Ask Your Drone Questions — LIVE Q&A

Heat. for another live Q&A. Um, yeah, I'm back. Thanks for Jason uh for filling in last week and uh but yeah, back in the chair and uh we got some drone questions to answer. So, if you're new here, we answer all your drone questions, as many as we can, in one hour. So, put them in the chat. Jason is actually in the back room. He's going to be um filtering through all those questions and putting them for me in my chat and then we'll go from there. All right. Well, let's say hi to a bunch of folks. I can see some familiar name. Uh I can see Eric Rushnider. We have Donald uh Bagley. I don't think I have seen this name before. So, welcome. Uh, James Cox, Jason Williams, Curtis Warren, Old Dead Eyee, Pro Agonomics, uh, Paul Guy, we have Dave D'vor, John Eagle, Perau, Avis, uh, we have Richard Hooker, Leo Cardonus, we have Louie Gard Gallardo, we have Drone Tycoon, JJ Johnson from Toronto, Glenn Gail is here in Sedona. Back in Sedona, man, Glenn, you came back um when it's hot. It's been so hot here. Uh M. Brandon is here. Uh let's see. Sergio Deagertza, I think I said that. Jim Shusman is here as well. An okay boomer. Flying Brian Claude Camper. Premier Aerial Images. Jillian, our own Jillian from the community. Mark Saxon, Don M, Engineer Drone Services, that's our friend Minet from Boston. We have uh Boston. Sorry, I should have done it properly. Uh Danny Mooseber Mooseberger. Uh, we have Bluegrass UAS, Jeff U, Jeff Savv, I'm sorry. Uh, Shutter Sky Pro, Vic is here from Vic Moss Photography. Uh, Tom Raid is here as well. We have Paul Mishek, we have Winslow, Joy, uh, Cyberpunk, Ariel Scan 3D, Ed Rutled Ledge is here. Um, who else? I'm looking at names that I haven't said yet. Okay, Dwayne Thommpson. And then, uh, James uh, Van Bouven is here as well. Our good old friend, Captain Ray Kelly. Welcome, Captain Ray. And, uh, Black Sheep Dino, just Johnny Space Monkey. And I think I got to the end. All right. Um, yeah, let's get to the questions. Uh, it's been an interesting week last week. Um, what happened? Did something weird with drones happen? Oh, yeah. Well, the dude in Arizona is still trying to push for his uh stupid uh rule. So, I emailed uh the senator, Senator Dunn. I emailed his office this morning again. I had emailed him in January. I haven't heard back then. Uh the letter was slightly more strongly worded this time.

And uh so we'll see. Maybe we'll hear back. Maybe we won't. Um but yeah, if you haven't heard, some senator in Arizona is trying to push for a onem by one mile by one mile. Basically, um a onem dome, a one mile high and one mile in radius dome around any uh places that sell ticketed um that sells tickets. ticketed events, I guess, is the way it's written. So, I'm trying to find the right words. — Yeah. And um speaking of another scam and yeah, so that doesn't work. He's trying to control the airspace. We sent him to the FA U letter that basically states that states can't do that, but we'll see what he does or what he doesn't do. So, yeah, good stuff. Good stuff. Uh, not. All right, let's get to the question. What is the proper agency to notify if you know a military no-fly zone that is not listed on any FAA map? Oo, interesting. So, the FAA has a an office that takes care of all the um the material that is published. And I don't know if Jason can find it, but um it's I don't remember from top of my head the name of it, but when you search if you search for the sectional charts u at the bottom somewhere in that page where you can download the sectional charts that there's a feedback area where you can leave comments and that's where I would submit it. Um they're in charge of everything that's published map related and so that's where that would go. Couple weeks ago, you said that some Avvada 360 drone could have FCC approval and some not have FCC approval. How is that since the FCC approval number already has been assigned to the DJI Avvada 360? So, here's this is really interesting. something that I didn't realize at the time, but um when a manufacturer manufactures a drone, DJI in this case, uh they don't always put all of the approvals uh inside all the approval stickers inside of that drone. And so I don't know how it works from a manufacturing perspective, but they probably have a certain number of drones that are um kind of dedicated to a certain market and others that are dedicated to another market. And uh not all of them apparently, and it depends on the model, I'm sure, but I'm not I don't want to make a generalization, but not all of them have the FCC approval. So sticker in it. So, it's more than likely that it is in there, but it is possible that it may not be in there. So, I recommend that when you purchase one that you make sure that it is in there. Uh, we posted a couple videos on this, short videos on our YouTube channel. So, if you want to go take a look at that, uh, we can show you where to look. It's really small print, so you have to kind of look around a couple times and read all these labels in there to find if it is, and if it's not, then it's going to be missing. Uh we have one drone that we know is not FCC approved because it was never meant for the American market. And uh that's the um it's the Mini 2 Japanese version. And the Mini2 Japanese version was uh the big advantage that it had it was 199 g. So, this was actually the first uh category 1 drone that we had uh because it was 199 g plus the prop guards and that made it still sub 250, barely sub 250, but it worked. And so that drone, little did we know at the time, was not FCC approved. So, it doesn't have the tag. Now, we haven't flown it um since knowing, but yeah, that drone is in there. is one of those. But going forward, as we get the Mini 6 and the Mini 7 and the Mavic 5 and all of the future models that are going to come out, they're not going to be FCC approved. Obviously, these will not have the FCC sticker in them. So, that's why we made those videos because going forward, it's going to be a lot more of an issue um to do that. So, yeah, FA has entered chat. This would be actually the FCC answering the chat because technically that's that was the uh the issue. Is flying uh transitionally over people trans as a transition? Okay. Uh considered the same role as OOP? Yes, it is. Can any drone transition over sparsely people? No. Um the rule is and I know there is a lot of misinformation unfortunately on this topic because um the regulation is difficult to read but once you know how to read it it's clear that if you want to operate over people whether you're

