Drone No Fly Zones

map of drone no fly zone

Thanks to the folks over at DIY Drones for posting this useful map for US drone users of areas where you are not allowed to fly your drone. The areas shaded delineate any regions close to an airport, military base or a national park, where it is prohibited to fly your drone according to FAA … Read more

Drone Finds Missing Elderly Man

Drone used for search and rescue picture

A quadcopter drone flown by an amateur flyer found an elderly man with Alzheimer’s in a bean field only 20 minutes after joining the search effort.

BBC News reports that 82 year old Mr DeVenecia, who has Alzheimer’s went missing on July 16th from his residence in the city of Fitchburg, CO. Large search teams including police, search dogs, helicopters and other volunteers engaged in the 5 day search effort.

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Top 5 Drones for Sale

Top 5 drones you can buy

Drones for sale are available to buy everywhere, but with such a wide range, how do you know which one is best suited for your needs, your budget or the best one to gift as a birthday or Christmas present? The aim of this article is to give a clear overview of the top 5 drones for sale in 2014. Further drone reviews specific to each model can be read by clicking on the corresponding links.

Top 5 drones for sale:

  1. Parrot AR DRONE 2.0: 21
  2. DJI Phantom Vision 2+: 20
  3. X 830-D Quadcopter: 20
  4. AirDog: ??
  5. Micro Drone: 14

(ratings out of 25)

Parrot AR Drone 2.0

AR Parrot drone for sale

(reference: AR Parrot)
Price: $300

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Helicopter and Drone in Near-Collisin

drone and helicopter altitude diagram

NBC Miami reported a near miss between a helicopter and a hexacopter drone earlier in the week. The report which can be found here featured interviews with the drone and the helicopter pilot, both of whom own an FAA license.

The helicopter pilot was filming part of the documentary for the Wings for Life World run charity race. The incident happened in the early hours of the morning, slightly before sunrise when the hexacopter pilot was also out exploring the neighborhood.

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The cheapest drone video camera

Browsing the internet I have come across Sky Drone, a new company that started up last year after being funded on Indiegogo. And what do they make? You guessed it, drones, but not just any old flying device. They claim to have come up with the world’s cheapest drone capable of transmitting live video to a mobile phone over the 3G or 4G network.

skydroneWhat’s a far cry from the deadly machines the military pioneered, today’s civilian drones such as this one don’t carry missiles, but surveillance cameras. Skydrone, the one year old start up based in Hong Kong has created one of the world’s cheapest cameras for drones.

The quadcopter drone set up consists of a camera, modem mounted on top of the drone and the controller board which does all the work mounted on top.

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Can you use drones in your business?

drone delivering beer

Imagine for a moment that we lived in a world where every person owns a drone and they were free to use it however they liked. Scary thought? Maybe so, but it may not be a too distant future. Buying a drone either for yourself, for a present or for your company can be easily done. If you own a small or medium sized business, you might already be thinking of ways drones may be able to replace your staff or save you some time and money by increasing the efficiency of your business.

What are the current regulations for commercial use of drones in US?

Only last month, the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) accused Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney of violating their rules when he used a drone to film and take photos at his wedding in NY.

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How to Use Drones Legally

The quick rise in drones for sale everywhere from online marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay to offline drone retailers, has meant that the aviation authorities such as the FAA in the USA and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in the UK haven’t yet caught up with their regulations.

Keeping that in mind, I have tried to put together a quick guide on the ‘moral’ use of drones; in other words, without breaking any unwritten rules, since other than some basic generic rules, there aren’t any aimed specifically at quads and amateur drones.

Other countries though, for example Spain have now published a document containing a temporary set of regulations for safe drone flying. They do emphasize that these should be taken more as guidelines rather than followed exactly.

UK Drone Regulations

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The Rise of Wedding Drone Videos

wedding photo taken by drone

You might just have a drone filming your wedding video or taking your wedding photos at your next wedding. This new type of commercial application for drones has taken USA by storm and you might wonder why was there a delay?

But hold your horses – as we previously mentioned, any drone or UAV used for commercial purposes such as this, needs to have special approval from the FAA. In fact, just last month, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney used a drone to take shots and film a video at his wedding in Hudson Valley, NY and he is being accused by FAA for violating their rules.

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Why do you want a drone?

Have you ever travelled somewhere that is so breathtaking that it makes you appreciate every moment, and believe yourself to be incredibly lucky and satisfied that you get to see the amazing mother nature? But why stop there? There are a lot of other areas you haven’t even seen yet! We try to grab beautiful moments of our lives by taking pictures and videos, what about the sceneries we are missing out. What is it like to race with dolphins, to swim with whales, to fly with birds?

Luckily, technology made these all possible trough the use of drones. Youtube and other drone video websites have some amazing videos from people like you and I, who wanted to explore places and capture photographs from angles beyond human reach.

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