NASHVILLE, TN, August 7, 2024—UAV Coach, the nation’s top provider of drone education and training, has released a newly updated version of Drone Pilot Ground School to help drone pilots pass the FAA’s Part 107 test. The updated course was recently released on July 24 as the company celebrates 10 years of working to support drone pilots.

“We are so excited about this updated version of Drone Pilot Ground School,” says Brad Tucker, CEO of UAV Coach. “Our focus at UAV Coach has always been on helping commercial drone pilots gain the knowledge and skills they need to be successful, and this newly updated course is the perfect way for us to celebrate ten years of doing this important work.”

UAV Coach launched Drone Pilot Ground School on June 21, 2016—the same day the FAA released the Part 107 rules. Since launching, over 65,000 drone pilots have used the course to earn their Part 107 certification. UAV Coach students have over a 99% pass rate on the test, and the company is trusted by nationally recognized organizations like the NYPD, NBC Universal, Granite Construction, and Tesla to train their drone pilots.

Drone Pilot Ground School walks students through the Part 107 test, covering key topics in a self-study format. The new version of the course has been completely updated, including:

• New videos and course content fully up-to-date for 2024.
• New personalized study plans to help students succeed and progress at their preferred pace.
• New virtual flashcards to provide even more study tools to help students pass the exam the first time.
• New Spanish subtitles for more accessible learning.

To celebrate its 10th anniversary, UAV Coach is offering $100 off Drone Pilot Ground School now through August 14. See an example lesson from the updated course now.

About UAV Coach

UAV Coach is the nation’s top provider of drone education and training. UAV Coach specializes in helping people get their commercial drone license through their online test prep course, Drone Pilot Ground School, with a 99% pass rate, which has helped over 65,000 drone pilots pass the FAA’s Part 107 test. UAV Coach offers free and paid educational resources for drone pilots, including in-person training and free access to the FAA’s TRUST for recreational flyers. UAV Coach was founded in 2014 with the mission of empowering drone pilots every step of their journey.

Media contact: Zacc Dukowitz (Zacc@UAVCoach.com)

The post UAV Coach Celebrates 10th Anniversary with Newly Updated Part 107 Course appeared first on UAV Coach.

This month marks UAV Coach’s 10th anniversary.

To celebrate the anniversary, we’ve released a newly updated Drone Pilot Ground School, our test prep course for the FAA’s Part 107 exam.

We’ve completely reimagined the course with:

• Brand new videos
• Virtual flashcards
• Personalized study plans
• Spanish subtitles

And a lot more, which we’ll cover below in this article.

To celebrate the new version of the course, we’re offering $100 off thru August 14th.

Sign up now to get the discount.

Celebrating Ten Years by Doubling Down on Our Commitment to Drone Pilots

When UAV Coach first started in 2014, the FAA’s Part 107 certification didn’t exist. From 2014 to 2016, the only way to operate drones commercially was to obtain a Part 333 exemption.

In 2016, the FAA released the Part 107 rules.

On the same day the rules came out we launched Drone Pilot Ground School, our online test prep course to help drone pilots pass the Part 107 test.

Since then, we’ve trained over 65,000 drone pilots to become Part 107 certified. Our students have over a 99% pass rate on the test, and we’re trusted by nationally recognized organizations like Tesla, the NYPD, and NBC Universal to train their pilots.The journey to get to this point has been incredible. And all of our success has come from you, our students.

That’s why we wanted to celebrate UAV Coach’s 10th anniversary by creating a completely up-to-date version of Drone Pilot Ground School.

[Want to see what the course looks like? See inside one of our lessons!]

The original course was made in 2016, just before the FAA released the Part 107 rules.

After a few years, we felt like we could do better. So we completely redid Drone Pilot Ground School, reshooting videos, creating new lessons to address notes from our students, and making the learning experience more seamless.

Now, we created a completely new, up-to-date version of Drone Pilot Ground School to provide the very best resources for our students—keep reading to learn more about the updates we made.

What’s New in Drone Pilot Ground School

Here’s a closer look at the updates we made in the new version of Drone Pilot Ground School.

NEW Most Updated Industry Content

We guarantee that you will be getting access to the industry’s most up-to-date content so that you can have confidence in passing the FAA exam.

