If you look at today's drone standards from different countries, it is really hard to find an unanimous weight standard in order to not fly with a license. This makes travelling with drones so difficult. I am thinking of the drone company to make weight configurable small drones. The idea is in this short youtube video that I made.

This requires the drone software to realize the weight difference and make the corresponding change of the flight control system.

I doubt that! Also: In some countries it is not the question, how the actual weight is. It is the question, how the weight WAS, when the manufacturer legalized it. The standard weight without any additional things, even if they do reduce the weight (The Italian guard setup comes in mind, that gets the bird under 300g WITH prop guards

S-e-ven Posted at 9-24 07:44
I doubt that! Also: In some countries it is not the question, how the actual weight is. It is the question, how the weight WAS, when the manufacturer legalized it. The standard weight without any additional things, even if they do reduce the weight (The Italian guard setup comes in mind, that gets the bird under 300g WITH prop guards

When the drone is legalized, it should be the minimum weight. Let's say the 150g for some of the countries that are very strict to the drone's standard. By sliding the configurable battery cells, other countries with less strict weight laws can benefit. I am still thinking this is doable.

Doable is a lot.
But would you like to buy lightweight batteries, with half the flighttime, just to fly somewhere in a holiday?

Anyway, I am not so certain that, in case a manufacturer is selling a drone with a low weight for unregistered use in almost every country, with the abilities of minimum FHD, like the Spark, the limits won't be adapted, soon.

There are lightweight drones around.
But none of them are fully GPS plus FHD/12Mpix camera drones.

For me,the "all drones with camera have to be registered" Regulation in Thailand is more the pointing direction.
It is not just "can hurt, if falling from the sky", the privacy aspect, better the concern becomes bigger and bigger.

When did they decided the 250 g. limit?
Before drones like the Spark or the Anafi hit the 300g area.
At times, where a real camera drone was 1kg plus or a racing quad with a action cam on top.
No one saw the 250 g possibility for a gimbaled drone with 500+ m radiocontrol and a 20 min flighttime.

Now we are close to this.
These regularions aren't the last.

And honestly, I worry more that I can't l fly my Sparks any longer, after 2022.
Without a "heli/plane" warning radiochip inside.

.

Some areas limit flight height if the drone less than 250g, e.g. 30m ht. So even you can fly your light drone without licence, you can't fly high!

Most countries classify drones weighing <250g as toys. My bet is that if a company like DJI release a 200g prosumer drone that can still fly miles away aviation authorities may simply remove the minimum weight guidelines anyway.

A J Posted at 9-25 07:13
Most countries classify drones weighing

This might not be that easy. There are other RC drone/flight toys company there making the light toys, once 250g standard is there and can't not that easily removed.

Fsong Posted at 9-25 07:52
This might not be that easy. There are other RC drone/flight toys company there making the light toys, once 250g standard is there and can't not that easily removed.

Oh it won't be easy - in fact it will be a legislative nightmare for the aviation authorities - authorities DJI like to stay on the right side of, shall we say. But if drones weighing less than 250g start having the same flight characteristic abilities as drones weighing 500g or 1000g today then they may very well act on it. It will be interesting to see but TBH - any new drone from DJI would be nice as we haven't seen one new camera drone from them this year...

A J Posted at 9-25 08:01
Oh it won't be easy - in fact it will be a legislative nightmare for the aviation authorities - authorities DJI like to stay on the right side of, shall we say. But if drones weighing less than 250g start having the same flight characteristic abilities as drones weighing 500g or 1000g today then they may very well act on it. It will be interesting to see but TBH - any new drone from DJI would be nice as we haven't seen one new camera drone from them this year...

Correct. I read couple of articles mentioned the most potential drone should be spark II this year. However, there was none this year. The weight is the biggest concern. Making the right drone with the right weight will be the success selling point for spark II.

S-e-ven Posted at 9-24 07:44
I doubt that! Also: In some countries it is not the question, how the actual weight is. It is the question, how the weight WAS, when the manufacturer legalized it. The standard weight without any additional things, even if they do reduce the weight (The Italian guard setup comes in mind, that gets the bird under 300g WITH prop guards

Agreed, thanks

It takes 3 Li-ion in series for the spark, to drop its weight under 250g half the capacity would have to go giving it about 6 min of flight time!

ssylca44 Posted at 9-25 11:02
It takes 3 Li-ion in series for the spark, to drop its weight under 250g half the capacity would have to go giving it about 6 min of flight time!

Looking at the 2s batt of the Anafi, with 25g more weight, but in reality almost 50% longer flighttimes for a bird, that is just about this 25 g heavier, as the Spark, I am pretty certain, DJI could come up with a <249 g Drone with at least the video/photo/flighttime/-range  specs of the Spark

Just a lightweight drone will have more trouble being steady in the wind and that for the "maybe" advantage of "no need to register". For how long in the future? The governments will tighten that up, sooner or later anyway.

S-e-ven Posted at 9-25 16:43
Looking at the 2s batt of the Anafi, with 25g more weight, but in reality almost 50% longer flighttimes for a bird, that is just about this 25 g heavier, as the Spark, I am pretty certain, DJI could come up with a

I agree strongly with your second paragraph. Cheers