Drone News: Drone Ban From Drones for First Responders Act, No Mapping in NC, DJI Air 4 Rumors

Welcome to your weekly UAS news update, we have 3 stories for you this week: Drones for First Responders Act Introduced, Drone Pilots Can’t Map in NC, and DJI Air 4 Rumors. https://droneadvocacyalliance.com First up, a follow up on the misleadingly named Drone For First Responder act from Congresswoman Elise Stefanik from New York. As we mentioned last news update, the bill introduced last week would increase taxes on drones imported from China by 5% per year, up to 50% + $100. This means pricing recreational pilots out of the hobby. And pretty much ending the ability for FPV pilots to build their own drones... Why? Let's see. If a cheap toy drone costs $130 today, it will cost 50% more in 4 years, plus $100. So you'll pay $300. The alternative? A US drone that doesn't exist from a company that we don't know about, because no American manufacturers are currently building this kind of drone. A Mavic 3 Pro that costs $2200 today would cost $3400 in 4 years. Of course until a year later where you wouldn't be able to buy it because it will be banned from import. In 5 years, the bill would BAN drones that contain a Flight Controller, Radio, Data Transmission Device, Camera, Gimbal, software, network connectivity hardware, or data storage manufactured in China. This would effectively ban all DJI, Autel but also EXO, Holy Stone, Ruko, EMAX, BetaFPV, and more premade drones. So what about the FPV pilots that I mentioned before? Well, drones that utilize systems manufactured in China, such as Team Black Sheep, T Motor, iFlight, and even Spektrum would also be banned. It gets better, and of course I'm sarcastic. Funds from these new tariffs would be used to fund First Responders purchasing new drones. 60% of the funds collected would go to first responders, 20% to farmers and 20% to critical infrastructure pilots. But in 5 years, all the funds end. Meaning first responders, farmers and critical infrastructure pilots will be left on their own to buy drones that have been over-inflated, without any grants. This would decimate the entire hobby. Many thought the FAA was interested in killing the hobby. They were never interested in that but it certainly seems like Stefanik's office is, along with the supporter of the bill, including AUVSI. We’ve included a link to the DAA, where you can reach out to your representative and let them know this is not okay. https://dspalliance.org/the-u-s-drone-industry-is-under-attack-again/ https://droneadvocacyalliance.com/ Next up, an appeals court said that the North Carolina Surveyors Board didn’t violate a drone pilot’s rights by telling them to stop advertising and offering aerial mapping services. If you haven’t heard of this story, A drone pilot in NC received a cease and desist letter from the state’s surveying board for engaging in “ mapping, surveying and photogrammetry; stating accuracy; providing location and dimension data; and producing orthomosaic maps, quantities, and topographic information.”. The current court decision effectively bans mapping in NC for those who aren’t a surveyor. Michael Jones of 360 Virtual Drone Services plans to further appeal the decision. Let us know what you think about this in the comments. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/drone-pilot-cant-offer-mapping-215413201.html Finally, we have some DJI Air 4 Rumors. Leaked images show possible Air 4 batteries and rumors include some specs. Specs include 1” sensors, Mechanical shutters, Variable Aperture, two cameras, and O4. Interestingly the leaks seems to suggest the drone may come with the ability to map, which would likely cater to entry-level drone pilots looking to get their feet wet without spending $3500 on a Mavic 3 Enterprise. We’ll have to wait and see if these rumors are true! https://dronexl.co/2024/05/18/dji-air-4-rumors-what-we-know-so-far/ Have a great week, remember, no Live on Monday this week.