Our videos are NEW as of July 2024, no outdated videos here!

Here’s a look inside the new course:

NEW Personalized Study Plans

Complete the course in one week or spread it out over the course of two weeks or one month. With our study plans, you’ll be able to pace your training to your ideal completion time.

NEW Virtual Flash Cards

Our course now includes digital flash cards to provide even more study tools to help you pass the exam the first time. Guaranteed.

NEW Spanish Subtitles

Although you need to be able to read, speak, write, and understand English to become a certified drone pilot; we now offer Spanish subtitles for more accessible learning.

Ready to become a commercial drone pilot?

Get $100 off the newly updated Drone Pilot Ground School now.

The post Want to Become Part 107 Certified? Get $100 Off Our Newly Updated Test Prep Course, Drone Pilot Ground School appeared first on UAV Coach.

We’re also covering the U.S. Department of Commerce blacklisting Autel, North Carolina’s repeal of its state drone license requirement, DJI’s move into ebikes, and AUVSI’s key takeaways from the FAA Reauthorization bill.

Now let’s get to those links!

July 4th Pyro Drone Light Show

A few weeks back, we covered Sky Elements getting the first authorization from the FAA to launch fireworks from drones—a phenomenon it calls pyro drones—and shared a video of a test the company performed with its new exemption. In this video, Sky Elements puts that permission to use for the first ever public pyro drone display. The show took place to celebrate July 4, featuring a red, white, and blue eagle made of light show drones, which launches fireworks from its wings, making for an incredible spectacle against the backdrop of the night sky.

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Autel Blacklisted by the U.S. Department of Commerce

Credit: Autel

The U.S. Department of Commerce has added Autel Robotics to its entity list, also known as its blacklist. The list contains foreign individuals, companies, and organizations deemed a national security concern. (DJI was added to the list back in 2020.) Being placed on the entity list is not the same as being banned—DJI has continued operating in the U.S. since being placed on the list four years ago. But it will make it harder for Autel to do business in the U.S., requiring the company to jump through more hoops to export its goods. Like DJI, Autel’s addition to the list could signal that it’s the next company to be targeted with bills like the Countering Drones CCP Act, otherwise known as the DJI ban. And that would make sense, given that Autel is the second biggest Chinese drone company operating in the U.S.

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North Carolina Repeals State Drone License Requirement

Image source

North Carolina has repealed its requirement for commercial drone pilots to pass a state knowledge test offered by the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s (NCDOT) to obtain a permit and operate there. The reason for the repeal is simple: the rule hurt the economy. By making it harder to operate drones for work in North Carolina than in other states, the rule effectively drove commercial drone pilots into opening businesses elsewhere, or simply choosing not to operate at all. But the repeal wasn’t inevitable. It required hard work from AeroX, a North Carolina-based nonprofit focused on pushing forward drones and advanced air mobility, which dedicated itself to educating lawmakers about the benefits of drones and the importance of advanced drone operations to the state economy.

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DJI Is Getting into—Wait for It—Ebikes

Credit: DJI

DJI just announced that it’s getting into e-bikes. According to the company, this is a natural move since it has developed advanced battery and motor technology to power its drones and the gimbals they carry. DJI’s foray into the ebike world comes in the form of the Avinox Drive System for a new bike company called Amflow. As you might expect, the Avinox system leverages technology typically found in drones and smartphones, including a 2″ color OLED touchscreen that displays things like real-time riding data, setup options, and the bike’s remaining range. The first electric bike to feature the system will be the Amflow PL, an e-MTB (electric mountain bike), which will launch later this year.

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AUVSI’s Top Takeaways from FAA Reauthorization Bill

AUVSI recently shared some insights about the 2024 FAA Reauthorization Act, which serves as a roadmap for the agency’s upcoming priorities from now through 2028. The two main areas the Reauthorization Act focuses on are BVLOS  for drones and powered lift aircraft (i.e., large VTOL aircraft like drone taxis and others used for cargo delivery).

