Drone on about drones

deltamike · May 11, 2016

I for one hate the word Drones when applied to our hobby.

Anyway - the following pic is a drone :-

I doubt if ANY of us fly one and if you do what Li-Po's do you use??

I vote to change the word 'Drone' to UAV throughout the forum. Maybe the media will recognise it in due course.

For information I fly a UAV FC40 and a UAV P3.

Now you have to admit a UAV P3 sounds better than a Phantom P3 drone.

Now for a vote count.

Post Aye to cast your vote and see if you agree.

Thanks.

Big Dog · May 11, 2016

Aye. Hate the word drone. Also quad copter sound rediculous

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kevinm · May 11, 2016

Completely understood why you hate the word drone applied synonymously with UAV. Especially with people unfamiliar to the industry who automatically link drones with the military, it's frustrating. I can't tell you how many incredulous or skeptical faces I've gotten when I said I work with drones.

The bigger issue, though, is that anyone who mistakes a Phantom drone with a military drone has zero idea what a UAV is. Subbing "UAV" for "drone" is a losing battle considering those are the people who have the misconceptions we are trying to change.

My two cents is I think it's a much more winnable battle to change people's perceptions around the word "drone" instead of getting rid of it altogether. I think it's already happening, as I've personally noticed a drastic difference in how people perceive the word "drone" in the past year. It will (hopefully) only get better as cultural norms change.

Big Dog · May 11, 2016

But its essence still doesn't really apply. If we use its base meaning then fixed wing rc and many other should be called drones but they aren't. They call them model aircraft

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kevinm · May 11, 2016

Agreed. The terminology is all screwed up. Mainly just saying that the term drone is already accepted in the mainstream and pushing back would realistically not have much of a chance to succeed.

Big Dog · May 11, 2016

Hell. Even a passenger jet qualifies since it can fly itself. Then you have cars that park themselves trains that require no conductor. List goes on and on. It's really a very loose term when applied to uav. It's not the meaning but the connotation that ppl get all wierd about.

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Big Dog · May 11, 2016

Changing people's perception is a formidable task especially when the people who we want to see things differently are so set in they're ignorant ways that it's pretty much futile anyway.

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kevinm · May 11, 2016

Out of curiosity, do you get a different vibe from people when you say "drone" as opposed to a few years ago? Before it was 100% "so you're working with the military" but now I think it's easier to explain the key differences because consumer drones are so much more commonplace.