transitioning or hovering um you need to have a categorized drone. Now, there are limitations on some drones that cannot hover over people, but in general, if you are going to fly over people, regardless of how you do it, you need to have a categorized drone. Once you get into the categories, then the rules are slightly different. But as a general statement, you cannot be wrong in saying if you fly over people, you need to have a categorized drone or a waiver, of course. Okay. Will the FAA Okay, let me see. Let me mark some of these as completed here. Where's my little check mark? There we go. All right. Will the FAA approve OOP waiver for a 399 g drone with aircraft light and no VO? I noticed that you mentioned in the video 1586 g drones need VO. No, it's not about it's not so much about VO. It's more about the parachute, the need for a parachute. So the weight is really about parachute. So you can get an OOP waiver at sub 400 g. If you don't have a VO, that's okay. Uh as long as you make your safety case to the FA. Got a question referring to the exam cost. I'm hearing 150 or 175. 175 is the correct number. Um, is it up to the examiner? Does the FA regulate this? The FA actually does not regulate this, but um PSI is the company that provides the waiver that provides the service and uh they have set the price to 175 until they raise it up again. Uh for a while they raised it twice in one year and I think they got enough backlash that they stopped doing that. The problem is that company PSI has a monopoly in um the uh testing thing and the FA is not interested in breaking that monopoly which I think is actually um a shame and should be illegal but um here we are. So 175 is the current 150 used to be the number. A couple years ago when we started our business it was 150. When I started flight training 20 some years ago uh it was $50 for a written exam. So I did all my written exam for $50 a piece. Anyways that was almost in the 1900s. Okay. Question. With all the DJI government challenges, are there any recommendation for 3D printed or do-it-yourself drones? I mean, you can build drones. I don't know that I would 3D print the entire drone. Uh, but you can buy frames that are made of carbon and then you can use those to build your own drone. So, yeah, it's definitely a way to do it, but it's definitely a process. you need to learn uh quite a few skills and then you need to learn how to uh use the proper software to configure everything. So, it's there's a couple videos online that will show you how to do that. We have one. It's aging now, but the process is still the same. It's just the parts are uh no longer available, I'm sure. So, the difficulty at the moment with what's happened with uh the FCC ruling, it's not just DJI, by the way, that's affected. It's every manufacturer out there that is using foreign parts as well. And you would likely be using foreign parts because there's not a whole lot of other parts that are available. And um as such, building your own drone today is pretty difficult. We've actually sadly seen two shops that sell used to sell FPV parts uh fold early on in the year because they just can't get the parts anymore. So, yep. Very sad. Next. Uh, let me see. Let me I'm looking at the comments at the same time. I'm trying to purchase a new drone. Wife's unsure about the DJI situation. So, which drone would you recommend? Less than 1K. I still recommend a DJI drone. Uh, they're still available for purchase. They're still legal to fly. There's no indication that they will not be legal to fly in the near future. So, I would say go for it. That's the best platform. There's no other option at the moment. Is there anything special I need to I need for putting my drone registration on my drone or do you have anything I can use? I I'm guessing you're talking about stickers. We do offer stickers. Uh pilotinstitute. comfree is where you can get your stickers. Um yeah, we are about to slightly change the process. Unfortunately, we have been victim to our success and uh we are sending thousands of stickers um every few months and so we are going to be changing that pretty soon. It's still going to be free for people that want to submit it the first time. We are going

