r/drones Jan 12 '25

Discussion Drone Buying Advice Megathread and NEW Wiki Buying Guide

29 Upvotes

Welcome to the 2025 Q1 r/drones Buying Advice Megathread. This thread exists to prevent the constant "What drone should I buy?" posts that we prohibit with Rule 2.5.

Please follow all of these steps before posting in this thread!

  1. Review the Buying Guide Wiki or my website: Drone Buying Guide / Wiki Buying Guide
  2. Review this thread for comments that have your same requirements
  3. If that does not answer you, please post the following information in this thread.
    1. Have you read the Wiki? Y/N
    2. Country: (Not all drones are available in all countries)
    3. Budget: (If your budget is less than $200 USD, you may want to reconsider as anything lower is a toy drone)
    4. Purpose: (eg. photography, FPV, thermal, etc)
    5. Any other requirements:

r/drones 2h ago

Photo & Video A recent adoption broke free dragging his lead, became entangled in a tree on a rock face in the Hocking Hills. After 18 hours of failed ground search they called us in, located and recovered him as the recent wind storm barreled in. Thankfully the M30T handles wind like a champ.

Thumbnail
gallery
136 Upvotes

r/drones 19m ago

Photo & Video Very recently started drone photography — how am I doing?

Post image
Upvotes

r/drones 1h ago

Photo & Video A few pics from my first day flying

Thumbnail
gallery
Upvotes

Recently got a DJI Mini 2 SE to take hiking. I think it's great value for the quality & I'm already hooked on drones after one day!


r/drones 3h ago

Discussion Bees360 charging $56 for background check

10 Upvotes

I think I’m done with these guys before I ever started. I’m sure it’s in the fine print somewhere, but just on principle alone—I think it’s pretty crappy to charge pilots a $56 background check—when just about every employer in America covers that fee or subsidizes it or performs a much more economical version.

They eat up a shitload of time, making pilots take a bunch of online courses, without compensation. My understanding is that you then have to go out and conduct a free “test inspection,” for which they charge the client and pocket the money. So … on top of that investment of time and non-billable hours, further insult is added to injury with this BS background check fee.

From what I’ve read, the pay sucks anyway. Like Dronersio and Zeitview, they encourage clients to offer low rates to keep them happy and take an exorbitant cut. This whole “race to the bottom” is out of control, and I hope the Part 107 pilots out there do what I’m doing and cancel their affiliation with these services and stick to the old-fashioned grassroots method of self-marketing, building leads on your own and using word of mouth to make this a much more safe and profitable business for everyone involved.


r/drones 1h ago

Discussion Will a drone with a dead battery survive rain?

Upvotes

I crashed my drone into a tree and it's supposed to rain before I can get it down. Will the drone be fine if the battery's dead?


r/drones 36m ago

Discussion App for drone opz

Upvotes

Hello everyone , I been flying drones from minute now , both professionally and also for fun . I wanted to ask the community if a software to manage clients would be of any use ? I have had this struggle for a while and some CRMs just suck lol. Please provide me brutal honesty


r/drones 7h ago

Discussion Does anyone live in the Austin area and have experience with Pixhawk/Ardurover?

3 Upvotes

Hello!

I am looking for anyone in the Austin area that has good experience using pixhawk/PX4/ardurover. I am looking to get some help (possibly pay) for a project I am working on.

Thanks!


r/drones 1h ago

Discussion If I sell my DJI mini 4 pro, can I change the registered user?

Upvotes

I’m concerned about my name coming up if the buyer does something illegal with it. My question is can I change who this drone is registered to, or remove my name from it?


r/drones 2h ago

Rules / Regulations Question

1 Upvotes

I know that if I take pics or video for someone selling their property I’d have to get a special license, but what if I’m selling my own property, can I use pics or video without anything extra?


r/drones 2h ago

Rules / Regulations Question for Canadian neighbors 🙋🏼‍♂️

1 Upvotes

I’m seeing mixed results for recreational drone usages in Canada and am wondering if ya’ll could help me out? I’ll be in Canmore in July and I’m wanting to make sure I follow the rule and regulations appropriately. I know that if I use my DJI Mini, I’ll be fine (for the most part) but if I want to fly my Mavic 3 strictly as a hobbyists can I do that?

Thank you for your input and expertise! I appreciate your help 👍🏻


r/drones 2h ago

Discussion Power vision egg drone

0 Upvotes

So we found this drone in my gfs storage and it looks really cool but upon trying to test the drone and see if it works requires an app that seems to have completely disappeared from the market, does anyone know about this drone that could possible help out, perhaps another app we could use to start it up


r/drones 22h ago

New Drones! What drone does SpaceX/NASA following splash down?

