Any UK drone experts on board?

[awemawson]

I've been watching some Youtube drone footage and can easily appreciate their usefulness.

I was given a cheap drone some years ago but it terrified me when it got caught in a breeze, lifted out of range and crashed near a main road - I gave it back!

Technology (and regulations) have markedly improved over the last few years, so what is a a reasonably priced, but neither a toy nor a professional model, available in the UK?

Almost certainly talking one in the register-able weight class (250 grams to 7 kgs)

[Joules]

How near are you to an airport, and maybe soon airfield.  The sub 250gm machines are getting more capable, look at the DJI Mavic Mini for an example of what’s to come.    Further legislation is expected July 2020 to bring us inline with the EU, regardless of other happenings.   This could include sub 250gm models needing registration if they carry a camera.   Keep an eye on CAA and BMFA pages

It’s worth bearing in mind that larger drones are likely to attract more attention, regardless of registration and legislation till the hysteria dies down some.

Do you mind me asking your intended purpose, pleasure or other.

[John Rudd]

Not into drone flying but fixed wing....
Are you aware of the requirements to register with the CAA if/should you go flying it!
There's a fee and a test to take....

[awemawson]

Yes I've been reading the CAA guidance. No problem what so ever registering as I think it is not unreasonable, similarly the tentative suggestions that simple training course might be required in the future.

Use would essentially be mucking about on my own land, but a serious application is building roof and gutter inspections (I have a few!!). Keeping an eye on sheep would be another application.

There is a private grass strip some way away, but their planning permission precludes taking off or landing operations over us. Have had the occasional Spitfire and ME109 (owner has rebuilt them in the past) but no 747 MAX's 

[Jo]

We used to use one for registering our radars on airfields it was a vast reduction in price over the old way of getting a chopper to go hover for us while we pinged it from each bit of kit. Technology is constantly moving forward we brought ours about 5 years ago so a few things to think about:

As you noted light drones are very effected by gusts of wind, if you live in a windy area you will need to check what wind speeds it can cope with. The camera or its mounting (gimble) will need to compensate for movements due to wind gusts. The speed the thing can fly at is a good indication of potential stability.

GPS should be a given...

How long will you want it to be air borne to do what ever you need? Flying somewhere cuts into the flying time (as does returning) Spare batteries can be eye watering.

Assuming a camera... Do you want live streaming to the ground or are you happy to recover the video later? We used to find the live streaming very useful as there was nothing worse that videoing something and not knowing until you got it back that you should have taken more pics at a different angle and by that time you had run out of battery charge for a while.

Do you want it to carry anything? We used to hang a radar reflector off the bottom off of our one. I think they may have sent it back for the sandwiches at least once 

Jo

[awemawson]

Jo and others, thanks for your helpful comments. Casting about on the web it looks like some of the sub 250 gram jobs would actually suit my purpose quite well. As you say things have moved on in leaps and bounds over the past few years.

One that has caught my eye recently is the DJI Mavic Mini which if descriptions are to be believed packs an awful lot in a small package.

Any real life comments on this beast would be appreciated.

As I understand it has collision avoidance as well as real time streaming, gps etc so sounds pretty good for the money, but after all that’s what copy writers are trained to do !


Later Edit: It doesn't have collision avoidance but still looks pretty capable

[Pete49]

Can't go wrong with a DJI Mavic Pro, Air or Mini but my goto is the Mavic Pro. Camera, GPS, RTH 28+ mins flight time.
Pete