Flying Camera Productions
small Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS)

by Craig A. Smith. Contact me


Videos - click to play. More on YouTube


Sperry Tower 0:50
Minneapolis Skyline 1:48
English Harbour, a UNESCO World Heritage site 2:46

Minneapolis at Night 1:41
Orlando 1:42
WYC Snowkiting Fleet #1 1:26

About Drones

 

All civilian drones are limited to 100mph and 55 lbs maximum take off weight (MTOW) including fuel. Drones over 0.55 lbs (249grams) must be registered with the FAA ($5 covers all your drones for 3 years). The FAA's B4UFLY Mobile App can help provide airspace awareness as well as TFR and other NOTAM as well as SUA status. Use the related AirControl app to file low altitude authorization and notification capability (LAANC) requests up to 90 days in advance. Most requests are eligible for auto-approval, processed in real time, and authorized within a minute or two. Not valid in Class E airspace when there is a weather ceiling less than 1,000 feet above ground level (AGL). Also, they may limit your altitude near airports but offer "further coordination" for up to 400 feet AGL.

To fly a drone, you need to hold either a 49 USC §44809 (TRUST) certificate, or an FAA 14 CFR §107 remote pilot certificate. TRUST is free 30-minute educational exam for recreational hobbyists. However, commercial operations require Part 107: buy a $20 book, study for a week or two, and take the $150 knowledge test at a local FAA approved facility. There are 60 questions covering 5 topics. You must score 70% or better to pass.

As a Part 107 pilot, you can fly after dark in class B airspace around airports with FAA low altitude authorization and ACL strobes visible for at least 3 miles. TRUST certificate holders can fly at night (with ACL) but cannot get LAANC approval after sunset. UPDATE, as of 2023-February-20, Recreational Flyers may request airspace authorization to operate in controlled airspace at night through LAANC.   Part 107 pilots can also operate 400' above structures, like buildings or towers, while TRUST pilots are limited to 400' AGL.



 

 

Today's drone technology is truly remarkable.  For under $1k, you get a gimbal stabilized 4k video camera that can fly 35 mph for three-quarters of an hour on a single charge, hovers in 24 mph wind at 14°F, and takes 48 MP stills (not all specs necessarily simultaneous). The GPS fix on take-off means drone can return to home (RTH) at the touch of a button, or programmatically should the RF control signal be lost or fail.  Unlicensed spectrum: command and control sent over the more reliable and longer distance 2.4 GHz while the higher bandwidth, but less urgent, video signal comes back at 5 GHz.  Since video is also recorded on-board, this is a good solution.

The airborne CPU can program various flight modes including follow-me, point-of-interest (POI), circle, and hyperlapse (timelapse while camera's perspective slowly changes).

Since drones know where they are, they will refuse to take-off at airports or other restricted airspace without unlocking. Unlocking also appears to be an automated process, but takes a bit longer (9-12 min) than a LAANC request. Once approved, the unlock license must be downloaded to the aircraft but is good for up to a year.

However, DJI's GeoFencing is not aware of the national park restrictions, for example along much of the Mississippi river (compare graphic to the right with that above) and the Apostle Islands.

The opposite is also true, when DJI's Geofencing is overly cautious. For example, B4UFLY shows "Clear for Takeoff" at Southwest Minnesota Regional Airport (MML) in Marshall Minnesota where there is a VOR, but no tower, making this an uncontrolled airport. Nevertheless, DJI considers the runway approaches "Authorization Zones" (their terminology) and requires an unlock before you can fly in this class G airspace.

 

Drones record JPEG, RAW or VIDEO (mp4 or mov) along with an ascii SBRT track that documents date/time, lat/long/alt, frame number and camera settings every few milliseconds.  This data can be imported to another programs like VLC media player (subtitles) or Google Earth.  The green line on the left is my drone's flight path, downloaded from the remote controller, reformatted to klm, and viewed in Google Earth.

The baseball fields are in Bryn Mawr meadows, where they’ve added a couple new lakes/settling ponds since Google’s fly-over.



 

Recommendations

You can pick up the DJI Mini 2 at Costco for under $500, but I’m flying the superior Mini 3 Pro with a larger sensor, faster lens, collision avoidance in 3 directions, and the RC controller (built-in screen so no phone required) for $909.  Add a couple hundred more for case, chargers, spare batteries and propellers, ND filters, etc.

For more, I refer you to any of Alex Harris’s excellent QuickAssTutorials on YouTube.

I use the free, opensource GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) for editing photos. You will need a plug-in like RawTherapee to open RAW digital negative (DNG) files. For video editing, I use OpenShot (free, open source equivalent of Adobe Premier).

Copyright © 2023 by Craig A. Smith
updated 2023-02-17
ISO8601 yyyy-mm-dd