Thinking about drones, and seeing an ad I just got this morning about a refurbished DJI Mavic Pro 4K for only $768, it kind of got me interested in drones again. Now that I have that smart phone, I can consider a drone that requires the phone for it's display. Anyway, I was looking at reviews and ads for this drone, and noticed the blurb about the necessity to register a drone with the FAA. So I went to the FAA website, and was reading through the requirements when I spotted this blurb, which relates to Amazon's plan of making deliveries via drones:
Quote:
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Is package delivery allowed under the small UAS rule (Part 107)? Part 107 permits the transportation of property for compensation or hire, provided the operator complies with all the provisions of the rule, including that the operator must keep the UAS within his/her sight, the flight is conducted within visual line-of-sight and not from a moving vehicle, external loads must be securely attached and cannot adversely affect the flight characteristics or controllability of the aircraft, and the aircraft with payload must weigh less than 55 lbs. at takeoff. The transportation must also occur wholly within the bounds of a state and may not involve transportation of property between: (1) Hawaii and another place in Hawaii through airspace outside of Hawaii; (2) the District of Columbia and another place in the District of Columbia; or (3) a territory or possession of the United States and another place in the same territory or possession.
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Source:
https://www.faa.gov/uas/faqs/
Shall be interesting to see how Amazon gets around that particular requirement.
Anyway, I still wouldn't be happy about watching $768 fly off into the sunset in "RETURN TO CHINA" mode, but still a hell of a lot better than watching $2,000 fly away. And I do need an easier way to check the rain gutters on the garage, as they tend to fill up with pine needles. The goombas that installed it did so in such a way that if it rains hard enough and the downspouts are clogged, the rain water will back up and then flow into the garage along the inside of the walls.
Yeah, I COULD just pull out the 12 foot ladder and LOOK (which is actually a pain in the butt to do), but heck, I really need a PRACTICAL reason to buy something like this.
