First up this week is St Louis Bill BB199, which has some concerning text for recreational UAS operators…

Line 19, 20, and 21 state “Any person who operates a drone or any UA in the City of St. Louis shall have a valid Remote Pilot Certificate from the FAA and shall be in compliance with all standards set forth under the FAA’s Small UAs Rule (Part 107).”

There is no exemption for recreational or 44809 operations…

The bill has other concerning text for any UAS operators, with restrictions on operating drones within 1500’ of other aircraft (Including City of St. Louis Drones), No fly zones to be established by the city, required stand back distances from public safety vehicles, and publicly owned buildings.The rule is of course not applicable to any city department or city agency. We’ll leave a link in the description to the bill’s text.

And speaking of St Louis, here is an update on the plan to use drones for surveillance.
After push back from the city, the company isn’t backing down and instead sent the city a letter threatening a lawsuit if permits for operators were required.
Instead they will offer a free trial at a different time and location. They are also asking for operators to join him and fly. All you have to do is pay $99 and they'll let you fly with them!
Currently, a gofundme for the plan sits at just $20 out of a goal of $10,000.
And if you think there's a link between the two St Louis stories, there certainly could be. When we say: don't ruin it for the rest of us, this certainly applies here.

Next up this week is Wing, who has unveiled a new drone with double the payload capacity of their current flagship drone! The new drone has a 5lb payload capacity, while maintaining the 12 mile round trip range. Wing says the new drone will be deployed within the next 12 months to all sites where Wing operates.The company also said that about 70% of deliveries are completed using one drone, while 30% use multiple drones to deliver, this would reduce the required number of trips to deliver the same goods.

Fourth up this week is the DJI Mics 2! DJI has released the new Mics 2 with an 8GB internal storage, 14 hours of internal recording, 820’ range, Ai Noise Canceling, 32 bit float recording, All in one stage case, and compatibility with USB-C, Lightning, and 3.5mm TRS analog output.The cost of the new mics comes in at 349 for two mics and a transmitter, a mic and transmitter for 219, or 99 per mic. Check out our video on the new mics!

And the final story this week is another DJI release, this time from DJI Enterprise.
DJI released “Modify”, which appears to be a mesh-editing tool that pairs with DJI Terra to provide modification to 3D models. On release, Modify is only compatible with DJI Terra models. Models can then be exported as .ply and .obj for third party or online sharing. The yearly cost of Modify is $1580 plus taxes and you can a 6 month free trial.

And here’s a quick pilot institute update, our new course app is now ready! We’re released our new app for offline viewing of the courses available on both android and apple devices! Head over and download it to start watching!

https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/17/24040030/wing-delivery-larger-drone-payload-capacity-alphabet

https://dronexl.co/2024/01/17/dji-mic-2-new-era-pro-audio-recording/

https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/city-laws/upload/legislative/boardbills/introduced/BB199%20Combined1.pdf

https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/departments/aldermen/representation/profile.cfm?id=1561