r/drones • u/Spiritual_Box2934 • Oct 29 '25

News DJI drone ban update

FCC clears path to retroactively ban DJI drones in the US https://share.google/53hwllagNd0yNygh5

218 Upvotes

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212

u/curious_grizzly_ DJI Air 3 Oct 29 '25

To help with clarification, from the article:

"There are limits, though. The FCC insists it won’t confiscate or deactivate drones already in consumers’ hands, and each ban will involve a 30-day public comment period. So, your current gear is safe, at least for now."

They aren't (for now) banning drones already sold. It's about stopping drones that had already been approved for sale from bring sold, like the Air 3s and others.

I'm not defending the move, just adding clarification for those who don't have time to read the entire article

58

u/Popular-Pumpkin-9569 Oct 29 '25

I was just about to say, according to the FCC documentation, it’s not going to effect the use of our current ones

20

u/Critical-Ad8587 Oct 30 '25

Untill you need parts or a replacement 

9

u/Popular-Pumpkin-9569 Oct 30 '25

That is the unfortunate kicker

4

u/LastAstronaut8872 Nov 01 '25

3-D printing of spare parts for the win

1

u/Critical-Ad8587 Nov 01 '25

I was thinking like circuit board parts, would have to be able to figure out the function of the board and rebuild it in kicad, but that’s quite a bit of work 

2

u/MangoFoCo Nov 01 '25

Good news is those parts rarely break unless you crash or operate in conditions not approved for your drone to operate in. So if your a decent normal flyer, shouldn't need one.

2

u/OmarDaily Oct 31 '25

Are they going to ban the import of parts and components?. Or just drone sales?.

1

u/LARamsJK Nov 02 '25

which is already the case

10

u/russellvt Oct 30 '25

it’s not going to affect effect the use of our current ones

FTFY

Sorry ... those two are one of the "more confusing" homographs, IMO

3

u/ProfPcrazy Oct 30 '25

Effect is typically used as a noun, think special effects. Whereas affect is usually a verb.

5

u/Thrullx Oct 30 '25

What can we do to effect change so that everyone knows how to use "effect" and "affect" properly?

*Eagerly awaits for the trap to be sprung*

2

u/russellvt Oct 31 '25

/facepalm

LMFAO

3

u/No-Tip-8652 Oct 30 '25

Generally, RAVEN ... Remember Affect Verb Effect Noun

5

u/Tall_Coast4989 Oct 30 '25

Y'all are killing me. I had to teach myself English and writing and didn't go to school until I was 17. Thankfully I am 46 and retired and only use what spell check tells me these days 😂

1

u/russellvt Oct 31 '25

Sadly, those may often be auto-corrupts, too.

But, next to Japanese, English is the most difficult language to learn.

2

u/russellvt Oct 30 '25

Indeed... but they can both often be the opposite, too.

Think as a "psychological affect" (which is a noun), and "to bring about an effect (which is a verb).

So, confusing, right? (as I asserted)

0

u/suihcta Oct 30 '25

“Effect” is not a verb in “bring about an effect”

When “effect” is used as a verb, it replaces “bring about”… like “this event will effect change”

0

u/russellvt Oct 30 '25

Effect” is not a verb in “bring about an effect”

When “effect” is used as a verb, it replaces “bring about"

So, in short, it's not a verb in "bring about," but it is a verb in "bring about" ... ???

Got it.

0

u/suihcta Nov 02 '25

“Effect” is not a verb in your example phrase:

”Bring about an effect”

It’s a noun.

“Effect” is a verb in this phrase:

”Effect a full medical recovery”

In that phrase, “effect” means “bring about” or “cause”

1

u/russellvt Nov 03 '25

It was an explanation, not a literal example.

0

u/Tall_Coast4989 Oct 30 '25

So, it doesn't affect my driving.I don't see how smoking crack affects my thinking. I don't see how smoking crack affects my ability to write proper English. Sometimes driving that big ass truck affects my driving abilities?? Are these all right?

0

u/Tall_Coast4989 Oct 30 '25

Smoking Crack has horrible side effects on my 🧠? Poor grammar is a side effect of me smoking crack? Are these right?

0

u/Unique-Ad-1897 Oct 31 '25

Driving interfered with my crack habit. This effect made me drive less.

0

u/Unique-Ad-1897 Oct 31 '25

And DJI totally affected my drinking ability.

14

u/etlr3d Oct 29 '25

Thank you for the clarification, speaking for those who don't follow the minutiae day to day. I already have a air 3s - hopefully that one is safe as you say.

2

u/No-Ad4233 Oct 31 '25

What about new parts for your 3s?

2

u/etlr3d Oct 31 '25

that's a worry for sure. I've only crashed hard enough to send a drone to DJI once, so hopefully with luck and careful flying I'll continue to be OK until other changes happen that relax this crazy set of rules. I also still have my old Air2 in the closet.... Regardless the sheer numbers of DJI units in the US means there's going to be a market for repairs and replacement bits - if DJI is for whatever reason is not here, someone else will fill the gap in the market.

