Drone Categories on AvPay

Here’s a quick overview of the Drone Categories that are listed on AvPay

Drone Accessories

Many Drone Accessories are essential and there are a lot to choose from. A spare battery is an absolute must, as there’s nothing worse than arriving on location, only to find-out there’s an issue with your one and only battery. If you don’t have a spare battery, a car charger might prove useful. Spare blades can be an invaluable addition to your drone flight bag, since it’s unlikely you’ll be able to continue controlled flight if one of them is damaged. With prop protection in mind, you may want to consider buying yourself a propeller guard, as this will protect your props from any obstacles you bump in to. Propeller straps will also protect your props while transporting your drone. We also recommend carrying a spare memory card, in case you end-up shooting more footage than planned.  You’ll want to have a good carrying case for your drone and accessories, since equipment is expensive and given the light weight of drones, they’re quite easy to damage. Landing Pads can be a good investment, since drones can sometimes create a lot of dust which can damage the equipment or make your lens dirty. Spare landing gear might also be a handy addition to your landing pad. If your mission requires you to fly large distances, a GPS tracker could help you locate your drone, should it suffer a power loss during flight and have to land. Talking of drone losses, a drone insurance policy will help replace any drones, should they get damaged beyond repair or lost while flying.

Drone Bags & Cases

When looking at Drone Bags & Cases, you really need to have a think about the conditions you’ll be working in and how often you’ll be upgrading your drone. When taking footage out in the wild and in cold conditions, you’ll need a bag that has enough protective casing to protect your equipment from slips and falls, as well as enough thermal padding to protect everything from the cold. When operating in towns and cities, you may want to use a more low-key backpack, to avoid drawing too much attention to yourself and your expensive drone. In all cases, we recommend purchasing water proof bags & cases as you can never be sure when it’s going to rain. You should also consider how often you’re likely to replace your drone, since your next might be bigger than your last and you don’t want to be buying a new bag with every new drone upgrade.

Drone Batteries

Drone Batteries are usually lithium based and come in a variety of sizes. To get the most out of your drone batteries, you should always store them in a cool dry place and you should wait for your batteries to cool down after use, before recharging them. Batteries tend to lose power as soon as they’re charged, so it’s always best to charge them shortly before you need them. Before flying, you should remove any excess weight from your drone (such as any equipment you don’t need to use during that particular shoot), since higher take-off weights will drain your battery quicker. If you’ve a long day of shooting ahead of you and are wanting to get the most out of your battery, it may be best waiting for decent weather, since fighting wind and turbulence all day is likely to significantly reduce your battery’s charge. You should also try to fly the drone as smoothly as possible since continuous, abrupt control inputs will accelerate the decay in battery charge.

Drone Chargers

Drone Chargers typically come as single units, dual units and quad units and the one you need generally depends on what you’re using the drone for. Single chargers are ideal for recreational drone flying that doesn’t involve more than a few hours of flying per day. For professional drone pilots, we recommend looking at the dual and quad charging options, as they’ll let you simultaneously charge multiple batteries at the end of a hard day’s drone flying. When picking your charger you should take note of the number of USB ports available as well as the charge rate and battery output.

Drone Controllers

Drone Controllers come in a variety of different shapes, sizes and budgets and it’s important you select one that suits your mission profile. They function by transmitting a radio signal to the drone it’s controlling. Some controllers come fitted with a First Person View (FPV) Screen, allowing you to see where the drone is flying in real time, while others do not. If your drone isn’t fitted with a FPV screen, you may be able to download software that’ll let you stream a FPV to your mobile device, such as a tablet. They control a drone in pitch, roll and yaw and also have throttle controls.

Drones For Sale

There are four main types of drones: Multi Rotor Drones, Fixed Wing Drones, Single Rotor Helicopters and Fixed Wing Hybrid VTOL Drones. Multiple Rotor Drones is the most common type of drone and they usually have between 4-8 rotors and are designed for vertical take-off and landing. These drones have multiple propellers which although increase manoeuvrability, does hinder their top-speed. They’re ideal for aerial photography and survey work. They can be classified based on how many rotors they have: tricopter, quadcopter etc.. Fixed-Wing Drones require a lot more space for take-off and landing and are typically used for mapping and surveillance work. They’re not best-suited to aerial photography work, since they cannot hover like a Multi-Rotor Drone. Fixed-Wing UAVs have a better range than Multi-Rotor UAVs and to fly these you usually require a little more experience or training. Single Rotor Helicopters are mostly used for recreational purposes and can run on both electric and petrol. Fixed-Wing Hybrid VTOLs are pretty much a go-between, between Multi-Rotor and Fixed-Wing UAVs, since they can take-off and land vertically. As well as requiring little space to take-off and land, they fly a lot faster and further than Multi-Rotor Drones. This makes this type of drone a suitable candidate for future postal delivery. Find a pilot that offers drone training in your area on the AvPay Drone Training Directory.

