Alright, fellow drone enthusiasts! 2024 is shaping up to be a banner year for the hobby, but with increased popularity comes increased complexity. Whether you’re a seasoned pilot or just getting your feet wet, understanding the latest rules, tech, and even the mysteries of our skies is more crucial than ever. We’ve scoured the best YouTube has to offer to bring you key insights into everything from the nitty-gritty of FAA regulations to the bleeding edge of drone technology. We’ll break down critical info on legal flight practices, delve into the exciting world of cloud-connected drones, and even ponder the more elusive ‘sightings’ popping up nationwide. Forget sifting through endless videos – we’ve done the work for you, so buckle up and prepare to level up your drone knowledge!
Key Takeaways: The Essentials for Every Drone Pilot
Recreational Flight Rules Are Non-Negotiable: Operating under 49 USC 44809 as a recreational flyer? You need to tick every box! One missed rule bumps you into Part 107 territory and completely different requirements! Always pre-plan your flight and designate what guidelines you intend to operate within.
Community Based Organizations (CBOs) are Your Friends: You don’t need to join a CBO, but understanding their FAA-approved safety guidelines is essential, like flight boundaries and operational standards.
Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) is Key: No matter your drone or flying style, always maintain visual contact. And FPV pilots, remember your dedicated visual observer; safety first, always!
The TRUST Test is a Must: This free FAA training isn’t just for compliance – it’s an educational requirement that provides foundational knowledge for operating safely and responsibly and ensures all drone pilots grasp the very basic safety considerations for flight.
Remote ID is No Longer Optional: This is a core element of drone flight regulation – all drones must adhere to Remote ID compliance requirements; ensure your equipment is compliant before your flight!
Arduino IoT Cloud – A New Frontier for Drone Tech: Explore cloud-connected drones! It’s a growing field, and mastering cloud technology, variables, and device controls opens the doors to so many innovative builds and applications, such as triggers for automated flight tasks based on changing parameters.
Master the Exposure Triangle: If video is your thing (and, let’s be honest, it’s a big draw for drone hobbyists), knowing how to control your aperture, shutter speed, and ISO is paramount for those epic shots. The more you control the finer the result of that hard work.
Drone Sightings are Often a Matter of Misinterpretation Reports of unusual aerial activity? It’s not always as mysterious as the media portrays it. Some cases are easily explainable (like weather events), while others can be hard to verify or can just be other drones that did not follow regulations.
Before buying, research!: Carefully consider your flight goals when deciding what kind of drone to purchase. Things like drone purpose (recreational, photography/video, professional), budget, camera capabilities, flight range/battery life, and required skill all dictate a proper and good drone purchasing experience.
The Rising Cloud: Drones and IoT in 2024
It’s clear we’re entering an exciting new era of cloud-connected drones. While we’ve always used apps, the depth of connectivity now includes things like creating dynamic dashboards and remote management over the internet that opens an innovative pathway. Coupled with advances in drone tech itself, including improvements in imaging, speed, and flight range, we can see that both technological innovation is accelerating at incredible speeds – all creating even more opportunity to push the boundaries of how we fly!
Don’t Just Fly – Fly Smart!
There’s a lot happening in the drone world, and staying informed is your best strategy to fly safely and get the most enjoyment out of this incredible hobby! These highlights provide essential knowledge for all drone pilots. Now, scroll down to catch the actual video insights and unlock even more value. It’s time to take your piloting skills to new heights!
The videos await below
What are the rules to fly your drone in 2024?Pilot Institute301,621 views | 6,556 | January 30 2024 19:19:58 (653 comments)[ Read more … ]
This video will explain the requirements for operating under 49 USC 44809 for recreational UAS pilots. Remember! If you fail to meet one of these requirements, you are now operating under Part 107!
If you are part 107 certified, you must choose which set of rules to operate under prior to your flight. You are not permitted to change rules halfway through your flight.
FAA Links
FAA Recreational Flight: https://www.faa.gov/uas/recreational_fliers/
FAA Drone Zone (for registration): https://faadronezone.faa.gov/
LAANC: https://faa.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=9c2e4406710048e19806ebf6a06754ad
AC 91-57C: https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Advisory_Circular/AC_91-57C_FAA_Revised.pdf
00:00 Introduction
00:04 Rule 1: Fly strictly for recreational purposes.
00:49 Rule 2: Follow a Community Based Organization’s guidelines.
01:31 Rule 3: Maintain visual line of sight.
02:00 Rule 4: Do not interfere with traditional aircraft.
02:29 Rule 5: Fly at or below 400ft.
