Tips for Battery Management and Landing the DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ Quadcopter

I've spent far too much time flying my Phantom 2 Vision+, and I'm pretty sure at this point that I can say that it's the best hobby drone of 2014, and possibly 2015, although I've heard DJI might be coming out with a new drone soon. At any rate, what's the use of having a drone like this if you don't share advice on how to enjoy it with others?

I've realized that a lot of people are able to figure out takeoffs with the Phantom or similar quadcopters without too much trouble, especially with the various automated features available to help you. However, landings can be a bit trickier, especially if you aren't using the return home function. How do you land your Phantom in a way that will impress all the ladies (or gents) and fellow hobbyists? It might sound like a silly question, but if I were a single man (or woman) with a serious drone obsession, it's one that could cross the mind...

With that in mind, here are some tips for landing the DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ and managing its battery supply.

1. Stop flying once your battery readings are low

This might sound obvious, but trust me, it's not. Especially not when you're in the air, flying, and having a ton of fun. However, you definitely need to remember to head home, wherever home might be, before your Phantom decides to do it for you. You don't want to find your drone 500 meters from you when you realize that you only have a minute of flight time left.

2. Don't trust your Phantom to descend on a low battery

This is supposed to be a built in feature, but I wouldn't rely on it. The reason I wouldn't rely on it is because it doesn't always work. As I mentioned in my review, the Phantom 2 Vision+ has an annoying habit of simply falling out of the sky when the batteries are almost dead, and this isn't exactly something you want to happen with a $1000 drone.

3. Try not to fly over water with a low battery

This is another one of those tips that you just don't think about until you see the results of not thinking about it. Hopefully you see those results with someone else's drone, and not with yours. To put it directly, your Phantom will attempt a water landing if it runs out of battery life. And the Phantom is not a drone that floats. I'm going to write an article one of these days on how to convert it into a floating drone, but until then, stay out of the water.

4. Battery life decreases in cold weather, as does the Phantom's brainpower

This is another reason not to trust the Phantom to take care of itself in bad situations. Why? Because when the weather gets cold, the batteries simply aren't going to work the way they're supposed to. What that means is that if you're flying in the winter, you need to expect a shorter battery life and you need to expect the Phantom to do erratic things when you're in the air. Neither of these are things you want to happen if you're flying in an area where you might not be able to easily and safely retrieve your drone.

Despite all of these issues, flying and landing the Phantom 2 Vision+ is a rather straightforward affair in my opinion, and the drone is an excellent one. You just want to make sure you're flying within your limits when you use it so you don't turn it into a paperweight or a weapon.

The DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ Quadcopter is definitely my favorite drone at the moment, and I can't stop talking about it. You can buy it from Amazon here. Also consider the same kit along with an extra battery, case, and SD setup here. Extra batteries are here.

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Hi! My name is Mike, and I'm the author of this personal drone blog. If you find the information on my flying drone review blog useful, you can shop through Amazon here.

How to Use a Drone for Private Property Surveillance

Writing about how to make money from drones has become a hobby of mine, as there are so many ways a quadcopter or UAV can bring in income. However, as I've noted before, it is essential to follow best practices when using drones for paid work in the United States. That typically means obtaining some kind of a permit from the FAA. A number of people fly under the radar, so to speak, and use drones for commercial purposes without alerting the FAA, but that's not something I'd ever do or recommend.

With that said, I get emails from time to time asking how to do certain things with drones, and after the article I wrote the other day of how to make money with a drone, I received an email from someone who didn't want to make money, but simply wanted to make sure he didn't have any trespassers loafing around his property. He lives in a rural area with a lot of land, and has had issues with squatters and other folk due to having a number of abandoned barns and shacks on his land, and he simply wanted a reliable way to scan his property without driving all around it all day or hiring someone to fly an airplane over it every few days. Could a drone help here?

Absolutely. We went back and forth a few times, and here are some of the points we covered about how to use a Phantom 2 Vision+ quadcopter as a surveillance drone. Of course, any drone with a way to shoot video or photography could theoretically be used, such as the Phantom FC40 or a Phantom 2 Vision or an AR Drone 2.0, not to mention pretty much any drone with a GoPro attached to it, such as the original Phantom or the Blade 350 QX, but I know the Phantom 2 Vision+ best, so that's what I had in mind when writing about using drones for private surveillance work.

1. The footage can only be used as evidence - not for spying

This is the most important point to understand when using a drone for private property surveillance. If you have a strong feeling that some folks are sneaking onto your property to vandalize it, you can record them doing so and turn the evidence into the police when pressing charges. You can't simply keep recording them and then start following them all around your property until you see them open up a laptop and start taking down their bank information and credit card numbers. Spying is a no-no whether it involves drones or not; make sure you're staying on the right side of the law if you want to use drone footage as evidence of a crime committed.

