Ask Drone U

How to License an Image - Inking Contractual Agreements, and How to Handle Violations Today's show is about licensing rights of videos and images and how owners can ensure rights are not violated. Our caller for today, Kent needs help with photography licensing. Specifically, he is wondering how he can enforce the license, and the steps to take in case of violations. On today's show, you will lear...

Important Pre-Flight Checks for Drone Batteries Today's show is about drone batteries and how pilots can check their drone batteries to ensure a safe flight. Our caller for today, Carcherri would like to know what are some of the most important pre-flight checks for batteries. To help him out, we share important battery configurations and reveal how you accurately assess flight time. Do not miss t...

How to Fly Your Drone In The Rain | Little Known Drone Maintenance Tips to Help You Out Today's show is about flying your drone in the rain. You will also learn some drone maintenance tips to keep your drone safe and in top flying condition. Our caller for today, Rob has come up with a great question that has not been asked on Ask Drone U before.  Rob's question is about flying your drone in the r...

Can You Run a Large Drone Business With a Beginner DJI Drone Like the Mavic Air 2? Today's show is about the Mavic Air 2. Can you run a large drone business using a beginner DJI drone like the Mavic Air 2? Our caller for today, Gary from NY flies a Mavic Air 2. But he is planning on upgrading to a larger, more expensive drone since he cannot take on many of the lucrative jobs out there. On today's...

Drone Props - Everything You Need to Know Today's show is about drone props. What are some of the telltale signs which help you determine that it's time to change your propellers? Our caller for today, Kit has come up with a question that has not been asked on ADU before. Kit is wondering whether the newly-designed drone props are superior and have a longer life span compared to their predecessors...

FAA Sued for Illegal Remote ID | Lawsuit Outcome to Impact UAS Policy, UTM, and UAS Integration Today's show is about RaceDayQuads, a hobby shop with a large financial stake in the sUAS do-it-yourself world, filing a lawsuit against FAA over Remote ID. They argue that Remote ID violates Constitutional guarantees. RaceDayQuads sued the FAA in April early 2021 and filed the above arguments on August...

Listen To This Before Updating Your Drone Firmware Today's show is about drone firmware updates. Our caller for today, Sanford is an avid ADU listener and is aware of Paul's reluctance to update the firmware on his drone. Since we have not discussed this topic for quite some time now, Sanford is wondering whether or not Paul has changed his stance on this topic. We get straight to the point by sha...

The Future of Drone Technology and How Innovations Can Fuel Explosive Growth Today's show is about the future of drone technology and how innovations can fuel explosive growth. Our caller for today, Ahmad is pursuing his Masters in Innovation and is keen on being a part of the nascent drone industry by taking the start-up route.  Today's show is an engaging one as Rob and Paul bounce ideas and spe...

Tackling Criticism, Building a Strong Mindset, Taking Failure in Your Stride and much, much more... Today's show is about tackling criticism as a drone business owner.  Entrepreneurship is lonely. And so, handling failure and criticism can be exponentially more difficult for drone service providers running small businesses. And our caller for today, Tom has come up with a very relevant question th...

AUVSI XPONENTIAL 2021, DragonFish - Autel's New Drone, DJI Geofencing Issues, Lemur S by BRINC, DJI News, Drone News In the seventh edition of Drone Life News, Paul and Miriam McNabb of DroneLife and JobforDrones discuss some of the latest and most exciting news from the world of drones. Our biggest story this week is about the AUVSI Xponential 2021 conference in Atlanta. This was Miriam's first a...

Drone Insurance Recommendations - Listen Now to Mitigate Risk, and Protect Yourself Against Liabilities Today's show is about drone insurance.  Buying the right insurance is important for mitigating risk and protecting yourself against personal liabilities. On today's show, we have Nolan and Chris who need help with purchasing the right insurance for their drone business. Some of the topics that w...

Expert Tips for Flying Drone Over Water Today's show is all capturing videos while flying over water that casts a spell on your audience and the settings required to fly your drone safely over water. Our caller for today, Derek would love to know all about flying over water so that he can pursue wakeboard surfing videography. And with his years of experience in filming water sports, who better tha...

How to Plan out a Linear Drone Mapping Project Today's show is all linear drone mapping projects. What is the best and most efficient workflow for such complex projects? Our caller for today, Gabe is working on a linear drone mapping project that involves mapping a long stretch of 30 kilometers. Gabe would like to know how he can execute this project while complying with all regulatory requirement...

