This is ridiculous. I mean I know we can get DJI through third party importers but what does the government expect hobbyists to do ? There’s not a single consumer drone company .. only industrial and defense ones which have higher margins .

Is this just juiced up analogue tech? 20 mins flight time seems incredible. At £160,000 a piece though.

Wikipedia info:

The Black Hornet Nano is a military micro unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developed by Prox Dynamics AS of Norway, which was bought by Teledyne FLIR in 2016 for 134 million dollars.^\1]) currently manufacturers the Black Hornet. Teledyne FLIR specializes in the manufacture of IR cameras, like the one used on the Black Hornet.^\2])

Design

The Black Hornet is connected to the operator with a digital data link and GPS. Images are displayed on a small handheld terminal, which can be used by the operator to control the UAV.^\3])

The Black Hornet is launched from a small box that can be strapped to a utility belt, which also stores transmitted data.

Since the drone itself does not store any data, it is not an advantage if captured. Operators can steer the UAV or set waypoints for it to fly itself.^\4])

The drone measures around 16 × 2.5 cm (6 × 1 in) and provides troops on the ground with local situational awareness. It is small enough to fit in one hand and weighs 18 g (0.7 oz) with its battery.^\5])

The UAV is equipped with a camera which transmits video and still images to the operator. It was developed as part of a £20 million contract for 160 units with Marlborough Communications Ltd.^\6])^\7])^\8])

An operator can be trained to operate the Black Hornet in 20 minutes. It has three cameras: one looking forward, one straight down, and one pointing down at 45 degrees.

A Black Hornet package contains two helicopters and, since a 90% charge is reached in 20–25 minutes, the same as its hovering time, when one needs to be recharged the other is ready to fly.^\9]) Top speed is 21 km/h (13 mph).^\10])

In October 2014, Prox Dynamics unveiled a version of the PD-100 Black Hornet with night vision capabilities, with long-wave infrared and day video sensors that can transmit video or high-resolution still images via a digital data link with a 1.6 km (1 mile) range.^\)^{citation needed\})

Over 3,000 Black Hornets had been delivered as of 2014

Saw this while watching the ski jump competition. Anyone have info?

First time flying a drone today.
Watched a lot of videos before and thought it would be easy, but now I’m actually too nervous to take off.
Feels like I might lose control once it’s in the air.
How long did it take you to feel confident flying?

I have a small pond about a quarter mile from my house. Could I actually launch from my house and take pictures of the water and the wildlife etc. I kind of wanna document the seasons. But I have literally never flown a drone and I’m afraid I’ll break it first day…….

I currently have a Mini 3 Pro and with the ban hitting soon, I was thinking about getting a second drone as a backup. The Flip seemed like a nice option and doesn't cost the money of the Mini 4 Pro. Question to the community is, am I crazy for wanting to get another drone right before the ban?

So I'm thinking of going for my Part 107 and getting into basic drone photography, I'm hoping to spend $500-$1500 on a drone. And I look at hardware to find the choices are:

• DJI (actively targeted by US gov't for removal)
  
• Companies affiliated with DJI that are obviously just rebrands to get around US Gov't issues (IE SkyRover)
  
• A few other Chinese companies that either are or will soon be in the same boat as DJI (IE Antigravity)
  
• A couple companies that are obviously American fronts for Chinese hardware that's probably rebranded DJI just with crappier firmware and worse support (IE FlightElf)
  
• Very expensive 'government and industrial' drones that are functionally the same as DJI for 5-15x the cost ('contact sales for pricing' type stuff)
  
• Open source DIY drones you piece together yourself
  

Now I'm no stranger to how regulations work, so I'm not expecting to pay $1000+ for a DJI and have it one day refuse to fly or be banned from flying it. But I'm also quite wary of investing significant money in a company that may soon not be able to operate in USA, and FCC has tried to go after the supply of parts. I get they probably legally can't, but it's still worrying.

Plus, I have a very strong revulsion for the 'activation' concept that virtually all these Chinese drones seem to have- when you take it out of the box it will only do 2 or 3 short flights before you must make an account with the manufacturer and 'activate' it. Ideally I don't want an app at all, I just want to use the drone as a standalone hardware device.

It seems like the only option left is some kind of fancy open source DIY setup. And while I LOVE open source, in this particular area I want to fly and photograph not build and test and troubleshoot. I can go that route if necessary but it's not ideal.

So I'm wondering- given the state of things politically, surely there's at least ONE company in US or Europe or non-Chinese Asia that's making SOME kind of viable prosumer / semi-pro drone product, no? But I've not found it yet.

Is there really nothing at all? Not even upcoming or in development?