2. Video gives you more useful information than photography

A second important point is that you'll want a drone that can shoot video, and preferably stream that video back to you in real time. Yes, it's definitely possible to get good information with nothing more than a camera that takes pictures every minute while you do flyovers throughout your property, but nothing beats real time information and rolling video footage. It gives you so much more information than still pictures ever could, and it makes evidence-gathering (see above) dead easy. That's part of why I only use my drones with video capabilities when doing anything that requires gathering information; it's like having a second brain in the sky.

3. Have a plan for what to do if you see something you don't like

So you had a hunch that some folks were sneaking onto your land and drawing crop circles or tipping cows, and you sent your drone up there to shoot some video and saw exactly what you were looking for. Now what?

Depending on your personality, you might want to go confront the people directly, but I wouldn't. First of all, I've got a family to look after, and second of all, why take the risk of entering into a fistfight with someone? Don't forget that the person might be mad simply because they saw your drone flying above them, and that might make them forget that they weren't supposed to be on your property in the first place. Just call the police and let them handle things. Or if you've got some other plan, that's fine as well, but make sure you have a plan of what you'll do if your surveillance videos reveal that bad things are indeed happening on your property.

Finally, remember that you need to have the proper permits to do this legally. They aren't very hard to get, and it's a good way to have a bit of extra ammunition on your side when bringing your case to the police. Personally, my drone of choice when doing private property surveillance work is the  DJI Phantom 2 Vision+. You can read a full review of mine here, and you can buy it from Amazon here.

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Hi! My name is Mike, and I'm the author of this personal drone blog. If you find the information on my flying drone review blog useful, you can shop through Amazon here.

Top 3 Reasons NOT to Buy a Personal Drone, Quadcopter, or UAV

Drones have been a part of my daily life for decades, whether as radio-controlled helicopters with cameras or with the first quadcopter I made years ago out of several different helicopters I'd broken over time. You can find me flying just about every day provided the weather allows it, and while doing so, a number of people will ask me questions about what I'm doing, how much it costs, and what kind I think they should buy. The answers to those questions are enjoying the best hobby on Earth, as much or as little as you want, and the list of recommended drones I put together here. In fact, answering questions such as these are the reason why I started this blog to begin with. My top 3 reasons to buy a personal drone are right here for anyone to read at any time.

However, there's one question I wish more people would ask, and that's why you shouldn't buy a personal drone. I wish more people would ask this question because there are certain people who I think would be far better off not ruining the drone experience for the rest of us, not to mention for the general population. This list is for those people! Here are the top 3 reasons not to buy a personal drone, flying camera, quadcopter, or UAV.

1. You want to spy on people

This is easily the worst reason to buy a drone, and for a number of reasons. First, it's illegal to spy on people, unless you happen to be the government. This was the law before drones and it sure didn't change once drones came onto the scene. Secondly, not only is it an invasion of people's privacy (after all, you wouldn't want someone peeking in your bedroom window with a drone), it also gives all non-spying hobbyists a bad reputation, making it more likely that restrictions will be placed on what we can do with our drones and where we can fly in the future. If you're feeling nosy, buy a pair of binoculars. I use these ones--not for spying, but for following baseball and soccer when my kids and I get the nosebleed seats.

2. You want to tresspass or visit hot spots

This is like spying, except with places. Again, you don't want to do it for legal, ethical, and practical reasons. Besides that, if you happen to trespass in the wrong place, not only will your drone get shot down, you'll get tracked down and arrested or worse. There's no reason to put yourself at risk simply to visit somewhere where you're not supposed to be without permission, such as an abandoned factory, a military base, an airport, prison, or pretty much any federal or governmental facility. And let me tell you--they aren't going to buy a simple "oops" or "I didn't know what I was doing" explanation. The same goes, by the way, with banks and hospitals. It's just not a good idea.

3. You want to scare or impress people

This reason is less likely to land you in jail than the previous two, but it can also make things get ugly pretty quickly. I know it's tempting to put some LEDs on your drone, take it up at night, and try to convince people they're about to get abducted by aliens, but not everyone's going to find it as funny as you might once they figure out what's going on. People do get beaten up for doing stupid things with drones around the country on a fairly regular basis, and there's no reason that should happen to you if you aren't doing stupid things with a drone. You don't need to impress people; just do your thing and let them do theirs. It's cool enough that we get to fly these at all, right?

What's my take-home message?

