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Aloha fellow pilots, We've had a pretty surprising amount of rain over the past month, which certainly did its share of damage. But not all was bad, as what is typically a brown and yellow grassy coastal desert is currently a lush green wonderland! The water is a beautiful blue with a bit of green in the shallows, and the weather is 85° and sunny. This time of year is 'chill mode' for most, while we enjoy a slight dip in tourism, which means less crowded beaches, snorkel/surf spots, and of course, most importantly, less crowded schedules. I've been taking advantage of the free time to play with the new drone, using the telephoto zoom feature to create high detail wide photos. These are some favorites from the weekend. Enjoy the view!

Here's a good infographic from a post we did with PCS Edventures earlier this year: https://uavcoach.com/part-107-infographic/ --

Being that I work at an Architectural Design firm, I can tell you we aren't interested in hiring someone to create 3D models via drone because I can pilot my own drone and donate the data to the company. Also, our insurance won't allow the inclusion of data captured on Construction Documents unless its backed by a licensed surveyor. So at best, it will only be used for pre-visualization efforts to do renderings where we use the data captured to produce a ground plane or reference site imagery when developing a concept. Marketing has the biggest use for drones at project close out to get aerial imagery of the project when its completed. Our last couple efforts though have utilized a professional photographer who also happens to fly a drone and adds really good aerial imagery to really good ground based imagery for a complete package. Larger contractors such as McCarthy, DPR, etc. already have internal drone departments and simply buy a DJI phantom/inspire for a specific job and station a drone pilot onsite to collect imagery on a regular basis - usually these projects are worth $100 million in construction costs or more to justify this expense, smaller jobs don't get drone tech.

I found Gold !!! Amazing job @JBR LIFE Photography ! very well done.

@inetcarp great post. I was going to post about this but decided against it because people think I’m so negative all the time... simply put, thermal is expensive and in very rare cases does it work. People often mount it on a UAV, look at the false colors and think it works, yet as you point out, there’s very little actionable data. And that’s if you can get it to work at all. We have use it quite a bit and I have a hard time recommending it to anyone. Not worth the hassle and expense. I know there are lots of people who claim to use it in SAR, that’s how we use it so when I say I doubt most of those accounts I know from which I speak. Ask them to show you a video of how they used it. Not to say that it can’t be usful, just not yet despite the claims from DNI and FLIR. Here’s how we used it:

AMEN AMEN AMEN.

This article does not include a review of the apps or software to run each camera and drone combination, or the extensive limitations of thermal. One cannot just slap the two together and expect similar results to photometry....for instance, the range for any FLIR branded camera is likely less than 1000 ft via wifi. Even the best resolution thermal (dji or flir) (640x512) pales in comparison of what we use to for camera photos (4000x3000)... dont think of slapping an thermal Ortho out of the box. They wont stitch together. Finally, on the app front...there are NO mapping mission or even waypoint flying available under thermal cameras as best I can tell. Using PrecisionFlight specifically, The only drone and camera supported with that app is a Matrice 210 or 600p and the DJI XT-R at 640x512 and ONLY the 13mm version....(The XT2 is not supported by any grid or mapping app, besides DroneDeploy and then only in LiveView). I caution to be extremely careful when considering thermal and start with the software first. Im finding that for the most part the drone thermal Images ARE NOT EVEN GEOTAGGED at all. Its a convoluted process to take photometry and thermal at the same time (if you even can) and then in postprocessing have to extract the EXIF out of photos and paste them in the thermal image to geotag it. And realistically, its still only 640x512 resolution at best. AO

Hello everyone, I am selling my DJI Inspire 1 Pro package complete with the Zenmuse X5 camera, 7 TB47 batteries, fast + quad battery charger, 2 controllers, ND filter sets with cases, Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 45mm f1.8 lens, DJI focus wheel 1, professional hard case, tablet sun-hood, spare props, and cables. The Inspire 1 drone was recently serviced by DJI. This drone is a true workhorse and this package is built for professional Part 107 work. The used value of this package is $5,885 and I'm asking $4,000. Or, make me an offer! Happy flying.

