmore, etc — you cannot fly unless you have a drone that weighs under 100 grams (the DJI Mavic Air is 430 grams) or you have CASA authorisation or a remote pilot license.

In Melbourne's city, because it is some distance away from the airport, you're in more luck. You will need to look out for several helipads though, including at hospitals, which will restrict flight. Meanwhile, all of Sydney Harbour is completely off-limits to all drones, including the Lower North Shore, meaning no shots of the Opera House or Luna Park and no close-ups of the Harbour Bridge. Even if your drone is under 100 grams, you cannot fly over the Harbour. This hasn't, of course, prevented some of the world's famous drone photographers from breaching the rules to take amazing still photography and video. Some have learned the hard way that it can result in large penalties though, with one receiving a $540 fine last year for crashing into the Harbour bridge. What about flying at Bondi Beach? Yes, but you have to keep it under 30 metres high due to low-flying beach patrol aircraft and also 30 metres away from people, per the usual rules. The 30-metre rule makes this kind of difficult, however, especially at Australia's most popular beach. Most national parks are also off limits unless approval is sought.

Eventually, after much persistence, I find an oval that doesn't have any signs. With the CASA app giving me the OK, I fly. Liftoff! Once you actually get it in the air, the Mavic is pretty simple to control. Credit:Ben Grubb Once you figure out how to setup the Mavic Air (including how to unfold it and pair it with it with your smartphone or with the provided remote + your smartphone), it's simple to fly. One of the biggest hurdles at the start was figuring out how to turn it on (you have to press the ‘on' button, located on the battery, not once but twice. The same goes for the remote).

For comparison's sake, I used to fly petrol-powered remote-control planes when I was a teenager and these were completely reliant on their pilots providing all flight instructions to the aircraft. If you don't have you fingers on the joystick at all times, they generally fly away or crash. The Mavic Air? It will hover and even land itself in the position it took off from if it sees that it is running low on battery. This is thanks to inbuilt GPS and seven onboard cameras. Some dogs at the park became extremely interested in the drone. Speaking of the battery, it only runs for a measly 21 minutes, which is probably the biggest downfall for this device, which retails for a whopping $1299, putting it out of reach for most amateur photographers, and likely out of reach for most children's Christmas stockings too. A "Fly More Combo" pack sells for $1599 and comes with three additional batteries. Another downfall is its internal storage. It's only 8 gigabytes. With 4K video — which the drone is able to shoot in — taking up approximately 375 megabytes per minute, this means you're going to get less than 21 minutes of video before you have to offload it onto a computer. Thankfully, it comes with a microSD slot, giving you the ability to upgrade its storage to 128GB.

You'll also need a smartphone running Google's Android or Apple's iOS to use it, which you place into the provided remote control's grips, enabling you to see a first-person view from the drone. My favourite features were some of the pre-programmed "quick shot" video modes, including Rocket, Dronie, Circle and Helix. These allow you to take truly incredible-looking videos of yourself that look like they were captured from a professional in a helicopter. They mean the Mavic Air will track you, manoeuvre itself around you, and film you all at the same time. Another mode, called ActiveTrack, enables the drone to follow a subject and keep it in the frame, especially during high motion activities like running and cycling. It's able to do this while flying up to 28.8km/h. In sports mode, which disables these features, it can fly up to 68.4 km/h. Given the fact that you're going to have to trek outside of most cities if you want to film anything of note, I see this as a drone designed for adventurers who want to capture their endeavours, as well as for amateur and professional photographers and filmmakers.