Not buying a drone for the wrong reasons is at least as important as buying one for the right reasons. When I use my Phantom 2 Vision+, I use it responsibly every single time, following my personal set of guidelines on best practices for flying drones safely. As a result, I've managed to log over 14,000 hours of flight time with my drones without problems. I hope you can log as many hours as you choose to also without problems, and serve as a role model to the rest of the population wondering if drones are a good idea or if we should ban personal drones.

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Hi! My name is Mike, and I'm the author of this personal drone blog. If you find the information on my flying drone review blog useful, you can shop through Amazon here.

4 Beginner Flying Tips for the DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ Quadcopter

I've logged several hundred hours flying my Phantom 2 Vision+ at this point, and I'm pretty sure that at this point, I can fairly declare it to be the best drone I've ever flown. This is after having made or bought hundreds (yes, literally hundreds) of drones in the last few decades.

I still remember when we used to hook full-sized VHS camcorders to R/C helicopters in order to shoot video...I'll find a picture of that someday!

However, today I want to talk about a few basic tips for beginners with the Phantom 2 Vision+. It's not exactly a cheap drone, so you'll want to take care of it and keep from losing it if you don't have to. Here are 4 of the most useful tips I can think of for beginners who want to get off to a good start with their Phantoms. These tips are specifically for the Phantom 2 Vision+, but they also apply to all the other Phantoms (e.g., the FC40, original Phantom, and Phantom 2 Vision). I know this because I own them all. Yes, it's an obsession.

1. Know your basic controls - maybe even write them on your radio transmitter

Perhaps the easiest way to crash the Phantom 2 Vision+ is to forget how to control it while in mid-air. Don't laugh; I've seen this happen several times. Not to me, but to other people who bought the drone, barely reviewed the instructions, and took to the skies without taking the time to know how to pilot it safely. When you're spending a grand on a drone, you should spend at least a few minutes making sure you've got a good handle on the controls. And if that's still too much work, you might want to consider writing them down on the controller with something like a sharpie. Sure, it might look a bit silly, but I'll tell you right now that crashing your drone into a tree will look a lot sillier than using a cheat sheet to help you land it safely.

2. Don't confuse your sticks

This is another issue that seems to trip a lot of people up. The left stick is what you use for elevation and rotation; the right stick is what you use for direction and movement. To put it another way...

Left Up -> Phantom up
Left Down -> Phantom down
Left Left -> Phantom rotates left
Left Right -> Phantom rotates right

Right Up -> Phantom forward
Right Down -> Phantom backwards
Right left -> Phantom flies left
Right right -> Phantom flies right

Of course, if you let both sticks go, they naturally move to the center, and the Phantom itself will simply hover.

3. Set your GPS up before flying

Setting your GPS up in the Phantom means allowing it to figure out where it is on the planet through the GPS satellites whizzing about hundreds of miles above you and your drone. It's like waiting for your Garmin to find itself; it can take a bit of time but it can save you a lot of time later on. Similarly, your Phantom will fly in a much more consistent way if the GPS system is configured in advance, and it will also be able to return to you if your transmitter loses power or if it flies out of range. This is priceless in certain situations, trust me. I know a guy who lost his Phantom permanently on his first flight because he flew it without fully charged transmitter batteries and lost control of his quadcopter when the wind carried it over a cliff. Yes, he cried.

And that brings me to my last tip for beginners flying a DJI Phantom 2 Vision+.

4. Stay away from windy days

Perhaps that's a bit strong of advice. I'll confess that I've flown my Phantom around tornadoes and hurricanes, although I wouldn't recommend that at all. However, for beginners, it's definitely best practices to try to keep from flying the Phantom when there's a lot of wind. You know why? Well, read the story of why you should set your GPS up before flying and you'll get one idea. For another, I've come close to losing my Phantom 2 Vision+ on several occasions when flying during 30 or 40 mph winds simply because the wind pushed my drone out of my field of vision, such as behind clumps of trees or hills at the limit of my vision. In such situations, your only hope for recovery is to rely on your screen to see where you're flying, or to activate the fly home function. It's still an unnecessary risk, though, so I wouldn't recommend it.

I hope these tips help beginners and intermediate drone pilots alike. Really, it's mostly about using your head and not exceeding your limits. There's always another day to fly.

I completely recommend the DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ Quadcopter. You can buy it from Amazon here. Also consider the same kit along with an extra battery, case, and SD setup here. Extra batteries are here.

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Hi! My name is Mike, and I'm the author of this personal drone blog. If you find the information on my flying drone review blog useful, you can shop through Amazon here.