Only communists pass laws that punish all for the crimes of no one. The FAA needs to be disbanded and start over, feral fed monkeys are running the circus and need to be rounded up and deported. Its not possible in polite society to describe the disgusting and vile river of crap flowing from the DC swamp.

I've been experimenting with improving my storytelling skills and getting better at weaving a story on my videos. I shot this video during my vacation in the Azores, near the Capelinhos Volcano that erupted from the sea about 60 years ago. The video starts with a quick historic overview and then shows you what it looks like today. Aerials were shot with the DJI Mavic Air.

Very cool thread ! I was looking for a list like this just the other day. Thanks for posting !

Very beautiful !

Looks very cool.

Its hard not to rant abut this sort if thing because quite frankly, it sucks. Truth has nothing to do with what's happening to the hobbyists and the commercial sUAV market. On a side note before I start my rant, the lack of understanding at the AMA that the fate of these two constituents are inextricably linked is mind numbing. It doesn't matter about the things that @Spitfire76 pointed out, the safety record, history or that the AMA is a CBO. It also doesn't matter than there have been no deaths attributed to commercial UAV use, there has been only one confirmed midair collision with minor damage, or that when you consider the "estimated" number of commercial drones flying that this is probably one of the safest professions. The truth is always the first casualty in politics. What this is, wait, let me adjust my tin hat, is the end of hobbyists RC and sUAS commercial operations. And the thing that people just refuse to believe is how complicit the AMA, DJI, AirMap, and many others are in the demise of this market segment. In their feeble attempts to protect their members "rights" the AMA shot us all in the left foot. The anemic response by commercial operators shot all of us in the right foot and the along with the manufacturers trying to regulated out the competition the FAA is about to shoot us in the head. This has all been self inflicted.

We're not your average school, Career Technology based programs with core ed. support. Our sports are tech competitions like SkillsUSA, TSA, Etc No Gym, no real inside place to fly other than a classroom. I'm working on an netted enclosure in the back parking lot, but its all about the money.

Don't forget that flying indoors is not regulated by FAA. So an empty gym, aircraft hangar, or wharehouse might be an option.

I think they're going through some growing pains. I called and left a V/M and never heard back. I then called again and spoke with someone who got our mailing address wrong and didn't inspire a lot of confidence in their company. I emailed their CEO who apologized and said they're planning to move everything to online booking. Hopefully that'll help.

@Spitfire76 you make some good points but the margins for small photography and video production companies is generally pretty thin. It’s not about the cost of the drone or the 107, it’s an issue of focus. When the Canon 5dII started the HD DSLR movement a lot, and I mean a lot of photographers who were already using them started producing videos, and visa versa and quickly went out of business. Although the technology was the same and the infrastructure was similar, they are very different businesses. I agree that Aerial should be a good fit for an established photographer, but keep in mind that photography is very competitive and they can either create a look that differentiates them and they can charge more for their product, they can make slimmer margins on volume, or they can cut their expenses commensurate with revenue. I know a lot of people won’t agree with this but you have to really think about why such a high percentage of 107’s Can’t make a good living? Using a MAVIC or a Phantom, for example is antithetical to the success in every business model I used as an example. Your not going to be able to differentiate your work from the thousands of other people using them, they add enough complexity that they don’t fit the model for efficiency, and for the individual it adds unnecessary expense they are probably averse too. None of what I’m saying actually has anything to do with who manufactures the drone, it’s just the reality of all this. The people who are employing people, putting their kids in school and making a living using drones quickly pivoted away from the drone. I have a lot of friends who make a great living using a hammer, but they don’t make much because of the hammer. You can take a tool, a truck, a camera and build a business around it. But it is not the business.

Hi Paul. I am looking forward to putting in my list of services I will need in my business. If you can get your business model down pact you should look into being contracted with insurance agencies. Best of fortune!

You see, I'm no stranger to a baked potato so when I engage my core that's then the jello starts...

This test seems to be a worse case scenario... https://udayton.edu/blogs/udri/18-09-13-risk-in-the-sky.php