Category: Heli & Quadcopter

Drones must be registered with the FAA, whether you operate under part 107 or the Exception for Recreational Flyers. “All drones must be registered, except those that weigh .55 pounds or less (less than 250 grams) and are flown exclusively under the Exception for Recreational Flyers,” says the FAA website – but remember, that even …

Gold Seal wants to help—and so it’s offering its comprehensive ground school courseware for private pilots for free to 100 students who have been impacted in 2020 by COVID-19 restrictions and fallout. “We started this program back in May,” said Gold Seal founder, Russ Still. “After carefully going through the stories of over 1,000 students, we selected 100 …

A provision in the current version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) would make it significantly easier to use drones for education. As the final version of the NDAA approaches a vote, issues including  a proposed ban of Chinese-made tech have been negotiated.  The Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA), the largest community-based organization (CBO) …

The Smellicopter is an obstacle-avoiding drone that uses a live moth antenna to seek out smells One huge advantage of drones is that these little robots can go places where people can’t, including areas that might be too dangerous, such as unstable structures after a natural disaster or a region with unexploded devices. Researchers are …

Tiny quadcopter drones, or micro air vehicles (MAVs), have notoriously short battery lives. So, if they can “perch” somewhere instead of hovering in mid-air, more power to them. A new gripper mechanism has been designed with that in mind. Developed by a team of engineers at Colorado State University, the device is mounted on top …

Autonomous drones – the drone in the box solutions that deliver drone operations without a pilot onsite – are emerging as an important market sector.  Polish autonomous drone company Dronehub is the latest autonomous drone company to get new investment funding in order to grow their operations. Dronehub has raised 2M PLN in pre-seed funding, …

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has announced the first Unmanned Civil Aviation Experimental Zones (UCAEZs) to help accelerate the drone industry in China. “The list of UCAEZs covers as many as 13 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Hezhou, Hangzhou, Zigong, Anyang, Nanjing, Tianjin, Yulin, Shenyang, Dongying, Anqing and Ganzhou,” says a press release from …

Gas leaks are something that most people don’t think about –  until there is a problem.  For example: the major gas present in “natural gas” fuel, methane, is odorless and colorless, making methane gas detection difficult without special equipment. Methane gas leaks, however, are extremely serious: the gas is not only toxic at some concentrations, …

If you’ve ever thought about making the move from recreational pilot to Part 107 licensed drone operator, now is your chance to ask all of your questions!  Join us on October 30th from 4-6 pm EST, for AUVSI NC and DRONELIFE’s monthly Let’s Talk Drones session. During this month’s session, the focus will be a …

The AW-Drones project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, was started to help mitigate the problems that a lack of clear standards pose for drone companies. “The user-friendly Info Portal will allow drones operators and stakeholders to easily identify the standards that they need to safely perform UAS operations in …