What Farmers Want From Farm Drones, or How to Choose an Agricultural Drone

I've written before about how farmers can make money from drones, but I received an email from a farmer in the Midwest asking for more information on what kinds of features would be best for farmers interested in taking advantage of agricultural drones on their farms. While I don't claim to be an expert on the matter, I've had the opportunity to consult and work with farmers in a few different parts of the Midwest regarding their needs and how drones might best meet them. I've also logged a few hundred hours flying my Phantom 2 Vision+ quadcopter as a farm drone, and have been able to collect valuable farm information that's led to improvements in crop yields. Here are some of the things I've learned from farmers along the way about what farmers want from farm drones:

1. Quadcopters and quadrotors, not planes

This might be the single biggest complaint I've heard from farmers interested in contracting drone pilots or buying drones for farm and agricultural work. Is it possible to use a plane drone or UAV successfully on a farm? Absolutely. But what I've heard from a number of farmers, and seen with my own eyes, is that the majority of farms out there don't have consistent places for fixed wing drones to land. In other words, there aren't runways.

The result is that even planes that can take off and land in relatively short landing strips tend to become destroyed in a few flights if paved landing areas are not present. And as noted above, the majority of farms in the Midwest don't come with those. However, quadcopters and helicopters are capable of taking off and landing vertically, which means there is a near-infinite amount of potential launch and landing sites available in the average farm. These drones are also coming with ever-larger forms of energy storage, with some topping out at an hour or more of flight time and miles of flight range.

In contrast, planes tend to only work well with exceptionally large farms, and even in such situations, there isn't nearly as much flexibility as there is always the need to locate reliable and safe landing areas.

2. Video is far more important than photography

While a picture may tell a thousand words, a video may tell ten thousand more. Farmers have good eyes and know how to spot things. They know their farms and they know what they need to do in order to make their farms a success. This is precisely why it's a good idea to have cameras that offer first-person-view, or FPV, video feeds, such as those in the Phantom 2 Vision+. When you've got a live view of everything your drone is seeing, you have a literal eye in the sky that gives you a perspective you simply aren't going to get on the ground.

With such a view, a farmer can look for issues, spot them, and pilot the drone directly toward the area with issues. Of course, this is something you can only really do with a quadrotor, as the ability to hover is what makes taking a closer look possible. The truth of the matter is that a farmer might not even be aware of what s/he needs to be on the lookout for at the start, and simply discover it midflight. There are also situations where what's important is simply to have one's eyes open, rather than to investigate a specific area of one's farm.

3. The ability to record can make all the difference

Being able to see what's going on ten acres away is impressive, but being able to record what you're seeing so you can review it later in the comfort of your home on the farm might be even more important. The human memory can be a fickle thing, and it can be quite hard to remember which part of a farm had a set of crops that were ready to be harvested vs. the part of the farm that had the crops that weren't quite there. Being able to look back at previously recorded video or photo stills can save valuable time and enable farmers to make the right decisions without needing to travel physically out to various parts of their land to take a closer look.

What does this all mean?

It means that farmers have specific needs when it comes to farm drones, and these are centered around flexibility, first person video capabilities, and the ability to record and review footage and stills that document the states of their farms. From my experience in helping farmers meet these goals, I can easily say that a good drone is worth thousands of dollars a month in data.

However, I also have to acknowledge that there are very few drones out there that have these capabilities to the degree expected by farmers besides those sold by DJI. My Phantom was indispensable during my farm consultations, and it did things that most of my other drones simply couldn't. Choosing the right drone makes a big difference.

In conclusion, if you are a farmer interested in flying drones to manage your farms,  I'd personally recommend the DJI Phantom 2 Vision+. You can read a full review of mine here, and you can buy it from Amazon here.

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Hi! My name is Mike, and I'm the author of this personal drone blog. If you find the information on my flying drone review blog useful, you can shop through Amazon here.

How To Make Money From Flying Drones Without Breaking the Law

If you've flown a drone and haven't thought of how to make money from a drone, UAV, or quadcopter, you're a better man or woman than I am. To tell the truth, I've logged a number of hours in commercial flight of my Phantom 2 Vision+, but those have all been hours with certification, as I've been part of teams that used drones to provide aerial shots for music videos, sports coverage, and the occasional movie.

That said, there's a big difference between going through all of the official channels to get certification and approval to use drones for business and simply wanting to make a few dollars on the side without getting permission in advance.

I do not advocate doing this, as it goes against best practices for flying drones, which are what I live by. As a result, I will presume you have already secured the necessary permissions to make money from your drone, and are now interested in the different ways to profit from your drone. Here are ten of the most common ways I've seen personal drones used for business.

1. Real estate photography - you can use a drone for real estate photography to get an edge on the competition. Doing so gives you angles that you simply can't get from the ground, and a number of realtors who use drones to photograph properties report significant increases in profits compared to when they simply took pictures with DSLRs around the property on the ground.

