Ready to find the perfect last minute gift ideas for the drone pilot in your life? Check out this gift guide, built by our community of drone pilots, so you know these are the gifts that will be sure to make your pilot smile!
Let’s start with good news…there’s a plethora of great options for drone related gifts. We polled the members of the Drone U community and came up with some fantastic ideas for last minute gifts. The less-than-good-news is the last minute aspect of the article. In other words, you’re going to want to make your purchases right away to ensure they arrive by Christmas. Be sure and also check out our article on giving an actual drone for a gift.
Cold Weather Accessories
Whether due to the need to complete a drone job or due to the need to cycle batteries, winter time does not mean the drone should get put on the shelf until spring.
One of the most popular ideas was gloves. Hands in your pockets doesn’t work when you’ve got a drone in the air. Drone pilots need to keep their fingers warm to ensure they maintain safe flight.
There are two primary types of gloves that work well for drone pilots.
- First, a full (meaning non-fingerless) anti-slip glove with touch screen functionality is a great option. One of our favorites in this category are the RUNACC Windproof Thermal gloves.
- Many pilots prefer fingerless gloves, which is the second type of glove to consider. Two great fingerless options are the Carhartt Men’s Swift and the Broner with Thinsulate Lining.
- If you’re budget is a bit higher, your drone pilot will love a pair of gloves from Vallerret.
Of course having warm hands won’t be of that much help if your body is shivering. Albeit, the regular Columbia jackets aren’t going to cut the mustard. Pilots carry a significant amount of gear and accessories. A few pockets for the phone and wallet wont cut it. Pilots need to store their gear on them, and stay warm. That’s why the community recommends the SCOTTeVEST Men’s Revolution 2.0, a great all around jacket that is also designed to keep your things secure; and the second, for those that live in areas with more extreme cold is the Milwaukee Jacket KIT M12 heated jacket with rechargeable batteries. How did we ever live without these!
When you’re a drone pilot, the warmer your batteries… the longer the flight time. While you want to get the most out of the battery, you want to make sure it doesn’t “blow up in your face.” That’s why we like the Ethix Heated Delux Lipo Bag for our FPV friends; and this bag will even tell them what the current voltage is.
Don’t forget the hand warmers! Whether you’re snowboarding, out cutting down your Christmas tree or flying a drone when it’s freezing outside, hand warmers always make the experience better. There are all sorts of options – one of our favorites are the HotHands warmers. Most drone pilots know, if you want the REAL HAND WARMERS… get the sticky kind. You can stick them to your remote, the bottom of your shoe… (call me crazy) on your lower back while you drive… Sticky Hot Hands
And finally, on the cold weather front, for those pilots who will need to be out in the cold for long periods of time, they’ll love you forever if you give them the gift of heat with a 360 degree view, which you can do via the OriginalPod XL 360 1-Person Pop-up tent. They can add an electric heater and a generator and they’ll be comfortably flying for hours no matter the temperature.
Drone Specific Accessories
To ensure the best shot is obtained at the moment available to shoot it, it may be necessary to use a good filter on your drone camera. To that end, we’ve never left home or the office without a good set of ND filters in our drone case; and we’ve always had great success using a set of Polarpro filters. You’ll need to know which drone your pilot is flying, but if you take the time to figure it out and gift them a set of these, you’ll have one very happy drone pilot on your hands.
Making sure the pilots drone is easily visible by manned aircraft is critically important, especially if they are flying their drone under a Daylight Waiver. One of the best ways we’ve found to accomplish this is by using Lume Cube’s. These are a lightweight very bright and effective light source that your drone pilot will appreciate having in their case and on their drone.
Being a drone pilot is a lot of fun. However, what isn’t fun is all the attention drone pilots received when they’re trying to complete a job. One of the most effective ways we’ve found to keep onlookers at bay is to wear a High Visibility Vest whenever we’re out in public flying our drone. It looks official (which it often is) and therefore encourages onlookers to stay back from the flight zone. We’ve found that the brighter the better, which means either bright orange or bright green is your best bet. One that we like a lot is the JKSafety 9.
Another item no drone case should be without is a landing pad. There are several good options on the market, but of course we believe ours are one of the best. You can order one (or a set) for your drone pilot at Drone U Landing Pad.
Many of the drone pilots we know and teach are still using the foam case their drone came packaged in. This will suffice for a while. But having a solid case or backpack that can handle the drone is important. Not to mention a place for the accessories pilots may need while in the field. In our opinion, it’s hard to find any better to gift than Go Professional Cases (Be sure and use code DRONEU15 for a 10% discount on your order). Their selection is great and their interiors are precision cut. Most importantly, they are one of the very best at protecting drone equipment. If a case from GPC is a bit more than you’d like to spend, we also like the Lowepro Series of drone backpacks.
We love to support small business for these last minute gift ideas. We love the quality and service of GPC Cases, seriously support them.
General Accessories Every Drone Pilot Will Love to Have
This is where things get exciting. These are the accessories and equipment that will be a benefit to your favorite drone pilots life even outside of flight missions, but we and the Drone U community find them to be particularly useful for drone pilots. Let’s jump right in.
Why not start big. These two items are both on the expensive end of pricing, but well worth it if you plan on being especially generous this gift giving season. First, an excellent data backup solution that is quick and efficient is a critical resource for any photographer, influencer or any person that cares to protect their work. One of our favorite SSD Drives to accomplish this goal with is the SanDisk 2TB Extreme PRO Portable. It’s compact, tough, fast and has plenty of space to store hours of footage. Next on the list is the Yeti 1500X Portable Power Station. Granted, this beast is expensive and applicable to a few folks who have serious outdoor power needs. But if your drone pilot fits that description, you won’t go wrong springing for this versatile power station.
A resource we’d like to never be without is a precision screwdriver set. These are great for assisting in the repair of drones, cameras, cell phones and so much more. (even your child’s gaming console) We love the XOOL 140 Piece Electronics Repair Tool Kit. There’s not much you won’t be able to open with this kit in your bag.
Accidents happen, and so it’s important every drone pilot be prepared to address minor injuries while in the field. To help with this, we recommend pilots keep a good First Aid/Trauma kit in their vehicle. Or in their drone case. A couple that we like a lot are the Everlit Emergency Trauma Kit and the Everlit 250 Piece Survival First Aid Kit.
Maintaining a safe and clear flight area for the drone pilot is always a high priority. Short of hiring your own private security team, having cones on hand to block off the area is one great way to clearly delineate from where to stay away. A nice lightweight collapsible (and therefore simple to tote around) option is the Sunnyglade 28 inch Collapsible Cones 4 pack.
And last but not least…I can’t imagine living without my Leatherman nearby. I’m sure you can relate. Pretty sure no human being should be without some form of Leatherman or similar type multitool. Ok, perhaps a bit strong, but in any case, we do highly recommend the LEATHERMAN Original Wave as THE last minute gift for your drone pilot. Even if they already have one, this will simply give them one to keep in some strategic location so that it’s always at the ready.
Ok, just one more option….if you’d like to give the drone pilot in your life the gift of education, consider buying them a Membership to Drone U. The Drone U education platform has over 35 courses designed to take drone pilots from wherever they are to wherever they want to be. Everything from our Don’t Crash Series that provides general and drone specific flight instruction to complex drone mapping courses to challenge the experts.
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