to be asking for a small fee going forward for people that are getting new stickers from us. Uh and when I say a small fee, we're talking about either a dollar or $2. I haven't decided yet on the final price, but um we do want to continue helping people register their drones, but uh we see a lot of repeat customers and uh and we want to make sure that we can continue providing that service. So that's what we're going to be doing moving forward pretty soon. Coming soon, not yet. Just passed my part 107 exam. I'm currently flying a DJI Air3s and I'm looking to start my own thing. Okay. Uh, what was the one thing that you wish you had known when you first started out? So many things I wish I had known. Um, but as far as the drone side, um, good question. I mean, the one thing that I always tell people as on the business side is hiring people. I always wish that I had done it earlier, hiring more people. obviously when you can afford it. As far as the drone side, I mean the one thing that I tell people all the time is go into a field that you are passionate about. It's not so much about me uh specifically and something that I learned, but uh it's something that I've learned helping people get into businesses is do something that um yeah, it's just something that if you are passionate about it, if you're knowledgeable about going into a specific field, it's going to make your life a lot easier down the line when you start the business and when you when it starts to get tough. I'm lucky enough to have always been in aviation and always done something related to aviation, which is my one true love from a professional perspective. So, I've always been lucky to have that. But I know some people are trying to get into fields that may be more lucrative, but where they have no passion and no knowledge. And I think that makes it a lot more difficult. So, that's what I would say. Um, I see you guys talking about the stickers. You were supposed to stop the stickers after 10,000. Yes, we were. We are well past that multiple times over. But, uh, yeah. Okay. Uh, which takes precedence, the circle indicating type of airspace or the grid layout when determining lateral boundaries? Oh, I know what you're talking about. End floor uh of specific controlled airspace. Circles don't align with squares. Very well. Yes. Yes, Leo. Great question. So, the answer is the Lance grids are designed in a weird way where everywhere um there's going to be a square, a portion of the square on the edge of the airspace. The airspace is round. space, there's going to be a square that's going to be uh partially inside of the circle and partially outside the circle. What really matters is the circle. The circle is the definition of the FA airspace. So if you are in a grid that has a partial uh number in it, well a part a partial grid that's cut by the circle of the airspace. Then when you're inside the airspace, you have to follow that number. When you're outside, you are outside of controlled airspace. Now, there's a caveat to that is the fact that if you design your flight plan in Lance and then it kind of goes inside of one of those grids, the partial one that you're not supposed to get approval for, it's still going to force you to get approval for. So, uh, but yeah, you can absolutely fly inside of a square that is outside of the circled airspace. Um, yeah, that's the answer. So the circle to answer short answer is the circle is what matters because that's the actual definition as it is defined. By the way, for those of you that don't know, the FA has this u documents. It's a giant PDF of almost a thousand pages. Actually, it might be over a thousand pages that has the definition of every single airspace in the country. And the way that they define most of these airspace is with a center and then a radius. And they tell you the center is located at latl long x and y and then uh the circle is this big and then uh you can look at any airspace and see how it is defined. actually long time ago when this was the land stuff was still pretty new. had a long discussion with the FAA on um certain airspace in the way that they were defined in the thing cuz I was asking for permission to fly in um a class E extension at night and they were telling me that I didn't need approval and I argued with them that I did need approval because of the way that these were defined in that uh government PDF

and uh I think eventually I won but uh it was u yeah it's a long discussion so anyways Pew pew. Next, which takes Oh, we talked about that. Probably get this a lot. Uh, how's DJI doing in court? Um, hard to tell at the moment because I think there's a lot of it's in process, but we are keeping an eye on it for sure and we'll keep you posted. Um, have a couple meetings hopefully this week about this. I was kind of out of office last week, so it made things complicated, but um, hoping to have a meeting this week to get a follow-up on that. So, we'll see. Not with DJI, but with other people. Recommendation for drone insurance for a recreational flyer. Um, as much as I don't really care for the AMA all that much, the AMA does have good insurance for recreational flyers. So, I would send you over there. I hate having to plug my drone into my DJI FPV to comply with remote ID. To plug my drone, no, I think it's Oh, my phone. I'm sorry. Yeah. To plug my phone into my DJI FPV to comply with remote ID. Is there any way to bypass this or and still comply by getting some extra module? Uh oh, I haven't flown that one in a while. But is it letting you take off without plugging your phone in? I'm guessing it does. If it does, then just put a module on top and then you're still compliant. So, I would 100% do that. It should. We argued, by the way, the reason I'm I'm thinking a little longer is because uh we argued, Jason and I in the office for a while that the DJI FPV as it is not really compliant with the FA regulation because it allows you to turn on and off remote ID, which is not allowed. Um, and so, um, but that was a workaround because it was one of the early drone that was kind of in the in between period. Um, can't take off without the phone plugged in. Okay. Oh, so they must have changed that. Um, h in which case then no, if you can't if you if it's required to take off, then you won't be able to bypass that, which sucks. I agree with you. I think it's a poor solution, but um it is what it is. But yes, you're right. The the drone is