Welcome Inspire Pilots!
Join our free DJI Inspire community today!
Sign up

Is drone a bad word?

Joined
Aug 9, 2014
Messages
959
Reaction score
590
Location
NY
Whenever I am flying or talking about any of my quads I refer to them as just that. "Quad", "quadcopter", and rarely but sometimes "UAV."
I am out in public a lot with my quads and as with most of us, I field a lot of questions. I always feel like when people say or think "drone" they think anti privacy or military or government... I have been referring to them as I mentioned above since I can remember. Am I alone with this?

Edited for spelling
 
Last edited:
I always use 'quad' for the same reason. I think the community is trying to 'take back' the word, but I'm still much more comfortable differentiating them in this way.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DjiQuadzilla
I call them droids sometime, but most can relate when you call them drones. .if you say uav or quadcopter they're like huh?? Drone ?? Oh ya...
Unfortunately the word drone is linked to military or government use and in my opinion people don't want that type of machine flying over their property. .
 
Yes DRONE is a bad word. The overly dramatic liberal media has worked very hard to make it one.
People who know nothing about the sport immediately associate the word drone with "bad".

Drone=bad

And thats exactly what the knee jerk inducing media wants.

Quad or quadcopters are what they are. Since when are they drones? They aren't drones any more than they are robots.
 
  • Like
Reactions: InspiredOne
I created my own name for it and refer to it as CFP " computerized flying platform".
 
Yeah I was talking to Carnival cruise line yesterday asking if there would be any issue bringing my quadcopter on the ship so when we dock I can go take video off the ship and he said your what? I tried to avoid saying drone and out of no where he was like ohhhhhh you mean a DRONE! So I repied yes a small one lol. Then he actually said there should be no issues with me bringing it as long as I do not fly it on the ship.
 
  • Like
Reactions: lrwskyfilms
Yes DRONE is a bad word. The overly dramatic liberal media has worked very hard to make it one.
People who know nothing about the sport immediately associate the word drone with "bad".

Drone=bad

And thats exactly what the knee jerk inducing media wants.

Quad or quadcopters are what they are. Since when are they drones? They aren't drones any more than they are robots.

I see it as the word "drone" is a collection name for quad-, hexa- and octocopter.
 
Flying Camera is not accurate as many do not carry cameras
Quadcopter applies to some, but not all of them
UAS and UAV sound like military acronyms
Drone is a remotely piloted vehicle - this applies quite well
Multicopter is accurate but sometimes confusing to some people
Drone is what is in the news, its recognizable, and it starts the conversation. I have no problem telling people I own a drone store. People walk into our store and say "oh...these are those drone things....how cool!" We have never once had a negative conversation with anyone in our area around the word drone. It seems the only people bothered by the word are some of the people that fly them.
 
Flying Camera is not accurate as many do not carry cameras
Quadcopter applies to some, but not all of them
UAS and UAV sound like military acronyms
Drone is a remotely piloted vehicle - this applies quite well
Multicopter is accurate but sometimes confusing to some people
Drone is what is in the news, its recognizable, and it starts the conversation. I have no problem telling people I own a drone store. People walk into our store and say "oh...these are those drone things....how cool!" We have never once had a negative conversation with anyone in our area around the word drone. It seems the only people bothered by the word are some of the people that fly them.
Sometimes the payload is drugs, not a camera..

https://news.vice.com/article/drone...crashes-in-tijuana?utm_source=vicenewstwitter


Sent from my Dev Note 4
 
It seems the only people bothered by the word are some of the people that fly them.
Ya I guess everyone here must be wrong about everyone they talk to and you are he only one here with experience talking to people. We all have different experiences with the public and I can assure you there are a LOT of people who hear "drone" and think military or autonomous flying robot. They are incorrect by definition but uniformed just the same. It is up to us to show and explain how non-invasive most of us want to be and that we are not all like the people you hear about in the news. Unfortunately in America most of the news is bad news.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DjiQuadzilla
Ya I guess everyone here must be wrong about everyone they talk to and you are he only one here with experience talking to people. We all have different experiences with the public and I can assure you there are a LOT of people who hear "drone" and think military or autonomous flying robot. They are incorrect by definition but uniformed just the same. It is up to us to show and explain how non-invasive most of us want to be and that we are not all like the people you hear about in the news. Unfortunately in America most of the news is bad news.

I can only relay MY personal experience. We own a dedicated multicopter retail store in our downtown shopping district. Nobody has ever complained, nobody here thinks of drones as bad. We fly them at major events here and the people come in like mad to learn more. Maybe its the Colorado mindset, maybe its that we are VERY public and active in our community, maybe its that we share lots of videos with our community about the beauty of our state. Whatever it is, we work hard to promote a positive message and it has worked extremely well in our favor.
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
22,277
Messages
210,655
Members
34,322
Latest member
Melodee207