Uploaded December 2013 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
For Christmas and for my son's birthday shortly afterwards I designed a mission to be flown with my quadcopter to deliver a package of candy canes to his kindergarden class at the school three blocks away. The mission started at my house, proceeded following roads to the school, made a short pass overhead, dropped the candy, and returned home.
I maintained FPV (first person view) as well as line of sight contact with the copter and had the capability to retake control of it at any time using long range RC control. I had permission from the school and had a spotter on-site who was on the phone with me. I had programmed and tested this mission eight times prior to this so my confidence was high. This is a very reliable quadcopter with about 200 total flights and no mishaps.
This was just a fun event to add to the festivities of Christmas and a birthday. There are clearly countless more uses of UAVs and much more to be figured out as to rules and regulations as we go.
I should say that I personally prefer the term UAV or UAS, but I face the reality that the rest of the non-pilot world calls these drones, so I guess we'll have to live with it.
For Christmas and for my son's birthday shortly afterwards I designed a mission to be flown with my quadcopter to deliver a package of candy canes to his kindergarden class at the school three blocks away. The mission started at my house, proceeded following roads to the school, made a short pass overhead, dropped the candy, and returned home.
I maintained FPV (first person view) as well as line of sight contact with the copter and had the capability to retake control of it at any time using long range RC control. I had permission from the school and had a spotter on-site who was on the phone with me. I had programmed and tested this mission eight times prior to this so my confidence was high. This is a very reliable quadcopter with about 200 total flights and no mishaps.
This was just a fun event to add to the festivities of Christmas and a birthday. There are clearly countless more uses of UAVs and much more to be figured out as to rules and regulations as we go.
I should say that I personally prefer the term UAV or UAS, but I face the reality that the rest of the non-pilot world calls these drones, so I guess we'll have to live with it.