providing the GPS position for the controller. I think that's what it is. Would you please consider having a way for us strictly recreational flyers who don't need all the value premium community, but would like to watch post-flight uh pricing just for that? Uh I think we've talked about this. I'm open to the idea for sure. Um and we haven't really thought of recreational flyers that want to do that. And you're right, the premium community does have a lot more um than just premium than just postflight in it. But I can understand why people would want to watch postflight. Let me talk to Jillian and the team and see what we can do. Actually, Jillian is in the chat, so she'll probably kill me for that. We'll see. We'll talk about it. I'm open. I'm open to it. I think it's a decently good idea. I'm struggling filling out waiverss. I have the conups printed out. What works the best uh to answer each question and then the sub questions. We do have a waiver course that uh will answer all those questions for you. So, I would recommend the investment. Uh it's not really expensive. We made it affordable for a reason and we do help with filling out all of this in the course. So, that you should uh find a lot of value there. anything about the DJI in Insta 360 lawsuit? I have we heard about a What's the lawsuit? I have not. I don't know that I'm familiar with the lawsuit. Tell me more. Maybe I have and I just forgot my old days. I heard something about a rule they are pushing here in Indiana making it illegal to fly over fields, citing fear of attack on the crops. What? Do you know anything about that? I don't actually. But uh I didn't realize the crops were so um that people wanting to attack the crops. How would they attack the crops? By flying drones into them. Seems weird. I don't know. I have not heard that. Maybe Vic has. I know Vic and I we try to exchange as much information when we hear about these dumb local rules and try to fight them as much as we can. But holy crap. Oh, cool. Well, I haven't seen the patent violation lawsuit between so DJI and Insta. So, who's suing who? I don't know

why. Why have I not heard about this? Did we talk about this in news update last week and I missed it? Because I didn't watch news update and Jason recorded it. Anyways, cray cray, I'd like to um hear more about that. How about that 52 Oh, that is $52 million purchase order before Skyio extend from the military. Maybe you've already mentioned this. Just enter the chat. I have not I did see the headline. I did not read Well, I saw a post from their CEO on LinkedIn. Uh I have not seen the uh the details, but I think the headline kind of speaks for itself. So, it looks like the military is purchasing, you know, $52 million worth of schedule X10s. Um I hope they can supply them. That's my biggest um issue. you know it I think it's no secret that all the uh manufacturers locally are having issues supplying their orders and so what does that do to the rest of the customers that does this take priority or do they have enough bandwidth to create all of them which I hope for them uh but um yeah tough one I don't know it it's going to be um yeah we'll see and I did say cray yes what is that an issue Uh, what proper steps are needed uh for flying in class golf airspace and being a recreational flyer if approved by members of law enforcement or someone else? Okay. Uh, I also have in position the trust paperwork. If you have trust and you follow all the rules, uh, that's all the permission that you need. As a matter of fact, law enforcement can't really give you additional approval to fly anywhere because the FA controls the airspace. So, you would always need to have FA approval. So, let's say you're close to an airport and law enforcement says, "Oh, it's okay. Just go fly. " That's not permission. That is not proper permission. You need to get that from the FA. Law enforcement does not have permission over the airspace. So, they're not allowed to tell you if you can or cannot fly. U now they might be able if there is a local restriction on a state park or on a local park, they might be able to give you that permission, but not from an airspace perspective. But class golf is uncontrolled, so you can fly in there at your own will up to 400 ft as long as you follow the rules and you have the trust certificate. So I knew you were hip. Yeah, I'm totally You should see my hips. They're probably unflexible. So I don't know I can be hip. Under the new proposed rule for part 108, it specified the maximum allowable weight will be 1320 lbs. Yep. That is depending on the type of operation but that is up to uh that weight for some operation. How would this rule apply to aircraft that exceed this rule like the rotor AI the R44 helicopter? Uh these above that weight would not be used under part 108. They would more than likely fall under a um let me think about this. Yeah, my guess is that those would be that's a good question. They would be operating under an exemption. 44 807 would be my guess. Um, which is kind of a catchall approval, which is how we're flying drones over 55 pounds at the moment. I'm trying to think if it would be and it would be an experimental aircraft. So yeah, that's that would be my guess how they would operate that under a an exemption did not say my name. Okay, make it up to me by answering this. Well, Todd, I uh I said all the names until I caught up and I'm guessing you came in after I did. Anyways, and if I missed it, I'm sorry. Any sims for commercial inspection training? Okay. Most seem to focus on FPV acro, but I need GPS ad mode for work. Yeah, look at um Little Arm is the company that makes uh simulators and uh they have a great platform. So, I would look at them. There is they have DJI drones in there with GPS and ADI mode that you can simulate and then learn how to do that. The best way to go out and play with atti mode is if you have a drone that has adi mode that can be turned on and off, which these days are pretty rare. Uh, in the past, we used to be able to do this more easily on original drones. Um, but I would just turn it into atti mode and just go fly and practice. It's not really that much more difficult other than the fact that it's going to drift some more and it's not going to altitude. position hold as it does with um with other drones. And then if anything happens, you can switch it back to GPS