Here are the key takeaways:

• Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS). The law requires the FAA to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking within 4 months and a final rule within 16 months that establishes acceptable levels of risk for BVLOS operations and provides an approvals process. The uncrewed systems industry broadly agrees that enabling routine operations BVLOS is critical for high-value uses. Examples include inspections and surveying, package delivery, public safety missions, and disaster response.
• Drone Inspection Grants and Educational Programs. The FAA Reauthorization Act establishes a grant program to support the use of drones when inspecting, repairing, or constructing critical infrastructure. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) will award grants to state, tribal, and local governments to purchase and use drones to increase efficiency, reduce costs, and improve worker safety. It also directs DOT to establish a grant program for educational institutions conducting UAS workforce training.
• Powered Lift Aircraft. The FAA Reauthorization Act requires the FAA to issue a Special Federal Aviation Regulation (SFAR) for the operations of powered lift aircraft within seven months, which will help to meaningfully move the Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) industry forward. The law supports type-specific training and qualification for pilots, which will support the safety of early AAM operations.
• AAM Infrastructure. The FAA Reauthorization Act makes clear that existing infrastructure, in concert with new infrastructure, is eligible for grants under the previously established AAM Infrastructure Pilot Program. It also extends the Pilot Program for two years, through 2026.

AUVSI will be hosting a Drone and AAM Symposium later this month focused on the future of the integration of drones and AAM into the national airspace system. The symposium will feature talks on drone regulations, UAS detection and mitigation, infrastructure, and complex operations.

The event will take place from July 30-August 1 in Baltimore. Follow the link below to learn more.

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The post Drone News Roundup: First Pyro Drone Light Show, Autel Blacklisted, and More! appeared first on UAV Coach.

This week we’re covering a hydrofoil powered by a drone—you have to see this to believe it.

We’re also covering a fun FPV freestyle video shot at an active conveyor belt in the desert, a Florida man shooting down a Walmart delivery drone, a drone patent to support off-road driving from General Motors, and a letter from lawmakers asking for proof that DJI is spying to be declassified.

Now on to the links!

Can You Power a Hydrofoil with a Drone?

As YouTuber Daniel Riley of @rctestflight points out at the start of this video a hydrofoil—also called a wakefoil—is basically a small aircraft on a stick. But they’re really unstable, which makes them really hard to ride. Drones are similarly hard to stabilize, a problem that gyroscopes help solve by measuring displacement, allowing the drone’s electronics to correct and stabilize it while in flight. Riley wondered if these same electronics could help stabilize a wakefoil, and he began experimenting with different ways of attaching a drone to one—watch the video to see the results.

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FPV Freestyle at Moving Conveyor Belt—2 Drones Lost!

2019 DRL World Champion and FPV master Alex Vanover met up with a few FPV pilots to do some risky freestyle flying around an active conveyor belt in this fun video from Rotor Riot. They got some amazing shots, including continuous barrel rolls around the moving belt and shots inside the conveyor belt’s metal structure, following the belt as it transported earth. But the footage came at a cost. At 2:14 Vanover loses a drone and at 6:44 Bubby, a Rotor Riot FPV pilot, loses another one. Do you think the footage was worth it? We do. Check out the video to see for yourself.

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Florida Man Shoots Walmart Delivery Drone

A 72-year-old Florida man recently shot a Walmart delivery drone, punching a hole through its payload. The delivery was being made by DroneUp, which has pivoted to focusing exclusively on drone delivery. According to the shooter’s arrest affidavit, a two-person crew from the company was at a delivery point in the Lake County neighborhood conducting a demonstration delivery when the drone was shot. The man faces charges of shooting or throwing a deadly missile into dwellings, vessels, or vehicles; criminal mischief above $1,000; and discharging a firearm in public or on residential property.

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General Motors Off-Road Drone Idea

Credit: General Motors

Imagine you’re off-roading and you get to a pretty wild spot in the road, where you can’t see which route forward is the best one to take. What do you do? You may get out, walk a ways from your truck, and determine the best way on foot. Or maybe you’ll drive forward only to have to reverse and start over. General Motors has a better idea—using a drone to scan the area and choose the best way for you. GM recently patented a system that includes a car dock for a drone, allowing it to deploy so it can scan the road ahead using what it calls AI Scout Drone mode. The AI piece is key. Not only will the drone scout possible off-road routes, it will also collect data like incline, rocks or obstacles, and soil conditions, then process this data using specialized software to give you an informed recommendation for which way to go.

