Considering a drone

[SidecarFlip]

Brian, guy down the road I know real well that has the big seed operation, I've borrowed his (and him) in the past to scout fields and I'm not sure of he has a license or not but I know it'a a business expense writeoff. When you farm, you write everything off...lol

Won't be a hobby thing for me but they do look interesting and I'd prefer to own one versus borrowing his and him though he does come cheap. Usually a 12 pack of Miller Lite will suffice.

 

[ayak]

Very handy for me for checking on food plots, critters, and uninvited interlopers on my property (some hunters, some with chainsaws).
I had a DJI Phantom4 that had 555 takeoffs but only 554 planned landings over a two year period (one of the arms literally broke off in mid flight).
State Farm honored their $60/year Personal Property Policy to replace it with a Mavic2 that itself now has over 300 flights with no trouble.
Be wary of where you want to use yours because if you’re in any restricted air space, it gets very complicated. Get 2-3 total batteries and don’t run them clear down and don’t recharge them if hot. And yes, trees love to reach out and grab these things.


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[ayak]

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[ayak]

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[skeets]

I do believe I heard, that in Pa, you cannot fly a drone during deer season. I guess they are afraid someone might use them to drive deer or spot deer

 

[johnjk]

I've gone the cheap way for trying out Drones and had I just made the jump in to the 300-500 price range, well I'd be ahead of the game and have a lot less junk lying around. My experience has been that the cheap ones are hard to control, limited parts, no support and batteries that get you around 5 minutes of flight time. I'm to the point now where I'm so disgusted with using one of these things, I can't see spending an additional 500 bucks on one that may do what I want, let alone spending a couple grand on a really big professional unit.

 

[motionclone]

flamethrower drone:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07rtBip9ixk

 

[AndyM]

For what it's worth...

https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/re...people?ref_=pe_1822230_494499570_dpr_nl_425_4

 

[Black1Star]

Why not buy the one you want, it's going to be a tax deduction anyways. Checking out hay ground and cattle is a legitimate deduction.

When you're as old as Flip you have got to get rid of that money or give it to someone, you can't take it with you!

 

[Tornado]

Out of curiosity I got to looking into the legal requirements and laws here in Florida governing recreational drone usage. On the Florida department of transportation website I read that a recent lawsuit that went through the courts made it so you are NOT required to register your drone with the FAA, but that they still "encourage" you to register your drone. Looking at the FTC website they never say you are required to register but seems to suggest it if you just went off their drone website. I also see the FAA is going to be instituting a test you will need to pass soon for recreational use - I assume this test, and its passage will be required...? From what I could tell though basically if I got a drone, I don't need to file for anything or notify anyone - just buy it and start flying at my property. I did check my location and saw it is safe to fly. I wish the laws and restrictions and such were easier to follow on this stuff.

Those who currently do fly as "recreational pilots" I wonder if you could shed any light on what you have to do or are required to do to fly legally.

Looking at the mavic and its price I started to again consider getting one myself.

 

[Tornado]

I've gone the cheap way for trying out Drones and had I just made the jump in to the 300-500 price range, well I'd be ahead of the game and have a lot less junk lying around. My experience has been that the cheap ones are hard to control, limited parts, no support and batteries that get you around 5 minutes of flight time. I'm to the point now where I'm so disgusted with using one of these things, I can't see spending an additional 500 bucks on one that may do what I want, let alone spending a couple grand on a really big professional unit.

This is why I dont recommend people who want a drone to shoot video/pics of their property invest in these cheap things. I know it was suggested earlier but they are largely a waste of money - its for kids to play with. They hover in the air a little, are super light and have no batter life. Most people dont need this cheap thing to "figure out " if they want a real one or not. Most of us know what we want. If I want a drone I know what I want - to fly up above and shoot video of my property. I dont need to spend $150 to learn that "yes I do in fact want the real thing". You just waste money on junk then have to spend another several hundred dollars on what you actually want. Most of us arent interested in getting into the RC hobby. We want a drone to just shoot some video of our property occasionally, or tinker with here and there. Im seriously considering again getting one myself. Ive nearly gotten one multiple times and then didnt. The little mavic would do what I want and is cheap.

 

[D2Cat]

I have a friend who is a roofing contractor. He has a drone he uses all the time. Don't know anything about them, but one day he launched it off the tail gate of his PU and it flew so high and far out I quit trying to see it. He can come down within a short distance on top of a house and see details in the shingles though. Real practical for him.

 

[motionclone]

Out of curiosity I got to looking into the legal requirements and laws here in Florida governing recreational drone usage. On the Florida department of transportation website I read that a recent lawsuit that went through the courts made it so you are NOT required to register your drone with the FAA, but that they still "encourage" you to register your drone. Looking at the FTC website they never say you are required to register but seems to suggest it if you just went off their drone website. I also see the FAA is going to be instituting a test you will need to pass soon for recreational use - I assume this test, and its passage will be required...? From what I could tell though basically if I got a drone, I don't need to file for anything or notify anyone - just buy it and start flying at my property. I did check my location and saw it is safe to fly. I wish the laws and restrictions and such were easier to follow on this stuff.

Those who currently do fly as "recreational pilots" I wonder if you could shed any light on what you have to do or are required to do to fly legally.

Looking at the mavic and its price I started to again consider getting one myself.

I followed the legal requirements when I first got mine and even then the laws where constantly changing, have not bothered to keep up with any new changes, instead I use common sense.

One requirement was to request permission to fly if within a certain distance from airports even tiny ones. Had to call control tower and get permission. I think it was 5 mile radius from airport. The software that comes with DJI stuff would inform if im within that distance and give a warning.

Also I found that military helicopters dont necessarily follow the minimum flight levels FAA puts on regular aircraft which puts them in drone airspace. I stopped flying at my house because we had National Guard helicopters flying real low like 200-300ft im guessing. Figured their training is way more important than my toy.

 

[motionclone]

I have a friend who is a roofing contractor. He has a drone he uses all the time. Don't know anything about them, but one day he launched it off the tail gate of his PU and it flew so high and far out I quit trying to see it. He can come down within a short distance on top of a house and see details in the shingles though. Real practical for him.

Even if you cant see it it can be flown with the gps or camera view. Or automated like push a button and it flys back to its "home" which is where it launched. Can even program how to come home. Like on mine if I hit "home" home it goes striaght up 200 ft, then to home location, then down 200ft. This is to avoid hitting tall pines on my property.

I used mine to look at chimney tops since im a mason. I had planned on doing this to legitimize it as a tax right off, but at the time the laws were such that if you used the drone for business, you had to have a drone pilot license.

 

[motionclone]

Also these more expensive drones can potentially go very high. My spark has a ceiling height listed as 13000 ft. The law says 400ft though. and for good reason, they can be a major danger to aircraft.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Looking at the Autel as well. I may go with it instead. I have an Autel OBD scanner. Nice tool.

Like the body color of the Autel as well..... Kubota orange....

Of course it's twice the price of the Mavic Mini. One thing I don't like about the Mavic is the app. It's very restrictive and you must run the app to use the drone and it data logs flights. The Autel app is voluntary data logging with no flight restrictions and the controller on the Autel don't need to be paired with mu Android, it can fly stand alone if you want to and the optics on the Autel are much better.

I believe the ceiling height on the Autel is 2500 feet. The mini is 400.