03:18 Rule 6: Get authorization in controlled airspace.
04:15 Rule 7: Take your TRUST test.
05:34 Rule 8: Register your drone.
06:27 Rule 9: Remote ID.
07:08 Rule 10: Don’t fly dangerously.
07:40 Part 107
Check out our gear list: https://www.amazon.com/shop/pilotinstitute
Our Other Channels
– PIXL Drone Show: drone-related podcast, posts every Tuesday morning. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbeSmbjvE0etKry8Nk2n0CQ
– Pilot Institute Airplane: our airplane channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIgBjGoM-yn_3bH8Qr9xkXA
Our courses
– Part 107 Made Easy: the most comprehensive ground school online. https://bit.ly/2AkRWq0
– Drone Business Made Easy: start your drone business with a solid foundation. https://bit.ly/3dVT55T
– Drone Flying 101: the perfect course for beginners. https://bit.ly/2XUy3Pc
– Drone Maneuvers Mastery: become a better pilot with these 50 maneuvers designed to improve your flying skills. https://bit.ly/3hkWkG3
– Cinematic FPV Drone From Scratch: build your own cinematic machine with this course. https://bit.ly/37oOfeG
Get Pilot Institute Gear: https://merch.pilotinstitute.com
Rule #1: Fly your drone strictly for recreational purposes.
This is all about the intent of the flight, with recreation being the key.
Flying to record your kids and share with the family? That’s recreational.
Flying for a monetized Youtube channel? That isn’t recreational.
Flying as a volunteer for your local Search and Rescue group? This isn’t recreational either.
Rule #2: Follow a Community Based Organization’s guidelines.
First, let’s cover what a community based organization, or CBO, is.
A CBO is a non-profit RC aviation group that sets safety guidelines approved by the Federal Aviation Administration.
You can find a list of current CBOs Here: https://www.faa.gov/uas/recreationalfliers/faa-recognized-community-based-organizations
Each CBO has a slightly different set of rules to follow and NO, you don’t need to join or pay these organizations to follow their rules.
We recommend Flite Test Community Association, FPV Freedom Coalition, and Stem+C
Rule #3: Maintain visual line of sight.
Visual line of sight means you can see your drone at all times to ensure you are able to follow the rules of your CBO.
You don’t need to stare at your drone, you do need to be sure you can avoid other aircraft and avoid flying over people.
If you fly FPV, with racing-style drones and goggles, be sure to use a visual observer to perform these duties while you fly.
Rule #7: Take your TRUST Test!
Oh no a test?
Not really, this is FREE training provided by the FAA through approved providers that covers topics you need to know to fly safely.
At the end of the training, you’ll get a TRUST certificate and number.
Your TRUST certificate is valid forever, there’s no minimum age, and the TRUST providers are required by federal law to delete your information after you get your certificate.
The training takes about a half hour, so it’s not a long course.
Head over to https://trust.pilotinstitute.com/ to get yours done!
If you’d like more info than just what’s in TRUST, head over to https://pilotinstitute.com/course/recreational-flying-made-easy/ and enroll in our free 2 hour Recreational Flying course!
Rule #9: Remote ID
Last up, there are two sets of rules you can use in the US to fly your drone: Part 107 and 49 USC 44809.
44809 is an exemption from part 107, IF you follow all the rules we just discussed.
If you fail to meet even one of these rules, you’ll be instead operating under Part 107, so be sure to follow the rules and fly safe!
Arduino IoT Cloud Fundamentals | 2024 Step-by-Step GuideDroneBot Workshop67,037 views | 2,146 | February 25 2024 20:57:18 (89 comments)[ Read more … ]
We’re back in the Cloud today, looking at all the updated features of the Arduino IoT Cloud! Check out what’s new for 2024 and build your first cloud project using Uno R4 WiFi and ESP32 DevKit boards.
Article with step-by-step guide https://dronebotworkshop.com/iot-cloud-fundamentals
More articles and tutorials: https://dronebotworkshop.com
Join the conversation on the forum: https://forum.dronebotworkshop.com
Subscribe to the newsletter and stay in touch: https://dronebotworkshop.com/subscribe/
In this first of (at least) three videos, we will revisit the Arduino IoT Cloud. There have been several changes to Arduino’s IoT product since we last looked at it, including a “Triggers” feature and support for almost anything that can connect to the Internet.
We will build a cloud project using an Arduino Uno R4 WiFi board and an ESP32 Dev Kit. We’ll see how to use the cloud console to set up the boards as cloud devices, associate them with a “thing,” and create cloud variables for them. Then, we will build a dashboard to control our boards.
