Tag Archives: Drone

What Not To Do When You’re Flying Your Drone

Drones have been around for some time now so chances are you may have one already. But if not and you’re considering buying a drone for yourself in the near future, it is worth knowing what you shouldn’t do when taking your drone out for a spin. We will list some of these ‘don’ts’ here, although it’s worth noting that they still apply to you if you already have a drone in your possession.

Here’s what not to do when flying your drone!

#1: Don’t spy on your neighbours

Drones have many practical applications, especially when they have a camera affixed to them. However, this doesn’t give you a license to spy on your neighbours. Whether you have reason to or not, you will be impinging on their privacy and if spotted, you could face legal ramifications if the police get involved. There are also safety risks to consider, as you may inadvertently hit your neighbour with your drone if you pilot it incorrectly. Again, there may be legal consequences, so it’s better to fly your drone in private areas. 

#2: Don’t fly your drone near airspace

Your drone is unlikely to bring down an aircraft but it’s still illegal to fly it near airspace. As you have probably seen on the news, it can also be an inconvenience, as some flights have been grounded while drone sightings have been investigated. Would you want to be the next news item to be discussed on television? We are guessing not as you would have a lot of people to answer to! As with the previous point, it is important to be responsible. Take note of the legal advice here and stay out of any potential trouble. 

#3: Don’t lose sight of your drone

It’s important to keep a close eye on your drone, even if it does have a camera attached, as you need to keep both the drone and nearby people and buildings safe from harm. While it’s possible to get your drone repaired if an accident occurs, perhaps via these DJI drone repair services, life becomes more complicated if you cause damage to property or another person.

#4: Don’t fly your drone in crowded areas

The primary reason for this is as we have discussed already. You could cause injury to another, especially if there is a sudden gust of wind that sends your drone off course. It might also plummet to the ground if the batteries fail. In both circumstances, you could hurt a member of the public. However, there is another reason not to fly your drone in crowded areas, and that is theft. This is is less of an issue if your drone is well above head height but if it does fly down at a lower level, for whatever reason, somebody could get their hands on the drone and take it. 

Drones are a lot of fun and there are practical advantages too. However, as we have discussed here, care does need to be taken. So, take heed of our advice and protect your drone, yourself, and the well-being of others.

What Practical Applications Does a Drone Have?

Drones are becoming increasingly popular for their ability to capture footage with spectacular views. However, most people don’t really have a practical use for a drone outside of just being a hobby that allows them to take cool footage and potentially spy on their neighbours. So to help you understand drones a bit better, we’ve put together a list of practical uses for drones in the modern-day.

Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/H5IXIH254AU (CC0)
Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/H5IXIH254AU (CC0)

Drones can be used to monitor large plots of land

Drones are starting to be used for surveillance purposes. For instance, farmers can use a drone with a camera attachment to inspect livestock that is spread over many acres of land instead of driving around to check on them. Similarly, private companies can use drones to monitor large and complex buildings, especially if they have connections such as pipelines that need to be monitored. Lastly, firefighters can also use drones to track wildfires so they know where to position themselves to help cull the flames.

Drones can be used to survey sites

If you’ve ever been involved in a building project then you’ll understand the important role that drone services can play. Professional services can help you survey buildings, structures and roofs for a variety of different purposes. In most situations, the drone footage can be used to perform inspections, but it can also be used to plan out a building or the placement of structures. Since drones can go fairly high and capture a wide-angle view of a specific area, it gives construction specialists an amazing view of the area that they can work with.

Drones are often used to record footage for different industries

High-quality cameras can easily be attached to drones these days, making them very capable machines that can capture footage from many different heights. This can be used for film purposes, such as capturing overhead footage of a filming location. It can also be used to showcase the area around a property that is being sold on the real estate market. This type of stock footage can also be sold and bought depending on the purpose it’s intended for. Some imagery from drones is highly sought after, such as sweeping overheard recordings of specific cities and night footage of iconic skylines. Drones can help us capture some amazing footage and it’s changed the video service industry in many positive ways.

Drones can just be used for fun

Like many new technologies, you don’t have to just focus on practical or professional uses. You could just own a drone and use it for fun! This can include racing drones with your friends, building an obstacle course or even just flying them around because you like the views that it can capture. There’s nothing wrong with using a drone for recreational purposes and there’s no limit to the things you can do with it–the limit is your imagination! Check out this article for cool things you can do with a drone to get some inspiration.

3 Uses Of Drones We Can Expect To See Soon

Drones are a technology which have been gaining a lot of traction in the media over the past few years, for good and bad reasons. There is a lot of controversy around drone use, and as they become cheaper and cheaper and more commercially available, so too do they become more of an intrigue from people around the globe. As well as personal uses, there are many infrastructure and business uses for drones, and it looks as if there are going to be many more in the future too. In this article, we are going to discuss some of the uses of drones which we can expect to see some time soon, which might well change many aspects about our world overnight.

