DRONES ?

@deerdad do yourself a big favor and write on or label the drone "reward if found call XXX XXX XXXX"

you'd be amazed at the number of drones people find but can't return.

Even if it has a FAA registration number on it , the FAA won't give out the owner info.
 
Yeah thanks. I still have my rc planes with all my info on them. I had one that got away in the fall one year and spent the winter in the woods under the snow. Landowner found it while cutting trees in the spring and returned it to me. Labels work.
 
You can not LEGALLY fly a drone with goggles on, the requirement to fly VLOS is based on your eyes being on the drone, and Goggles prevent you from keeping the drone in Visual Line Of Sight.

You can only see what the camera shows you, not what is going on outside the limited field of vision, and if you have ever had a Helicopter come in to your operational area you'd understand how important it is to see the big picture.

Can you fly with goggles... sure all day long, but if something goes wrong the FAA will be the ones asking the questions.



they did ID the drone pilot from the wreckage of the drone, they traced the serial number:


The picture below was the 137th picture I took with my drone, after I dropped down to below the treetops after hearing the helicopter, the picture was taken at 77 feet AGL with the camera tilted up

View attachment 355003
I appreciate your sentiment. And when flying FPV wings and drones, there is always a spotter involved. But it does sound at a glance that all of us with big wings (cough cough.... drak) or dragon link radios are all in the wrong. He had asked and described FPV flight. I figured I’d briefly mention that.
Also, even when sitting in a comfortable lawn chair flying FPV around the woods, you will flinch hard enough to fall out of said chair if you crash at speed into a tree or something.
 
After two weeks with the Tello, I upgraded to the Mavic Mini. What a difference! I’m in love. The capabilities are WAY above the price point. Not regretting buying the tello first. I learned to fly and crash with that thing, and now my kid is enjoying it.
 
You are VERY wrong and misinformed.

You can not LEGALLY fly a drone with goggles on, the requirement to fly VLOS is based on your eyes being on the drone, and Goggles prevent you from keeping the drone in Visual Line Of Sight.

You can only see what the camera shows you, not what is going on outside the limited field of vision, and if you have ever had a Helicopter come in to your operational area you'd understand how important it is to see the big picture.

Can you fly with goggles... sure all day long, but if something goes wrong the FAA will be the ones asking the questions.



they did ID the drone pilot from the wreckage of the drone, they traced the serial number:


The picture below was the 137th picture I took with my drone, after I dropped down to below the treetops after hearing the helicopter, the picture was taken at 77 feet AGL with the camera tilted up

View attachment 355003
 
B80ECC92-3EF2-4D8A-93E4-39198CDACAE0.jpeg
I appreciate your sentiment. And when flying FPV wings and drones, there is always a spotter involved. But it does sound at a glance that all of us with big wings (cough cough.... drak) or dragon link radios are all in the wrong. He had asked and described FPV flight. I figured I’d briefly mention that.
Also, even when sitting in a comfortable lawn chair flying FPV around the woods, you will flinch hard enough to fall out of said chair if you crash at speed into a tree or something.
My Sweepwings Dreadnought
 

Very informative

 
Anyone done a FCC Part 107 for commercial drone flight? Considering it for myself as I’m interested in getting setup with a drone for marketing video work / services for hire
 
After two weeks with the Tello, I upgraded to the Mavic Mini. What a difference! I’m in love. The capabilities are WAY above the price point. Not regretting buying the tello first. I learned to fly and crash with that thing, and now my kid is enjoying it.

I picked up this adapter for holding a tablet (iPad Pro 10.5) to control a Mini. It doesn't feel flimsy at all, but I wouldn't go running around with it. If this wind would die down...

Amazon product ASIN B071RK5FYYView: https://www.amazon.com/Mavic-Platinum-Spark-Tablet-Holder/dp/B071RK5FYY
 
Anyone done a FCC Part 107 for commercial drone flight? Considering it for myself as I’m interested in getting setup with a drone for marketing video work / services for hire
I have not personally as I don’t do anything for hire. But quite a few people I know have got their part 107. If you are serious about it, there are lots of study groups to help you. Don’t be that guy and just practice test constantly to memorize answers, it will just hurt you in the end.
 