mode. So I would say I don't know that you need a simulator to do that is my point. Any update on the GNSS top of the PI headquarter in Prescuit? Yep, I do have updates on that. Um it's coming. We have the contractor coming to put the electrical box where we want it. So it'll be there soon. Any chance we can get a discount code for the part 107 course for the Easter holiday? We don't I mean we have a discount going on right now, but the course is 159. We don't have any additional discounts that I know of at the moment, but I can tell you at that price it still is a steal. I watch some YouTube videos about First Amendment auditors, uh, which has lately made me wonder. This is the first amendment apply. Wait, applied to video and pictures taken with a drone. I think there's been discussions about that. I don't think um I don't know. I'm not an amendment uh expert, so I think I'm going to just shut up on that one and let other people who know more. But I don't think not being able to fly your drone. Well, I don't know. Like I said, I'm not going to say anything because I don't want to say something dumb. Let's put it this way. So here you there you have it. Can I fly a transition over traffic with recreational? Nope. You cannot fly over people and or moving vehicle and or people in moving vehicle as a recreational pilot ever. Period. There is no uh pathway to do that at all. So no flying over people, no flying over people in moving vehicles. I'm planning mission to LiDAR, a small section of divided highway for a business. Can I fly over the grass median between the lanes? Yeah, you can absolutely. So again, same thing, you know, um not flying over people and or people moving vehicle unless you have um unless you have approval and um yeah, so there you have it. uh lawsuit over six patent violation. Yeah, we talked about that. What is something other drone gurus are saying that isn't true? Well, first off, I hate absolutely hate the term guru. Um, unless you are in the spiritual world as an actual guru, which is what the term should be used for only. Uh, you might be an expert, but you're not a guru. Um, Jillian loves to call me a guru to get me going. Uh, but anyways, I'm sorry. Uh, what is what are things that drone so-cal experts are saying that isn't true? The flying over people thing is probably the number one thing that I see. um because it's a weird regulation. The beyond visual line of sight rule is also very often misqued by even people that are so-called experts. Um and yeah, the categorized thing and and it is difficult. Those are complicated rules, but um yeah, see when I don't know something, I just say that I don't know. I don't want to make something up. But um sometimes people miss an opportunity to shut up and um and then say something dumb. Who was it that said uh it's better to uh shut up and it's better to shut up and I don't remember the quote. Basically shut up and don't show that you're an idiot rather than open your mouth and prove that you are something like that. It's much better said than that. Anyways, as far Yeah, as far as that other drone gurus are saying that isn't true. I'm trying to think of the things that we have those things are to correct all the time because we get people sending us emails and and saying, "Hey, I saw this over there and you're saying something different. " So, I often have and Jason to have to pick up the FS and basically send back and say, "Nope, that is it's clear black and white right here in this document. " So, and remove all that. Yeah. What is it? Anyways, um what? Let's see. I haven't been up to date, but I heard all DJI sales are now banned in the United States. True or

false? False. Uh DJI are still being sold in the United States legally. The only thing that is going to get uh banned is future models of DJI that have not yet been approved by the FCC. So, anything past from what we've been able to find, gather, anything past the Evvada 360, it looks like the Evvada 360 will hold a title as the last DJI drones that we can legally purchase in the United States and operate until something changes obviously. But um yeah, I saw this yesterday morning. A 2300 ft tower has fog at the base and clouds at the top with a 1000 ft opening in between. If I flew to that,000 ft area prior to the fog formation, am I okay? Doesn't matter if you do it prior or after. You cannot fly over fog uh over a cloud base because you would not be able to uh have line of sight. one and two, you wouldn't be able to tell if you're flying over people or not. So that's the reason the FA gives in the uh advisory circular to not fly over traffic, over clouds, over fog or cloud, same thing. Um but yeah, so if you got in there and then the fog came in and closed you in, then you would have to come down and cut through the fog, but you wouldn't be able to uh yeah, that would not be a legal operation. How can I get a BV loss waiver and still operate solo? You can make your case to the FA. Vic has a BV loss waiver uh without a visual observer. Um it's um you're just going to have to not be greedy about how far you want to go without having a