Drone on about your love of flying - I'm tempted to buy a drone - but which one?

Been playing with my toy drone my wife bought me as a gag gift at Christmas - it is a micro one and very hard to control - but having so much fun trying.

Thinking it may be time to move up to the next level - not looking to spend over a grand.

Looked at a couple on the weekend but decided to keep the wallet in the pocket - for now.

What is a good beginner drone? What features should I look for?

Drone on about your drones please. ....

I have the DJI Phantom 3 standard and it runs about $500 As easy to fly as any of them and has a good camera Remember you have to register your drone with the FAA now. If you are on Facebook I can give you some good links there that might help


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Don Kuykendall said:

I have the DJI Phantom 3 standard and it runs about $500 As easy to fly as any of them and has a good camera Remember you have to register your drone with the FAA now. If you are on Facebook I can give you some good links there that might help


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OP is in Canada.

480sparky said:

OP is in Canada.

Click to expand...

I am on my phone so can't see that info


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Real supermods would have every members info memorized? not that theres a lot of us on here. lol

now i am googling drones.................

I have the older DJI phantom vision 2+ but am looking at selling it for a better quality drone with a better camera system.

They're tightening the laws on drone flying in the uk .... soon you'll need to be registered etc etc.


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Roy1961 said:

Real supermods would have every members info memorized? not that theres a lot of us on here. lol

Click to expand...

I have you number.

The DJI 3 series really worked on the camera systems. No more curvature to have to correct or live with. Nice flat field even on the Standard. Move up more and get 4K video but I really did not need that.

There's always the question of what you want your drone to do. If all you want is aerial footage then I would recommend a DJI. I fly a Traxxas Aton. The aerial footage is decent but doesn't compare to DJI's 3 and 4's. The thing I like about it, I can take off the camera and legs and fly it like a racing drone. Possible to get up to 50mph and every type of flip you can think of. It's pretty fun.

I recently got the DJI mavic pro. I'm pleased with it and it's really portable as it folds up. I bought a folding drone as I'm more likely to take it out when I'm not specifically going to use the drone. Like they say, the best camera/drone is the one you have with you.


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Oh thanks for the tips about regulations, and while the FAA does not apply, Canada does have rules.

Did a quick google of "Drone Regulations Canada" and no mention of registration (yet?) but these are the listed rules which pretty much rule out droning in Canada.

• Don't fly closer than nine km (five nm) from any aerodrome (i.e., any airport, heliport, helipad, or seaplane base). ( Dang - 7.5 KM to nearest airport - and planes do fly right over my house - at low altitude when landing, I see that at least once or twice every few months or so )
• Don't fly higher than 90 m (300 feet) above the ground. (got it no problem there .... except how do you know how high you are flying? )
• Don't fly closer than 150 m (500 feet) from people, animals, buildings, structures, or vehicles. (OK must remember to bring my lazer yardstick to measure how far away those cows are from me - but how about birds - do they count as animals? and gophers - those rodents are everywhere .... )
• Don't fly in populated areas or near large groups of people, including at sporting events, concerts, festivals, or firework shows. (" populated" - our town has over 100 people, is that populated? Hmmm wonder what they mean by "large groups" do they mean a group that you could not feed from two large family sized buckets of KFC?, and it takes two such groups as it is not "a group of people" but groups plural.
• Don't fly near moving vehicles, highways, bridges, busy streets, or anywhere you could endanger or distract drivers. (OK - so a big backpack will be necessary as you have to hike away from wherever you park your vehicle - .... maybe I can take my quad,(ATV) out into the bush somewhere - unless quads are considered moving vehicles?)
• Don't fly within restricted and controlled airspace, including near or over military bases, prisons, or forest fires. ( "near" Oh, Oh, we live 'near' one of Canada's fighter jet air bases, it is just 40K up the road - does that qualify as "near"? and flying over a forest fire - really do they have to say "don't do that?" You might as well say, avoid flying in a blizzard.
• Don't fly anywhere you may interfere with first responders. ("May" that's a pretty interesting word to use in legislation - an emergency helicopter might have to land in the field if the tractor rolls over.on the farmer so .. anywhere anything bad might happen ... )

So while Canadian's don't need to register a drone - with rules like that where can you fly these toys?

I think I'll stick with my indoor one, flying under the radar so to speak.

... these are the official rules ... really - see: https://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/civilaviation/opssvs/flying-drone-safely-legally.html

Oh Oh - things could get worse yet ....

from: https://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/civilaviation/opssvs/flying-drone-safely-legally.html#legal

New regulations
Transport Canada is developing new regulations to address the safety requirements, growing popularity, and economic importance of UAVs. Proposed changes include:


new flight rules
aircraft marking and registration requirements
knowledge testing
minimum age limits
pilot permits for certain UAV operations


This is getting serious ...

Update to Stakeholders on Unmanned Air VehiclesJune 2016

Following the consultation on the Notice of Proposed Amendment for small Unmanned AirVehicles (UAVs), weighing 25 kg or less and operated within visual line-of-sight, TransportCanada has been finalizing the policy and regulatory framework.The Department is currently developing proposed regulations that are expected to be madepublic in the Canada Gazette, Part I in spring 2017. Stakeholders and Canadians will havethe opportunity to provide comments as part of the consultation period.For stakeholders who may not be familiar with the process for making regulations,regulations are pre-published in the Canada Gazette, Part I for a formal comment period.Adjustments are made as required based on the comments received and the regulations arethen published in the Canada Gazette, Part II and considered final. A transition period isnormally provided prior to the coming into force of a new regulation. For more informationabout the Canada Gazette process: at this time, the regulatory exemptions (exemption for under 2 kg / exemption for 2 kgto 25 kg) remain valid and will be updated prior to their current expiry date ofDecember 16, 2016. For those that cannot meet the conditions of the exemptions,until such time as the final regulations are published, you can apply for a SpecialFlight Operations Certificate.Transport Canada continues to seek a balanced and risk-based approach to both safelyintegrate UAVs into Canadian airspace and encourage innovation within this important newsubsector of civil aviation.



. . . reading further - they have me in their sites too: "regulating indoor operations.."

there was mention of putting markings on the drones - my drone is about 4 cm across (less than 2") - not much room for lettering. ....

BUT worst of all "Requiring liability insurance for all categories of UAVs"

there goes the drone market.