Drones are increasingly popular, with well over five million sold in the US. It should be pretty common to spot one over your property. If you like drones and don’t have an issue with them flying around your house, they can pass by without consequence. However, drones sometimes fly at low altitudes near some residential areas. Is that allowed, and how low can drones go over private property? According to FAA rules, the lowest a drone can fly is within 400 feet of private property. However, drone pilots must have a property owner’s permission before launching or landing on private property. What if you don’t permit them? What can you do to prohibit them from flying over your property illegally? Let’s find out! Top Drone Courses Can you fly a drone over private property? Drones can fly over private property if your residence is in unrestricted Class G airspace. In this zone, any drone can fly up to 400 feet without permission from the FAA. But they still need your author...

Teledyne FLIR Defense , part of Teledyne Technologies Incorporated, has won a five-year Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract worth up to $93.9 million to provide its Black Hornet 3 Personal Reconnaissance Systems (PRS) to the United States Army. The initial award under this IDIQ will cover delivery of the nano-unmanned aerial systems (UAS), as well as controllers, spare parts, and training. In 2018 the U.S. Army began acquiring Black Hornet 3’s as part of its Soldier Borne Sensor (SBS) program. Since then, the Army has placed orders totaling more than $125 million for the multi-faceted drone. Soldiers are using the advanced nano-UAVs to augment squad and small unit surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities. Weighing just 33 grams, nearly silent, and with a flight time up to 25 minutes, the combat-proven, pocket-sized  Black Hornet PRS  transmits live video and HD still images back to the operator. Well suited for operations in contested environments, the Black Ho...

Tony Webster The American Civil Liberties Union has published a paper titled “Eye in the Sky Policing Needs Strict Limits.”  The piece was written by Jay Stanley: in the paper, Stanley explores the potential pitfalls in Drone as First Responder (DFR) programs, and how those concerns may be met. Continue reading below, or listen : Matt Sloane, CEO and Founder of Skyfire Consulting, reached out to Mr. Stanley to discuss the ACLU concerns first hand.  DRONELIFE is honored to publish this exclusive guest post outlining their discussion and proposing real solutions to addressing community concerns. The following is a guest post   by Matt Sloane, CEO and Founder of Skyfire Consulting and Atlanta Drone Group .   DRONELIFE neither accepts nor makes payments for guest posts. Privacy and Drone First Responder Programs This week, the American Civil Liberties Union, and specifically Jay Stanley, one of its senior policy analysts, released a report on Drone First Responder (DFR...

UTM (Unified Traffic Management) technology provider Altitude Angel is to provide all UK airports with the ability to become ‘UTM Ready’ and by doing so will put the UK at the top of the world’s most advanced nations for drone operations and service readiness. Whilst Japan, Switzerland, France, Germany, and Italy, have seen their drone ecosystems develop faster than the UK’s due to regulatory advancements, none have been able to deploy a standard, nationwide, digital approval service across its airport infrastructure. But from Monday the UK will have the opportunity to leap ahead and lead the ‘drone readiness’ table as operators, and in the future air taxi pilots, across the country will be able to submit requests to fly in the controlled airspace of over 120 airports via the Drone Assist app and DroneSafetyMap.com, which are connected to Altitude Angel’s Approval Services platform. On this significant digital milestone for the UK’s airport infrastructure, Aviation Minister Baroness V...

The Federal Aviation Administration has published a report broadly laying out a path to enable operation of electric air taxis and other novel aircraft in sizeable numbers by 2028. The agency has released its 36-page “Innovate28” plan, which comes as various companies are seeking design and operating approvals from the FAA for electric aircraft, including fixed-wing and vertical take-off and landing models. The FAA faces the challenge of certificating such designs and ensuring the safe operation of entirely new classes of passenger and cargo aircraft. “The Innovate28 plan includes various components and the sequence they will occur in for operations to be at scale at one or more sites by 2028,” says the FAA. “The plan will serve as a foundation for making entry into service routine and predictable, by maximising the use of existing procedures and infrastructure.” The roadmap describes steps required from various players in the so-called “Advanced Air Mobility” (AAM) sector. Those incl...

A popular saying in the drone world is: It’s not if you crash your drone, it’s when you crash your drone. Sadly this is a reality and the nature of flying drones. Whether due to outside forces, like the weather, interference from wildlife, equipment failure, or pilot error, drone crashes often happen. Is it worth it to buy DJI Care Refresh? Yes, it is worthwhile to buy DJI Care Refresh especially if you fly frequently or if you’re a beginner pilot. And if you’ve invested a lot of money into one of the more expensive DJI drones, it’s definitely worth the peace of mind. For those times when a drone crash does occur, DJI offers a comprehensive protection plan called DJI Care Refresh, which for an added cost provides DJI products with coverage for accidental or unintentional damage, wear and tear, and also includes water damage, and flyaway coverage. For the more expensive models of DJI drones, such as the prosumer, professional and commercial lines of drones, having the added security of ...

DJI Introduces Air 3 Drone: Powerful Addition to the Air Series Dual Primary Cameras, Up To 46 Minutes Flight Time, Omnidirectional Obstacle Sensing and O4 HD Video Transmission  DJI continues to raise the bar for small drones.  Today, DJI launched the Air 3 : with a wide-angle camera and a 3x medium tele camera.  The Air 3 is an aerial photography hobbyists dream – and a great all-rounder for commercial drone pilots.  At a current price of $1,099 (up to about $1500 for the fly more combos) the Air 3 offers amazing capabilities for the size and cost. “The DJI Air 3 is the first drone of our Air Series which offers professional features like dual primary cameras and omnidirectional obstacle sensing and at the same time retaining its lightweight capabilities with a weight of just 720g for more freedom and flexibility,” said Ferdinand Wolf, Creative Director at DJI. “The drone is the perfect all-rounder for your outdoor adventures and offers you a more diverse camera la...

If you’re interested in FPV drones, I commend you as you’re about to enter an entirely new world of wonders. But before you fly, let’s cover the basics. What are FPV drones? A first-person view or FPV drone offers low-latency live transmission to the pilot, usually received by an FPV headset (goggles). FPV drones may often be flown in manual or acro mode for an immersive experience. This guide will provide more information and insights into FPV drones, so don’t miss it! Top Drone Courses What is an FPV drone? While a standard drone transmits live images to the pilot and has a latency of over 200 milliseconds, FPV drones have a low-latency transmission of a few milliseconds.  This opens the door to new possibilities with quick reactions and a high level of detail seen through the goggles. You can fly FPV drones with elevated accuracy like no other. FPV drones are used for freestyling, racing, and creating unique cinematic content. An FPV drone can be flown as a standard...

The Obstacle Avoidance feature found on drone systems today can make a possible bad day a whole heck of a lot better. That is, if that system works, depending on just how good of a system it is. Should this be the sole feature you look at when purchasing a drone system? No! It should, however, be one of the things you’re looking for. When buying a drone, you should always look at all facets of that system, such as durability, flight time, camera quality, price, and the applications you will be applying it to, among many others. The obstacle avoidance in these systems today is light years from what it was just a few years ago, not only in their detection range, but in the Artificial Intelligence programming that they use to avoid objects. As it is a passive system, you have limited control over it. Most are working quietly in the background. Some of these systems will allow you to adjust the sensitivity of the system, and some only allow you to turn them either off or on. One of the thi...