If you want a detailed step-by-step guide to getting started with the cloud, check out the accompanying article for this video at https://dronebotworkshop.com/iot-cloud-fundamentals.
It will have you working up in the cloud in no time!
Here is a breakdown of today’s episode:
00:00 – Introduction
01:47 – Arduino IoT Cloud
05:36 – Cloud Console Tour
07:50 – Building a Cloud Project
10:22 – Add an Uno R4 WiFi Device
13:39 – Build a Thing
16:20 – Cloud Project Code
20:38 – Dashboard and Demo
23:29 – Modify using Desktop IDE
28:19 – Cloud Project Demo 2 – Variables and Dashboard
30:30 – ESP32 Project
37:39 – LED Code with OTA Update
40:15 – Device to Device
43:09 – Using Triggers
41:47 – Add trigger and test
46:26 – Conclusion
I have decided to make this the first video in a series because there are so many new IoT Cloud features, too many for one video or even two. The next one will cover using MicroPython with the IoT Cloud, followed by an episode about using the Cloud with Amazon Alexa Home devices.
I’ve also been working with Arduino (I will be presenting an IoT Cloud project at Arduino Days 2024), and I asked them for a discount coupon so you could try the cloud. They obliged, and you can use code DRONEBOTSHOP when signing up for a monthly Maker plan. You’ll get two months free, so you can try out the Arduino Iot Cloud for yourself.
Hope you enjoy the video!
Bill
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The Exposure Triangle – Essential drone video fundamentalsUAVISUALS874 views | 55 | February 20 2024 19:00:15 (5 comments)[ Read more … ]
The exposure triangle is the foundation that every drone video creator needs to know! Paul breaks down and shows you how to get your footage looking as professional as possible!
More tutorials on our Drone Video Masterclass:
Use the code YOUTUBE25 at checkout for a further 25% off!
https://dronemasterclassacademy.com/drone-video-Masterclass-sales-page
Skip to the chapters below:
0:00 Intro
0:23 Understanding Aperture
1:30 Understanding Shutter Speed
2:00 Shutter Speed in Photography
2:23 Shutter Speed in Videography
3:35 Understanding ISO
4:38 Mastering the Exposure Triangle
What’s Really Happening with Drone Sightings in New Jersey? (YDQA EP 90)Drone Launch Academy3,203 views | 79 | December 19 2024 14:01:01 (32 comments)[ Read more … ]
Welcome to another episode of Your Drone Questions. Answered! In this video, David Young dives into the hot topic of mysterious drone sightings in New Jersey and New York that have captured the attention of media outlets, educators, and drone enthusiasts alike.
We’ll explore:
Theories about the sightings: hobbyist drones, law enforcement activities, or something more mysterious?
Insights from government agencies like the FAA, FBI, and Department of Homeland Security.
Why identifying these drones can be so challenging, even with tools like Remote ID.
What the shaky video footage and night-time sightings might reveal.
Have thoughts or theories? Drop them in the comments below!
📌 Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell for more drone-related content!
What to Look for When Buying Your First DroneDrone Launch Academy652 views | 29 | December 16 2024 20:50:38 (0 comments)[ Read more … ]
What to Look for When Buying Your First Drone
If you want to dive deeper into Drone Launch Academy and level up your drone skills, here are some links to some of the online drone courses we offer:
Part 107 Exam Prep Course- https://dronelaunchacademy.com/drone-exam-study-course/
Drone Mapping and Modeling Fundamentals- https://dronelaunchacademy.com/drone-mapping-and-modeling-fundamentals/
Aerial Video A to Z- https://dronelaunchacademy.com/aerial-video-a-to-z/
Drones 101 Flight Fundamentals – IntroductionSensofly Drones185 views | 5 | February 11 2024 03:46:57 (2 comments)[ Read more … ]
Please watch this video prior to your in person lesson for the Drones 101 class
0:00 Introductions
0:32 DJI Drone Lineup
02:25 Operating Rules
04:03 Online UAS Registration
04:55 Remote ID
07:05 Part 107 License
08:11 TRUST Test
08:50 Rules/Regulation Apps
09:41 ALOFT App Demo
11:44 Initial Planning
12:12 On Location
13:04 Accessories
15:43 Battery Care
16:59 Conclusion
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About the Author
Patryk Alexander is an associate copy editor at 4kVideoDrones.com, where he sharpens articles and helps keep the website's content clean and error-free. With a background in creative writing, Patryk brings a unique perspective to his editing that helps make 4kVideoDrones.com's content engaging and informative. When he's not editing or writing, Patryk enjoys spending time with his family and exploring the great outdoors.