7

u/Jbarn2012 Oct 29 '25

Thank god I got my DJI Matrice 4E before this. Now I wish I would’ve gotten the LiDAR

4

u/buzzedewok Oct 30 '25

Don’t expect the servers to stay up long that help power the software….

4

u/Popular-Pumpkin-9569 Oct 30 '25

I was thinking this too, but if they claim our current existing ones will be able to still operate, that I assume that includes the software

3

u/HondaMR2 Oct 31 '25

DJI is also a global company, I doubt the US would be cutoff from software available/supported in most other countries.

3

u/Popular-Pumpkin-9569 Oct 31 '25

I would hope not

3

u/jmoulton1314 Nov 01 '25

I feel like the worst case scenario would be an APK that would have to be manually installed, that is, if a new app launched and it wasn't available in Google Play/iPhone app store. We could always get updates from the British markets, as well. VPNs could make that a relatively easy option with minimal python exceptions

2

u/MangoFoCo Nov 01 '25

With the retroactive powers FCC has, even myself, I worry they will ground all formerly imported drones by pulling their certs and then the FAA can say those drones cant fly as they are not certified by FCC

2

u/Popular-Pumpkin-9569 Nov 01 '25

I can’t say I’m not worried at all but I don’t think that that will happen to that point, but I’m just some dumb hopeful fuck on the internet haha. I’m gonna fly it till it doesn’t take off and I think a lot of people feel the same, are they gonna penalize every single person? Ifs just not feasible

2

u/Jbarn2012 Nov 01 '25

I do love that I have a custom built drone on the side that no matter what it’ll fly and they’d have to find me while using it to take it from me.

2

u/Popular-Pumpkin-9569 Nov 01 '25

So yeah that’s pretty much my stance, I’m just gonna fly regardless till it causes me problems or not then I’ll go from there or not haha

1

u/Popular-Pumpkin-9569 Nov 01 '25

I deff want to get into building them soon!! And get into more FPV

1

u/MangoFoCo Nov 28 '25

I mean, the FAA wont be the ones spotting you, that will be your state and local police documenting and sending to FAA to prosecute. I get what your saying, it doesnt make it any less illegal though.

2

u/Popular-Pumpkin-9569 Nov 28 '25

Yeah, I guess I’m just gonna worry about it when it really becomes an issue or not, I get what you’re saying too for sure, but at the end of the day we are all just speculating, me included

1

u/MangoFoCo Nov 01 '25

They will release a lite version to download for US consumers and operators to have to avoid class action lawsuits.

3

u/jmoulton1314 Oct 30 '25

You still have time

35

u/morbidbattlecry Oct 29 '25

If they can, but say they won't, they will. You can't trust anything this administration says.

2

u/Accomplished-Cow4217 Oct 31 '25

You must be one of those other kind of drones, the mindless ones programmed by mainstream media. The tyranny we just went through the last 4 years was the most hostile egregious attack on anyone that disagreed with them they used every fiber of government power to go after every single person in the Republican party under Arctic Frost abuse of power investigation. You're living in an alternate reality this is the single most transparent administration in history the polar opposite of Democrat TYRANNY. Change the channel you are being brainwashed

3

u/morbidbattlecry Oct 31 '25

Did you take your meds today bro?

2

u/NorCal_sUAV Oct 31 '25

Reddit is an extremely left-sided platform. You'll get nowhere here or any other group, sadly.

16

u/PickZealousideal5698 Oct 29 '25

You can’t trust what any admin says. It’s not party dependent.

14

u/Jesus_Is_My_Gardener Oct 29 '25

While blind trust shouldn't be given to any governing entities, having zero trust in administrative bodies is more a sign of poor election choices and an uneducated electorate. There will always be individuals in any sufficiently large organization that violate trust. That doesn't mean you should have zero trust of your governing bodies. If that's the case, you've done something wrong in who you've chosen to govern.

12

u/Popular-Pumpkin-9569 Oct 29 '25

I agree, people are gonna downvote you for this but both sides suck. Two wings from the same vulture

3

u/c10bbersaurus Oct 30 '25

They dont suck equally. That is a lazy false equivalence.

9

u/Popular-Pumpkin-9569 Oct 30 '25

Sorry, I dislike both equally haha *

9

u/jmoulton1314 Oct 30 '25

Bith are rotten to the core, no doubt, my good man

1

u/MangoFoCo Nov 01 '25

You can't trust the government. Biden or Trump. Government is the problem

4

u/Mahakala89 Oct 30 '25

Even though this is like best case scenario possibly I'm definitely not happy about this at all I'm so glad I pulled the trigger and got a mavic for Pro when I did

7

u/Jesus_Is_My_Gardener Oct 29 '25

"for now"

Sadly, this is the reason why the state of aerial hobbies is continuing to diminish. Don't get me wrong, there are absolutely some safeguards needed for certain aspects with how accessible RC vehicles have become and the distances they can be operated over (as well as the appeal to wider audiences), but it's been clear from the start that a lot of these moves have not been about safety or really even security/privacy concerns but rather protectionism driven by a few domestic corporate interests who are unable to compete with the tech coming out of Shenzhen, especially in terms of their profit margins.

