機(jī)械社區(qū)

The wild west days of drone flight came to end earlier this year when the FAA began requiring that pilots register their aircraft with the agency. If you want to use your Unmanned Aircraft System (as the FAA calls them) for anything remotely commercial, you’ll need to go a step further and pass a test.

自從今年早些時(shí)候FAA發(fā)布規(guī)定要求駕駛無(wú)人機(jī)需要持證上天，無(wú)人機(jī)的好日子就到頭了。要是你想要無(wú)人駕駛系統(tǒng)用于任何商業(yè)用途，你需要通過(guò)認(rèn)證考試。

The registration is not particularly onerous, though there is a processing fee. The whole thing starts to feel a bit Kafkaesque when you get to the end and realize that you can “display” your registration number by writing it on the battery and then tucking that inside the aircraft. WAT? It’s also unclear how often the regulations are going to be updated, or how the rules of flight are going to be enforced. For example, one rule states that a pilot has to maintain constant visual contact with his drone, but the signal range of some new models extends so far that it can fly up to two miles away from the operator. The technology will continue to advance faster than the laws. Meanwhile, it’s like the sheriff showed up, laid down the law, and then promptly rode off into the sunset, never to be seen again.

執(zhí)照并不難考，但是需要一定的費(fèi)用。而且更加魔幻的是，你拿到執(zhí)照后還得在無(wú)人機(jī)的電池上落下你的執(zhí)照編號(hào)。目前也沒(méi)有明確規(guī)定說(shuō)認(rèn)證幾年更新一次，同樣也沒(méi)有說(shuō)明如何禁飛。舉個(gè)例子，一項(xiàng)規(guī)定要求飛行器必須要在駕駛員的視線范圍內(nèi)，然而隨著科技的發(fā)展，飛行信號(hào)可以延伸至2公里以外，法律的更新程度遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)跟不上科技發(fā)展的速度。就像警察要來(lái)抓你亂玩無(wú)人機(jī)，但是他剛跟你說(shuō)完法律條款，無(wú)人機(jī)早就不知道飛哪里去了，抓你都沒(méi)證據(jù)了。

Whether you agree or disagree with the FAA registration, it does put something of damper on flying a drone. There is, however, a loophole in those FAA regulations: weight. The FAA does not regulate drones that weigh less than 0.55 pounds, or a little over eight ounces. Cue the rise of the mini drone.

無(wú)論你是否贊同F(xiàn)AA的做法，無(wú)人機(jī)飛行已經(jīng)被條條框框限制。然而，F(xiàn)AA的規(guī)定是有漏洞的，那就是重量。FAA并沒(méi)有限制那些重量低于0.55磅的無(wú)人機(jī)。于是，迷你無(wú)人機(jī)崛起了~~

I first played around with a mini drone for a review last year. TheJetJat Nano is so tiny, it fits inside its own controller. It might seem like a toy (and it is) but it’s also a lot of fun. And, as I mentioned in my review, it’s a great way to practice flying without worrying about crashing a $1,500 baby.

Since I started playing with the Nano, similar drones have taken flight. Each new mini drone manages to feel a little less toy-like. Today’s tiny drones still lack the stabilization and advanced flight features of their larger, regulated brethren, but several of them are very nearly as capable on the two fronts that have the most appeal: fun and photography.

Mota, creator of the JetJat Nano, has since released the JetJat Ultra, which picks up where the Nano left off, adding hovering capabilities, a camera with live streaming, and an app-based controller. The flight control system has also been significantly overhauled and is much better than the Nano. All this, and the drone still manages to fit in a package very nearly the same as the Nano—the Ultra weighs just over a quarter of an ounce and can wander 100 feet away from its controller. That might not sound all that impressive next to a DJI machine, but consider that the JetJat Ultra literally fits in the palm of your hand.

The JetJat Ultra is the smallest of the mini drones I’ve tested, but its camera still delivers video of passable quality. It won’t make HD movies, and the quality is relative to how well you fly, but it is possible to get usable footage.

Another contender for the best small drone is the Aerix Black Talon . It’s considerably bigger—about the size of four Ultras joined together—but at 2.4 ounces, it’s still well under the FAA’s weight limit. The Aerix is more expensive ($140 to the Ultra’s $130), but for the extra money, you get a much more stable flying experience and a 720p camera.

The larger size gets you more than just stability though; the Black Talon can also stay in the air for a claimed 25 minutes per one charge. In my testing, it was more like 20 minutes, and of course it depends on how conservatively you fly. But either way, that’s much better than the six or seven minutes you get from smaller drones. In fact it’s long enough to blur the line between a mini drone and a full-size quadcopter.

The Black Talon also has an interesting feature dubbed “altitude hold,” which eliminates the need for the pilot to manually maintain the altitude. Get the craft where you want it, activate the feature, and you are free to focus just on side to side, front and back, and rotational movement. It’s a really nice feature for creating decent video as well, since you can lock the altitude then creep forward for a nice, smooth approaching shot.

The Aerix’s controller includes an LCD monitor, but it’s also compatible with the company’s VR goggles if you want have a more immersive, first-person-view flying experience. Unlike with larger drones, I almost never used the display unless I was hovering. Because these drones never fly as high (and therefore are never as clear of obstructions) as larger models, it’s far easier to fly by watching the aircraft than to try to fly in first-person point of view.

The Black Talon will save your video to a microSD card, which slots into the side the body, but it’s here where it shows its low price most painfully. The cheap plastic body isn’t well assembled, making it easy to miss when inserting the SD card into its narrow slot. I accidentally pushed the card into the body of the drone, where it currently rattles around. In the Black Talon’s favor, the thing still flies just fine.

If you want to fly a little closer to the FAA’s wire, there is a slightly larger class of drone out there that still manages to skirt the weight limit. RC toymaker Swann has a drone called the Xtreem Gravity Pursuit that’s nearly as large as the (license-requiring) DJI Phantom 4, but weighs just a fraction of DJI’s quadcopter. Directly comparing their performance would be ridiculous, since the Phantom 4 could quite literally fly circles around the Gravity Pursuit. But the Gravity Pursuit is still plenty powerful, and it can shoot 1080p video.

As with the rest of these lightweight drones, there’s no real gimbal or stabilization for the on-board camera, which means your video quality is only ever as good as your flying skills. But you shouldn’t buy one of these drones because you want high quality imagery. You should buy one because you like flying. These are first and foremost, RC quadcopters. Were it not so frequently used as a pejorative term, I’d call them toys, because they are toys. But they’re also a lot of fun for not much money.

Don’t let The Man keep you down. Viva la revolución!

I first played around with a mini drone for a review last year. TheJetJat Nano is so tiny, it fits inside its own controller. It might seem like a toy (and it is) but it’s also a lot of fun. And, as I mentioned in my review, it’s a great way to practice flying without worrying about crashing a $1,500 baby.