2. Wedding photography - wedding photographers are always looking for unique angles and shots to help distinguish themselves from the myriad of other photographers, and a wedding photographer who uses drones to capture key moments, such as images of the couple kissing at the moment the wedding becomes official, or a view of the first look, can easily find themselves knee-deep in clients. Of course, you'll want to use the drones for outdoor weddings!

3. Property mapping surveillance - people in rural areas are increasingly using drones as low-cost ways of mapping out the boundaries and terrains of their properties. If you have several acres to survey, you could drive it, hire someone to fly over it, or even go as far as contracting a satellite in space to review it. But why spend thousands of dollars and hours when you could simply send a drone up there to take high-definition photographs for you?

4. Property security surveillance - a close cousin to the previous drone moneymaking idea, property security surveillance with drones is also changing the way people make sure there aren't trespassers or unwelcome people on their land. This approach is also significantly cheaper and faster than renting a private plane or setting out in a car, truck, or SUV to survey one's land for intruders. It's also significantly more discreet, while allowing you to capture shot after shot.

5. Search and rescue operations - there is a growing use of drones overseas to search for people lost in the wilderness, or for survivors after tragedies such as car collisions, earthquakes, floods, mudslides, or explosions in war-torn areas. Drones can cover ground more quickly than humans on foot or in vehicles, and the video or photography footage can be reviewed in real time to help save lives.

6. Filming movies, music videos, TV shows, and promos - this is the method I'm most familiar with, and it's where a lot of money is when it comes to profiting from drones. If you can get in well with a TV or movie studio, you can log a lot of flight time and make a lot of cash in a short amount of time. Similarly, promos, music videos, and similar opportunities can also become lucrative when you have a drone and the ability to capture footage with it.

7. Commercial farming applications - farmers are always interested in knowing what their crops are doing and where their animals are; if you've got a drone setup, you can figure out whether certain crops are in need of watering or if certain predators are going after some of your animals. You can even figure out where your livestock are eating and make farm decisions accordingly.

8. Live covering sports matches - thanks to drones that offer live relays of video, you can get an eye in the sky view that used to be the sole purloin of blimps, helicopters, and airplanes. Of course, you'll need someone on the ground to provide the audio, but that issue exists with all kinds of air coverage options.

9. Bounty hunting - I'd never do this, but I do know a number of bounty hunters who use drones to help them in their searches for fugitives. This is also an approach increasingly used by law enforcement to track down suspects and others on the run.

10. Package delivery - finally, from Amazon thinking about using drones to deliver packages to Papa Johns and Dominos debating over using drones to deliver pizzas, pretty much everyone with a product-based business is now considering the feasibility of using drones to ship things in a fraction of the time it would take through traditional methods.

As you can see, there are clearly a number of ways to make money with drones, and a lot of these methods overlap with one another. However, what every single one of these methods of making money through quadcopters has in common is that you need permission from the FAA to do so. None of these methods should be used without the appropriate permission, or else you're simply asking for trouble from the FAA, and I'd rather spend my time flying than explaining why I thought I could score a few dollars by breaking the law when it came to using my drone for commercial work without prior permission.

That said, if you have the proper permits, I'd personally recommend the DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ for the first 9 drone jobs I mentioned. You can read a full review of mine here, and you can buy it from Amazon here.

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Hi! My name is Mike, and I'm the author of this personal drone blog. If you find the information on my flying drone review blog useful, you can shop through Amazon here.

Is It Legal to Fly A Drone At Night? Yes! Should You Do It? Well...

As drones become more common in our society among hobby pilots and enthusiasts, people who aren't familiar with drones will undoubtedly become worried when they see them buzzing about or hovering, whether they have reason to be worried or not, such as when they see a drone flying at night (or during the day, or anywhere...). Of course, as a responsible drone, quadcopter, or quadrotor pilot, you know that no one around you has anything to fear. However, as we are ambassadors for the future of drones, it is important to always follow best practices on every flight in order to keep from spreading a bad impression about drones.

As a result, when someone sent me an email asking if it were legal to fly drones at night, I was happy to chime in.

Is it legal?

The truth of the matter is that yes, it's legal to fly drones at night, as drones aren't any different in the eyes of the law (in most cases) from radio-controlled helicopters, airplanes, or similar devices. However, drones that come with cameras do have additional liabilities that their pilots should be aware of. To put it simply, spying is still against the law, unless you happen to be working for her majesty's secret service. And I'm not. Except when watching James Bond movies.

Should you do it?

