Useful things to do with your drone

Many drones fly a few times after they are bought and then stay in their case. Here are reasons to take yours out again, from the easy to the useful, with the rule that matters for each.

Photos looking straight down

Point the camera at 90° and fly over a ploughed hillside, a beach at low tide, a vineyard or a car park with long shadows. Shapes you never notice from the ground become the picture. The best light is in the first and last hour of the day, when the shadows are long.

Your own roof, gutters and land

After a storm, a short flight shows a slipped tile or a blocked gutter without getting on a ladder. On a farm or a large plot it shows fences, ditches, water troughs and fallen trees. The normal rules still apply over your own land, and filming into your neighbours' gardens can break privacy laws.

Find and check on livestock

Cattle and sheep on big pastures can take hours to find on foot or on horseback. A drone finds them, and shows whether they have water, in a few minutes. Using a drone to find livestock.

Practise like a search pilot

Straight lines at a steady height, turns without losing your place, finding a jacket left in a field: skills you can practise on any free afternoon, and that make every other flight easier. Six practice drills.

Fly at dusk and at night

City lights and the last light of the day make some of the best drone pictures. The rules change after sunset, and they differ a lot between countries. Can you fly a drone at night?

Help find a lost dog or cat

This is where a drone that spends its life in a drawer can matter most. When a dog runs off into fields or scrub, one battery of a small drone covers 15 to 20 hectares at search height, more than 20 football pitches. Animal Drone Rescue AI is free: it plans the search over the area, and its AI looks for animals in the video while you fly or afterwards, from the memory card. How to search for a lost dog with a drone.

Before any of these

• Check where you can fly: official maps by country.
• Register and take the online test if your country asks for it: drone laws by country.
• Know what to do if it flies off: how to find a lost drone.

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Reviewed on October 23, 2026.