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House Leaders Call for Declassification of DJI Drone Threat Data

Credit: DJI

Despite calls to ban DJI, and a law passed by the House that may actually do it (the law is awaiting a vote from the Senate), the truth is that we’ve never seen proof that DJI is using its drones to spy on the American people. Spying concerns are at the heart of the push to ban DJI, with proponents claiming the company is illicitly sending data its drones collect to the Chinese government. Now, House lawmakers have written an open letter to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Energy (DOE) asking them to declassify information “relating to potential national security risks posed by” drones from China. DJI has obtained several third party security certifications and paid for several third party security audits, none of which have found proof of its drones sending data to China or anywhere else. It will be interesting to see whether this letter results in the release of actual proof backing up the allegations that have been made against DJI for years—but we’ll be honest, we’re not holding our breath.

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The post Drone News Roundup: Drone-Powered Hydrofoil, FPV Freestyle Flying Around an Active Conveyor Belt, and More! appeared first on UAV Coach.

Following his service, he was recruited by General Atomics to oversee engineering teams working on several cutting-edge Predator and Reaper military drone projects. Seeing what was about to come in the small commercial drone market, Dan founded Modus Robotics, where he was able to use his skills in aviation and remote sensing to help companies transform drone-driven data into actionable business intelligence.

Daniel also has a background in tactical imagery and satellite remote sensing, making him an expert in Light Detection and Range (LiDAR). In fact, he just launched a free course to help drone pilots learn about LiDAR called LiDAR Basics, and his company’s website offers an entire library of free LiDAR resources you can peruse if you’re want to learn more about the topic.

We wanted to sit down with Daniel to learn more about LiDAR, LiDAR-equipped drones, and how he first started working with drones—read the interview to learn what he had to say.

—
Begin Interview

What is LiDAR?

LiDAR is light detection and range—it stands for a principle.

At its essence, what you’re doing with LiDAR is the same thing as RADAR or SONAR. You send the signal out, it bounces off something, and you time how long it takes to return.

That’s essentially what LiDAR is. The big difference between LiDAR and RADAR or SONAR is the precision. With RADAR you’re using these very, very large waves that crash into something and come back, and it’s the same thing with SONAR.

Because LiDAR is so precise, it yields incredible resolution and precision—when you’re using light, or more specifically, a laser, you’re using photons, so it’s very, very precise.

https://vimeo.com/277115593

Check out this intro to LiDAR video created by Modus Robotics

Is LiDAR better than photogrammetry?

They’re both excellent, and they’re both necessary in different scenarios.

I think the debate about which is better is just based on who can afford what. Comparing the two is comparing apples and oranges. With photogrammetry, light is generated from somewhere else and reflected, and the camera captures it. But with LiDAR, light is generated by the LiDAR sensor itself, so you know the precise distance and angle from the sensor.

What I recommend is to use LiDAR when you need measurable data quickly. Use drone photogrammetry when you need spectral or color information. I use both, using LiDAR as the base layer for BIM (Building Information Modeling) and GIS (Geographic Information System), and then draping the photogrammetric imagery over the base layer. The commercial drone market seems to think this is a new thing, but we have been doing this for years. It is proven technology. In the end, keep your processes simple, and you will be more efficient and make more money in the long run.

We hear much talk about accuracy these days. What level of accuracy do you think is important when using LiDAR, or does it just depend on the specific application?

I think most people don’t understand what they mean by accuracy these days. For instance, in both photogrammetry and LiDAR, we see many people in the market claiming their products provides millimeter level of accuracy.

But when we talk about accuracy, there are two types of accuracy, relative and absolute. As you certify either criteria of accuracy, that certification has to be qualified and quantified. So let’s look at examples of each type of accuracy.

Relative accuracy is the integrity of the object that you scanned—the photograph. As an example, if you’re looking at a house and you know that the door ledge is 36 inches and it shows up on your scan as 36 inches, well, then you can say it has high relative accuracy.

The other kind of accuracy is absolute accuracy, which is certifying each point’s geospatial location in reference to the earth. So let’s use the same door ledge from the previous example. How accurate are the points at the corners in reference to a known position on the earth’s surface? We know that the door ledge is precisely 36 inches long, but what if those points are 2 feet higher than the actual ground? We can say it has 2 feet of absolute error.