So yes, you can certainly fly your drones at night. That said, you'll want to be even more careful when flying at night than you would be when flying during the day, simply because visibility is so much less at night and because people are going to be much more suspicious if they see you flying a drone at night than during the day. This goes double if someone notices something like a GoPro attached to a quadcopter flying around their house.

The debate between whether something should be done is usually easy to settle when that something is illegal or dangerous. It can be tougher to make the right decision when that something is legal, but dubious. Personally, I do fly my drones at night, but I only do so when I'm far away from people who don't know that I fly drones, and I make it easy to identify myself as the pilot. There's no need to be coy or pretend a UFO is flying around just to play tricks on people; it's not worth getting my drone shot down or having people panic and call the police.

Those might seem like overreactions to you or I, but it's not unusual for people to call the police in fear when they see drones flying where they don't think they belong. A lady  in San Mateo California, called the police simply because she thought someone was trying to peek into her neighbor's bedroom window with a drone.

While sitting on her front porch one recent late evening, San Mateo resident Denise Nelson saw a 2-foot diameter drone hovering in the sky in front of her.

“I can hear it and it was coming closer like a buzzing sound from an electric scooter,” said Nelson. “It was the freakiest thing I’ve ever seen.” 

Alarmed that it was close to her neighbor’s bedroom window, no one was in sight and the drone was being controlled remotely, she called police for advice. Nelson was also concerned that someone could have been using the device to case a home for potential burglary or invasion of privacy.

Yet another reason to play it safe

The article doesn't specify what kind of drone it was, or whether it was actually doing anything wrong in the eyes of the law, as the drone was presumably flown away by the time the police arrived. But it led to an article in a major newspaper about big bad drones, and now, what do you think anyone who reads that article will think the next time they see one anywhere? That drones are out to spy in their bedroom windows!

Remember the rules of best practice, and you'll be fine almost all of the time. There's always another day to fly, as long as you don't get carried away trying something you'd probably think better of with a good night's rest. Lawfully or not, people have gotten charged, arrested, and even jailed for flying drones, quadcopters, and multirotors inappropriately. Those five minutes of fun aren't worth it to me; I've got a family to come home to after every flight.

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Hi! My name is Mike, and I'm the author of this personal drone blog. If you find the information on my flying drone review blog useful, you can shop through Amazon here.

Man Faces Felony Charges for Flying Phantom Drone Outside Hospital

This is another one of those stories on people breaking the rules of best practices with drones that makes me shake my head. A fellow named David Beesmer, 49, took to the skies with his Phantom 2 Vision+, and flew past the windows of a hospital with patients actively being examined inside. People in the hospital, such as patients and staff, saw Beemer's drone. Beemer then went on Facebook and posted videos of his flight. He later apologized and said he wasn't thinking, but is to be charged at a later date.

This is just frustrating on so many levels. I have a Phantom 2 Vision+ and don't use it to spy on people. I do use it to fly everywhere and do happen to notice people doing interesting things in the process, but I respect individual and institutional privacy and property, and stay away from anything tricky or controversial. It's why I've flown radio-controlled devices for tens of thousands of hours without so much as a dirty look from others.

If we're going to keep flying our drones, we need to do so sensibly. We can't fly them around hospitals. We can't fly them past large private buildings and bask in the attention, no matter how great the view might be. What we need to do is advocate for drones to be treated the same way radio-controlled cars, planes, and helicopters are; they aren't that different simply because they have cameras.

You can take far better pictures with a basic DSLR or even a pocket camera like my  Fuji X100s than you can with an expensive drone, as cameras are actually designed to take high-quality images rapidly, non-stop, for hours at a time. Drones are not--at least not the kinds of drones that regular people can buy. We aren't the US government, and we shouldn't be treated like enemies of the state.

However, despite the fact that we shouldn't be treated like pariahs by people who simply don't understand and fear hobby drones, if we're going to keep our drones from going the way of the dodo, we need to make sure we're using them responsibly, which means we need to embrace best practices and fly with them in mind every single time we take to the skies. David, you should have known better. We all should know better.

With that said, I completely recommend the DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ Quadcopter. My review of it is here, and you can buy it from Amazon here. Also consider the same kit along with an extra battery, case, and SD setup here. Extra batteries are here.

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Hi! My name is Mike, and I'm the author of this personal drone blog. If you find the information on my flying drone review blog useful, you can shop through Amazon here.

Best Practices For Flying a Personal Drone, UAV, or Quadcopter

I love drones, and have been flying them in one form or another for decades at this point. Yet I've never so much as been arrested, detained, or had any serious complaints levied against me. Unfortunately, a lot of drone pilots can't say the same despite having much fewer flight hours. Why is that?

