Scott Simmie

You’ve perhaps already seen our overview video of DJI’s new Mini 2. And maybe you’ve also watched our race(s) between the Mini 2 and the original Mavic Mini. And while we’ve examined the features and performance of the new drone, we wanted to take — and let you take — a closer look at its 4K video quality.

Thinking about buying something from DJI? With Black Friday around the corner, there’s no better time than now. The DJI store is offering deep discounts already.

As you may now know, a man has been charged after a drone collided with a police helicopter in Los Angeles. DroneDJ has the inside story, including the original sworn complaint by an FBI agent.

If you’re going to hit something with your drone, you don’t want it to be a police helicopter. But that’s what allegedly happened in Los Angeles two months ago — and charges were laid today. That’s the word from the U.S. attorney’s office, which has now charged a Hollywood man with one count of unsafe operation of an unmanned aircraft. 😱

Well, kudos to Skydio. Not only do they excel at putting AI into its drones, they also make pretty slick marketing videos. Stick around and see what we mean.

DJI’s new Mini 2 does a lot of things very well. But one feature it’s missing? Active Track. Pilots who want to have their drone follow them are advised to look for a different model. But one person has come up with a hack that lets you use an existing Mini 2 feature to create a reasonable, short-duration “Follow-me” type shot. Let’s find out how.

The second phase of a large-scale Unmanned Traffic Management pilot program has just completed. Tests took place at the Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership and the New York UAS Test Site. The results complete another step toward an integrated, unified UTM system. And that’s big news.

What a fall it’s been for DJI: The release of product after product after product. So many, in fact, that one of DJI’s senior people took to Twitter about it. And we thought: Yeah, that’s impressive. Let’s review.

It’s drone safety awareness week. And Kittyhawk has chosen today to announce two very cool new capabilities of its popular B4UFLY app. Drone pilots will be able to add information about local regulations that will help other pilots. In addition, new advisories that could impact flights will be added on a regular basis.

New York State-based Empire Drone and Alpha Drones USA have agreed to a sale that will see Empire supply 49 DJI Agras T20 agricultural spraying drones. It’s a pretty huge deal, with both sides so pleased that they’ve issued a news release.

Volansi is expanding its capacity for middle-mile drone delivery services with a new facility in Oregon’s Bend area. This location, says a news release, “will support the company’s expansion as it develops, produces, and tests its next generation of industry-defining delivery aircraft.”

On this edition of our podcast, we have a great conversation with Andy Shen of Shen Drones. Andy is kind of the Godfather of the ducted CineWhoop. Tune in — and subscribe — as we hear how Andy went from being a photographer… to a drone designer.

If you haven’t heard of using a drone instead of a fishing rod, Splashdrone would like to have a word with you. Not only can it carry and drop a line, but it can now dispense chum while watching with a camera built for low light. Are you hooked yet?

Another day, another drone show. Just yesterday, we brought you the recent record-breaking light show involving 3,051 drones. Today, it’s a new show — but it’s also impressive.

It may be Friday the 13th, but it’s also National Drone Safety Awareness day in Canada. It’s Canada’s inaugural drone safety day — and comes just before the FAA launches its National Drone Safety Awareness week. Let’s find out more.

Roads and highways offer clearly defined paths for transport by car or truck. Railroad tracks keep trains on the straight and narrow. But what about the skies? Well, there too commercial aircraft follow clearly defined routes. But what about drones? One startup is already working on mapping out corridors in the sky.

Drone shows are great. And generally, the more drones there are, the better the show. And at least so far, they don’t get bigger than this show.

That headline is a slightly vague mouthful. But it flags a pretty cool story: Kongsberg Geospatial and Unifly have announced they will pool forces to provide real-time drone monitoring in urban spaces. So…what does that mean? Let’s find out.

Okay, we realize that probably only a thin wedge of our demographic will recognize that we’ve borrowed from the musical Jesus Christ Superstar. We didn’t outright steal the song title because, well, Though Shalt Not do that. But we wanted to get you up to speed on The Buzz, the fastest-growing podcast in the drone industry.