First Drone Image

Another of several retirement gifts for myself was a drone.  A couple of months ago I bought myself a DJI Phantom 4 drone.  This thing captures high definition video, and good quality digital stills.  The new drone rules in Canada require the owner to have a pilots certificate.  An on line test must be taken and once passed, a pilots certificate is issued by Transport Canada.  It costs $10 to take the test, and you can take it as many times as you want or need to.  There are 35 multiple choice questions and you need to achieve a score of at least 65%.  The first time I took the test I didn't study and just answered all the questions as quickly as possible, guessing at the ones I didn't know.  I finished the test in 10 minutes and got a score of 50%.

A couple of weeks later I tried again, with a little studying, and almost passed.  I was two correct answers short of getting the required 65% correct.  The third time around I actually spent a couple of hours studying and reading through all the information.  I took my time and really thought about the questions.  This time I passed, though I was not provided with an actual score.

Then, once I had the pilot certificate I was also able to register the drone.  So, now I am ready to fly.  The rules of the basic certificate that I have permit me to fly within line of sight, to a maximum altitude of 400 feet above ground level.  The drone must remain a minimum of 100 feet away from occupied buildings and I can not fly it over people.  I also need to stay at least 3 miles away from any airport or heliport.  Those are the basics at least.

I took the drone out to the cottage last weekend and it flew its maiden flight.  It is fairly straightforward to pilot, but you need to be careful and pay attention.  Although the drone has sensors to avoid obstacles, there are a lot of trees at our property, and I had to pay attention.  This is one of the first drone images that I captured with the digital camera.  It is of our cottage from about 75 to 100 feet up.  I can be seen standing in the driveway operating the drone.