Drones
Who's got one? What kind? Where do you fly it? Any special purpose for it?
Forum Discussion
Some good advice in this thread, esp regarding the legal limitations/requirements. Yes, NP's are definitely out and so are many other gov properties. Make sure you know the regs before you fly cause those people have zero sense of anything.
fwiw, I fly racing drones and have buds that fly pretty much everything else, including commercial. I fly ImmersionRC quads + my own builds. I use it to scout areas I want to hike sometimes, but mostly just for flying fun.
I fly in parks, schoolgrounds, and any public open area where people AREN'T. Things do happen so above all be safe and have a safety margin well in excess for your abilities. The photo drones aren't that hard if you have enough braincells, but (again) things do happen. Only fly where you can retrieve your drone/quad if all goes wrong- at least until you learn your abilities. Pretty much all drones/quads can cut you for stitches, so be aware of that. Plenty of internet examples if you want to see that kind of thing.
Legally speaking, drone law hasn't been tested in the courts enough to say it is settled. It seems that the exact circumstances tend to weigh into a drone shoot more than the underlying principles of flying over private property. Shot down while photo'ing bikini girls in their backyards = you lose. Shot down flying by = gray area. Local laws on if you can shoot where/how you did seem to be the most important factor so far. Theres gonna be a lot more cases in the courts before the exact line is drawn More likely, some fedgov agency is just going to make some rules and that will be the answer. And before someone tears into me, I NEVER fly over private property without permission- I fly race quads and really aren't interested in photo drones.
I wouldn't have a dji if you gave it to me. They are a very controlling company that restricts your flight areas well into completely legal areas. And every time they give you a free software update via the internet, they pile on more restrictions. By owning a dji, you are also giving them permission to possess all photos and flight data from that drone. If you want a photo drone, I strongly recommend Yuneec or one of the other large companies that actually care about their customers beyond seeing them as a cash cow. They are just as good as a dji, often better, and they have none of the nannystate software that dji mandates.
For beginners, I recommend going to a hobby shop and buying something in the $100 range that you can fly line of sight (without goggles). This will help you learn the necessary flying skills. If you like it, you can go more expensive from there.
If you REALLY want to po boy it to start with, you can get something like a Eachine E011 that is in the $10-15 range. I got these for my nieces/nephews as a stocking stuffer for xmas and they were a huge hit (ebay title: Eachine Flying Santa Claus With Christmas songs RC Quadcopter for Kids Gift )
Do NOT get something where the video works over WiFi if you want to fly by video(called first person viewer, or fpv). You will run into a lot of these on the low end of the hobby. WiFi works, but the delay (latency) makes those things all but unflyable. If it was consistent, you could work with it, but the latency will be 20 milliseconds and then jump to 2 seconds then somewhere in-between. I'm an experienced fpv pilot and I cant fly that way for very long without crashing.
I'm happy to help if you have further questions. Just post or PM me.
fwiw, I fly racing drones and have buds that fly pretty much everything else, including commercial. I fly ImmersionRC quads + my own builds. I use it to scout areas I want to hike sometimes, but mostly just for flying fun.
I fly in parks, schoolgrounds, and any public open area where people AREN'T. Things do happen so above all be safe and have a safety margin well in excess for your abilities. The photo drones aren't that hard if you have enough braincells, but (again) things do happen. Only fly where you can retrieve your drone/quad if all goes wrong- at least until you learn your abilities. Pretty much all drones/quads can cut you for stitches, so be aware of that. Plenty of internet examples if you want to see that kind of thing.
Legally speaking, drone law hasn't been tested in the courts enough to say it is settled. It seems that the exact circumstances tend to weigh into a drone shoot more than the underlying principles of flying over private property. Shot down while photo'ing bikini girls in their backyards = you lose. Shot down flying by = gray area. Local laws on if you can shoot where/how you did seem to be the most important factor so far. Theres gonna be a lot more cases in the courts before the exact line is drawn More likely, some fedgov agency is just going to make some rules and that will be the answer. And before someone tears into me, I NEVER fly over private property without permission- I fly race quads and really aren't interested in photo drones.
I wouldn't have a dji if you gave it to me. They are a very controlling company that restricts your flight areas well into completely legal areas. And every time they give you a free software update via the internet, they pile on more restrictions. By owning a dji, you are also giving them permission to possess all photos and flight data from that drone. If you want a photo drone, I strongly recommend Yuneec or one of the other large companies that actually care about their customers beyond seeing them as a cash cow. They are just as good as a dji, often better, and they have none of the nannystate software that dji mandates.
For beginners, I recommend going to a hobby shop and buying something in the $100 range that you can fly line of sight (without goggles). This will help you learn the necessary flying skills. If you like it, you can go more expensive from there.
If you REALLY want to po boy it to start with, you can get something like a Eachine E011 that is in the $10-15 range. I got these for my nieces/nephews as a stocking stuffer for xmas and they were a huge hit (ebay title: Eachine Flying Santa Claus With Christmas songs RC Quadcopter for Kids Gift )
Do NOT get something where the video works over WiFi if you want to fly by video(called first person viewer, or fpv). You will run into a lot of these on the low end of the hobby. WiFi works, but the delay (latency) makes those things all but unflyable. If it was consistent, you could work with it, but the latency will be 20 milliseconds and then jump to 2 seconds then somewhere in-between. I'm an experienced fpv pilot and I cant fly that way for very long without crashing.
I'm happy to help if you have further questions. Just post or PM me.