visual observer. Let's put it this way. You can fly over traffic to get from uh one point to another. No, not unless you have a categorized drone. Uh you can fly over a road that does not have traffic, but you cannot fly over people and or people in moving vehicle without having a categorized drone or a waiver. Uh category 1 2 3 4 only apply to part 107 commercial drone pilots. That is correct. Recreational flight flyers cannot fly over people at all. That is correct. You cannot fly. That's one of the big advantage of having a part 107 certificate is that you can if you have the proper equipment or the proper waiver fly over uh people and or people in moving vehicles. Uh the recreational path does not allow for waiverss at all. Period. So, um, the reason for this, by the way, if you have to really think about, I see that we're getting low on questions, so I'm going to expand on this because this is something that, u lot of people don't understand, and quite frankly, initially, it's something that I did not fully grasp until I had a discussion with one of our good friends at the FA. Uh, and ever since that's the way I've been teaching it. But any and every operation in the United States with a drone fall under part 107. I'm going to say that again. Every and any operation in the United States with a drone fall under part 107 by default. That's the rule to fly drones in the US is part 107. The FAA decided after some organization uh convinced them that there would be an exemption for recreational flyers, aka park flyers, aka people that are just flying for fun, for recreational purposes. the kid that goes to the park with a little foamy airplane, the AMA folks and uh others that are at a flying park at their flying event where they're staying in, you know, this little location here that that's recreational flying. And so they came up with this exemption to part 107 which is coded in the US code 44 uh 49 USC 449. um 40 yeah 49 449 that is an exemption to part 107 and the reason this is important by the way is because if you do not follow all of the rules in 44 809 to qualify for the exemption then automatically all of these flights become part 107 flights. So, I'll give you an example, and this is something that's important because we just posted a video a couple like a week and a half ago on um the action that the FA has taken. And a lot of folks are very confused in the comments because we mentioned that uh these folks did not have a certificate to operate for this type of operation. And a lot of you are

saying, well, you don't need a certificate because what if you fly recreationally? Well, guess what? To fly recreationally, you have to meet all the criteria of 44 809. One of these criteria, for example, is that you are not flying beyond visual line of sight. One of these criteria is that you're not flying over people. you have airspace approval to fly in there. Well, guess what? As soon as you do not meet one of these requirements of 4489, guess what happens to your flight? It's now a Part 107 flight. So, now the FA can say, "Well, you weren't operating recreationally. you were actually operating under part 107 as a result because that's the default set of rules. And then they say, well, where is your registration? Where is your pilot certificate? Where is this and that? And then they're basically looking at all the rules that you're not following because you're operating under part 107 when you don't have the certificates to do it. Long story short, um, every flight is 107 unless it's got the exemption, but as soon as you don't meet the exemption anymore, you're not a recreational flyer. You are a Part 107 pilot. And if you're not certificated, if you're not if you don't have registration, if you're doing any of the things that you're not supposed to do, then the FAA is going to get you that way. So, um, yeah, I just wanted to, um, clarify that for you guys. All right, that gave me time for more questions. Yay. Have you heard of any case where the FAA approved waiver for novo where the PIC is flying FPV? Yes. Um, it is possible. You You're mentioning a private location staying on the tree line 50 ft AGL. That's definitely the way that I would make my case is that you are flying in a very specific location on private property where uh you are staying below tree line where there is very little chance of having another uh traffic and then in which case I would assume that they would let you fly. So good stuff. Good stuff. yeah, and I see some comments on um flying indoors. You are correct. Drone flights indoors do not fall under the air preview. Can I fly with FPV goggles without a visual observer? That ties into what we just said. I watched a video yesterday where someone was doing that. The person has always followed uh rules in the past. Uh it's probably the number one most broken rule in flying after beyond visual line of sight flying. Um which is a lot of people just fly FPV without a visual observer. It does not make it legal. Uh but yeah, there you have it. So no, you must have a visual observer if you're flying uh with FPV goggles unless you have a waiver under 107 only. Will you be at Oshkosh this year? Yes, we will year. Uh, and if I want to do lidar on a 500 acre piece of wooded land for the purpose of identifying drainage, what is the best bang for the buck equipment to do this? Oo, lidar is not my lidar equipment is not my area of expertise. So, I don't know that I can help you there. But, I would talk to one of the drone resellers, one of the big ones out there, and see what they recommend. They typically have folks on staff that are able to help you with that. If we had Jared in the chat, he's not here. He would be able to help you as well, but um yeah, I mean I know