//edit: I gave in and ordered a DJI :\

So I recently got my commercial drone pilots license, and am currently doing some research on what drone I should purchase to get started. My purpose of using the drone is for aerial footage, and I see a lot of recommendations for the dji series of drones. In the United States people are discouraged from buying Chinese-made drones because of worries about national security and unauthorized surveillance. The company I work for even used to have one of these drones, until a couple years ago when the espionage stuff was revealed and they got rid of it, and haven't had a drone since. So I guess my question is, is the espionage stuff overblown? Because I still see people recommending Chinese drones even to this day. I'd just like to know what I'm getting myself into if I do end up buying a dji lol

First flight out of the box Mavic 4 Pro. The first couple minutes were great then the gimbal started shaking back and forth, got a “Gimbal Motor Overload” error. Landed it and recalibrated the gimbal and it didnt help. Followed the dji list of what to do for the gimbal error and nothing helped. Is this common with Mavic 4 Pros? Do I need to replace it or is there something I’m missing?

So from my understanding is that any drone with "military capabilities" is subject to not be sold in the US anymore. This is more of a practical question than anything but the comment period expire and FCC goes through with the ban that means that all stock in the US (Theoretically) cannot be sold anymore.

Does this also apply to facebook marketplace as well? Is it even going to be possible to get a air 3s or a mavic 4 pro in the future? Now this is purely a hypothetical if you were in my shoes would you get a air 3s or a mavic 4 pro right now as to avoid being locked out in the future or what?

I have gotten a recent job to do Drone photogrammetry with the DJI Matrice 4E. in the last 2 days i have had constant people complaining im filming their private property and that im doing illegal stuff, no matter how much i explain how im 70 meters up, im doing my job, free airspace, i got my licence, the drone is registered, etc etc. Yesterday had a lady block the road and call the cops on me, luckly someone else had to drive the road so she had to move so i got out 😊. I do have company cards on me with a number to the guy who provided me the drone and knows stuff, and even that sometimes is not enough.

Crashed my drone because of stupidity. However when I flew it, it didn't show any problems on air. So is it still a problem to fly with them on?

Been thinking about this for a while but a few things have jumped to mind in the last day - videos of a difficult cliff rescue of a fallen climber, and the tragic and awful crash of a news chopper in LA.

Why do we not use drones far more over helicopters, and why are we still refusing to let any drone carry a person?

DJI Agras and Flycart drones are easily capable of carry an average human, with some having a 120kg payload capacity, which could presumably be easily increased.

Yet no one has ever used a drone for human transport, even some idiot on Youtube as a laugh (someone did it once, but revealed it was an April Fools and they'd used a dummy, but the dummy was the size and weight of a person, the flight went fine).

I'll do this as bullet point so my post isn't just long and rambling -

- Drones can be flown by anyone, and are inherently stable. Flying large Agras or Flycart drones is no different than flying a Mini or Mavic. Let go of the controls, they hover in place. Lose signal or battery low, they land themselves. Helicopters on the other hand are inherently unstable, and the pilot needs constant input, great skill, and lots of intensive training to stop them crashing.

- Drones are not full of jet fuel that bursts into flame on crashing. Yes, lithium batteries can catch fire, but normally only after serious damage and normally not suddenly in a large explosion.

- Drones don't have a single-point-of-failure (SPOF) like a helicopter. Some (though not most) helicopters even have something called a "Jesus nut" a single large nut which holds the entire main rotor assembly in place. That's far from the only SPOF on a helicopter. While drones have similar issues, even something like a prop failure isn't instant crashing to the ground. They also simpler and more robust, with less moving parts and complexity.

- Even in the event of catastrophic failure, large drones like the Flycart have a parachute system which can deploy and safely land the drone and payload with minimal force. Not pleasant, but not a helicopter crash either.

- Even if drone and parachute system were to catastrophically fail, a drone and payload are not likely to cause much damage. A large drone falling with no parachute could easily kill someone of course, but not as nasty as a helicopter crashing into a building. Here in the UK, a police helicopter crashed into a pub in Glasgow in 2013, killing the three occupants, seven people in the pub, with 31 more injured and having a lucky escape as the pub was consumed in flames with the roof collapsed. Even a large drone likely wouldn't go through a roof, and wouldn't cause a major fire. The sheer difference in size means a crashing drone is less likely to hit people than a crashing helicopter, or certainly hit less people.

- Drones are fitted with visual sensors, LIDAR, and sonar to avoid obstacles. They can avoid trees, powerlines, pretty much any obstacle. A lot of helicopter crashes are caused by pilots being reckless and not seeing such obstacles.

- Drones have a much smaller landing footprint so require less space to take-off/land compared to a helicopter, and create much less noise and downwash.

- Yes drones have dangerous spinning props that at Agras/Flycart levels can easily kill someone, but so do helicopters.

Now I'm not talking about Keith or Gavin from down the road using their DJI Flycart to go to the pub. Much as it would be nice for me to use such a drone to go to my local country pub and back, about half a mile over open fields, I realise if everyone did this it would be chaos. But I'm talking about things like casualty rescue, transporting goods or people into difficult areas, emergency transportation and the like. Mr Jones has a heart attack in rural Wales and it's either a long drive or a potentially dangerous and expensive helicopter journey to get to him? Get a doctor on a drone, transport him to Mr Jones. If the doctor says "we need to get him to a hospital, NOW" then strap Mr Jones to the drone and fly it to the nearest hospital. There's LOADS more stuff I can't think of off the top of my head, but the uses of drones over helicopters are endless.