This may not seem like a big deal but absolute error uses vertical measurement, so this means your door could be 2 feet above the pavement. So how does it match with other scans or drawings? Being able to match your product with other products is what gives it value.

I think many people get these two types of accuracy confused, and it’s crucial to understand the difference for certain kinds of industrial work. If you’re doing civil engineering work, relative accuracy is the most important thing.

However, in the geodetic world, or in the world of mapping and GIS, absolute accuracy is critical. So it’s important to define your terms and understand what kind of accuracy you’re talking about, and why it matters for the specific type of work you’re doing.

Can you walk us through how LiDAR is being used in the field? Let’s use the construction industry as an example.

LiDAR data is so flexible—it has many uses and products in the field. Its applications can be broken into three primary segments: mapping, vegetation, and structural modeling. One of the most obvious use cases is in pre-construction, when you’re evaluating the land to see if it’s suitable for building.

Using the traditional method, you would send out a team of surveyors to take a survey. For a small area, this requires a group of three or four all day. Most times they use differential GPS, a highly accurate GNSS base station, and a radio positioning sensing stick, and record a series of points they call survey lines. Using this approach, they can get about 80 to 100 points a day—usually, a survey line is drawn along these points, and each point is separated by 500 yards.

So after they pick these exact points and create these lines, there are still 500 yards gaps between each point, and typically a surveyor will do an interpolation to fill in the differences to account for these gaps.

Using traditional methods, this product, from order to deliver, takes three weeks. Now let’s look at LiDAR.

With LiDAR, whether it’s ground-based, mobile, or aerial, you’re getting thousands of points along those survey lines. You’re getting the terrain. You are getting the vegetation. You are collecting the structures. With the new sensor and drone technology that’s available, you’re just getting so much more precision.

To make this concrete, where a surveyor might typically provide 50 points per acre, a drone equipped with LiDAR can produce 450 to 500 points per meter squared.

So, for using LiDAR in construction, you now have all of this incredibly precise data.

The next thing you do with that data is input it into a program and strip off all the vegetation and manmade features so you have the bare earth, creating different layers for vegetation and other criteria so we can review it later if we want.

Then we use the equivalent of machine learning to identify different patterns and classify them. So we get to go through and do quality control for these classifications—that’s what usually takes the most time.

In the end, we’re able to generate different renditions of the earth’s surface, all of which are highly precise. You can use this information to do things like go into different contour levels of the earth’s surface, or do shade analysis—how light hits the earth surfaces. Alternatively, we can do flood mapping to determine how water’s going to run off the land. All of this is possible with the data collected.

So it took the surveyor three weeks to generate a map with elevation contours and precise locations of key features. With LiDAR we have the base product in 2 hours and comparable products in less than two days. Plus aLiDAR analyst can recreate 3D visualization models, volumetrics, feature identification and change detection in a fraction of the time.

All of this is crucial for construction. An error costs lots of money to fix it. Back when I was 19, I worked as a layout engineer for a construction outfit and dug a very long ditch in the wrong place, and it cost one hundred thousand dollars—literally—because of my mistake.

So with LiDAR drones, we could have done a daily LiDAR survey, and by the next morning we would have the survey data and compare LiDAR data from the CAD (Computer Aided Drafting) drawings, preventing expensive mistakes and providing real-time program management business intelligence. That’s priceless.

How does your background in the military inform the work you do now, helping companies use technology to make their operations more efficient?

The first real job I had in the military was as a tactical imagery analyst for Naval intelligence.  I worked for a three-star admiral and gained a ton of experience studying other nations’ capabilities just from pictures—and it’s funny, because in many ways that is still what I do today. Through that work I developed a deep appreciation for making a decision based upon data and measurable facts.

I built imagery programs that monitored and tracked other countries’ capability via imagery. The program was so successful that it was adopted by all the armed forces, and I was awarded a naval officer commission and slot to become a pilot.

In flight school, 9/11 happened, and that changed everything. I was rushed to a squadron in Japan, and shortly after that, we invaded Afghanistan. For the next four years, I was all over Southeast Asia working in support of the war on terror—flying helicopters, tracking down smugglers and pirates, providing humanitarian aid, performing search and rescue . . . you name it. It was a hard four years. Just tons and tons of flying and doing really neat stuff, and not very much sleep.

