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I put the DJI Neo 2 through an absolute gauntlet, and the results genuinely surprised me. We’re talking tight forest trails, cliffsides, high-speed road descents pushing 48 km/h, and an abandoned resort run all the way down to the ocean. This is the kind of testing that breaks drones, and that’s exactly the point. Here’s…
I’ve been warning about the consequences of a DJI ban for over a year. Now we have the data to prove it. Pilot Institute surveyed 8,056 drone operators across the United States, and the findings confirm our worst fears: the ban that took effect on December 22, 2025 will devastate the American drone industry while…
Good day folks. Shawn here from Air Photography. The DJI Osmo Mobile 8 has been out for a little while now, and I just got my hands on one. Rather than diving straight into specs, I want to address the question I get most often: what type of user would actually benefit from a device…
I took the original DJI Neo, the new DJI Neo2, and the Hover Air X1 Pro Max out to test and compare in some of the harshest conditions I could find here in Alaska. We’re talking 6 below zero to 10 below zero Fahrenheit (around -17°C to -22°C). These follow drones all promise to track…
A new high speed drone interceptor is now actively hunting enemy UAVs over Ukraine, and it does so at a pace that would leave most quadcopters gasping for air. The system is called AIR SPEED, and it represents the latest evolution in Ukraine’s rapidly maturing counter drone ecosystem, where speed, simplicity, and frontline practicality matter…
An escaped Golden Retriever mix is back in safe hands after a dramatic weekend chase that involved highways, thermal drones, and a search team
SmallRig’s new S70 wireless microphone, priced at $89, enters this shrinking battlefield aiming straight at compact rivals like the DJI Mic Mini and
The Town of Gilbert, Arizona is quietly building one of the more serious Drone as First Responder programs in the Southwest, with its Police and Fire departments jointly testing autonomous drone deployments to improve emergency response times, as reported by The Gilbert Sun News. At a recent town council retreat, Assistant Police Chief Jim Bisceglie…
I’ve been watching content creators slowly wake up to the reality of the FCC’s December 23 drone ban, and adventure filmmaker Jeven Dovey just delivered one of the clearest explanations I’ve seen for the YouTube community. His message is straightforward but sobering: this ruling goes far beyond DJI, and the content creator community needs to…
The FCC's December 23 drone policy didn't flip a switch. It started a countdown. Russ from 51 Drones explains how the drone ban affects emergency response, food costs, and infrastructure.
The drone skills you learned for your Part 107 business are now battlefield capabilities. That’s the uncomfortable reality buried in a massive New York Times investigation published this week, and it should concern every commercial operator in America. C.J. Chivers spent 18 months reporting from Ukrainian frontlines, test ranges, and drone workshops. What he documented…
These drones really are the cat’s meow, and occasionally the cow’s moo. Along the Jersey Shore, while most people worry about beach traffic and seagulls stealing fries, Michael Parziale is launching drones to bring missing pets home. Parziale, 64, a restaurant owner and FAA licensed drone pilot, has built an 18 drone rescue fleet through…
A Skydio X10 drone reached a potentially dangerous 911 call in Fairfax County, Virginia, in just 57 seconds, arriving before any patrol officer and fundamentally changing how police handled the situation. The call came in near Fair Oaks Mall, where a caller reported a man standing in a median armed with a bow and arrow.…
A DJI Matrice 400 drone equipped with a dual payload played a decisive role in rescuing two people who fell through the ice on Saginaw Bay Wednesday evening, after their snowmobile broke through more than a mile from shore, as reported by ABC12. Emergency crews from the Standish Area Fire Authority were dispatched to the…
Wales is preparing to test a drone delivery system that could quietly change how blood reaches patients in emergencies. The Dragon’s Heart project will use specially commissioned aircraft to transport blood donations by air, replacing road journeys that currently take hours, as the BBC reports. Today, donated blood is processed in south Wales and moved…
Some drones announce themselves with noise, blinking lights, and shaky cellphone footage, others arrive like a thought you did not know you were having, quiet, inevitable, already there before you noticed. Saturday night over Venezuela, the RQ-170 Sentinel belonged firmly to the second category. At least one, and possibly two, of the U.S. Air Force’s…
I was genuinely excited when these 360° prop guards for the DJI Mini 5 Pro finally became available. After testing them extensively, I can tell you they’re unlike anything DJI has released before – but not entirely in the ways you might expect. Here’s what you need to know upfront: The full details come from…
We have been tracking the evolution of Russia’s Shahed drones since at least the invasion of Ukraine, and the latest development is the most significant tactical shift yet. Just five weeks after they strapped an R-60 air-to-air missile to a Shahed, they’ve done it again, this time with a MANPADS. This isn’t experimentation anymore. This…
It was clear that Trump’s tariffs were never going to stop DJI. Now one of the most influential voices in US-China tech competition is making the same argument in the Financial Times. Chris Miller, author of the Pulitzer Prize-finalist book “Chip War” that shaped Washington’s semiconductor policy, published an opinion piece this weekend analyzing why…
I’ve been tracking Florida’s disastrous DJI drone ban for over a year, and the bill is finally coming due. When we first reported on St. Cloud’s $890,000 Drone as a First Responder (DFR) program last month, the story was about the exorbitant cost of compliance. Now, new data shows the program is an operational success,…
Two weeks ago, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr signed the order that effectively killed DJI’s future in America. On Thursday, he’ll take the stage at CES 2026, the very show where DJI spent a decade building its brand, for a “fireside chat” that’s been carefully designed to avoid the questions drone pilots actually need answered, reports…
A missing man in Campbellsville, Kentucky, was located safely Thursday night after a coordinated multi agency search that included UAV drone operations, ground teams, and emergency alerts. Campbellsville Fire Rescue confirmed the subject was found less than a quarter mile from his last known location and transported for medical evaluation with non life threatening injuries,…
When people hear “drone school,” they often imagine a room full of soldiers flying quadcopters into walls like it’s their first time with a PlayStation controller. The reality is far more serious, far more technical, and considerably more expensive. The US Department of War runs the Joint Counter Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems University at Fort…
Wichita police arrested a 46 year old man early Friday morning after an armed robbery at a Circle K convenience store, with a Skydio X10 police drone playing a decisive role in locating and capturing the suspect, as reported by KWCH 12 News. Officers were dispatched at 5:20 a.m. to the Circle K located at…
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