Skip to content
Rulebook
A hiker with a DJI controller flies a DJI Mini 5 Pro over an alpine meadow

Flying and filming with a drone

What you need to fly a drone and film with it, one question per guide: your first flight, how far and how long a drone flies, the rules for drone photos and taking a drone on a plane.

Can I fly here? See the guides

Each figure from the guide it sits beside, word for word

Guides, one question each
6
Flight time on one battery
16 to 52min
Photo size
12 to 100MP
Largest battery in our data
95.3Wh

Flying and filming guides, one question each

Each guide below names the question it answers and one figure from it, word for word; the guide holds the documents behind the figure and the day they were read.

A pilot in a cap holds a DJI controller with a screen while a DJI Mini 5 Pro hovers over a meadow

How to fly a drone

What do I do before, during and after my first flight?

The makers' pre-flight checklists differ in length: 10 items for DJI's Mini 4 Pro, 8 items for DJI's Neo and 11 items for Potensic's ATOM 2.

Last checked

A pilot in DJI goggles flies an Avata 2 with a hand controller

Drone simulators

Where can I practice flying before I risk a real drone?

16 drone simulators compared, with U.S. prices read on each store's own page.

Last checked

A DJI Mini 4 Pro flying over green hills at sunrise

Drone range and flight time

How far and how long can a drone fly, and how far may I fly it?

For the 14 drones in our data, flight time on one battery runs from 16 to 52 minutes, by the makers' figures.

Last checked

A photo from DJI's Air 3S press set, taken from the air: a still lake with an island of autumn shrubs and hills behind

Drone photography

Which rules apply to drone photos, and what do the cameras and shooting modes do?

Stills from 12 MP to 100 MP across the 14 drones in our data; 10 of them save RAW (DNG) photos.

Last checked

A folded DJI Mini 4 Pro going into a padded shoulder bag

A drone on a plane

Can I take my drone and its batteries on a plane?

Of the 19 batteries of the 14 drones in our data, the largest is the DJI Mavic 4 Pro's Intelligent Flight Battery, 95.3 Wh.

Last checked

Close-up of the DJI Mini 3 Pro's camera gimbal and forward vision sensors

DJI drone repair

My DJI drone crashed or stopped working: where do I send it and what will it cost?

DJI's repair terms for the 11 DJI drones in our records: every one goes to DJI by mail.

Last checked

6 guides in the order a new pilot needs them: the question each answers, one figure from it as the guide prints it, and the day its facts were last checked against their documents. The tools for the day you fly and the guides we plan next are below.

Tools for the day you fly

Check the place first, then the weather for the hour you fly.

Before you fly

Is the place open to drones, and is the hour fit to fly?

Flying for work

Part 107: the knowledge test comes first.

Before you buy

Two drones side by side, figure by figure.

All drone tools

Planned pages

5 more pages planned for this section.

  • Best drone apps Short list
  • DJI Fly app Guide
  • Drone batteries Guide
  • Drone fishing Guide
  • Drone videography Guide
Air 3S by a lake: a road trip with a drone.
Sources Named, not linked.

Documents are named, not linked. Each figure on this page comes from the guide it sits beside, where the same document is named and dated; the cards give the day each guide was last checked.

The makers' pages

  • Each maker's specs page for the drones in our data: flight time, photo size and RAW, and battery watt-hours, as the range, photography and plane guides name them

The makers' manuals

  • DJI Mini 4 Pro User Manual v1.4 (2024.06), DJI: pages 19, 23-26, 50, 79-80, 118-119
  • DJI Neo User Manual v1.2 (2024.11), DJI: pages 12-14, 16-17, 23, 27
  • Potensic ATOM 2 User Manual V08.25.12, Potensic: pages 9-10, 20, 22-23, 36-41, 56

Photos: DJI press images.