Drone Lenses

There’s a wide range of drone lenses on the market and it’s important you pick on that suits your mission profile. A big thing to check when purchasing a new lens is the resolution, since this will limit the quality of the footage you take. Anamorphic lenses are highly recommended for drone photography, as they allow you to capture widescreen, high-quality footage. You can also buy a variety of filters, which can be really useful for removing things such as unwanted reflections from your footage, or boosting the contract of your images. Neutral Density filters help you capture long-exposure shots, by reducing the amount of light that enters the lens. Polariser filters help reduce reflections. UV filters block ultraviolet light, which is ideal for images taken at high altitudes. A lot of drone pilots don’t fly with protective housing in order to save weight and this can lead to drone lenses becoming scratched, should you suffer a bumpy landing or encounter any obstacles while aloft.

Drone Memory Cards

There are a lot of Drone Memory Cards on the market and there are a lot of variations in quality, size and speed when it comes to picking the right card. Naturally the more footage you’re taking, the bigger the memory card you’ll need. You may even need to buy several cards, to save the footage you’re taking. Before purchasing your drone memory card, you should check with the manufacturer to see how big a storage card you can use. For example, some drones have a max capacity of 64GB whereas others may be maxed-out at 32GB. In order to record quicker footage with faster frames per second, you’ll need to use a fast micro SD card. If your card isn’t fast enough to keep-up with the footage you’re taking, it could cause issues with the recording which may affect the quality of your video.

Drone Propellers

You should pick carefully when searching for drone propellers, since they can have a significant impact on your drone’s performance. Smaller blades for example have less lifting power than larger blades and may not be suitable for applications such as delivering and spraying. Props with large diameters could negatively impact the endurance of your drone, since they’re heavier than smaller props and require more energy to rotate. Larger prop diameters may improve the stability of your drone, while smaller prop diameters may improve the manoeuvrability of your drone. When picking your drone blades, you should also consider the material they’re made of, too. All in all, have a think about what you’re using your drone for and pick the prop blades that best suit your mission profile.

Drone Propeller Guards

Drone propeller guards are not only designed to protect the drone operator from injury, they’re also designed to prolong the life of the drone by reducing the likelihood the drone will be damaged when colliding with an object. Propeller guards are absolutely essential when flying drones indoors, since the likelihood of hitting people and objects indoors is greatly increased. Some drone pilots prefer to remove their blade guards when flying outdoors, since the reduction in weight can increase battery life. This greatly increases the risk of harming both yourself, your drone and anybody/anything within your operating area, so this practise is not recommended. When purchasing new guards for your drone you should take note of the change in weight, since they may move the drone’s centre of gravity and affect the drone’s flying characteristics.

Drone Screens

Drone Screens are needed in order to fly a drone with a first person view camera live stream, which is essential when flying a drone out of your line of sight. As well as enabling the pilot to take dynamic footage of places such as building interiors, screens are important for safety reasons since they help drone pilots avoid objects and navigate safely. While you can buy drone screens that are integrated within or fitted to a drone’s controller, some people prefer to stream the footage to their mobile phones or tablets since this can save money on the controller. You can also purchase drone goggles that help you immerse yourself in the drone’s flying surroundings. If you have already bought a DJI drone without a screen-mounted-controller, their software compatibility may let you connect your drone to their DJI Smart Controller.

Drone Training

There are a number of drone training options that cover everything from recreational flying to professional courses that will get you qualifications such as the CAA’s A2 Certificate of Competency. Recently-introduced regulations can be difficult to keep-up with, so why not contact a Drone Training Company through the AvPay Drone Training Directory, to guide you through the process? In the UK there are 3 main drone flight categories, that UAV operations can fall in to: Open Category, Specific Category and Certified Category. Open Category includes drone flying at low level, which poses little or no risk to 3rd parties. Specific Category includes flying that presents a greater risk to 3rd parties than the Open Category and for this type of drone flying, you’ll need an Operational Authorisation from the CAA. The Certified Category includes flight that presents an equivalent risk to 3rd parties, to that of manned-aircraft. In order to get a drone license, you’ll need to complete a General Visual Line of Sight Certificate (GVC) course.

Drone Training Courses

There are a number of drone training courses that cover everything from recreational flying to professional courses that will get you qualifications such as the CAA’s A2 Certificate of Competency. Recently-introduced regulations can be difficult to keep-up with, so why not contact a Drone Training Company through the AvPay Drone Training Directory, to guide you through the process? In the UK there are 3 main drone flight categories, that UAV operations can fall in to: Open Category, Specific Category and Certified Category. Open Category includes drone flying at low level, which poses little or no risk to 3rd parties. Specific Category includes flying that presents a greater risk to 3rd parties than the Open Category and for this type of drone flying, you’ll need an Operational Authorisation from the CAA. The Certified Category includes flight that presents an equivalent risk to 3rd parties, to that of manned-aircraft. In order to get a drone license, you’ll need to complete a General Visual Line of Sight Certificate (GVC) course.

Find Drone Pilots/Drone Operators in your area here and Drone Training Companies here. Promote your company updates by setting-up your own AvPay Profile here.