Drone News: Drone Ban From Drones for First Responders Act, No Mapping in NC, DJI Air 4 Rumors

Welcome to your weekly UAS news update, we have 3 stories for you
this week: Drones for First Responders Act Introduced, Drone
Pilots Can’t Map in NC, and DJI Air 4 Rumors.
https://droneadvocacyalliance.com





First up, a follow up on the misleadingly named Drone For First
Responder act from Congresswoman Elise Stefanik from New York. As
we mentioned last news update, the bill introduced last week
would increase taxes on drones imported from China by 5% per
year, up to 50% + $100. This means pricing recreational pilots
out of the hobby. And pretty much ending the ability for FPV
pilots to build their own drones... Why? Let's see. If a cheap
toy drone costs $130 today, it will cost 50% more in 4 years,
plus $100. So you'll pay $300. The alternative? A US drone that
doesn't exist from a company that we don't know about, because no
American manufacturers are currently building this kind of drone.
A Mavic 3 Pro that costs $2200 today would cost $3400 in 4 years.
Of course until a year later where you wouldn't be able to buy it
because it will be banned from import. In 5 years, the bill would
BAN drones that contain a Flight Controller, Radio, Data
Transmission Device, Camera, Gimbal, software, network
connectivity hardware, or data storage manufactured in China.
This would effectively ban all DJI, Autel but also EXO, Holy
Stone, Ruko, EMAX, BetaFPV, and more premade drones. So what
about the FPV pilots that I mentioned before? Well, drones that
utilize systems manufactured in China, such as Team Black Sheep,
T Motor, iFlight, and even Spektrum would also be banned. 
It gets better, and of course I'm sarcastic. Funds from these new
tariffs would be used to fund First Responders purchasing new
drones. 60% of the funds collected would go to first responders,
20% to farmers and 20% to critical infrastructure pilots. But in
5 years, all the funds end. Meaning first responders, farmers and
critical infrastructure pilots will be left on their own to buy
drones that have been over-inflated, without any grants. This
would decimate the entire hobby. Many thought the FAA was
interested in killing the hobby. They were never interested in
that but it certainly seems like Stefanik's office is, along with
the supporter of the bill, including AUVSI. We’ve included a link
to the DAA, where you can reach out to your representative and
let them know this is not okay.
https://dspalliance.org/the-u-s-drone-industry-is-under-attack-again/
https://droneadvocacyalliance.com/ Next up, an appeals court said
that the North Carolina Surveyors Board didn’t violate a drone
pilot’s rights by telling them to stop advertising and offering
aerial mapping services.  If you haven’t heard of this
story, A drone pilot in NC received a cease and desist letter
from the state’s surveying board for engaging in “ mapping,
surveying and photogrammetry; stating accuracy; providing
location and dimension data; and producing orthomosaic maps,
quantities, and topographic information.”. The current court
decision effectively bans mapping in NC for those who aren’t a
surveyor.  Michael Jones of 360 Virtual Drone Services plans
to further appeal the decision.  Let us know what you think
about this in the comments.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/drone-pilot-cant-offer-mapping-215413201.html
Finally, we have some DJI Air 4 Rumors. Leaked images show
possible Air 4 batteries and rumors include some specs. Specs
include 1” sensors, Mechanical shutters, Variable Aperture, two
cameras, and O4. Interestingly the leaks seems to suggest the
drone may come with the ability to map, which would likely cater
to entry-level drone pilots looking to get their feet wet without
spending $3500 on a Mavic 3 Enterprise.  We’ll have to wait
and see if these rumors are true!
https://dronexl.co/2024/05/18/dji-air-4-rumors-what-we-know-so-far/
Have a great week, remember, no Live on Monday this week.