DJI Ban: I’ve Reached Acceptance, and Here’s What You Need to Know

Most of you already know what’s going on, but just in case you don’t: under the current rules, a government agency has to perform a security audit on DJI. If they don’t complete one by December 23rd, DJI automatically gets placed on the FCC’s Covered List.

The truth is, no agency wants to be the one to step forward and take on that responsibility. There’s no incentive. There’s actually political risk. There’s liability. So the most likely scenario is that no audit is going to happen and DJI gets listed by default.

It’s an underhanded way to push an agenda, but it’s the way that things get done in this country. It’s a reality. And that’s why I’m at this point of acceptance. I’m not happy about it, but accepting the reality of where things are headed is necessary to move forward.

Regardless of what all of the “sky is falling” YouTubers are telling you, and I’ve done it myself, this will not be the end of drones. Not even close.

Yes, this is a pretty big bump in the road for the hobby, for professionals, for creators, for all of us who love flying. But it’s just that. It’s a bump. Every single thing in life has seasons. And the thing about seasons is how much better things feel after a long, hard winter.

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The camera creates beautiful video. Usually all I do is bump up the chroma and pedestal levels to suit me.

And I love the links to video that you have shared with me over the years... You might think about posting a link or two in this thread?

My most recent DJI acquisitions were an Avata 2 Fly More Kit, and a DJI Mini 5 Pro Fly More Kit. I assume that these will be the last DJI drones that I will be buying for a long while. The shortage that is already starting to take hold has increased the value of both by $hundreds since I purchased them.

Not sure your point here.

1) I AM NOT interested in arguing about the relative merits of either party to the R-U war, or the merits of supporting or not supporting either party. If you want to have that discussion, go elsewhere.

2) If you want to talk about drones ...

2a) Near as I can tell, innovation in the multicopter market is almost entirely driven by civilian hobby and commercial use. If we (USA) want to develop a top-quality domestic drone industry, it will necessarily have to cater to the civilian market.

2b) Both sides in the R-U war seem to be using re-purposed civilian market drones, drones specifically made by military establishments for military use, and home-made drones built from commercially available parts. Again, their supplies are largely driven by the civilian market.

2c) Drones exist within the larger market of microelectronics, a field in which we (USA) need ... as a matter of urgent national security ... to establish independence if not dominance. Our industrial regulatory environment probably needs adjustment to make that possible.

3) Regarding “boondoggles” ... if left entirely to the military procurement process, developing drones will go badly. At the very least, ceaseless mission creep and constantly changing requirements will turn the entire business into an endlessly delayed over-budget goat-fcck. For that situation, Congress is entirely to blame.

I didn’t mean to hit a nerve or start an argument. And I apologize for using the money wasted on a botched foreign policy initiative that never would have occurred if President Trump had still been in power as an example. I completely agree that innovation from the private sector is much more cost effective than letting government bureaucrats pick the winners and losers in any situation.

The scale is what I was referring to... the entire civilian drone market in the US represents about $3.5 Billion. This is a drop in the bucket compared to the money spent by the government for the military, foreign affairs, social programs, or even focused interests such as Medicaid for illegal immigrants which currently costs more than $4 Billion a year. (Please disregard this example if it causes you similar distress to my example of wasted expenditures in Ukraine.)

Is the government capable of wasting far more than the $3.5 Billion currently spent on drones in the private sector; it is not only possible it is very likely. I think we are in agreement on that as well.

But I doubt that the American companies which successfully lobbied to get DJI kicked out of the US drone market actually have plans to spend large sums on R&D which would be helpful to the military. And the hobbyists who build their own drones almost completely from parts that come from China or other countries are not likely to be a source of useful R&D for the military as well.

So, I tend to disagree with your assessment... “For us, here in these United States, developing a truly domestic infrastructure to build drones is now a matter of national security. Urgently so. In order for it to be something other than a ridiculously expensive, not very effective, boondoggle the infrastructure will have to primarily support civilian hobby and business users.” It is wishful thinking that hobbyists and business users will be able to support much of anything that will result in a newly created infrastructure used to create domestically produced drones. Government regulation is already taking its toll on drone users of all types. Increasing the expense by several times will change the equation for most to the point that this country will have much smaller segment of the population which will have any interest in drones... business or private.

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