enough about LAR uh but I don't know all the detailed equipment that's available at the moment. And yes, we will be at Oshkosh this year because uh that's what we do every year. So, and we'll be in Sun and Fun in a few weeks now uh on I think we leave on the 11th or the 12th of April. So, damn, that's like 3 weeks away. Quickly. All right, another random question. If I fly indoor at a big venue, uh, do you need to follow any FA rules? No, you do not. I just answered that. That's a good question. Like, OOP, remote ID. Uh, no. But I will add this. There's also a caveat here is that um while the FA does not control airspace inside of a uh a building, your insurance company will want to know that you are flying indoors over people and they may say that they will not insure you if you are doing some sort of activity. So if that's the case, you are taking on full responsibility for the flight, full liability for the flight. And I would be careful about doing that because um people are weird at big venues indoors and they will

throw stuff at drones. We've seen it before. You always have to think and I remember one of my bosses told me that a long time ago. He said, "Whatever decision you make, how does it look on the 8:00 news when hits the fan? " And u and he's right. He's and the more I go into my career and the more uh responsibility I get and the more the larger the company becomes, the more liability becomes a massive issue. The more you expose yourself to the things that you've built. So if you are flying indoors without insurance and stuff happens, how does it look on the 8:00 news? We saw a the thing that happened in Orlando with the company that um the uh the drone show that hit a kid and that's all over the 8:00 news and that's not good because the company name is attached to it. Whether or not the company is at fault or whether or not it's the pilot that they hire to do the job, it doesn't really matter to the public opinion. So, you have to think about this. when you're flying Even if the FA is not there to watch, what is what are the possible consequences? Anyway, uh where am I at? Any opinion on the Laguardia accident as a commercial pilot? Um I don't typically comment on accidents right as they happen. Uh I do it in private. We have discussions about these things in the office, but I don't have all the information available. All I can tell you is that it's tragic. It's um you know, my thoughts always go to the families of the victims, in this case, the two pilots who lost their lives because of something that they 100% could not control. And so it's um it's always a sad day in aviation when uh somebody loses their lives, but even more so when it's a pilot that could not have done anything about the situation. And it certainly looks like this is exactly what happened here. So um we will see the NTSB report the preliminary at least in a few weeks. Uh I think it's a fairly well no I shouldn't say that. I don't know that it's cleancut actually. It may not be at all. You got to remember that accidents always happen because of a series of incidents that line up, right? The cheese hole, the theory. And so you got to we got to look back and see what are the different holes that lined up to make this sadly happen. So, but yeah, that's all I'm going to say. I can't really I don't usually like to comment on things that uh I don't have a full grasp and all the information available. Can I stand under the shade of an umbrella or a tent while flying? Or would it be no longer considered visual line of sight even if I can see my drone if I take one step forward? Yeah, I mean you obviously can do that and we've all done that. You just have to be very aware of your environment. Excuse me. When you do that and um and make sure that you have full control of the airspace. That's what I would say. So, if you're flying a little bit further away and you need to keep an eye on your drone, then I would definitely uh keep a closer eye on the entire environment or use a visual observer, you know, to do this. But yeah, have you ever flown at Red Rock in Nevada? Yes, we have. My understanding is NPS doesn't allow it, but portion of the park RPLM. Uh where we flew and there might be folks from the from that area in the chat. where we flew from was just the main parking lot over there and uh and it's totally legal to do that. So, I don't know that we were definitely not in the National Park Service section of it, I'm guessing. Uh but yeah, it's really cool. Not far from Vegas, not far from the strip. We usually go um try to go when we have a minute, which is rare these days, but when we're in in Vegas, you're going to be at Sarx in Texas. I am not. I don't actually don't know what SARX is. There's so many shows that we have to be picky. I have to be picky about uh where I go. Uh I enjoy meeting with customers and students and everything, but um I only have so much time in the year to do my job and to uh and to split it with traveling. And so we're trying to be uh and it's expensive, by the way, to keep traveling to different shows. So, and um usually we try to stick with the bigger shows. And uh this year is going to be pretty packed as it is. Who do you recommend to send my drone to get my gimbal repaired? And that could walk me through fixing it myself or if it's a gimbal only. It's actually well, it