FYI got the DJI Care program with the Mavic Mini. It “ran away” (a known early problem) hit a tree and broke the camera gimbal. Opened a case, they sent me a UPS label to TX, they evaluated and fixed it and it’s on the way back. $39 so well worth .

Wish I’d purchased the Fly More package but did buy a second battery
 
I have not personally as I don’t do anything for hire. But quite a few people I know have got their part 107. If you are serious about it, there are lots of study groups to help you. Don’t be that guy and just practice test constantly to memorize answers, it will just hurt you in the end.
Thank you. I actually have a long term dream of getting my pilots license so I have a real interest in learning
 
Anyone done a FCC Part 107 for commercial drone flight? Considering it for myself as I’m interested in getting setup with a drone for marketing video work / services for hire

I am licensed and current Part 107

If you can learn how to read a sectional chart ( get one from www.sportys.com) that is 99% of the hard part of the test.

The rest is just parroting back from the various free study guides online

They added a 2 year recert requirement for Part 107, that is a PITA, but you can fly in a lot more places without the notification problem, plus you can get to fly in controlled airspace using a LAANC app

Here is an example, on the edge of the 8NM KBOS (Boston Logan ) Airspace, if I were not Part 107 I would be locked out of some of the area I want to fly, filling in some info on the App I got near instantaniuos FAA approval to fly in Class B airspace in my declared area of operation up to 300'

Screenshot_20200509-180113.pngScreenshot_20200509-180134.pngScreenshot_20200509-180158.pngScreenshot_20200509-180214.pngScreenshot_20200509-180230.pngScreenshot_20200509-180258.pngScreenshot_20200509-180113.pngScreenshot_20200509-180134.pngScreenshot_20200509-180158.pngScreenshot_20200509-180214.pngScreenshot_20200509-180230.pngScreenshot_20200509-180258.png
 
Thank you. I actually have a long term dream of getting my pilots license so I have a real interest in learning
Norwood airport has part 107 training as well as... well, it’s an airport. :). I took a couple of flight there, but getting your pilots license isn’t cheap and I only wanted to get one for personal use. I said great! My checkbook said no f@#$ way.
 
Is there a business opportunity flying a drone in Boston area?

IMHO, no.

You can do real estate stuff, but you are competing with everybody with a 400 dollar drone and no license, plus nobody wants to pay what it costs to get an enterprise level drone, plus travel time, editing, etc.. The higher end Mavic stuff with Hasselback cameras and thermal imaging are a real blast to use.

I have given away to non profits and local government hundreds of pictures with releases that they can use them as they see fit.

I have one friend who got into it after seeing my work, he invested a ton of money in equipment and goes up and down the east coast for work assignments.

He was up at Newfound Lake the other day doing an aerial survey of a cell tower

fro.jpg

The drone for me has always been a hobby, but with the Part 107 I can give my pictures away to be used in print or other media, legally a hobbyist can only use pictures they have taken for personal use, or say gifting a print to family. No commercial use allowed, not even for your own business or to a non profit.

quick story, right after I left for FL in September the cops showed up at the shop looking for me.

I had done some publicity pictures for them at various events so some of them know who is flying the drone when they see it out and about...

A cow had gotten loose and was running around, and they were looking for me to help track the cow... unfortunately I was 1500 miles away at the time.
 
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but with the Part 107
I know you've posted some links to some information on this but if you don't mind me asking what source or sources did you use to get your license? Was it only the one's you listed earlier or others too? Thank you.
 
I picked up this adapter for holding a tablet (iPad Pro 10.5) to control a Mini. It doesn't feel flimsy at all, but I wouldn't go running around with it. If this wind would die down...

Amazon product ASIN B071RK5FYYView: https://www.amazon.com/Mavic-Platinum-Spark-Tablet-Holder/dp/B071RK5FYY

Just a FYI, when the temp is cold, and the humidity is up, you CAN have your props ice up in flight and when it happens there is not a lot you can do about it... and it rarely ends well.

I had it happen once, and I should have known better having flown fixed wing planes... luckily I saw that the drone was getting unstable and I was not far up in the air.... and I was able to get it down before it fell out of the sky.

Oh and Lithium Ion batteries do NOT like cold, they drop charge quickly which is why the higher end drones actually have heaters for the batteries.
 