Being a pilot, I was able to see the other side of the intelligence equation. As a tactical imagery analyst, I would download what a satellite or pilot gave me. Now it was my job to plan and collect information. It made me very effective, since I knew what information was needed.

From there I was again given a choice about what do next, and I ended up going to Top Gun and becoming a helicopter weapons and tactics instructor. I did two basic things. One, break down and teach young pilots how to solve problems, communicate, and lead dynamically in real time. Two, figure out how to actually use all the new technology in the field, such as satellite communications, airborne shared tactical displays, and some very cool high powered sensors.

One of the things you realize in that kind of training is that, in some instances, we have too much technology available—the technology is so sophisticated that it’s hard for a human being to actually use all of it. So how do you plan with all this technology? And I think that’s what’s starting to happen in the drone industry right now—we have a ton of amazing tech, but people are asking, “OK, cool, but what do you do with this?”

Which is why we created Modus Robotics: to make technology simple, so small businesses can be successful.

Often, what I find is that companies don’t know what their primary objective is. They buy software because of marketing or a perceived capability of what they think they can do, not based upon need and return on investment.

I’ve worked with the Army, the Air Force, the Navy, and it’s usually just the same as what I do now for private companies. When a client first shows up, we spend a lot of time clarifying what exactly their objectives are. Then we match process, the technology available to achieve it, and your return on investment. In the military, we call that mission success.

How did you first get into working with drones?

I was at the height of my career in the military, and I lost vision in my left eye.

It was temporary, and I did regain vision in that eye eventually, but that kind of thing is a career killer. In aviation, your physiology is so important. So while waiting to get approved to fly again, I managed a new helicopter program—figuring out how to man, train, and equip $350 million in high tech helicopters for 13 squadrons of over 2,000 people.

Part of my position was overseeing the Navy’s brand new helicopter drone, Fire Scout. We had to figure out from the ground up things like: Who was going to fly it? Was it safe? What were the operating limits? What could it do?

It’s so important to emphasize that this isn’t a toy airplane—Fire Scout is the size of a police helicopter without a pilot. We were landing them on the back of moving ships in an area the size of half a basketball court.

After that work, I was asked to join the Army special forces and sent to the Middle East, where I ended up overseeing several sites between Iraq, Afghanistan, and many other locations.

We had several drones as part of our operations. My first day on the job, I opened and started to study the drone’s operator manual, as any good pilot would do. It was 10 pm at night when the operations door opened up and a kid who was about twenty years old told me, “Sir, there’s nobody here, and we have an engine out in one of our drones.”

I told him, “Just do your in-flight engine restart procedures.” I’m still reading the manual. I hadn’t read the part in the manual yet that tells you this is not possible for this particular drone, but based upon my flight experience, it was the first logical thing to do.

He said, “We don’t have air restart. We can’t restart in the air.”

“Oh, okay. Well, where are you?”

“Downtown Baghdad,” he said.

This was not good.

I walked into the ground control station, and luckily the interface that I saw was something that I was familiar with, and sure enough, we are in the middle of Baghdad. We ended up gliding safely outside of the city and landing it. Then I was told that there was they planned to leave it out there because it’s just a drone.

“Bullshit,” I said. “We go get it.”

So we went out at 2 in the morning with two helicopters and retrieved it, which was not an easy task. To retrieve it, I had to step on both wings literally, duct tape it, and throw it into the back of the helicopter.

That was my first day in Iraq.

What did you do next to get things up to speed with the drone program there?

We were still learning back then, and we were losing many aircrafts due to pilot error. That was not going to continue under my watch.

So the next thing I did was to shut down my site for two weeks for drone training. The most significant part of this training was not visual flying but adopting flying by instrument procedures and operational risk management. We didn’t lose any more drones after that. In fact, we had a perfect safety record, which is unheard of.

Something you might not know is that all of my units overseas were co-located with airports. To increase safety, we developed instrumented flight procedures for drones, and we increased the airport’s flight efficiency by 25%.

Previously the air traffic controllers and pilots didn’t know where the drones were, which led us to do instrumented procedures, so everybody knew where he or she was, and this dramatically increased safety.

Want to learn more about LiDAR? Check out Daniel’s Intro to LiDAR Training Course here.

