Haye Kesteloo

Today we have the pleasure of introducing you to Maritime Filming UK and one of their employees, Alex Anderson, who also happens to be one of Britain’s youngest commercial drone pilots at 18 years old. As the name suggests, Maritime Filming UK focuses on aerial photography and videography of boats, ships, and marine life in general, and they are the second entry in our brand-new DroneDJ Spotlight Series.

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It seems like Black Friday and Cyber Monday were only yesterday, but today DJI already rolls out their DJI Christmas Gift Guide 2019: The best deals for Family & Friends. The offerings start in less than 20 hours from now and will run until January 2nd, 2020. DJI offers discounts on all sorts of products, but some of the best deals, in my opinion, are the DJI Mavic 2 Pro for $1,379 instead of $1,729 (yeah the Skydio 2 is really cool too but sold out until well into 2020), the DJI Osmo Action for $279 instead of $379, the Osmo Pocket for $309 instead of $399. Check all the deals out below.

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Only days after Erica Tishman, a well-known architect, was killed by pieces of building facade that fell in midtown Manhattan, some New York City officials are now pushing for inspections by drone to prevent such accidents from happening in the future. Currently, an outdated law prohibits the use of drones in New York City.

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In a new series by DroneDJ, we put the spotlight on commercial drone pilots to showcase how they use their unmanned aircraft in their day-to-day business operations. Today we feature Sparky’s Video Productions, whose owner Sparky Sorenson recently was allowed to record the Amazon Prime Air ribbon-cutting ceremony and the first departure. Be sure to watch the video as it has some really amazing drone footage.

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HO! HO! HO! Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas! Happy, Happy, Happy New Year! They say good things come in threes, and boy are they right when it comes to this awesome holiday prize package by Drone U and DroneDJ. Three lucky drone enthusiasts will unwrap a plethora of cool drone gadgets, gifts, and gizmos. All you have to do is register for this no-obligation giveaway and you’ll be automatically entered for the drawing.

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It will be too late for Christmas, but the DJI Phantom 4 Pro V2.0 returns to the official DJI online store in the 2nd week of January, next year. Eventhough the drone will be re-introduced in 2020, it will not feature ADS-B because technically it is not a new drone.

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An article on Vice describes how wild the market of anti-drone systems and counter-drone tech has become. Methods used range from drone-jamming rifles to ground installations that fire nets to catch unmanned aircraft. The article is based on a research paper on counter-drone technology that was released by The Center for the Study of The Drone at Bard College.

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12th grader, Zechen Wei broke the Guinness World Record for the fastest quadcopter to ascend to 100 meters or about 300 feet with a record time of 2.732 seconds. Wei is a senior at Princeton International School of Mathematics who has always had a passion for drones.

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Exposed Dronesense data shows flights of police drones. Dronesense, a company that provides a platform to law enforcement and government agencies as well as private clients for flying drones, accidentally exposed a database of customer data. The information in some cases showed exactly where the police drones had flown.

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The latest Airprox report includes what is understood to be the closest-ever drone sighting in the UK. The report was made by the pilot of a NetJets Bombardier that was traveling from Nice, France, to London Luton Airport on August 26, 2019.

The pilot reported seeing the drone 14 miles west of the airport, at an elevation of 4,000 feet, while the jet was traveling 200 mph. Allegedly, the 14-seat, £46 million private jet passed the drone within a mere 10 feet.

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Drone photos show the location of bodies after the volcanic eruption that took place on New Zealand‘s White Island on Monday. According to reports, at least 47 people were on the island at the time of the eruption. 13 people are believed to have died. Five deaths have been confirmed, the remaining eight missing persons are presumed to be dead.

Update: The Independent reports that at least 16 people are now confirmed dead. A military rescue team successfully recovered six bodies, which had been located the night before by drones. “The operation was not without risk but thanks to sound planning and the skills of the specialist team involved we have recovered the six bodies,” New Zealand police commissioner Mike Bush said in a statement.

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Earlier this month, DJI started asking affiliates to review the DJI Phantom 4 Pro V2.0 (DJI, Amazon) as part of a larger review program. And there are a couple of things that stand out right away.

First of all, the name of DJI’s iconic drone is misspelled in the graphics that come straight from the DJI affiliate program: Phanton instead of Phantom. Minor detail, but still… The bigger question though, is why DJI asks affiliates to review the old* DJI Phantom 4 Pro V2.0 when it is out of stock and has been extensively reviewed in the past. Is it because the P4P V2.0 will still make a comeback as we had been told it would in September or October?

*The DJI Phantom 4 Pro was introduced in November 2016, with the V2.0 following in May 2018.

Update: through our sources, we have heard that the Phantom 4 Pro V2.0 will be making its return to the DJI online store soon. Fingers crossed!

Update 2: DJI did correct the typo a day after this article was first published on December 10, 2019.

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In Ohio, the Miami County Sheriff’s Office buys a DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise Dual with drugs money that was seized after arrest and conviction. The law enforcement agency adds the “Swiss-army knife” to its fleet after having discussed the $4,500 purchase for over one year and acknowledging that the drone is a “very impressive piece of equipment.” Its ability to cover a lot of ground quickly could be “the minutes that count between life and death.”

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Yesterday, I received the new Skydio 2, and after charging the batteries, I was planning to take it out for a quick flight this morning. But before I could do so, the self-flying drone informed me that a new firmware update was available: version 5.41.77.

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Slowly but surely, routing drone deliveries as once predicted by Jeff Bezos from Amazon are becoming a reality. Making beyond visual line of sight drone operations commonplace is a big step in that direction and in the UK, the Civil Aviation Authority just made a big announcement. See below for details.

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