Well, I think a lot of drone pilots simply get excited at the potential. I mean, you've got this machine, maybe something like a Phantom 2 Vision+ that you saved up for months to be able to afford, and you can't wait to use it. You get it in the mail, set it up, take it out, start flying, and all of a sudden, you start attracting a lot of attention that you didn't mean to. Maybe you get curious and start flying it toward your neighbor's house, just curious for a peek inside. Maybe you're in a national park and start buzzing the endangered eagles. Or maybe you let a child take the controls and s/he flies the drone straight into a little old lady being helped across the street by another even smaller old lady!

My point is that I don't think most people who get into trouble with their drones because they set out to do bad things. Maybe that's the case every now and then, but I think the majority of the time, people just don't remember best practices for drone flight. So here are some of my thoughts on the matter.

1. Don't spy on people

This should be obvious, but for some reason it's not. Using a drone to take creepy pictures of your neighbors is just as illegal as doing so with a camera on the ground. People have a right to privacy, regardless of where they are or what they're doing, and it's essential to respect that. If you find yourself using your drone to do things that you'd be ashamed to share with your parents, then you should probably bring it in for a landing and think about what you've done, whippersnapper!

2. Don't fly near hot spots

Hot spots are places where small flying machines have no business being. Airports, military bases, construction sites, car collisions, and other such locations don't need your drone buzzing around being a nuisance, breaking the law, and distracting people who are doing real work. I spend more time piloting drones than anyone I know, but I also know where my drones can and cannot fly. You wouldn't take a personal plane up over the White House and expect to get away with it, would you? So why try it in a drone? If you don't want to end up on the news or behind bars, take private property seriously, especially where money, power, or the government are involved.

3. Use common sense

This is essentially a summary of the first two rules and a number of other rules I could add, but won't in the interest of time. Simply use common sense and think about what you're doing. If you aren't sure if you're flying in a good place or in a good way, you should probably land, think it over, and make sure it's really all right to do before doing it again. Don't buzz people or animals; don't put anyone at risk, including yourself. Remember, it's just a hobby, and no one should get hurt in the pursuit of a hobby. There'll always be another day to fly, and there'll always be another time to take to the sky. And my wife always reminds me to remember what's important in life, and there are many things more important than drones, such as one's family.

Keeping these three rules in mind has helped me log more than 14,000 problem-free hours of drone flight in the last few decades, and I look forward to thousands more. Safely and smartly; that's how you stay out of trouble, with or without a drone.

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Hi! My name is Mike, and I'm the author of this personal drone blog. If you find the information on my flying drone review blog useful, you can shop through Amazon here.

How To Measure the Speed of Your Drone, UAV, or Quadcopter With a Radar Gun

One of the first questions I get asked when someone sees me flying my Phantom 2 Vision+ drone in the park is "how fast does it go?" I usually answer "really fast!" and nod knowingly. This usually does the trick with most people, especially when they see the drone whizzing past trees and above unwitting children. However, now and then I get people who are genuinely curious and interested in a number, and that's precisely where my wife's knack for gift-giving comes in handy. She gave me this--a Pocket Radar Speed Radar Gun, and it is amazing for measuring how fast my drones fly. Here's how I use it to measure drone speed:

Measuring drone airspeed with a radar gun and partner

What do I do?

If you've got a willing partner, taking a measurement with the Pocket Radar Classic couldn't be easier. You simply get your drone in the air and leave your partner to figure out the radar gun!

I'm just kidding. But seriously, you point the radar gun at the drone and realize that there's a giant red button in the middle. You push it and you read the display. That's really it. You'll get a big bright LCD number that lets you know how fast in mph your drone is flying.

The batteries last long enough for you to take around 10,000 measurements, per the manufacturers, and in my experience, I get between 9,000 and 11,000 depending on how often I use it at once (yes, I take a lot of measurements!). Remember that scene in Bridesmaids where the cop and Kristen Wiig's character sat in his car measuring how fast everyone was going by before they pulled someone over? That's my wife and I, except I don't get to pull anyone over. Someday...

What's the range?

The range of the Pocket Radar Classic is rated at approximately half a mile, or around 2,600 feet, but since that's greater than the range of most hobby drones, it essentially means the range is infinite. I haven't had the chance to test mine at that distance with a drone since if my drone is that far out, it's probably not coming back to me, and at that point, I'm hopping in the car and chasing it. But for every normal distance I've tried, I haven't had any issues measuring it.

Are there any bugs to watch for?

There can be issues of interference if you try to take measurements in a cluttered environment, such as somewhere close to a lot of birds or similar moving targets. You're also going to have trouble if you try to take measurements while you're next to certain electronic devices or vibrating devices, such as idling cars. However, if there are too many things going on, the radar will simply not give a display, which will be your cue to watch where you're pointing.