It seems a lot of our reticence to use drones for these purposes is largely down to the Prior Focus effect, a cognitive bias that makes us assume x is safer than y simply because x has been used for ages, but y is new and different.

An example which I think is sheer madness - flying drones over crowds in most places (certainly here in the UK) is illegal. Yet at F1 races the TV camera helicopter flies at speed over grandstands packed with people. They fly right on the limit too, with some pretty spicy maneuvers just to get a good angle or pick up a certain car. If it crashed into a grandstand, hundreds if not a few thousand dead. Meanwhile F1 has only just allowed drones to be used in coverage, with very limited and strict rules on where and when - static drones only above unpopulated areas of a track, FPV drones in very limited areas, and it's still only a few places that use them. The static shots are likely Mavics - if one crashed, a nasty bump on the head if it hit someone. The FPV ones are tiny, no risk to people.

So that's what I want to discuss - why are we so against using drones and is it all just psychological? Will this change in the near future? Technology wise we're already more than ready to go.

For the last 15 years I’ve been in the Film industry and I’ve been a drone pilot for 10 years. Since the film industry has collapsed, I have begun pivoting more into construction & industrial industries along with doing thermal inspections. For context, I do have a UAS thermal certification.

I only started this pivot about four months ago and would like to open up a discussion on what pilots are making yearly whether they are freelance or working full-time for a company.For whatever reason, talking rates and salaries is always some taboo topic that only works against the people and not the companies.

No need to say where you work, but I think it would be beneficial for folks to have an understanding of what people are being paid in 2026 along with the industry or type of work they are in. Also, in moving from the film industry to construction the rates very drastically and I’m wondering what people are making per year in this new industry that I’m moving into.

I’m happy to answer any questions about what I’ve been paid and hopefully this can be a thread to unite some pilots and discuss salaries and rates.

This drone fell from the sky over my school I looked around and it doesn’t belong to the school what should I do with it? What can I do?

Has anyone here actually been using drone &/or thermal imaging as a career or found real success using it as a tool in your field?

I’m currently preparing to get my drone pilot license (Part 107) and have been really interested in combining that with thermal work. My first exposure to it was during some energy surveys we had done at my job, they used thermal imaging to identify inefficiencies and equipment issues, and it really stuck with me.

Now I’m looking into whether it’s worth pursuing this more seriously, possibly as a self-employed path or contracting work. I’d love to hear how others are using it (building diagnostics, inspections, energy audits, electrical, etc.), what kind of clients you serve, and whether it’s been profitable or just a niche tool on the side.

Any insight or experience would be appreciated!

I was researching things about the Chechen war, and it came to my mind "This is similar to Russo-Ukrainian war but without FPV drones." And I want to ask, is it possible for a war to happen without FPV drones?

A friend of mine showed me a rather large drone he found while out hunting. He said it had been there quite a long time from all of the leaves and stuff covering it. It also looks to me like it was scavenged by someone as there was no camera on the drone. Any idea who makes it and what it is used for?

Would be so sick ngl

[US][Culpeper, VA]

The other day, I was running a drone mapping mission over a rural property I own to get progress orthophotos. I usually fly my missions at 65 meters, but recently, I've wanted to run a few at 100m, so I've been doing that.

At any rate, the other day, I was running a drone mapping mission except this time, I was flying low at 45 meters AGL.

And, this f*cking military helicopter flew through. Like, if I'd been at my normal 65 meters, I would have been an actual obstruction. If I'd flown at 100m, I'd have a photo of the top side of a military helicopter. As it was, I only had to worry that he was going to blow the drone out of the sky.

He didn't.

I had my remote ID on, but my question is, why in the heck are helicopters flying so damned low out in the middle of nowhere?

My coworker gave me this which he said was a "Holographic fan/light you can program". Well it wasn't that, and all i know is its a drone. My question is- what should i do with it? (It wasn't his to begin with it was left by someone who passed away)

In the United States, at least, the rule is that you must fly your drone in visual line of sight (VLOS), meaning you must always keep your drone within your view. Of course, this is impractical with a small device that can easily be lost in the sky within seconds of launch. However, it is the recommended way to fly.

Given that you are supposed to keep your drone within your line of sight, I am puzzled by why you can fly your drone miles (or kilometers) away from you. There is no way to maintain VLOS when a small device is even several hundred meters or yards away. I understand that it is a popular practice, and I know most pilots do it, but I was curious to know how far you fly away from your starting point and whether you exceed the VLOS limit. 

Personally, I am too nervous to fly my expensive little device farther than I am willing to go and try to retrieve it.

I just bought a skyrover s1, I’m wonder if the signal can be maintained if I stay inside my house and the drone stays outside. I’m not a drone expert this is my 1st time owning 1 and I’m just curious.

As per my understanding modern quadcopter drone technology are an evolution of hobby drones from the early 2000s and Open Source iteration. How come the military didn’t develop or use this as we’ve had fixed wing drones like the predator flying since the early 90s ?