Recent content by mstevens

Eh. My life's not so drab that I need a plastic wings pin for anything. I have other sources of pride and enjoyment, including actually flying my Mavic. The FAA has never handed out wings for anything and is never going to do so. The military does hand out wings, but they're really big on all...

It seems very possible that there's a "pattern" that would be best practice for us to fly, but also possible that it might not be similar at all to that used at an airport by a pilot inside the aircraft. Multirotor camera drones are different from airplanes, helicopters, fixed-wing drones, and...

I think a monento is some sort of Italian ice cream treat. A memento from getting a pilot's license is... the pilot's license itself. I have a drawerful of wings from when I was a kid and pilots on commercial flights let kids into the cockpit then gave you wings to pin on. By the time I was...

"Height" is ambiguous in English. A typical meaning of "height" is the distance to the top of an object from the bottom of that object. You measure the width of a bookcase and the depth of a bookcase. You don't measure the "tallness" of a bookcase, you measure its "height". If that measurement...

The maximum height from which I can hear it is about 2 meters, because that's how tall I am (with extremely thick socks and boots, standing on a box). As for altitude, I think that'll vary based on a number of factors and won't even be the same from one day to another.

Huh. When I was flying actual planes from within the cockpit, we never got wings nor had any use for them. I mean, wouldn't they look sort of out-of-place pinned to a T-shirt rather than the entire uniform?

"Technically, it's illegal to shoot pandas in the face and feast on their succulent flesh. Having said that it is possible if you are willing to risk it." Do you see any problem at all with saying that you know something is illegal then saying one can get away with it? As MAvic_South_Oz points...

Why not just get the DJI cable? All the angles and lengths are just right.

Don't sneak anything through. I travel to Mexico with my Mavic and have had no problems. Consumer electronics are very expensive in Mexico. They don't want people bringing in fancy stuff for resale. Right now it's unclear when a Mavic counts as a "camera" for customs allowances, but you get a...

Sort-of. Anyone (citizen, resident, tourist) is supposed to register their drone with SCT. I would doubt twenty thousand pesos, and certainly not twenty thousand US dollars. I don't actually find any information about fines. Where are you getting your information?

What does "ramose-out" mean?

No, you are absolutely not breaking ANY laws by filming a wedding with your drone for money, as long as you only do it hypothetically.

Perhaps. However, looking at pictures or watching video is not being there in first-person.

Nope. He's 22, so that'd be his responsibility. When my kid was a minor, I bore some responsibility for things he might have damaged, but not for every possible thing. Kids are kids. It's reasonable to expect them to act like kids. It's not reasonable to expect them to act like anything other...

I am one of those who takes responsibility for my own actions. As others have pointed out, there is absolutely no surprise that something like this would have happened. It's a clear risk. You took that risk.