Why would I want to do this?

Personally, I do it because I enjoy it, which, in my opinion, is the best reason to do anything. I also get curious about the degree to which a drone manufacturer's top speed estimates match reality. In many cases, they're reasonably close, such as with DJI's drones. However, in some cases, they're quite off, and a drone that's marketed as being capable of hitting 30 mph that only does so when spiraling out of control into a reservoir isn't my idea of a good time. And yes, that's happened to me. More than once. You'd think I'd have learned not to fly over that reservoir after the first time, but I really thought it was like the idea of lightning not striking in the same place twice (which is also wrong, apparently)...

Measuring drone airspeed with a radar gun without a partner

If you don't have a partner, things are a bit more tricky. OK, a lot more tricky. It's possible to get an accurate reading if you essentially attempt a fly-by with one hand on the radio controller and the other on the radar gun, but it can be a nerve-wracking experience to have a $1000 drone flying at you (or a tree, or a passer-by, etc) at high speeds while you try to keep it moving straight enough to take a valid measurement. My advice is to not bother; this is something you need a friend for. The good news is that even a kid can figure it out. I speak from experience; my kids are experts at taking measurements for me now.

I highly recommend the Pocket Radar Classic as a way to measure how fast your personal drone, UAV, quadcopter, etc, is flying. You can buy it here.

If you're on a budget, also consider the Bushnell Speedster III Radar Gun. I've got both, and the Pocket Radar is much faster, but the Speedster also works decently. The Pocket Radar Classic is by far the more reliable of the two, however, at least when compared to my GPS, and that's why it's worth the price difference.

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Hi! My name is Mike, and I'm the author of this personal drone blog. If you find the information on my flying drone review blog useful, you can shop through Amazon here.

Top 3 Reasons To Buy a Personal Flying Drone

If you've never heard of personal flying drones, or UAVs, multirotors, quadcopters, or whatever else everyone calls them, you're missing out. I've been flying these for years before most people even knew they existed, and even years later with a wife and kids, the thrill of watching a small craft take off and send you back video or photo while you steer it through the sky never gets old. So here are, in my opinion, the top 3 reasons to buy a personal drone.

1. For Work

This is the less thrilling, but ultimately more practical reason. Maybe you're a professional photographer who is looking for a camera that can get some stunning aerial shots for the latest issue of This Cliff Looked Much Smaller From The Ground or what have you. Maybe you're shooting an extreme sports or surfing video and need a killer angle to drive home the closing scene. Maybe you work in Hollywood and are trying to get a frame from a unique perspective. Or maybe you work in agriculture or security or surveillance and need an unobtrusive way of surveying a plot of land or a neighborhood or some other property.

Yes, you could rent a full-sized helicopter or make repeated passes in an airplane, but why spend thousands of dollars each time when you could simply spend a few hundred or a grand once and have a tool that will work for years? This may not be the most romantic reason to get a drone, but you can't beat it for practicality. Law enforcement and the military use drones for professional work on a daily basis; if it would help you out in your day job, why not give them a try?

2. For Play

This reason, though, is my favorite. Maybe you've got kids, like me, and want to share an amazing hobby with them that they'll remember long after they've left home. Maybe you're single and simply looking for a way to meet new people with your awesome flying machine. Or maybe you're somewhere in between and have always been fascinated by things that fly or things you can control or things that go really fast and high in the air. Maybe you're a fan of photography or video work and think it would be cool to try some of that fancy gear out. Or maybe you just wonder what your neighborhood or city looks like from 500 feet in the air and don't feel like buying a plane ticket. Any of these reasons is perfectly valid, and in my opinion, play is the best reason to do anything.

3. A Hedge Against the Future

This is where I put on my tinfoil hat (does it fit? My wife says so...). The truth of the matter is that we don't know for just how long drones are going to be available for the average American. It's estimated that the skies above the average town might be filled with police and private drones by 2020. Is that true? Well, we'll have to wait another 6 years to find out. But whether it's true or not, it might be a good idea to get a drone for yourself in case they someday become banned, or worse, regulated to the point that no one wants to buy one anyway. Buying one now ensures, at the very least, that you'll get several years of some of the best fun you've ever had out of them now, regardless of what might or might not happen with regulation of drones in the future.

Convinced? In that case, head on over to my list of recommended drones. I haven't tried every drone, but I've darn near come close, and these are my favorites.

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Hi! My name is Mike, and I'm the author of this personal drone blog. If you find the information on my flying drone review blog useful, you can shop through Amazon here.