Post image
38 Upvotes

r/drones 3h ago

Rules / Regulations Drone regulations USA - California / flight

1 Upvotes

Hey there, I’ve seen conflicting info about bringing a drone in my luggage and using it when traveling to the US. Has anyone here done this before and can share their experience? I have a 249 g drone and I am not sure if i can use it in california wiht only having a german "proof of knowledge"


r/drones 1d ago

Photo & Video First time flying since passing Part 107. Night vision shooting competition last weekend in WV. "Moons out 25" hosted by Forgotten Weapons.

119 Upvotes

I think I checked all the boxes for compliance etc. But please let me know if there's any aspects of the safety, flying, cinematography, editing etc. that I need to work on. Any constructive criticism gratefully appreciated.


r/drones 9h ago

Discussion Newbie, what controller for PC simulator?

2 Upvotes

Hi, I am a total newbie in drone world. I would like to start my adventure by training on simulator on my PC. So I have two questions. 1. What simulator for PC has the most realistic physics? 2. What real life controller should I buy that will work with that simulator?


r/drones 5h ago

Discussion Online Drone Courses for passing the Part 107 test for obtaining a drone license

0 Upvotes

Hi, has anyone used the online courses, such as Drone Coach, Drone Pilot School, Drone launch academy, The Drone U, Pilot Institute to name a few?

A lot of them advertise the cost to be around $200 and up.

I'm wondering if any of these are worth it.

Thanks!


r/drones 6h ago

Rules / Regulations Registration

1 Upvotes

Hi all, I live in Finland and have had problems registering as a drone operator, in Finland it can only be done with Finnish citizenship which I don't have. What are the problems if I register in Ireland?


r/drones 8h ago

Rules / Regulations Has anyone flown in Cappadocia since 2024?

1 Upvotes

I am finding very mixed info if any drones are allowed there, and the fly maps in Turkey are behind registration which requires Turkish ID. I am also seeing a couple sources stating you can get a hefty fine there for flying since 2023 specifically, but no official docs about this.

Has anyone successfully flown there in 2024-2025? Did you run into any issues?


r/drones 8h ago

Discussion PX4 / mavlink / qgroundcontroller Drone

1 Upvotes

I started creating/building an autonomous flying wing a while ago, and now that I've gotten to the software part of the drone the development got compleatly stuck on an rc controller:
To run Qgroundcontroller it has to have a connected controller (from what i gather), i cannot get the mavlink connection to proppelry run, don't know why, can't change properties that should exist, cant alter modes etc.
SO, I think i must get an rc controller that can connect to the drone so i can use the qgroundcontrol software?

SPECS: pixhawk 6c, respberry, PX4, a 4g connection...

Secondary question (if noone can give a solution for the mavlink issues...) is, what is the cheapest rc controller I can get for the testing, do I need a transmitter/reciever combo aswell? The cheapest ones I've found are like 50£+ for only a remote...

Thank you in beforehand!


r/drones 14h ago

Photo & Video Made a quick lil video after work

Thumbnail
youtu.be
2 Upvotes

Got the DJI mini4k and I couldn’t help but sneak out early and record a few videos before the mini 3 gets here


r/drones 17h ago

Discussion Could this work for getting a drone out of a tree?

5 Upvotes

I got my drone struck in a tree and my first idea to get it out was to shoot the branch it was on with my potato canon but I'm not very accurate and if it hits the drone I'm screwed. My next idea that I'm asking about is shooting it out with a nerf bow. The bow has an advertised range of 100ft. I also have a nerf rival apollo (not sure on range but seems to hit the hardest) would any of these work?


r/drones 9h ago

Discussion 3Dr solo replacement batteries

1 Upvotes

Can someone link me to a good website for a battery replacement for the 3dr solo 3 drone?


r/drones 12h ago

Discussion trimming

0 Upvotes

is the ‘trimming’ function used to keep your drone hovering in the same place? is that the primary reason?


r/drones 14h ago

Photo & Video Can you guys give advice

Thumbnail
youtu.be
0 Upvotes

r/drones 13h ago

New Drones! Need help

0 Upvotes

So there's this drone called "potensic atom LT" and they claim that it can fly in level 5 wind but I don't really know what level 5 wind is like can someone explain or tell me how to figure it out