Drone operators!

MG01GT

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So I wanted to see how many of you guys are drone operators and what you all use and recommend accessories. I start ground school for my private pilots licence soon, but in the mean time I want to get my part 107 and use my recently acquired DJI mavic 2 pro for various events and what not. I've been flying smalls, in various forms, mostly 3D printed stuffed with consumer off the shelf parts for the Marine corps over the last year as we integrate them into not only the fleet but our force on force iterations of our ITX exercises. I'd like to hear from you all what you like, dont like and or use... the good, the bad, and the ugly!
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Cobra-O

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I've got my 107 and use a DJI Phantom Pro 4. Use it for survey work. The Phantom 4 is a work horse if you can keep it happy with its calibrations. We had an IMU go out and it had to go back to DJI. They ended up replacing the whole thing. We use Pix4D to run automated flight paths, surveying land.

When I say work horse, I mean it. Once I took it to the beach and used it to launch baits about 700 ft out into the Gulf. Half a small fish, big weight and hooks. Had no problems into a probably 20mph wind. Probably not the smartest thing to do with a $1000 drone, but lots of fun.

That Mavic you have is awesome, but it was overkill for what we are doing, and the battery life isn't that much difference. I know a guy that had a huge drone, 6 or 8 rotors and was surveying mountains in Colorado. Eagle came up and flipped it over sending it crashing down into the canyon. Had a $20K lidar scanner attached to it. Had to send a rappel team to retrieve it.
 

VegasMichael

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From the title I thought you meant the spy/military drones--the majority of which are controlled from right here in Vegas at Creech and Nellis AFB.
 

CV355

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I had a lower-end quad-copter drone for a while until the battery exploded while charging. It was a fun little system but the wind tried taking it away too many times to make good use of the camera to take aerial shots of our house/yard.

My father is retiring in a little over a month and we're thinking about buying him a DJI drone as a retirement gift since he was always an RC enthusiast. I tried buying his old Corvette back for him but that didn't work out, plus a drone is far more affordable haha
 

Klay

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I have my part 107 license and am using a parrot anafi currently. I actually really like the drone. Here are a list of pros and cons:

Pros

Quiet
Easily to travel with
Relatively inexpensive (699 for base model)
Ability to take a full 360 panorama
Ability to look 180 degrees straight up for video
No geofencing (other than a height restriction)
Not made by a Chinese company (they are french)
Pretty good dynamic tracking function
Due to design, will never get props in shot

Cons

Doesn't do well in wind
Propellors are thin, can break easier
Can't do 60 fps in 4k
Hard to get spare parts
Not a big aftermarket

It doesnt have any obstacle avoidance but I personally dont consider that a con, so I am listing it separate. A lot of people like obstacle avoidance though.

I am considering getting an autel evo as my next drone but that one is more expensive (999 base model).

DJI is the market leader and has the biggest aftermarket support, so accessories are much easier to come by.

New regulations from the FAA are probably going to kill the recreational aspect of drone flying and sales of small inexpensive drones. The drone companies are starting to focus more on the commercial end of the spectrum.
 

MG01GT

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I've got my 107 and use a DJI Phantom Pro 4. Use it for survey work. The Phantom 4 is a work horse if you can keep it happy with its calibrations. We had an IMU go out and it had to go back to DJI. They ended up replacing the whole thing. We use Pix4D to run automated flight paths, surveying land.

When I say work horse, I mean it. Once I took it to the beach and used it to launch baits about 700 ft out into the Gulf. Half a small fish, big weight and hooks. Had no problems into a probably 20mph wind. Probably not the smartest thing to do with a $1000 drone, but lots of fun.

That Mavic you have is awesome, but it was overkill for what we are doing, and the battery life isn't that much difference. I know a guy that had a huge drone, 6 or 8 rotors and was surveying mountains in Colorado. Eagle came up and flipped it over sending it crashing down into the canyon. Had a $20K lidar scanner attached to it. Had to send a rappel team to retrieve it.
Everyone really seems to like the DJI platforms and it's easy to see why with how easy they are to use. Our biggest issue is that they are Chinese made and it was discovered a while back that they were directly liked to their intelligence apparatus..... obviously not good for us.

What kind if sensors were you using on youra for survey? It amazes me how many uses these things have.

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MG01GT

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I have my part 107 license and am using a parrot anafi currently. I actually really like the drone. Here are a list of pros and cons:

Pros

Quiet
Easily to travel with
Relatively inexpensive (699 for base model)
Ability to take a full 360 panorama
Ability to look 180 degrees straight up for video
No geofencing (other than a height restriction)
Not made by a Chinese company (they are french)
Pretty good dynamic tracking function
Due to design, will never get props in shot

Cons

Doesn't do well in wind
Propellors are thin, can break easier
Can't do 60 fps in 4k
Hard to get spare parts
Not a big aftermarket

It doesnt have any obstacle avoidance but I personally dont consider that a con, so I am listing it separate. A lot of people like obstacle avoidance though.

I am considering getting an autel evo as my next drone but that one is more expensive (999 base model).

DJI is the market leader and has the biggest aftermarket support, so accessories are much easier to come by.

New regulations from the FAA are probably going to kill the recreational aspect of drone flying and sales of small inexpensive drones. The drone companies are starting to focus more on the commercial end of the spectrum.
Well I dont think the FAA will try to kill the civilian market totally... gotta remember this is a cash cow for them, granted I will say they certainly dont make it easy to get anything done. But I can see from a safety and responsibility stand point why they do.

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JetmechF16

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I have my 107 and a Mavic 2 Pro that I keep saying I'm going to do something with, I even pay $39 a year to keep an LLC going that I started years ago for aerial photography. At one time I contracted for an architectural engineering company using a Phantom 4 for roof inspections, however they since moved to another side of the market and no longer need those inspections so I stopped doing that. My day job of operating big Military drones (MQ-9 Reaper) keeps me too busy to get anything off the ground otherwise.
 

MG01GT

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I have my 107 and a Mavic 2 Pro that I keep saying I'm going to do something with, I even pay $39 a year to keep an LLC going that I started years ago for aerial photography. At one time I contracted for an architectural engineering company using a Phantom 4 for roof inspections, however they since moved to another side of the market and no longer need those inspections so I stopped doing that. My day job of operating big Military drones (MQ-9 Reaper) keeps me too busy to get anything off the ground otherwise.
Lol I'm not gangster enough to operate group 5 like you! It's hard getting the bigger scope of military brass to understand that there are other assets out there besides the big boys.... but it always seems that these small quads weird people out...

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VenomousDSG

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I've had my DJI phantom drone for a couple years now with a ton of accessories and haven't really done much with it other than a few car photos/videos, and some home inspection stuff. I love drones though, there's so much you can do with them.
 

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