It’s more important when you’re paying bigger bucks for larger, higher capacity LiPo’s in the more serious craft. LiPo’s dislike being discharged too low - it reduces their longevity and can lead to more serious problems including increasing the risk of catastrophic failure and fire during crashes or charging/discharging cycles.
If you get serious in this, everyone should get themselves a LiPo battery bag for charging btw. They are cheap and the general consensus is that LiPos are not something you should leave charging unattended. Again, YMMV with risk factor on these smaller drones with tiny batteries, but it is a good safety habit to get into early.
Yeah, their drone was impressive for, what, three days until DJI announced the Mavic? And then the power debacle/recall with videos of them falling from the sky pretty much doomed them.
I love how they’re blaming the regulatory environment. The Karma was too little (or too big, actually), too late.
I want to get one of those DJI drones, but I don’t really want to go through the deal of getting permission to fly it since I live within 5 miles of a tiny airport.
Any drone recommendations for this job? I’m trying to take a good look at our condo’s rooftop exhaust vent as we suspect it might be blocked. I can either pay the HOA’s roof guy $200 to go up there and look OR possibly get a cheap camera drone and see if that can spot anything.
@Wumpus, would that $59 drone you link above do the trick and provide a good pic/video of the vent for us?
I keep getting asked to do footage for companies and realtors in our small town, so I’m probably going to get the FAA certification for commercial drone work sometime this year just so it’s an option.
Never called an airport. I get a dismissable warning every time I fly in my small town as there’s an uncontrolled field listed on charts, but in reality it was just a runway on a local farm field (“Majerle field” – it’s in Flight Sim/P3D) that the new property owners don’t maintain and isn’t really even usable anymore. I’ve talked to some friends who’ve called, though, and it’s pretty much a matter of saying “Hey, I’m in XX park flying a consumer drone, and I’ll be below 400 feet” and getting an “okay.” Never heard of any negative responses or even requests not to do so.
Getting the remote pilot certificate was relatively painless for me, since I already held a commercial pilot certificate. I can’t speak for what the test is like if you’re not already coming from an aviation background. All of my ‘private’ drone flying has been in uncontrolled airspace, away from airports.
I also went through the process of getting a COA for the state-level government agency I work for. That was not painless. Once we had that in hand, the process of filing NOTAMs and coordinating with traffic on military training routes was pretty easy.
Do you have specific questions?
EDIT/ADD: Actually, next week I’m teaching our first class of pilots who are being self-certified under the COA. The three day class is all risk management, airspace, charts, weather, and procedure… I think anyone can pick up the mechanics of flying in a couple hours :-)
EDIT 2: Oh, you said:
So … my interpretation of part 107 is that there is no notification requirement, assuming an uncontrolled field. 107.43 is “No person may operate a small unmanned aircraft in a manner that interferes with operations and traffic patterns at any airport, heliport, or seaplane base.” And 107.41 is “No person may operate a small unmanned aircraft in Class B, Class C, or Class D airspace or within the lateral boundaries of the surface area of Class E airspace designated for an airport unless that person has prior authorization from Air Traffic Control (ATC).” Most tiny uncontrolled fields will not have surface class E associated with them.
If you’re flying under section 336 (the hobbyist exemption), the requirement is notification not permission. (Again, assuming uncontrolled field not near otherwise controlled airspace). A call to the airport manager (not the FAA) should be sufficient.
There’s an official publication called the Airport/Facility Directory which will have the relevant contact number. There are sites like airnav.com which scrape that information as well.
Here’s a mosaic I made today using Microsoft ICE from 1080P video of my home (top right) and woods, Phantom 3 Pro, 400ft AGL, manual grid flown using the DJI GO app. My computer chokes when trying to process 4k video. Shadows are kind of bad because I didn’t fly until ~3PM.
I got a drone for Christmas and it is super cool. Then I did some research, and found out that because I live in Los Angeles, it is illegal to fly it anywhere. And I mean anywhere. Sigh.
I’m surprised about the restrictions in Antarctica. I guess because of all of the treaties around military operations and stuff? I mean, there’s not even agreement who’s in charge of so much of the continent.
My brother-in-law is a professional video guy who does a lot of freelance work for CBS and a few cable channels. One of his regular gigs got a massive, huge, ginormous drone about the size of a small car (but obviously weighing far less) and insisted that he get trained in its use.
To operate something that big, he effectively had to get a full-up pilot’s license in the US.
