Skip to main content

Drones: Why You Should Get One

In the past few years, the world has seen a huge rise in the sales and registrations of unmanned aerial systems (UAS), more commonly known as drones. At the beginning of 2018, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported more than one million UAS registrations in the United States alone. The applications of these systems go far and wide and have been used in very creative ways. These applications include hobby flying, emergency first response, mapping and surveying, photography, and even the not-so-legal application of flying drugs and other contraband into prisons and across borders. However, this post will focus on hobby flying and commercial photography.

The main advantage of UAS is that they can do a lot of the same things that traditional manned aerial systems, or planes and helicopters, can. After the initial purchase price, they hardly require any additional spending, can be used for very fast response, and can go places that helicopters can’t, due to their relatively small size. Of course, nobody expects unmanned systems to fully replace traditional manned systems. Instead, these systems will simply augment them.

Another huge advantage of drones is their accessibility to the general public due to their low price and the lack of requirement of an expensive pilot’s license. Any amateur photographer can go out and buy the DJI Mini 2, a UAS with a stunning 4K camera and a top speed of around 30mph, for $450 to date. The Mini 2 is so small and lightweight that a user doesn’t have to register it with the FAA. (One still must obey their rules though.) Sure, it isn’t cheap, but when you compare it to the price of a helicopter, it costs hardly anything. Anyone, and I mean anyone, can learn to fly these in a matter of minutes, including my grandma, who struggles to operate a flip-phone in 2020. Of course, it may take practice to get good at it, but even that doesn’t take as long as some might expect. Very recently, I purchased the predecessor to the Mini 2, the Mavic Mini, and have gotten some truly incredible shots with it, one of which is the banner photo of this blog post.

Regarding rules and registration, if one just plans on flying for recreation, there is no need to get any kind of license or certification to fly it. However, if one plans on being compensated in any way off it, they must get a Part 107 license from the FAA. From what I have heard, this involves a quick, straightforward, 60-question multiple-choice test that costs $160 to take. Once you pass that, you’re free to fly commercially. The cost of the test is nothing to worry about, however, as one can easily make anywhere from $200/hour to a whopping $5,000 per session for something such as real estate photography or building inspection, according to Hi Fly Photography. These numbers are easily corroborated by many different sites.

In conclusion, if you’ve been tossing around the idea of purchasing a UAS, there’s never been a better time. For less than $500, you can purchase a very capable UAS, have a lot of fun, and get some great photography. If you’re interested in making your money back, it’s easy to tap into this very under-served market. If you’re looking for a beginner but still great UAS, I can’t recommend the DJI Mavic lineup highly enough, which has options ranging from $400 to $3,500.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Think “Experience Architecture”

At the beginning of this class, we were assigned readings and videos about airports in order to conceptualize the main theme of the course, experience architecture. Experience architecture is the design of spaces (architecture) for users (experience), such as an airport. In de Botton's work, "A Week at the Airport," de Botton addresses a doubt about experience architecture that sheds light on the scope in which the concept applies. "Standing before costly objects of technological beauty, we may be tempted to reject the possibility of awe, for fear that we could grow stupid through admiration...[and] yet to refuse to be awed at all might in the end be merely another kind of foolishness. In a world full of a chaos and irregularity, the terminal seemed a worthy and intriguing refuge of elegance and logic." (de Botton, 2009, p. 3-4). Simply put, experience architecture is design that is meant for the experience of the user. De Botton communicates this through an exp...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is Experience Architecture The Future of Professional Writing?

As a team of Professional Writing students, our mission is to discover how the Professional Writing major is evolving and share how and why experience architecture is making its way to the forefront of the field . It is our hope that readers of this blog — whether they might be current students, past students, prospective students, or professors — learn the ins-and-outs of the major and begin to see how the worlds of writing and design intertwine.  Professional Writing is currently a fairly popular major among universities, but one of the most interesting things about the field is that it’s always evolving. So what is the Professional Writing major anyway? When it comes to a major like this one, there isn’t a set plan of study among universities. In fact, the course requirements and the definition itself differ from school to school. Because of its natural diversity and constant evolution, Professional Writing doesn’t exactly have a clear future. If design and usability are becomin...
Post a Comment
Read more

Proposed Plan for Socially Distanced User Study of Wix.com

Plan for User Study: www.Wix.com I. Introduction Although a usability test is unlikely in this socially-distanced and pandemic-filled world, if I were to do one, this post describes how I would see myself doing it as well as a basic overview of my plan of study, had this been an option. II. Identifying Users 1. The users of this site align most with the age group of 20-35. This demographic uses Wix primarily for educational purpose and small business website platforms. 2. Users in this case will work through website creation, as that is the main function of the site. III. Target Identification of Problems Below are the main heuristics and an associated question to further explore the content of the site as I plan a User Study. A. Engagement Are the screen and workplace too crowded, and are they layered to maximize engagement? Is the site   nested too deeply with helpful tools to be useful? B. Error Tolerance Does the Help Desk analysis show enough specific problem de...
Post a Comment
Read more