I had an advantage as when I got into drones, I had been flying fixed wing planes for about 10 years.

I was not current then (or now) if I was the Part 107 for a "current" (currently up to date with all requirements) is about half of the regular test.

Since I already knew how to read a sectional chart, I knew what clouds were what, I had done the Human Factors/Cockpit Management stuff, the Drone stuff was just reading and doing practice tests. I started studying on Saturday morning, and by noon Monday I had passed the test over at Eagle East Aviation in Lawrence where I used to fly from.

I used this as a practice test online: FAA Part 107 Test Questions (65 Questions Explained) [2019] -

This is the FAA "Bible", if it is in here, chances are you are going to be asked about it.


The FAA has a guide for reading sectional charts, but there are many tutorials online.

 
Regarding FPV drones... IMHO, the best segment is micros. Trivial to have <250g AUW on a 2-2.5" to simplify the "rules". You can get ones that are nice docile cruisers or real rippers that make a football field feel small. Some are well suited for indoors while others handle wind outside fairly well. Google Mobula 6, Diatone GTB 223, Emax Tinyhawk & cinewhoop. The "cinewhoop" genre is basically a light weight FPV drone, but it has a split camera that simultaneously records HD video for get another interesting niche.
 
Regarding FPV drones... IMHO, the best segment is micros. Trivial to have <250g AUW on a 2-2.5" to simplify the "rules". You can get ones that are nice docile cruisers or real rippers that make a football field feel small. Some are well suited for indoors while others handle wind outside fairly well. Google Mobula 6, Diatone GTB 223, Emax Tinyhawk & cinewhoop. The "cinewhoop" genre is basically a light weight FPV drone, but it has a split camera that simultaneously records HD video for get another interesting niche.

Micro's are seriously underrated. Tearing around the house because the weather outside is crap is one of the best things ever. (untill the cat isn't terrified of it anymore, and begins stalking it.) I had some of the inductrix line before I completely gave up on spektrum transmitters.
 
I have a Mavic Pro Platinum bought a few years ago. I use Litchi for preprogrammed flight missions. Or sometimes I just freehand around the area.

Here's a video I took a few years back up in Nova Scotia. It was a crystal clear day with little wind. I was on a hill so I had plenty of line of sight range. IIRC I sent the drone out 12,500+ feet and then brought it home with the video camera on.

It's just fun!

Rich



Given the location of your video and the scenery I instantly broke into my best “Oak Island“ commentators voice 🤣
 
Is there a wind map/forecast of wind speeds at various altitudes, available?

There hasn't been a calm day since I got this thing. Doesn't help that I'm located on a ridge 900' up from the surrounding lowlands.

Screenshot_20200511-053937.jpg
 
Is there a wind map/forecast of wind speeds at various altitudes, available?

There hasn't been a calm day since I got this thing. Doesn't help that I'm located on a ridge 900' up from the surrounding lowlands.

View attachment 356260
Forecast winds aloft? Yes. I use it all the time. Of course, if you are at those altitudes with a drone, it's a problem.
 
The local METAR should give you the winds, you are only going 400'AGL, no aviation database is going to give you anything but ground level observed wind.

One of the tricks is to know where the wind is from, if you fly out with a tail wind, and try to return, if you have a 14Knt head wind and the drone is trying to do 20, you are not going to make a lot of progress before the battery gives it gives up the ghost.

As for winds over a ridge, yes it is problematic, just as it is for a plane flying over mountains with wind climbing from the other side. You get turbulence.

What is the closest airport to you? You might call their AWOS number and get the wind conditions, or go online and look at the METAR data, but you will need a lesson on how to decode it.

If anyone wants an example of Automated Weather Observation Systems, call Logan Airport 617 567 5762 and listen in
 
Boston wind from the east 090 degrees at 11 knots....

Lawrence variable at 5 knts that is good flying weather

Marshfield.... 150 degrees ( SSE) at 9 knts
 
Forecast winds aloft? Yes. I use it all the time. Of course, if you are at those altitudes with a drone, it's a problem.

here is the upper level wind observation link

if there is a drone at 3000 feet ( the lowest they report) there is a problem , and its name is usually Casey Neistat

 
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