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Drone

Drones, UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles), UAS (unmanned aerial systems). The notes here are focused on USA jurisdiction.

Be aware that the FAA only regulates outdoor flying within the USA. FAA regulations do not apply when flying indoors or outside the USA. FAA regulates US outdoor airspace starting at ground level, so if you are flying outdoors within American territories, you are flying in FAA regulated air space.

Glossary

FAA terms

  • LAANC: Low Altitude Authorization and Notifications Capability. You must request LAANC authorization when flying in controlled airspace. https://www.faa.gov/uas/getting_started/laanc (I live in controlled airspace so I have to do this every day I fly my drone at my house, and it doesn't always work when using the DJI controller 2. 🙄)
  • TRUST: The Recreational UAS Safety Test. A certification that all drone pilots in USA are required to take. https://www.faa.gov/uas/recreational_flyers/knowledge_test_updates
  • UAV: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. The actual vehicle part of a UAS, such as the plane, quad copter, etc..
  • UAS: Unmanned Aereial System. The vehicle, controller, goggles, and anything else included in the complete system needed to pilot a UAV.
  • VLOS: Visual Line Of Sight.

Drone subculture terms

  • Tiny Whoop: small FPV drones, typically around 65mm, and weighing around 50g, with prop guards. These are safe enough to be flown inside buildings without worrying about breaking things.
  • Cine Whoop: an FPV drone with prop guards that is big enough to carry a camera of some sort. Having prop guards makes it easy for these drones to fly through tight spaces without crashing if they collide with other objects, which makes them great for taking videos in a large variety of scenes where some other camera drones that do not have prop guards would not be as resilient.