Delivery

In some places, companies like Amazon have already started using drone to deliver goods to people’s’ homes and places of work. The main benefit of this is, of course, the incredible speed of delivery, and what they are hoping for is that one day soon they will be able to have one day delivery on almost all items, or at least smaller items which you might have delivered. This is certainly exciting, although many people are worried about the prospect of Amazon drones flying around everywhere. In order to get to grips with some of the concerns, take a look at this article on what you need to know about flying drones: you will see that there are many considerations that need to be considered.

Defense

In many respects, the army is already using drones, and has been for longer than we have known about them commercially. But increasingly, they are using smaller lightweight drones to enforce our home security, and that is a relatively recent trend which is nonetheless going to continue in an upward trajectory for sure. Defending airports is a good example, and these days one of the main things that they are defending against is other drones. This kind of usage of drones is clearly very important, and it’s already the case that when you catch a plane you are being defended by drones without knowing it.

Photography

While some events are already being photographed with the use of drones, again this is something that we can hope to develop more in the future, and it is likely that such technology will get better. Part of this will mean that the drones can get further away without breaking out, and that will encourage us to be able to find footage of far out places which would otherwise have been unreachable. This is not just exciting from a photography viewpoint, but also from a scientific discovery one. Who knows what kinds of things we might uncover just by making use of some great drone technology.

However we use them, one thing is for certain: drones are going to continue to be an important part of our lives, probably increasingly so.

DJI Mavic Pro – Review – A drone so stable it appears frozen in time #gadgetroadtrip

I have been flying drones for the last 18 months, specifically DJI drones. It’s no secret that DJI have cornered the drone market from beginner to corporate use. From simply aerial photography to flying cell towers, DJI seem to have it all.

As part of our recent Gadget Man Road Trip from Ness Point to Ardnamurchan, we took along a DJI Mavic Pro and Osmo+, in this review I’m going to be talking about the Mavic Pro.

Click here to buy the Mavic Pro

The first thing you notice immediately upon taking the drone out of it’s box is that it is absolutely tiny! The rotor blades and arms all fold very neatly into themselves, giving it the appearance of a sleeping bat. Nature has almost always proved to be the most efficient designer and it seems that DJI has taken quite many queues when designing the folding mechanism. Having the Mavic fold so gracefully means that it doesn’t take up a great deal of space and setting up is very quick, there’s no need to fixing rotor blades as they come fixed to the craft, so looking for that photographic moment is generally not lost as box to air time is very quick.

The drone is flown using a very neat controller that connects to your mobile device using USB. Aside from using the phone, the controller also displays important information on a LED display which makes read information in bright sunlight very easy. Operation of the drone is achieved via DJI’s own DJI Go4 software or using 3rd parties such as Litchi. It was supremely simple to operate the drone and its incredible stability gives you a very confident edge when flying.

DJI have placed the 4k camera and sensor at the front of the aircraft, doing away with the underslung designs preceding it. By doing this means that even quick acceleration doesn’t cause the rotors to obscure the display which is an all to common problem with most drones. The camera has a clear plastic dome which is easily removed to allow for clearer footage with less glare. The quality of the footage is jaw dropping! We weren’t massively lucky with the weather especially in Scotland, but we were still able to produce some amazing footage all the same, even in grey skies.

The Mavic can take still 12MP photos as well as video and can also be controlled by gestures and there is also a Wi-Fi mode with less features.

Stability wise, the Mavic Pro is awesome. As well as GPS and Glonass stabilisation, the drone also uses down facing stabilisation using additional cameras. By referencing the ground, the drone can hover almost stock-still in the sky, it’s quite unnerving to see. It also packs collision avoidance cameras too which is great when flying near to trees.

Flight times are excellent being more than 25 minutes and the drone is noticeably quieter than other aircraft I have used. Sport mode gives even greater performance and allows you to swoop around the sky with easer.

DJI have included their Geofencing software or NFZ (No fly zone) features on the drone which avoid it being flown in areas that are either illegal or dangerous such as near to airports or stadiums. This is a great inclusion which hopefully will help drones to gain a better reputation in the UK press.

Good drones don’t come cheap and DJI have positioned the Mavic Pro in the higher price bracket, however you are getting an exceedingly good aircraft for the money. I tested the ‘Combo Kit’ which comes with drone, 2 batteries, car charger, 3pin charger, controller, 16GB MicroSD and leather carry case, this comes in at around £1200, however there are deals without the added extras which bring the price under £950.

 

Look out for Black Friday deals which bring the price down even further

Matt Porter

The Gadget Man

 

 

The Gadget Man – Episode 82.6 – Human Transportation via drone – EHANG 184

EHANG 184 Autonomous Personal Transport
EHANG 184 Autonomous Flying Vehicles

Drones are never far from the news at the moment and with the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) currently in progress in Law Vegas, there has already been  some big announcements in this area.

But none quite so big as the EHANG 184 Autonomous Flying Vehicle. Stay tuned for more CES announcements. You can watch the official video below for more about the EHANG 184 and it’s founders ideology of safe aerial transportation.