Drones are a great idea for recon, however there are a few caveats. If you're using it for recon, don't ever return the drone directly to your location, use a circuitous route. Also, although unlikely, it is possible to locate the ground based drone signal. So, again if you're using it for recon, you may want to move to a temporary location away from the area where you stay, to operate it.
You clearly don't know about remote ID which is an FAA mandate. This broadcasts your location to anyone who wants to see it. It's not unlikely, it's guaranteed on anything newer than this mini 2 - which is garage. Get a Mavic 3T, download the 1001 firmware. Anything less is larp.
Nice kit! Have you considered some sort of external thermal recorder mounted onto the drone? Would definitely cut into flight time but I think the cost savings compared to the more expensive thermal drones might be worth it.
@steven-un4iw the smaller, sub 249g, drones will not likely be able to carry any more weight. The larger, Evo II, and full size DJIs, etc., do have that capability. The drones larger than the DJI and Evo II also can carry even more weight, as we've seen in the Ukraine.
Don't listen to all the spergs online repeating the hate on DJI. It's just a cope to avoid realizing that it's our own G that hates us. No Chinese has ever tried to disarm me.
@rmedal4594 You can turn off the no-fly restriction on the DJIs to be able to fly it anywhere. Also, you can fly it w/o gps, the return to home feature obviously won't work. I've flown mine before the GPS gets a lock and it just tells you there is no return to home available. It's been a while, but I think the height, speed and direction are also all GPS dependent, as well. You still have a video signal, though.
What is a good alternative that doesn't need to be logged in and doesn't collect your data? Are there any good ones that have a stand alone (no app) controller/screen in a reasonable price range?
Roberto I see you’ve been in the drone game for 5+ years. What do you recommend to avoid no-fly zone issues? Ideally it wouldn’t have a mandatory log in every month
There's defintely some pros and cons to DJI. I've had my eye on of a few of Autels thermal drons but not sure they may have similar data collection issues.
