Innehållsförteckning för August - September 2020 från RotorDrone Pro

A tool is only as good as the hands that yield it, which likely explains why having the most advanced drone isn’t necessarily the ticket to creating incredible works of aerial art. To help you bring your bird’s eye-view photos and video to the next level, this month we have three articles with practical, insightful tips from master photographers, videographers, and post-production editors. In “Eyes Over the World,” Dirk Dallas of the “From Where I Drone” Instagram account shares his secrets to composing and capturing some breath-taking aerial photos taken by artists from all over the globe. From using shadows to engage your audience to adding an identifiable object to an abstract scene to help tell a story, Dirk’s tips and tricks will certainly elevate your art. This issue also…

Mavic Air 2 features an upgraded camera and transmission system, increased flight time, and a more streamlined flying experience with the DJI Fly app. Mavic Air 2 offers 48MP photos, 4K/60fps video, SmartPhoto, HDR functionality, FocusTrack, OcuSync 2.0, and up to 34 minutes of flight time. DJI’s smartest and safest drone yet, it has pre-programmed scene detection modes and upgraded autonomous flying modes. The Mavic Air 2 costs $799; the upgraded Fly More bundle, which includes the Air 2, ND filters, a carrying bag, prop guards, charging hub, and three batteries, costs $988. dji.com…

These modules combine the latest Pixhawk flight controller, mission computer, and wireless networking (LTE, WiFi) and come with the Auterion Enterprise PX4 operating system installed to provide a comprehensive payload software development kit, the communication interface for remote operations, and real-time video over LTE. Skynode also enables obstacle detection and avoidance, VIO positioning, remote ID, and UTM. Skynode is directly integrated with the Auterion Cloud that enables predictive maintenance, aircraft and pilot management, compliance reports, and integrations into existing business workflows. “Skynode with Auterion PX4 enables drone manufacturers to rapidly enter new markets by making their products compatible with an ecosystem of payloads, components, services, and workflow integrations that give companies the tools they need to deploy large fleets of drones,“ said Lorenz Meier, co-founder of Auterion. Skynode will launch…

Founded in 2002, Meetup helps organizers to form online groups to host in-person (In Real Life, or IRL) events for people with similar interests. It’s a perfect way for drone pilots to fly together and learn from each other. I never set out to lead a Meetup group, and I fell into it almost by accident. As a beginner UAV operator, I was looking to improve my piloting skills and befriend experts on drone programming and construction. I found Meetup and joined a drone Meetup group. They met at a local park designated by the city for RC flight. Their Meetup included various fixed wing pilots and I wasn't really sure I had even connected with the correct group. I continued flying on my own and returned to this wide…

We don’t talk much about “flying” drones, anymore, but if you’re shooting aerial video, the path of your drone and its camera settings can completely change the mood of a scene and how your audience will react. In this article we’ll discuss six basic camera moves to elevate your drone video endeavors to the next level. But before we get into the six basic moves, two words should be ingrained in your mind every time you are filming with your drone: slow and smooth. Unless you are doing an action sequence, dramatic or fast moves will tend to lead to shaky footage, possible crashes, and a nauseating viewing experience. Always stay very gentle on the sticks, regardless of how good your camera may be. Smooth flying will always create a…

This spring has been a period of overall bad news across most tech and logistics industries, but analysis from a multiple team think-tank consisting of Guinn Partners, Scott Lumish, and Woodside Partners has observed three trends that may be a promising sign for the drone industry. MORE ACTIVITY Federal, state, and local governments, as well as large enterprises, are accelerating the use of unmanned systems on a global basis. We first saw this trend emerging in China with JD.com and their use of a drone fleet that has successfully completed over 20,000 flights and delivered over 70 tons of goods. This drone fleet operates from designated drone ports with over 20 landing sites, and in some cases, with over eight drones in the air at a singular time being operated…

Location: Belcekiz Beach, Ölüdeniz, Turkey Pilot: Denis Belitsky Drone: DJI Phantom 4 SEND US YOUR PHOTOS If you have an image that you’ve taken with a multirotor that you’d like to see showcased in “Over the Horizon,” please send your high-resolution image, your Instagram handle (if applicable), and information on the location and the drone you flew to capture the image to RotorDrone@AirAge.com. Every photographer we feature on this page will receive a free one-year subscription or extension to RotorDronePro magazine.…

RotorDronePro.com › Dolphin Drone We recently posted a video that captured a massive pod of dolphins swimming in an Irish bay. From Country Mayo, Ireland, drone pilot Sean Molloy commented that the dolphins had been seen for several days and he was determined to get them on camera. The footage is amazing. Roger Williams: Drones do seem to be the best way to document dolphins in the wild. Daniel Michaels: I’ve heard that the waters off Ireland are a dolphin hot spot. Awesome footage. Tommy Coleman We went on a dolphin research trip to Belize several years ago. We had to locate pods of dolphin to observe them. A drone would have been a huge help. Great video! George Phillips: I am always sensitive about people harassing wildlife for photographs, especially dolphins. Using camera…

