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brush up on your drone glossary

With drones now rapidly becoming mainstream, it's easy to get one. You can choose from an entire range and once you bring home a drone with all the excitement, it's time to get it up and flying. So, here are some common terms to bring you up to speed.

 Almost-Ready-to-Fly (ARF) A partially built drone that needs extra assembly before it is ready to fly

 Altitude Hold Maintaining height in flight mode

 Autonomous A pre-programmed flight mode for a drone with no live input from pilot

 Bind Connecting a controller to the drone so it can pick up signals

 Build A completed, usually DIY, drone built from parts or a kit

 CAA Civil Aviation Authority

 Camera Drone A drone with a camera attached

 Drone A popularized term for all unmanned aerial vehicles

 FAA Federal Aviation Administration

 First Person View (FPV) Viewing the drone’s flight via a camera mount to goggles or a monitor, usually for racing

 Flight Controller Controls the movement of the drone

 Gimbal Mount that steadies the camera’s movement relative to the ground

 Gyroscope Device to allow the drone to maintain its level

 IAA Irish Aviation Authority

 Line of Sight (LOS) Maintaining visual contact with your drone at all times: a legal requirement

 Lithium Polymer (Li-Po) Battery Powerful, popular energy source for UAVs and RC aircraft

 Multirotor A drone with several motors, or propellers

 Nanocopter An exceptionally small drone

 Payload The amount of weight a drone can lift, aside from its own weight and batteries

 PFCO Permission for Commercial Operations - the certification required to fly for work in UK; similar regulations exist in other countries too

 Pitch Front/back movement or tilt

 Propeller The rotating motor that the blades are fitted to

 Quadcopter A drone with four motors, or propellers

 Ready-to-Fly (RTF) A drone supplied with all parts, ready to go from the box

 Receiver Device that receives signals from the transmitter and sends them to the flight controller

 Return-to-Home (RTH) A failsafe GPS option

 Roll Rotation left or right without other movement

 Transmitter The control device that sends pilot commands to the drone’s receiver

 Tricopter A drone with three motors, or propellers

 UAV Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

 YAW Rotation around a central point

 This is a preliminary vocabulary. More on drones at Drone Magazine.

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