What You Need to Know if You take Your Drone on Vacation

You don’t need movie directing skills to gather impressive footage from your vacations. You know you can bring back some stunning views from your trip – you’ve succeeded with the photo and video camera, then the smartphone and then the selfie stick. It’s time to literally take your trips to an upper level and use a drone. You can find the best drone for GoPro or regular cameras for a convenient price and some delightful features. But what will you do next? This article discusses everything you need to know about taking the drone on vacation and shooting astonishing videos.

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1. Find a drone with a good reputation

The first step of each project is to find suitable tools. It goes the same with owning a drone. Before thinking about videos and editing footage, first research on the drone. Make sure you find a portable and easy-to-operate product which carries a lower accident risk through safety features. Two of them are return-to-home (if the drone is too far away) and follow-me (takes your body position as a reference instead of the direction where the remote is pointing at).

Also, make sure that your drone comes with a guarantee. According to Today Best Drone, GoPro Karma is the best-ranked product of its kind. However, the best drone for GoPro stands out not only for its quality, but for being endorsed by GoPro itself. The drone is suitable even for the latest GoPro HERO cameras and is impressively lightweight after you equip it with a camera.

2. Get to know your drone

You will face different weather with unique conditions while you’re on vacation. Winds may differ, together with air humidity. It may be uncomfortable for you to spend time in broad sunlight to shoot footage material. This will stop you from paying full attention to how you operate the drone. Therefore, by the time you fly the drone on vacation, you should already master it.

You will need a UAS (unmanned aircraft system) certificate to fly a drone anywhere in the US. Once you’ve purchased the drone, you will need to register it with the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) and follow the authority’s guidelines. The FAA website is useful as it can guide you through the geographic regulations of flying a drone across the country.

3. Get some training

Train before leaving on vacation with your drone – it’s essential as you will face an unfamiliar environment with new challenges. You can begin to practice by playing online on a drone simulator. This type of software introduces you to how the drone reacts to your commands.
You can also operate the drone in your backyard or over friends’ gardens when you go for a barbeque. The more confident you are when flying the gadget, the better you handle situations when you must avoid obstacles or quickly change routes. Drones are easy to crash and damage. Propellers are sensitive to accidents – yet they can be fixed with duct tape and a small screwdriver.

4. Keep the drone safe

There are regulations you will need to follow when traveling and operating a drone. The TSA allows you to pass through the checkpoint with the tiny flying gadgets. However, airlines have policies about flying with drones that you will need to read. Usually they also mention batteries – as they carry a fire risk. It’s best if you place the device in your carry-on bag, as most airlines don’t take responsibility on luggage stealth. Also, get a good back and keep the pilot license at hand.

Your holiday destination also comes with drone flying regulations. If you’re planning to travel within the US, you will need to obey to local laws. However, each country – including the European ones – have some restrictions. Get to know them before you set your next holiday destination or embark on the plane.

5. Work on your footage

For your own safety and the drone’s, keep the drone within your sight when you operate it. Beware of animals and especially birds. You should also keep away from trees, national reservations, airports, crowds and even small groups of people.

Start by scouting the area for a few minutes to make the most of your visual offerings. You might notice that you’re developing tunnel vision that you will need to eliminate. Tunnel vision occurs when your eyes are stuck on an impressive view and you fail to notice everything else from the overall landscape. Even if you run out of batteries, it will be charming to view the surroundings again when you take the footage.

After a few years of popularity, drones now make up around 21,500,000 videos on YouTube. Many shot impressive locations using some of the best drones, like the ones for GoPro cameras. Some of them even set foot on the area you plan to observe. Get creative and think about video concepts, angles, light. You can grab some tips from cinematographers or professional drone pilots. Notice techniques and flying patterns. Focus on creating a story out of your footage so you can easier focus on the new perspective of shooting from the sky.

You might notice that strangers get curious about drones. Embrace their positive attitude and even think of ways to include them in your footage. Maybe you will earn some new friends who will enjoy watching your videos.

Images Source: Depositphotos.com.


This is a contribution from one of our contributing writers.