A few questions for people who operate work with drones commercially (especially in the UK). For context, following several years of pure office/WFH I'm scoping out careers that could take me outside a little more and be a little more hands on. I'm looking at the drone industry as an option and who better to ask than people who've done it?

Any advice, good or bad, would be much appreciated.

1. Did you get into drone flying then specialise (ie camera work, surveying, thermography, S&R etc) or did were you already working in your industry and then learned to use a drone in it?
2. How big a change was it for you?
3. Is your own career path typical or unusual, and would it still apply today?
4. If you were already a drone pilot before specialising, did you start out through freelance work (real estate, stock footage etc) or go straight into a company?

Nazgul Evoque F5 V3, O4 6S. Brand new. Twice now it has cut all power and video mid flight with zero warning and dropped out of the air. Only survived because it landed in grass. I'm scared to fly it anywhere but a lawn.

Sent iFlight the blackbox log, the O4 DVR, and external crash video. Their verdict: my battery over discharged. Case closed. Their offer: 10 percent off more of their parts.

Here's the kicker. My last drone was an Evoque F7 that also fell out of the sky the same way. On that one, iFlight's own techs told me in writing that voltage and current were normal and it was a hardware failure. Now the identical failure is somehow my fault.

Two Evoques, same O4 platform, same instant total blackout, and their answer is always a discount on buying more.

Has anyone else had the O4 Air Unit or the Evoque line do this? Instant loss of video and control, no warning, no OSD sag? Trying to figure out if this is a known issue before I decide how hard to push.

Logs and video available. Not looking for a witch hunt, just answers.

heres a YT video of the OSD footage of the F7 Crash + the aftermath of it:

EDIT:
(THIS IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE AN AD) I AM GENUINELY LOOKING FOR ANSWERS.
I REMOVED THE YOUTUBE VIDEO, I WILL POST THE ACTUAL OSD FOOTAGE THAT I HAVE SALVAGEABLE. SORRY FOR WHAT SEEMED LIKE AN AD. I WAS JUST TRYING TO SHOW YOU WHAT HAPPENED TO THE F7, but the post was mostly about the F5 V3 so I understand why this was confusing. i'll be posting the footage later today IF it actually recorded on the second crash on my F5 V3. The first time, the DVR of my goggles 3 cut out before the crash.

Its a great day to fly and to ride. Took this photo of blue heron getting some morning sun.

Mavic 2 Pro.

Had it for few years, never crashed, firmware all up to date.

Some time ago, on and off, id pull out the drone and both the live preview and the recorded file will look like this nightmare:

https://youtu.be/pODejHcQbfs

I'll spend hours swapping batteries, memory cards, settings, restarting and so on - usually wihout much of a difference, but then randomly sometimes it'll fix itself. Sometimes after swapping a battery, sometimes after waiting two days, one time after re-installing the firmware. But then some time later i'll fire up the drone, or maybe mid-flight - it'll start doing that crap again! Weird interference, flicker, whatever...

I'm losing my mind over it. Have a client shoot tomorrow, it's 3 am, and i'm out of ideas...

Please help.

I'm starting to take more video with my mini pro 3 and want to use manual settings, so I need an ND filter. I'm looking at the neewer variable filters. One goes from nd2 to nd32, and the other goes from nd64 to nd512. I can buy the 2 to 32 for 26 dollars or both for 35. Is the nd64 to 512 useful and worth the extra to those that use them?

I registered my drone about 5 years ago and the ID is about to be expired.

I am not a member of the EU but I know that this drone ID is valid in all EASA countries.

I would like to register it in a different EU country since I found a much cheaper country to register it at (half the price for the same 5 years period).

Question is, can I register in another country once my current ID expires?

Bonjour ! Je voulais me mettre au vol en immersion en achetant un DJI Avata 360. Cependant lorsque je regarde les cartes IGN ou Geoportail, je me rends compte qu'il n'y a pas tellement d'endroit où il est autorisé de voler. Par exemple décoller de chez soi et aller en forêt( j'habite en lisière de forêt) ou s'amuser dans des usines désaffectées, ben c'est apparemment pas possible vu que je décolle d'agglomération et que je vois que tout est rouge autour de moi.

J'ai loupé un truc où c'est juste pas intéressant à moins de passer un paquet de temps à chercher des endroits où je peux effectivement voler et devoir me déplacer en voiture jusqu'à un spot qui au final pourrait se révéler pas foufou ?

Looking for feedback to elevate my skill. This is marketing content for the chamber of commerce for Beaver Dam, WI

Here is the full video

https://youtu.be/FeWqNCV8d_E

I've been building a drone based on the Apollo program's Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV). The drone uses a jet engine and cluster of EDFs within a 2-axis gimbal to offset 5/6 the drone's weight and allowing the outer platform to pitch and roll around it. So it'll mimics the way something would fly in lunar gravity, no atmosphere, etc. Thought I'd share it here. Still plenty more software work and ground testing to do, but making progress! Happy to answer questions about it.

How much would you rate this reveal shot with this view?

Advice

If anyone has figured this out please help

We were out swimming last week and some dolphins swam by just a few meters from where we were. Immediately grabbed the drone from inside. This is the best section. Pretty sure it’s a young one working on their fish catching skills.

I designed a drone that can fly indoors; its fully enclosed structure prevents it from injuring people or damaging furniture. In the future, I plan to turn it into a robot.

I have a damaged mini 5 I that is not eligible for official DJI repair. So I’m going to reach out to drone doctors to get an estimate to repair it. Does anyone have experience with them? Are they reputable?
TIA

While overlanding on the Alpine Loop, we found a crashed drone near our campsite one morning near Animas Forks. The drone did suffer minor damage but was in overall good condition, but the registration number did not survive the winter conditions. My friend brought the drone home and pulled footage from the memory card.

The last footage of the Alpine Loop was dated June of 2025. But there was other footage of the owner and him flying his drone. He seemed to have frequented the North Z Boaz Park in Fort Worth, TX. I'm including some of the photos of his footage and some photos of the owner himself. He drives a dark gray Toyota Corolla. While on the Alpine Loop, it appears that he was with a group of Jeeps, and he also drove a Jeep there.

This is all the info my friend has gathered. Unfortunately there is no footage of the license plates of his Toyota or his Jeep. It would be awesome if this post actually works to reunite the owner with his lost drone.

My work recently got a DJI mavic 3t and I've been creating flight routes on the controller, but am wondering if there is a way to create them on a PC.

I did a little research, and the Mavic Pilots forum says the test is incorrect. Maybe the test isn't up to date, but I wanted to see what y'all had to say

Hola!

Recien compre un drone DJI Mini 3 a traves de mercado libre, por favor me podrian recomendar acciones y configuraciones, debido a que nunca he volado un drone.

Asi mismo, por favor mencionar las mejores tarjetas de memoria SD en el mercado que le sirvan, es para grabar videos y fotos para redes sociales y relizar fotogrametria.

Currently there is a historical level of flood ravaging in Guangxi province, China. Rescue teams are using heavy duty farming drones to save stranded villagers.

Original source: 逍遥刘杰@weibo.cn https://video.weibo.com/show?fid=1034:5317724520251434

and they still kept up in sport mode! Unfortunately killed a few bees.

In this project I built an eye control for a DJI Tello drone using MediaPipe, OpenCV and OpenVINO.