With this new tool, you can see exactly where your drone was on a Google Map at the time of video capture. Play your DJI, Autel, or GoPro HERO videos on the main screen while watching your drone’s speed, distance, position, and bearing update on graphs, data displays, and maps. You can GeoTag key points in your video to mark their positions on the Map and return to those points at any time. The GeoTags also display the line-of-sight distance from the tag to the current drone position. You can also zoom in or out and pan your video while it’s playing, and you can export your GPS tracks to common file formats for data analysis. mydroneviewer.com…

They’re quiet, they capture crucial high-definition images and, most of all, they’re safer. Widely used in utility equipment inspections and wildfire mitigation efforts, drones have quickly become an essential tool for Southern California Edison (SCE) in its dam safety inspections, too. With 83 dams in SCE’s hydroelectric system stretching from Catalina Island to Big Creek near Fresno, it’s easy to see why. In addition to safer and more cost-effective inspections, drones help SCE’s hydro team maintain the dams safely and effectively. “The drones have been a powerful tool and I think we can do a lot more going forward,” said Nicolas von Gersdorff, SCE’s chief dam safety engineer. Future use of the drones includes FAA approval to fly outside the line of sight — which the FAA doesn’t yet allow…

THE BASICS The Skydio 2 has six 4K cameras, each with a 200-degree field of view. Together, they create a complete picture of the operating environment in every direction, generating 45 megabytes of data 30 times per second to drive its remarkable collision avoidance system. In short, it literally sees everything, and yet the Skydio 2 is so narrowly focused on the single goal of being a perfect flying action camera that comparisons with other small, civil UAS are problematic. An honest review of the Skydio 2 must actually be two reviews: one that compares the aircraft with its own potential, and the other that compares it with other aircraft that can be had for a similar price to perform general aerial imaging missions. Whether the Skydio 2 is an…

Editor’s Note: In May, the American Bar Association held its 34th Land Use Institute—an annual forum aimed at educating attorneys, planners, and government officials about recent developments in the law regarding zoning, permitting, property development, conservation, and environmental protection. With the increasing use of drones to address many of these questions, as well as several well-publicized conflicts between local jurisdictions, property owners and drone pilots, Martindale-Hubbell preeminent-rated attorney Wendie Kellington of the Kellington Law Group, P.C. and pioneering drone expert Patrick Sherman of the Roswell Flight Test Crew prepared the following briefing for the conference. In the United States, it is impossible to disentangle the laws and regulations that govern the use of small, civil uncrewed aircraft system (UAS)—otherwise known as drones—from the history that led to their creation. An understanding…

Bottlenecks in medical care have a significant impact on patient treatment and recovery, and this is especially evident during the current coronavirus crisis. In Scotland, drone service delivery company Skyports and technology company Thales have teamed up to start a drone-based COVID-19 response trial. Working on behalf of the NHS Scotland, they are providing the Isle of Mull with corona tests by means of a Wingcopter drone, cutting 6-hour delivery times by car and ferry down to just 15 minutes by drone. Speaking of the endeavor, WingCopter co-founder and CEO Tom Plümmer said, “Drones offer the opportunity to quickly and easily take corona tests, drugs or personal protective equipment to places that are difficult to reach by conventional means of transport. We are delighted to be able to help in…

PILOT REPORT Wildlife conservation is one use for small, civil uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) that is seldom listed among the marquee applications for the technology, such orthomosaic mapping, industrial inspection, and emergency response, to name a few, yet it has the potential to make significant contributions to environmental preservation. That’s what I learned when June Stephens, an ornithologist submitting a paper to the national conference of the North American Ornithology Society, contacted me about using a drone to document an osprey nest. This seemed like a straight-forward mission I could knock out in less than an hour of flying, but that was before she explained that she wanted to build a 3D model of the nest and, by the way, the birds had installed radio jamming equipment around their home.…

Editor’s Note: Getting an aerial perspective on your subject is terrific, but it doesn’t guarantee that the resulting photograph will be interesting or engaging. Drone photographer Dirk Dallas knows what it takes to capture an image that stops viewers in their tracks, and his new coffee-table compilation of drone photos, “Eyes Over the World,” is full of these breathtaking bird’s-eye views. We asked Dirk to share some highlights from the new book and give us some insight into the secrets he and the other featured photographers used to create their art. ARID Clara Cao, Mar del Plata, Argentina Sometimes we aren’t able to travel to some epic location to fly and shoot with our drone. This is why we should all be inspired by Clara’s image, which is an excellent example…

Most of the videos that you view online today have a lot in common: They are shot on a digital video camera, are cut together to some music, have had some titles added, and are compressed and then uploaded. The online audience has an insatiable appetite for aerial footage, and you want to make sure that your content looks as appetizing as possible. We’re going to discuss some techniques that, with practice and patience, will give your videos the cherry on top to stand out among all the other eye candy. STANDARD SHOOTING Most of us purchased a traditional camcorder-type camera or one of the many popular action cameras to capture life’s moments. The average consumer will take the camera out of the box, charge the battery, insert a storage…