depends on the drone obviously, but I'm guessing you probably have a DJI of sorts. It's actually not all that difficult to do yourself if there's no other damage. So, it's going to be a couple screws that you have to remove, uh, a band, like a tape type connector that you have to undo and then plug it back in and do it again. So, if there's no other damage around it and it's just a gimbal, I would recommend you do it yourself. I'm almost certain that you can find a video online of somebody doing that. Even if it's not your specific drone, if you are good enough with typical electronics kind of thing, you should be able to figure it out yourself based on other videos from other models if you can't find one from that specific model. So yeah, that's what I would recommend doing. I wonder what will happen to the anti-gravity A1 if DJI wins the patent lawsuit. That depends on the judge uh on the judgment from the judge or if that's where it's going. Uh but typically I think that's what happens to patent lawsuits and uh they could uh require anti-gravity to take the drone off the shelf and stop selling it in certain countries. Uh I think that's all I'm going to say because I'm not a patent expert. But yeah, that's my understanding of how this work and what I've seen in the past. any updates on how to view the mobile TFR for ICE DHS ops or how to prevent being stuck in the middle of litigation? Uh yeah, I tell you what, if I'm ever caught in litigation in the middle of this, it's going to be a very quick win because uh I don't think anybody at uh in those departments are going to go after anyone over this because there's no possible way in hell that this stands in a court of law. Um so yeah, that's all I'm gonna say. By the way, and you've probably seen this in news update, but somebody is suing the FAA over this TFR, and rightfully so. Good. Good for them. And I hope they win because this is uh an absolute travesty of a TFR and uh should have never been pushed into the system in the first place. So I hope that uh this thing goes away or gets rewarded uh to be well to at least give a chance to the pilots to comply with it. So yeah, total 100% BS. My name is Louis. I have a potenti 2 which has remote ID and is less than 250 grams. Do I need to register it? Uh, can I use drone mask 2 with the same rules of FPV with the second visual observer? I don't know what the drone mask 2 is, but the potenti 2, if it's less than 250 g, I highly doubt that it has remote ID. But regardless, if you are flying recreationally a drone that's under 250 gram, 0. 55 lbs, then you do not need to register the drone. Um, so in your case, you do not have to register it. The drone mask too, I'm guessing, are goggles of sorts. Uh, if they're goggles that are view limiting, uh, where you can only see the image inside of the goggles, the image from the drone camera, then you would have to have a visual observer to fly with you. U, but I'm not sure what the drone mask too is. Expanding on the tent question, uh, can you operate a drone from inside a house by a window? No, I would definitely that if something happens, the FAA is going to nail you for not having full control, full command of the airspace. So, I definitely would not fly from inside the house. By the way, one of the accidents supposedly, allegedly, uh there was an accident that happened in Texas where um I think it was Texas DPS drone that hit um a military helicopter, a Blackhawk I think. And from what I read, what came out of that is that the pilot was flying from inside the vehicle. And that did not play in their favor at all. So, where does one newly certificated remote pilot get his free Don't Be That Guy shirt? The shirt are not free. Uh, we do sell them in the store. They are affordable, but they're not free. Uh we do offer free pilot institute shirts if you get 90 or more on the exam and you took our course but uh yep that's it. Okay. Where are we at? 453. Got a few minutes to go. Um I see the Atom 2 is remote ID.

If it's sub 250, I highly doubt that it has remote ID, but maybe I'm wrong. Okay, interesting. I have not seen a single manufacturer put remote ID on a drone that is sub 250 because they're not required to do so. Um, okay. What else? We have the don't be that guy shirt link in the chat from Jason. Thank you for that. Uh get them. We actually just got uh new equipment today to make more shirts because uh believe it or not, we have shipped um between the free shirts and the paid shirt. Close to a thousand shirts already this year alone. And uh and Kate is busting to make those happen. So she's doing an awesome job. Uh, you never see Kate. She's uh she's a shadow worker. She does a lot of u amazing work behind the scene and uh she doesn't get the credit very often. Um like a lot of people in our team unfortunately because you see me all the time. You see Jason quite a bit on screen but you don't see all the folks that are behind the cameras that are doing most of the work. I just show up and put my feet on the desk usually and uh and then take all the credit. But uh yeah, we have a lot of really great folks work. Well, the fact that we moved into this new building almost a year ago now. Uh almost a year ago, actually, as of next, uh yeah, as next week, I think it's going to be the year the one year anniversary of us moving in here. But now that we have more room to do our own merch, then we have the ability to do all that cool stuff. So, it's exciting. All right. Well, Ben is coming in, so that means we're getting kicked out. And uh no it doesn't. Uh I don't see any more questions. So I think we're going to end it a little bit early. And uh we appreciate you guys watching. We will be back on Friday for news update. I don't think we have any Do we have any videos in the pipeline, Ben? Uh that are going to be released. Any videos releasing this week on the drone side? No. Okay. Next week maybe. We'll see. — Hopefully we have some cool ones that are getting edited. So we'll see that. All right. That's it. Uh, don't be that guy. Fly safe and, uh, don't show up in news update because you did something dumb. That's all I have to say. See you then.