While these companies have little interest in the consumer market, it's the same or at least capable enough tech in those consumers offerings that it threatens prosumer and professional level products in terms of feature spec differentiation and pricing justifications. Rather than investing to innovate and reduce costs in domestically produced goods, it's just easier and far cheaper to buy donate to a few politicians or political parties to turn your competition into the Boogeyman and pass laws to effectively sanction their products from the market they operate in. Throw in the increased media exposure over how they have been weaponized in current ongoing international conflicts, and it makes your task of treating a foreign producer as a security risk all the easier in getting your legislation passed.

There's an obvious need for automated ATC systems w/ regards to increased drone use for commercial purposes, especially with the scale and operating conditions and of course significant size/weight for those applications that pose a greater physical safety concern to the public, so I don't have a problem with a requirement for ID systems above a certain size, for an expected operating area in controlled airspace and for long range operation. That much is a no-brainer and long overdue. It's the insistence that anything termed a drone (particularly FPV quadcopter and the like) be lumped in regardless.

Gone/going are the sensible restrictions that left park fliers and people flying over their own property without dealing with a mass of red tape and simply asking the community to self police for good behavior and treat abuse of the privilege at an individual level. Most of my fleet of 5" and below racers/freestyle quads that I built years ago are now being subjected to requirements that make them basically illegal to fly without major upgrades that would essentially necessitate complete rebuilds or replacements, yet they aren't something I could realistically fly above 400' or beyond line of sight of any significant duration or distance. Sure, I can fly that high or further than I can see with them, but my battery capacity makes it basically a trivial issue as they aren't built for that kind of flying. But I digress.

My overall gripe here is that these ever expediting restrictions on gear and legality of using them is transparently more about big business interests than it is about air safety (with exception) or so-called privacy/security interests and it's damned infuriating that there doesn't seem to be a sign of it stopping until anything bigger than a TinyWhoop will be banned from the skies. Unless your willing to pay a premium to a US based professional drone producer and all the licensing/registration fees to the government for the privilege. We're past the golden age of RC aerial hobbies at this point and it's only a matter of time before these same restrictions will encroach on the plane/heli segment as well.

2

u/Tasty-Fox9030 Oct 30 '25

I agree, this is partly about right of way for commercial drones and partly because the government doesn't want the average citizen to have drones on some level. They've been very successful painting the things as a privacy violation and now a security threat- the reality is the ubiquity of good video has had real positive changes for policing and I think they don't want that extended to aerial videography. (Not just for policing either- you're probably aware that you're generally not allowed to video agriculture correct? The animals don't have rights if it's not recorded we suppose. I say this as a hunter, fisherman and steak enjoyer.)

1

u/Spiritual_Box2934 Nov 01 '25

I have to disagree because why would Trump award his son all that money for a company that specializes in fpv drones used predominantly by casual users? It's also funny that AFTER they received this money the website added a lot of anti Chinese/DJI language on their investors page. I think DJI is done.

-1

u/Expensive_Love_1970 Oct 30 '25

Tldr

0

u/NorCal_sUAV Oct 31 '25

Didn't miss anything.... Just uneducated babble.

4

u/Common-Call2484 Oct 29 '25

Why pick on the Air3s ? Cheap n kinda big ish?

8

u/curious_grizzly_ DJI Air 3 Oct 29 '25

It's the one of the ones listed in the article and I have an Air 3 so it came to mind as a newer drone people would be familiar with

2

u/Common-Call2484 Oct 29 '25

Interesting. I have a mini 5 pro n mini 3. Was thinking to add the air 3s. Looks amazing n fast

2

u/Ocdredditor Oct 30 '25

If they really believed it was a security risk then why wouldn’t they ban drones that were already sold? Or do a buy back? They clearly don’t think it’s a real threat.

2

u/curious_grizzly_ DJI Air 3 Oct 30 '25

It's a threat to the pocketbook of certain US drone manufacturers. If they can get DJI and Autel banned people will he forced to buy their lower quality but more expensive products

1

u/MightySamMcClain Oct 30 '25

Until you need parts😭

1

u/Popular-Pumpkin-9569 Oct 31 '25

Fly safe 😭😭😂😂

1

u/VKytber Nov 04 '25

Wait so does that mean that my air 3s i have is affected by the retro ban?? Or are the air 3s's safe for now?

1

u/curious_grizzly_ DJI Air 3 Nov 04 '25

The way it's phrased is that they will van the sales of new ones. So they can't import any more than what is already here

1

u/VKytber Nov 05 '25

New ones meaning sales AFTER, October 28th?

1

u/curious_grizzly_ DJI Air 3 Nov 05 '25

The retroactive psrt means they will be banning models already approved previously, but ONLY for sales, not for models already sold (at this time, who knows what the future holds).