AIRT-Droneresponder 2021 Survey Results, DJIs Dominance in Public Safety, Infrastructure bills Support US-Made Drones, Amazon Drone Delivery In the sixth edition of Drone Life News, Paul and Miriam McNabb of DroneLife and JobforDrones discuss some of the latest and most exciting news from the world of drones. Our biggest story this week is about the 2021 AIRT-DroneResponder survey. AIRT, a leading...

Best Practices for Drone Mapping and Using Pix4D Today's show is about drone mapping and Pix4D.  Our caller for today, Trav wants to know how he can overcome some of the challenges that he facing while using Pix4D. To help Trav out, we first re-explain the basics. You will learn how to choose the right acquisition strategy so that you can build more accurate 3D models.  Next, you will learn about...

What Does the Future Hold for the Drone Service Provider and Small Enterprise? Today's show is about what the future holds for the small drone service provider. Considering the challenges and risks involved, is it really worthwhile to consider drone flying as a full-time career? Our caller for today, Scott is skeptical about the future prospects of the small drone service provider. With large corp...

RTK vs PPK GPS - Which is the Best, Most Accurate Option for You? Today's show is all about 2 GPS correction technologies - RTK and PPK (Post Processed Kinematic GPS). Specifically, which is the best, most versatile option for drone pilots and when they can choose one over the other. Our caller for today, Trevor from Australia is unsure whether he should go with RTK or PPK GPS.  To help out Trevor...

Verizon, Skyward Drones, and 5G, Industrial Drones by GE, The Rising Popularity of American-Made Drones, DOI Publishes List of Government-Approved Drones In the fifth edition of Drone Life News, Paul and Miriam McNabb of DroneLife and JobforDrones discuss some of the latest and most exciting news from the world of drones. Our biggest story this week is about industry major, GE's foray into the dro...

DJI FPV Drone Review | Exclusive with Christian Mollica, Author of The Acclaimed Book "FPV Flight Dynamics" In today's special show, Paul talks to Christian Mollica, the best-selling author of  "FPV Flight Dynamics" about the launch of DJI's FPV drone and how it will shake up the FPV world. DJI, the market leader has just announced their first FPV drone thereby marking their formal entry into the...

Best Video Drone For The Money Today's show is about video drones. Specifically, which is the best, most versatile option for a commercial drone business? Our caller for today, Jordan is looking for a versatile drone that is particularly good at capturing video. He is particularly keen on buying a bird that can safely fly over water.  To help him, we first reveal why the Mavic Air 2S is NOT our pr...

Best Agricultural Drones | How to Set Up a Drone Business Without Overshooting Your Budget Today's show is about agricultural drones. What is the best yet most affordable setup for those looking to provide their services to the agricultural sector? Our caller for today, Ryan is keen to provide drone services to the agricultural sector. But like most new entrepreneurs, he is on a tight budget. Can...

Drone Safety, and How to Tackle Drone Magnetic Interference Today's show is about flying in areas with heavy magnetic interference.  Our caller for today, Arturo from Columbia recently started working with the local government to fly missions in the heart of the city. But flight safety is a huge concern for him as he is flying in an interference-heavy environment. We discuss different options to h...

Drone Flight Time Comparison - Phantom 4 Pro vs. Inspire 2 vs. Mavic Enterprise On today's show we do a flight time comparison between some popular drones like Phantom 4 Pro, Inspire 2, and Mavic Enterprise. Our caller for today, Carl is considering the Phantom 4 Pro, Inspire 2, and Mavic Enterprise for drone mapping missions.  But he is not sure if these drones can give him a long enough flight t...

Google's Wing App, Parrot ANAFI AI, World-Class Skyfish Drones for Engineering and Critical Infrastructure, Made In USA Drones In the fourth edition of Drone Life News, Paul and Miriam McNabb of DroneLife and JobforDrones discuss some of the latest and most exciting news from the world of drones. Our biggest story this week is about Parrot's new ANAFI AI drone. This unique drone comes with obstacl...

Using Drone Surveying for Small Properties Today's show is about using drone surveying for really small properties. Our caller for today, Jerry wishes to survey small properties with drones. But, is this even feasible? While surveying with drones might be a cost-effective for large tracts of land, can you use this new-age technology for smaller properties as well? We cover the basics of photogramm...