The post How LiDAR Is Being Used in the Field: An Interview with Daniel Hubert, Founder of Modus Robotics appeared first on UAV Coach.

We’re also covering a webinar we’re hosting on how to build a drone business, a new massive drone light show from Disney, drones and AI protecting people from shark attacks in Australia, a big win for drone pilots in Hollywood, and the appointment of Johan Mlouka as VP of Sales for Voliro.

Now on to the links!

First DJI Mavic 4 Leak

Public beta tester left his #mavic4 on the streets to be caught on video by a bystander. We see a air 3 like design but with a larger camera we recognize from the Mavic 3 pro. Could this be the widely desired 1 inch? I’ll take a long shot: August 1st pic.twitter.com/OikebTGbMK

— Jasper Ellens | X27 (@JasperEllens) June 12, 2024

Drone insider Jasper Ellens seems has gotten his hands on what looks like a snapshot of a Mavic 4 prototype. The drone in the photo seems to have an airframe like the Air 3, but with a larger camera, like the kind we’d expect on a Mavic 3 Pro. If you recall, there was a debunked Air 3S leak a few weeks back—now it’s looking like that leak may have had some truth to it. Ellens predicts an August 1 launch date for the Mavic 4—if that’s right, we’re sure to see a lot more leaks in the coming weeks.

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Webinar: How to Build a Drone Business

Need help starting a drone business? Or already have one, and looking for tips to help it grow? Join us next Friday, June 28 at 3pm ET for a webinar focused on “Drone Business Foundations: The Essential Building Blocks for a Successful Drone Venture.”

• Market opportunities and growth trends in the drone industry
• What you should do post-Part 107 to start your drone business
• How to identify the ideal drone services customer
• Real-world insights from successful drone business coach Eno Umoh

SIGN UP NOW

Disney Debuts 800-Drone Light Show

Disney’s latest drone light show uses an impressive 800 drones to create classic Disney characters in the night sky, including Buzz Lightyear and Peter Pan. Called “Disney Dreams That Soar,” the show features some seriously big creations, including a 213-foot tall Death Star, from Star Wars, and a 328-foot tall Big Ben, from Peter Pan. The show itself spans 524 feet, making it one of the biggest drone light shows on record, both in terms of the number of drones used and in terms of the sheer amount of space covered. “Disney Dreams That Soar” is currently being shown for free at the Disney Springs resort mall district—but you can catch it right here, in this video.

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Drones and AI Help Prevent Shark Attacks in Australia

Credit: Department of Primary Industries

Australia has 100,000 beaches, and most of its population lives near the coast. The country is also a global hotspot for shark attacks—last year, it had 40% of the shark-related deaths in the world, an increase from previous years. To prevent these attacks, the country is turning to drones. At the moment, Australia has the largest coastal drone-surveillance operation in the world. The operation uses drones flown by pilots who can see the UAV, as well as using remotely operated drones and drones that can cover long distances, with the incorporation of AI to automatically spot sharks in aerial footage. The drones are part of a larger effort that includes nets, tracking devices, and new buoys made to identify the presence of sharks in real time.

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Hollywood Drone Pilots Score Major Union Win

Image source

Drone pilots in Hollywood scored a major win recently: They’ll now be covered under union contracts that previously only applied to those working cameras on the ground. The International Cinematographers Guild (IATSE Local 600) announced the change recently as the outcome of a dispute with major studios that began over whether specific drone pilots were covered under its contract. Moving forward, union films and T.V. productions made with major studios will have to cover drone camera crews and pay union benefits to drone crew members.

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Johan Mlouka Joins Voliro as VP of Sales

Credit: Voliro

Johan Mlouka, former head of North America and LATAM sales for Flyability, has joined Voliro as its VP of Sales. Mlouka brings with him over a decade of experience working with drones and robotics for inspections. At Flyability, he helped build the company’s market in North America to become the company’s largest in the world, leading the way in establishing the use of drones in inspections throughout the drone industry. Voliro makes drones specifically for outdoor inspections, with a special focus on using drones for ultrasonic thickness (UT) testing. In the new role, Mlouka will oversee global sales efforts for Voliro, with a particular focus on expanding the company’s footprint in the North American market.

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