Over the past several years UAV’s or unmanned aerial vehicles, have rapidly increased in popularity. In fact, your kid has probably already started asking for one if they are old enough. Buying a drone for your kid can be a great way to teach them responsibility besides just being an awesome toy to play with.
Buying Your First Drone
There are a lot of rules that go along with flying a drone so, there is another opportunity for a great bonding moment with your child.
When searching for your first drone, there a several things you should consider.
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Basic Features
There are a few things that are common with all drones that you should pay attention to. These are the most basic features that will determine how much fun your kid gets to have!
Flight Time
- The flight time for any drone is related mostly to its battery. For toy drones, the battery life usually ranges from 5-8 minutes.
- There are some that go as high as 15 minutes but, you normally have to climb the price scale a bit to see longer flying drones.
- Don’t worry if your quad copter has a short flight time. Extra batteries are relatively inexpensive compared to the cost of the drone.
- They are also easy to replace. So, as one battery dies, simply swap it out for a fresh one.
- Just make sure you follow the manufacturer’s recommendations for resting periods between flights.
- If you don’t allow the drone to properly rest, you could burn up the motors quickly.
Range
- Another basic feature is the range of the drone. This will depend on how strong the transmitter is in the remote control.
- 50-100 meters is the most common range for smaller and toy drones. Some of the most expensive drones can go over a mile!
- However, if you are looking for something simple for your kid’s first drone, you probably don’t need to spend that much money.
- It is important to stay within this range when flying the quad copter. If the drone loses contact with the remote, it could take off and fly away on its own.
- This is an all too common problem that can easily be avoided. Practice taking off and landing inside your home until you get so good at it bores you.
- This will help avoid any unwanted issues when you take it outside.
Camera
- Finally, whether or not the drones comes with a camera is the third basic feature.
- Even some of the smallest, cheapest drones will come with a camera these days. Just don’t expect to take award winning videos with them.
- However, if taking pictures or videos isn’t that important to you, you can find a drone with more advanced flying features.
- These features will help you fly the drone, shortening the learning curve.
- But who doesn’t want to take awesome shots from several hundred feet in the air?
- The camera is definitely one of the biggest draws to the drone world. These toy drones have made this ability affordable to thousands of people around the world.
Conclusion
These are just a few features to consider when buying a drone. Take a look at the infographic below to see notes about a few more.
Obviously, the more you can afford the more features you will get along with higher quality components.
However, there are several cheap drones out there that will quickly get you up and flying if that is all that you are looking for.
Just try to think about the features that are most important to you.
Please include attribution to https://bestdroneforkids.org with this graphic.