State legislatures have been the battleground for new restrictions on drone use that could impact journalists seeking aerial photos and footage. While some particularly troublesome bills have gone down to defeat in Missouri and Texas, with the latter being struck down by a judge, other states have passed restrictions that will limit flights. Missouri’s legislature closed its annual session in May without passing either of two bills that would specifically limit photography from drones. The more restrictive of the bills, HB 1619, would have prohibited using drones to capture images of private property.

The sacred retail days of “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday” prompted eager marketers to fill our inboxes with all manner of sales pitches to put some new electronic gadget on our doorsteps. More than ever, it seems drones are part of the Christmas shopping onslaught this year. But with DJI dominating the drone market worldwide, prices seldom vary from the standard suggested retail price — even when trying to lure Christmas shoppers.

I’m spending the summer in London leading a group of students who are studying and performing internships here. I decided to bring a drone with me to fly over some famous British landmarks — if the rainy British weather will ever permit. But before I departed for the trip, I had to decide which drone to take. That decision, as it turns out, was very important in deciding where and how I could fly the drone here. Ultimately, the weight of the drone I’m flying makes all the difference as to how I use it in the United Kingdom — and maybe it should work like this in the United States, too.

You may have seen it by now. A camera flies toward a neon-lit bowling alley and swoops in the front door, making orbits around the place while pacing a bowling ball gliding down a lane, buzzing the heads of would-be cosplayers of The Big Lebowski, and piercing a window behind the bar to spy on revelers there, all before crashing into a set of bowling pins to end its flight. The movements are so smooth, the flying so precise, you wonder if this is all CGI made by some powerful Hollywood lab. It’s not. It’s the actual flight of a small FPV drone, done in one take over live people and moving bowling balls.

Usually characterized by a shoulder-to-shoulder push to see the latest in drone technology on a sprawling exhibit floor in Las Vegas, the 2021 Consumer Electronics Show was an entirely different affair, held virtually and lacking the biggest name in drones — DJI. With the conference grounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, the effort this month wasn’t to squeeze up close to see what was new, but rather click through endless links looking for product unveilings and updates.

Bundled with the FAA’s announcement Monday of the long-awaited rules on requiring remote ID from drones were two rule changes that will ease drone newsgathering for news organizations. Clearly the bigger of these was a drastic change in the way pilots will receive approval to fly at night. Under current rules, drone flights at night require FAA authorization for pilots and aircraft to be obtained well in advance of planned flights. This required news organizations to file for blanket authorization for their drones and pilots and renew that authorization after a number of years.

It’s not clear who was more excited about the announcement from the FAA Monday that the agency was granting approval to retail giant Amazon to operate as an air carrier with a fleet of drone delivery vehicles: online shopping addicts or drone nerds. The move by the FAA certifies Amazon Air — the company’s name for its drone fleet — as a Part 135 air carrier. That designation means Amazon may operate unscheduled, on-demand air service in the national air space of the United States.

The Part 107 rules for unmanned aircraft require pilots flying drones for commercial purposes to renew their certification every two years. But the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the closing of the bulk of the private contractor centers in the United States where drone pilots can go for testing and renewal.

The coronavirus pandemic has newsrooms across the country and the world scrambling to deliver vital information to their audiences. Newscasts and publications have taken on new value at a time where the public is intently tuned in to each breaking story about the disease. But newsroom drone pilots may feel a little left out of the action as this story has put people indoors, carrying the story there with them.

As RJI’s director of aerial journalism, I have closely followed the Federal Aviation Administration’s proposal to require drone manufacturers to enable drones in the U.S. to transmit a digital ID while in flight.  I first wrote about the plan in January, praising its ability to help clear the air of pilots who don’t follow proper safety procedures but questioning the power the proposal gives law enforcement agencies to track flights made by journalists.

Readers of the New Yorker magazine picked one word in 2012 they would like to see eliminated from the English language. That word was “moist,” and any drone pilot knows it’s a word that can make us cringe, too. The last thing we want is a moist, soggy or damp drone—any word that indicates it’s wet. We all know that drones that get wet don’t fly—at least so we thought. But a number of manufacturers at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) are teaching drone pilots a lesson about just how wet a drone can get.

Countless drone journalists cut their flying teeth on one of the sturdy Phantom models from DJI. Many lamented its departure from the product line last year as maker DJI officially discontinued the popular Phantom 4 and listed its Phantom 4 Pro permanently out of stock. It made sense for the Chinese electronics giant—which holds 76% of the U.S. drone market—to move away from the Phantom models, a line which first came out in 2013.

Nearly every drone in most newsroom bears the DJI nameplate, but several drone companies on display at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas are making the case drone journalists should make a switch.

The shots have become almost ubiquitous—aerial footage of the aftermath of a tornado, news photos showing the impact of flooding on farmers’ fields or the sweeping landscape shot over rolling hills. Newsrooms have incorporated drones into their daily workflow, and news managers are doing their best to pay attention to the stories and trends that will affect how they use this important tool. But we all know those same news managers don’t have enough time in their days to keep up with everything on their plates, much less read deeply into drone coverage to see what’s coming in the near future…