Advancing Defense Innovation: Defense Innovation Unit 3.0 Focuses on Rapid Deployment of Commercial Technologies By DRONELIFE Contributor Dawn Zoldi (Colonel USAF, Ret.) In the realm of defense innovation, XPONENTIAL shined a spotlight on operationalizing DIU 3.0. A fireside chat discussion between Doug Beck, Director of the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), and Courtney Albon of Defense […]
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On the heels of news that some U.S. lawmakers want to ban DJI drones, there was no shortage of DJI drones in the air this weekend. That’s because Saturday, April 27 marked the sixth year in a row of Drone Safety Day 2024.
The national ‘drone holiday’ of sorts is orchestrated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). It’s all a way to encourage local drone pilots, businesses, first responders using drones, schools and more to come together and fly drones — all with safety in mind.
Groups all around the country put on their own live events to localize the FAA’s promotional campaign. As for me, I headed to my nearest Drone Safety Event, which was a Drone Safety Day & Swap Meet at Treasure Island in San Francisco, California.
Here’s a video recap of the Treasure Island Drone Safety Day 2024 festivities:
The event took place at the GAA Fields on Treasure Island. Those mark one of the best places to fly drones in San Francisco for one key reason: they’re a FAA-approved FRIA site. FRIA is short for FAA-Recognized Identification Areas, which means no Remote ID is required to fly over the GAA fields.
My trusty DJI Avata 2 came along for the ride with me on Drone Safety Day 2024. Beyond capturing some epic footage of the vibrant atmosphere, I also learned some tricks from the pros. Drone events like this are always helpful to pick up tips and tricks. Special thanks to the folks from UAV911 who helped me get comfortable flying with the DJI RC Motion 3. I had kind of been avoiding using it in favor of the DJI FPV Remote Controller 3 on my new Avata 2 drone. I’m just so much more comfortable on the sticks, so I didn’t want to learn the motion controller functions. Turns out, you can learn new tricks!
And it’s absolutely great to learn new tricks from drone pilots of all backgrounds, which you can absolutely do here! That included first responders, photographers, professional pilots, teachers and drone racers. With such a range of drone pilots came a range of drones, from the DJI Spark (quite a throwback) to DJI Matrice drones to the new Skydio X10D. Yep, this weekend was actually my first time seeing the American-made Skydio X10 in person).
Turns out, my Avata 2 wasn’t the only one of its kind there. Despite having launched only a few weeks ago, other San Francisco drone pilots are on top of the latest and greatest, too!
Here’s some of the footage I caught on my Avata 2 drone:
The Avata 2 starts at $999.
The entire day was a fantastic blend of education, connection, and pure drone-loving fun. A big shoutout to the sponsors. That includes SF Drone School, Drone of San Francisco, Uncrewed Pro, and Remote Optix, who made this event possible.
If you’re a drone enthusiast in the Bay Area and you missed the Drone Safety Day 2024 shindig, well, let’s just say you’ll have major FOMO (fear of missing out) next year. Trust me, mark your calendars early because this is one event you won’t want to miss in 2025!
And if you’re not in the Bay Area, it’s likely there was a Drone Safety Day 2024 event happening near you. Follow along with the FAA’s website to see what you can plan ahead for next year. Can’t wait until next year? Check out my guide to all sorts of other drone events in 2024 happening around the world.
Well, assuming we can fly DJI drones next year. Alas!
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QinetiQ has successfully trialled the UK’s first Crewed-Uncrewed-Teaming demonstration between a crewed aircraft and an autonomous jet drone. The trial – which took place in collaboration with the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), the Royal Navy and the Air and Space Warfare Centre (ASWC) – saw a QinetiQ jet aircraft take off from Ministry […]
Mayman Aerospace will unveil a full-scale model of Razor, its high-speed Air Utility Vehicle, during SOF Week 2024, May 6-10 in Tampa, Florida. Razor is the name for the military variant of the dual-use, jet-powered, high-speed vertical take-off and landing (HS- VTOL) vehicle, from US-based manufacturer Mayman Aerospace. Derived from the Speeder design, the scalable […]
TEKEVER, a provider of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) in Europe, introduced its newest drone the ARX in San Diego, U.S. on Tuesday (Apr. 23). The company touted its newest product as capable of coordinating a swarm of smaller drones from a primary mother drone. “We’re thrilled to announce the ARX, which is one of the […]
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., Poway, California, was awarded a $52,918,826 hybrid (cost-plus-fixed-fee and cost-plus-incentive-fee) contract for Gray Eagle fleet sustainment and logistics support. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work will be performed in Poway, California, with an estimated completion date of April 23, 2029. Fiscal 2024 operation and maintenance, Army […]
Ukraine has transformed another sport plane into another long-range strike drone. One of them crashed inside Russia reportedly more than 600 miles from the Russia-Ukraine border, at least matching the depth of the first strike by an explosives-laden pilotless Ukrainian sport plane. A photo circulated online by Russian propagandist Kirill Fedorov this week depicts the […]Advancing Drone Safety: How NASA’s Weather Research Supports BVLOS Operations by DRONELIFE Contributing Editor Paul Rossi As the aviation industry expands into increasingly automated technologies, the need for precise weather data becomes undeniably crucial, particularly for drone operations. During the recent AUVSI Xponential 2024, I had the opportunity to sit down with Nancy Mendonca, Deputy […]
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New Partnership Aims to Enhance Advanced Air Mobility with Unified UAS Traffic Management System Unifly, a leader in Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM) technology, has joined forces with Terra Drone Corporation and Aloft Technologies Inc. to develop a global UAS Traffic Management (UTM) infrastructure. This collaboration, announced on April 25, 2024, in Antwerp, seeks […]
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New BVLOS Certification Expands Possibilities for Remote Drone Operations in Security Applications by DRONELIFE Contributer Ian J. McNab Pennsylvania-based manufacturer Asylon Robotics recently announced new federal approvals for its American-made “drone in a box” system for BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Sight) operation. The news represents an important step for Asylon’s DroneSentry security system to […]
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