Haye Kesteloo

Good morning! Here are yesterday’s headlines. First of all, Waypoints are now available on the DJI Mavic Air thanks to Litchi! Furthermore, a massive $110 million drone base in Niger. An Amazon deal on the GoPro Karma and news on how a drone helped in the prosecution of an illegal moose poacher. Grab a coffee and jump in.

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DJI had decided to remove the Waypoints feature from the Mavic Air. Some people noticed that. So did we. We wrote a post about it and contacted DJI. The company said that with enough requests, they would bring Waypoints back to the Mavic Air. Within a matter of weeks, 2.952 of our readers indicated on our site, that they do want the feature back. That has not happened as of yet. However, what did happen today is this: Litchi added the Waypoints feature for the DJI Mavic Air to their latest version of the popular app for both iOS and Android. Thank you, Litchi!

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Right outside of Agadez, Niger, in the scrublands of the Sahara, the U.S. airforce is building a massive 2,200-acre drone base, costing $110 million and making it the largest troop largest troop labor construction project in U.S. history, according to the Associated Press. The base should be completed in the next couple of month but as you can imagine, building an airfield in the desert tends to be very complicated. The project already is over $22 million budget and delayed by one year. The new drone base will be used to target extremists deep into West and North Africa, regions that are currently hard to reach with drones.

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In April 2017 a cow and calf moose were illegally shot near Alvena, Saskatchewan in Canada. To assist in the prosecution, Draganfly Innovations, and Saskatchewan Polytechnic were asked to create a 3D map of the conservation-related crime scene. With an Engage Grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the work was started the same month. The team used a fixed-wing drone to create a detailed visual story that would help the prosecution of the illegal moose poacher.

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Good morning! Yesterday, DJI released the summarized findings of an independent report that concluded, “users have control over the types of data DJI drones collect, store, and transmit.” Meanwhile, in Colorado, municipalities are trying to balance the freedom to fly your drone versus the safety and privacy concerns of the general public. Lastly, we have a video of the monasteries in Meteora Greece, built on top of sandstone rock pillars. Enjoy.

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Last year DJI dealt with a number of cybersecurity-related issues, including a hot-patch mechanism in their DJI Go 4 app, a researcher who found sensitive user data accessible on Amazon Web Services servers, the U.S. Army declaring to no longer use DJI drones, a claim from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that DJI drones could perform facial recognition and U.S. officials who wondered whether DJI was sending sensitive information back to China. Today, DJI released the summarized findings of an independent report, but paid for by DJI, from Kivu Consulting, Inc. in a response to these allegations. Kivu concluded that “users have control over the types of data DJI drones collect, store, and transmit.”

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Towns in Colorado, such as Greenwood Village, are writing new drone rules in an effort to balance growing drone popularity, public safety, and privacy. While they are “not trying to be the drone police,” their new rules run into the actual drone police, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as the national airspace is their sole jurisdiction.

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Good morning, today we have a beautiful drone film showing off the largest island in the Mediterranean, Sicily. Furthermore, we have news on increased enforcement of the no-drone zone in  National Park, Crater Lake as well as a DJI Phantom 4 used by the Lodi, CA police and FAA approval to fly beyond line-of-sight for a Nevada drone company.

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Nevada-based, Praxis Aerospace Concepts International, a company that specializes in robotics and unmanned systems claims to be the first business in the state to have received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to fly drone beyond visual line-of-sight for commercial purposes through a Part 107 waiver. Reportedly, the company is one out of 14 businesses that have received approval from the government agency to do so.

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Drones are not only getting more popular among the public, they are increasingly being used by the police as well. Today we learn that the police Department of Lodi, California acquired a DJI Phantom 4 to add to their arsenal of police equipment. Last month, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved the department to fly the drone as a government agency. Three officers so far are licensed as drone pilots.

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Crater Lake is simply breathtaking. I had the chance to visit Oregon’s only National Park last summer. We arrived very early in the morning and witnessed the sun rising over the rim on the other side of the crater. It was a sight I will never forget. As the sun kept rising the water slowly got its hallmark deep blue color. I resisted the urge to fly my drone at the time, but it comes as no surprise that many pilots do reach for their unmanned aerial devices, once they see the spectacular views Crater Lake offers. Unfortunately, but understandably so, you are not allowed to fly your drone in any of the  National Parks since 2014, including this one. It seems though that not everybody is adhering to this rule and as a result, the park is going to step up the enforcement of the no-drone zone.

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Good morning, here are yesterday’s headlines with news from the EU and Switzerland about a new law that is in the works that would require hobbyist and professional drone pilots to get a license to fly. Furthermore, we have the FlyJacket that allows you to fly your drone with body movements and two press releases from FLIR Systems and RadioPlane with their new Seeker drone. Grab a coffee and jump in!

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Right now anybody in the European Union and Switzerland can simply buy a drone and start flying it right away as long as they are in compliance with the law. However, this may soon change as the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is currently drafting a law that will require aspiring hobbyist and commercial drone pilots to acquire a license before they are allowed to fly their unmanned aerial aircraft. Since Switzerland typically follows the EU aviation laws, it is expected that the new rule will apply there as well according to the Bundesamt für Zivilluftfahrt (BAZL), the Swiss Federal Office of Civil Aviation. The new rules may become in effect in 2019.

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Have you ever found flying a drone too overwhelming? Are the controls too complicated or simply not intuitive to use? Well, the team of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne University (EDFL) in Switzerland has got the solution for you. It is called the upper-body soft exoskeleton, FlyJack and it allows you to control your drone by moving your torso and your arms. Yes, it may look funny but… it promises to make flying your drone feel a lot more natural.

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Good morning, here are yesterday’s headlines about fewer than expected drone incidents in Germany, Intel’s Shooting Star drone light show at Coachella, engineering students making their own autonomous drone with K’Nex and the IATA and ICAO working on a global drone registry.

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The Deutsche Flugsicherung (DFS) air traffic authority in Germany said that incidents between drones and commercial jets in 2017 rose less than expected considering how popular the unmanned aerial devices have become. However, airlines around the world did express their concerns about drone incidents, which resulted in the International Air Transport Association backing efforts by the United Nations’ aviation agency, International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to develop a global drone registry as we reported earlier today.

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Concerned by a rise in drone incidents around the world, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) is now considering to collaborate with the United Nations-led, International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to develop a global registry for drones.

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Students get excited about tech when they realize they can actually build and program drones. One of the companies that really get that is Parrot with their special drone education program focussed on kids. The students at Temple University didn’t need Parrot, however, they just dove right it and are figuring out how to build an autonomous or self-flying drone using K’Nex. Isn’t that awesome?

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