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No more crash landings: Now your drone can land on a steep slope

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Researchers have developed a new landing system that allows drones to land in rough conditions, even on surfaces sloped as steep as 60 degrees. That’s great news for any drone operators out there who don’t fly in 100% ideal situations. Although most drones are able to land themselves, their automated landing systems require a flat landing site, minimal winds, and low speeds to safely touch down.

Researchers at the Createk Design Lab in the Université de Sherbrooke in Quebec, Canada noticed that most drone makers assume that landings will be performed in ideal conditions at optimal locations. Due to this, they rely on rigid landing gear that doesn’t provide enough friction to steady a drone on inclined surfaces.

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DJI has officially announced the Avata – Their new “cinewhoop” style FPV drone for filmmakers

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DJI has announced the new DJI Avata drone, their attempt at a teeny tiny “cinewhoop” style FPV drone. On paper, it makes DJI’s previous FPV drone pretty much obsolete overnight, with a slightly wider field of view, a stop better ISO performance, larger max image size, higher video bitrate and more in a much smaller package. Bad news for those of you who were hoping it would fall under the 250g weight limit, though. It doesn’t.

What it does have, though, are built-in prop guards – making it safer while reducing the chances that it hitting something is going to cause it to crash – and a compactness that makes it much easier to travel with and use. The DJI Goggles V2 have shrunk a pretty significant amount over past DJI headsets. The Avata also features downward-facing obstacle avoidance to help prevent you from crashing into the ground.

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Adorama lists DJI Avata accessories for pre-order before DJI even announces the drone

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The DJI Avata has been a hot topic in the drone world since rumours of its existence first started to appear. And once leaks of its design started to appear, things got even more exciting. There’s been no official announcement from DJI about the upcoming cinewhoop style FPV drone yet, and they haven’t even said when we can expect one yet. But that hasn’t stopped one retailer from listing a bunch of the accessories already.

Adorama has listed a number of new accessories for the DJI Avata drone on their website, along with the accompanying new FPV Goggles 2. The individual product pages have already been taken down already but they do still show up in the website search results. Fortunately, DroneDJ managed to get screenshots of the individual listings with some of the details on each, revealing a few things about the drone itself.

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This DJI Mavic Mini goes up against a bald-faced hornet’s nest and… well, it wins

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This probably isn’t a tutorial you’ll see on the DJI YouTube channel anytime soon and it’s almost certainly not a suggested use for the DJI Mavic Mini – or any of their other drones for that matter – but when a photographer who goes by the name Dripped found his backyard infested with a bald-faced hornet’s nest, his go-to was indeed the DJI Mavic Mini.

Well, ok, his go-to was to call around and get some quotes from local companies to have the nest removed but after receiving quotes that he says were “into the thousands”, he decided to give it a go himself. That’s where the Mavic Mini came into play. Does it really need to be said that you probably shouldn’t try this at home?

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The XDynamics Evolve 2 is an entry level cinematic drone that shows a lot of promise

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As drones go, the XDynamics Evolve 2 drone sits in an interesting place. It’s an entry-level professional cinematic drone that’s above the likes of the DJI Mavic 3 (even the Mavic 3 Cine) and the Autel Evo II Pro but a hair below the DJI Inspire 2. It’s aimed primarily toward hybrid shooters who use mirrorless cameras on the ground for both stills and video and want to get the same or similar quality of photos and footage from the air.

It comes with a price tag to match, but it does feature an interchangeable lens gimbal-stabilised Micro Four Thirds camera, giving you a lot more filming and photography options than most drones below this price point. And if you’re already a Micro Four Thirds shooter, it can use the lenses you already own. But does the Evolve 2 live up to expectations? Let’s find out…

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30 mistakes new drone owners make and how to prevent them

At some point, everybody who’s flown a drone was a beginner. And beginners are picking up a drone for the first time every single day. Maybe you’ve just got your first. Maybe it’s the DJI Mini 3 Pro featured in these videos from Jeven Dovey and Jake Sloan where they go through thirty of the biggest mistakes drone pilots make – particularly new ones – when it comes to getting into the air for the first time.

Even if you’ve been at it for a little while, there are still mistakes you’re probably making when it comes to flying your drone. In a list this big, it’s almost a certainty and I’m definitely guilty of a couple of them myself. The 30 tips are split up across the two videos from Deven and Jake, so be sure to watch both to make sure you don’t miss anything. You might not even realise you’re doing some of this!

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DJI to drop support for some Phantom drones from the end of September

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DJI has announced that as of September 30th, 2022, they will no longer be providing maintenance or technical support for their Phantom 2 (2.4G) and Phantom 3 4K drone models or their accessories. It’s not much of a surprise, given that DJI hasn’t manufactured these products since 2017 and drone technology has come a long way, but there are still a lot of Phantom 2 and Phantom 3 models out there still flying.

Naturally, DJI is suggesting that users of the Phantom 2 and Phantom 3 drones update their kit to a more modern drone. They don’t specifically say a new DJI drone and don’t mention any specific models but obviously, they want you to buy more because that’s what businesses do. But drone technology has come a long way since the days of the Phantom 2 and 3.

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The Insta360 Sphere is an invisible 360° camera for drones that lets you create FPV-style footage in post

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Mounting 360° cameras to drones has been a thing for a while now, but the one big issue with it is that there’s really nowhere you can mount a traditional 360° camera without getting the drone itself in shot somewhere. Well, Insta360 aims to solve that with the new Insta360 Sphere, a split lens system and mount that lets you make your drone completely invisible.

The lightweight frame mounts the two lenses of Insta360 Sphere on top of the drone above its propellers and underneath the drone below its feet. When the two halves are stitched together, you get a completely seamless 360° view with no drone in sight. Initially, it’s been released for the DJI Mavic Air 2 and DJI Air 2S, but it’s expected to come to other drones in the future.

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DJI leak shows the DJI Avata CineWhoop style drone for shooting FPV cinema

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Well, it looks like the DJI Mini 3 Pro isn’t the only small drone that DJI’s been working on lately. According to leaks from both OsitaLV and DealsDrone, DJI’s also been working on a small-ish (~500g) FPV drone in the CineWhoop style. CineWhoop is a relatively new style of drone designed for shooting high-quality video footage while flying FPV.

FPV has become popular for not only showcasing the abilities of drone pilots but it’s even become a thing in Hollywood now with a lot of movies seemingly jumping on the tech. I even spotted some FPV shots while watching Ambulance the other day (some of them are in the trailer). So, it makes sense that DJI is looking to exploit this market.

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The UK’s Royal Mail is planning to start delivering mail by drones

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Well, if Royal Mail’s service wasn’t bad enough already, they’re about to add drones into the mix. They’ve announced plans to open up 50 postal routes for delivery drones over the next three years as part of an operation to ultimately deploy over 500 UAVs to remote areas of the country. The whole thing is subject to Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) approval, of course, but this is Royal Mail, so they’ll probably figure out a way.

It’s happening in partnership with Windracers, a drone logistics company and the goal is to reduce the emissions of current mail delivery systems including ferries, aircraft and land-based delivery methods. The first routes chosen to receive the new service will include the Isles of Scilly, Shetland Isles, Orkney Islands and the Hebrides.

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