Haye Kesteloo

DroneU offers a multi-day drone mapping training course in New York for anyone interested in turning their hobby into a profession. If you have been thinking about making money with your DJI Phantom 4 Pro well this course will teach you how, and how to do it well. I had the pleasure of flying with drone mapping expert Paul Aitken and his team of DroneU instructors last year at the NTSB facility in Ashburn, VA and we had a blast. The DroneU instructors are thorough, knowledgeable, and share a wealth of hands-on experience with the students. It is a course I can highly recommend.

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BOOM! DJI goes out with a bang this week! Three FCC filings were just made public, and they show that DJI will release an FPV drone, goggles, and a remote controller. Finally, it seems that the world’s largest drone maker is entering the FPV drone racing scene.

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Yachting World has a detailed article on how to fly your DJI drone from a sailboat, according to sailors. Three drone piloting experts explain how they do it and how they make sure that the drone doesn’t land in the drink. In the article are some really good tips and advice. For instance, one professional videographer who shot some of the amazing Volvo Ocean Race footage suggests gluing a light-weight plastic tripod to the underside of the DJI Mavic to make hand-catching easier and safer. Keep reading for more.

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Nowadays, videographers or vloggers have so many options to choose from when it comes to creating stabilized video footage. On one hand, you have the action cameras such as the GoPro Hero 7 Black and the DJI Osmo Action that offer digitally stabilized footage. On the other hand, you have mechanical stabilizers such as the DJI Osmo Pocket, DJI Osmo Mobile 2, DJI Ronin-SC, DJI Ronin-S. Of course, as drone enthusiasts most of you will be very familiar with DJI’s offering, however, another big player in the gimbal market is the company Zhiyun. Zhiyun offers a number of different mechanical stabilizers as well. For instance, the Crane 3 for larger cameras, the Weebill for mirrorless cameras, and the Crane v2. And now they have introduced the Zhiyun Crane-M2, a stabilizer for action cameras and smaller mirrorless cameras. The new Crane-M2 will retail for $269 and offers a number of different stabilized shooting modes. See the Zhiyun’s press release below for all the details.

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Managing an unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) program can be a challenging endeavor. There are a myriad of regulations, technical challenges, and operational issues that every program manager must contend with. But managing a public safety UAS program can be even more daunting – especially in communities where privacy is paramount and distrust of “big brother” lingers in the air.

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Dominated by Chinese manufacturers, the global, non-military drone market is estimated to reach $14.3 billion by 2029, according to a report released on Wednesday. The increase would represent an almost 300% growth of the current global drone sales, which are estimated to be around $4.9 billion in 2019.

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Google’s Wing Aviation already has Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval. Amazon is seeking it. And, now UPS Flight Forward, a subsidiary of the delivery giant is also seeking government approval to start an advanced drone delivery service. The delivery company plans to use an extensive network of commercial drones to fly over crowded areas, at night, and beyond-line-of-sight (BVLOS). UPS created the new subsidiary, UPS Flight Forward to oversee the drone delivery operations.

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Earlier today, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that LAANC would be available for hobbyist drone pilots to gain access to controlled airspace. DJI followed with their own announcement, recommending the free Kittyhawk LAANC service for recreational pilots. There are two more options besides Kittyhawk’s service and they are UASideKick and Airmap. See below for DJI’s message.

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As of today, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) expands LAANC to include recreational or hobbyist drone pilots. DroneDJ first reported on this in March 2019 and again on July 1, so for avid readers of our website, today’s announcement should come as no surprise. The FAA has selected three different technology providers that you can work with to request access to controlled airspace for your recreational drone flights. They are KittyHawk, UASideKick, and Airmap, and they all provide apps for your smartphone.

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Last Thursday, a drone flew over a crash scene in Dover, Wisconsin, and interfered with first responders who were trying to transport injured people to local hospitals by helicopter. That night a minivan and a pickup truck were involved in a crash at the intersection of Highway J and Highway 11. Several people were injured, and the scene was described as chaotic. The intersection was shut down for five hours into Friday morning.

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The use of drones by police departments in Washington State is increasing. The Washington State Patrol is now believed to have the largest drone fleet of any law enforcement agency in the country, with over 100 unmanned aircraft in service. In contrast, the next state over, Oregon, only has three drones at its disposal.

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French drone maker, Parrot reached out to DroneDJ to stress that they are NOT exiting the consumer drone business. Their message comes in reaction to our story from yesterday.

Parrot is, however, retiring their older product lines including mini drones in favor of the next-generation ANAFI platform. See below for all the details.

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Parrot is exiting the toy drone business behind. French drone maker Parrot announced two years ago that it would shift away from toy drones and focus on higher-end and commercial drone solutions instead. Since the announcement, the company has laid off about half of its employees working in the UAV department. Recently we reported that they will start developing drones for the U.S. Army. And this week we learn that they are leaving the toy drone business behind altogether.

Update: Parrot is NOT exiting consumer drones, only the toy drones business. This article has been updated to reflect that. Also, see this message from Parrot here.

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In an effort to reach more people and provide education in ways that are easier for people to find, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has increased their use of Youtube with an entire series of instructional and educational videos. The agency also started a webinar series. On Thursday, August 1 at 4:00 p.m. (ET), the FAA will explain How to navigate UAS Facility Maps. Register for free to join this webinar. Highly recommended.

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Speak of the devil. Yesterday, I posted this article and today I receive an email from DJI informing me that the Phantom 4 Series Intelligent Flight Battery is back in stock at the official DJI online store. So if you need one, or two, or three…

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DJI drones banned by Cape, a drone software company that supplies US law enforcement agencies. It said that because of security concerns it will no longer work with DJI or other Chinese drone manufacturers. The tech company supplies dozens of public safety agencies as well as state and local law enforcement in the U.S and some other countries.

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