Hi everyone, unusual question here. I have been noticing that there is not much encouragement for younger generations to join in on drones such as course’s or teaching in a younger drone club (of course I’m excluding YouTube and talking about real life experience). Has anyone else come across a project or idea to encourage younger generations? If not I think there might need to be something made by someone to encourage this great hobby to continue.
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@AquaticJedi This member was looking into involving schoolkids. Not sure how far he got with it though.
cost is always going to be the problem, really it needs the parent to be into drones.
my kids are not too fussed, I’ve done a session with my son about a year ago, and other than asking once he has not shown much interest… too busy on phones, Xbox, Nintendo switch and TV on demand to be really interested.
he (and she use to) does code club where I help out / teach too
https://codeclub.org/en/
but there are too many other distractions.
I have been asked by my wife to look at getting my son a drone, and he has had toy ones (plus off road / outdoor) RC cars but it remains the cost (2nd set of FPV goggles).
plus… it’s actually my break from wife, work, life and kids time (yup, I’m selfish), but it’s immersive so can forget all the other things for a few hours on a Sunday morning.
although this is American and also from the perspective of RC planes, similar issues apply to drones (to some extent)
the drone code does not make it easy for kids to take it up either. just flying about the back garden is fine until you take it above the hedge line and you get some neighbor shouting across the fence “are you perving with that thing, looking in people’s windows and recording on it… does it have a camera”
add to that BVLOS is not allowed (at ANY altitude)… so back gardens are only interesting for so long and acceptable before someone complains or dobs you in (I’ve got at least 2 Karens and 2 kens in close proximity)
I understand BVLOS and I understand the requirement for a spotter, it does not mean I have to agree with it… my position remains that if flying at low altitude (below the tree / or roof eves height, and power / telegraph poles) (which is where it is interesting to fly FPV and enjoyable) manned aircraft have bigger issues than a sub 1 kg FPV drone and manned aircrafts chance of collision with a 400mm x 400mm x 150mm uav object before hitting a tree, house, power or phone line is on a par with winning the lottery… add to that that manned aircraft VFR (visual flight rules) state that other than taking off or landing manned aircraft should not fly below 500ft or 1000ft above obstacles and congested areas (hence buzzing my back garden as I live in a town, nowhere near an airport approach/ flight path, and not in an area of military aircraft training should be a no no!!). BUT … the rules ARE the the rules… just not everyone plays by them (including manned aircraft)
all of these things play into why kids are not likely to take up drone flying, unless they are keen with an already flying parent
There was this, recently:
Is this something you might be interested in helping us with?
My daughters, their friends (boy and girls) , and my nieces and nephews all showed an interest in my drone. For all of 5 minutes! Once they realised it does nothing more than fly and take pictures, the interest vanished. These are all ages between 4 and 19, just not interested.
I think that goes for a lot of things, we might think it’s pretty cool unfortunately the younger generation have a much lower threshold of boredom and much much more available to them
We had a model aircraft club at secondary school, building and flying balsa wood and doped tissue control line and RC models. Even then the costs were prohibitive for most parents. Engines and RC gear were not cheap. It also relied on having a teacher with enough interest and knowledge to run the club.
I was interested but there was no way that I, or my parents, could afford the gear so I watched from the side lines.
hence why FPV is where the interest may come from to give you the VR sense of flying… at least for me and cheaper than a pilots licence and more stimulating because of being able to skim the grass, banks, bushes and trees and shoot gaps with no personal risk… except financial… but it will complete with Xbox, playstation, Nintendo and phones for game and interaction time.
even with coding club there are about 8 kids that go, and there is space for about 12… so there is some minor interest but not really to form the local friendships where they hang out together because they all go to different schools and one or two live local to each other… that is why the online world wins as you can sit in the comfort and safety of your front room as a child (or parent) and no need to travel to a meet
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with this as a club you start to get into the realms of child safeguarding and child protection… hence with the parent present it’s less of an issue.
CRB checks etc. to be fair CRB checks via a charity as enhanced checks are cheaper… hence why our local electronics/ amateur radio club is affiliated to code club so that they take care of that side of things
https://help.codeclub.org/cckb/s/topic/0TO8d000000PONdGAO/safeguarding
(note, I’m just a background member and volunteer so don’t know the rules etc, but it’s probably going to add some additional barriers than just having a meet…plus read the drone code etc).
happy to help out if this was something someone wanted to pursue… but I’d suggest maybe getting a bit more into the “learn how to build a drone and fly it” than just turn up and fly with a bought drone so that they could get some ownership/ responsibility because having spent time building it you may be more likely to treat it with a degree of care than just pop it out of the box and fly… I would be keen to build a 3.5" and I’d happily buy my son and or daughter a kit to follow along.
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Unfortunately the CAA seem to be intent on stamping out the hobby, with ever more stringent and expensive regulations making it unattractive, especially to new/young fliers 
I don’t think that , they are trying to regulate people flying higher and further than they really need to and in places they shouldn’t be.
The FPV scene is thriving, check out tiktok (it’s where the cool kids hang)
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I have always been in to photography since I got my first cheap(ISH) point and shoot camera aged 11 - and I got in to photography because my father was big in to photography.
I’ve loved photography ever since, and I’ve always wanted a drone since the DJI phantom came out, but it was always cost the prohibited me getting in to it before.
Now I’m a little older, and my personal circumstances have changed, I’ve finally been able to justify the cost and get in to it now. I am still fairly young mind you (30).
I think there are plenty of influences out there for younger people to get in to the hobby, most the YouTubers are younger.
If we’re talking any younger than 20-25 year olds, then attention span will always be the issue.
The next biggest issue is the restrictive rules. I can only see that making things worse.
I think that the rules can put off people of all ages. If I spend £1,000 on a camera I expect to be able to photograph the same things in the future that I can now.
Several years ago I looked at buying a drone but I was left with the opinion that I wouldn’t get much use from it because I couldn’t fly it near people, and people tend to be near most of the things I want to photograph, so I didn’t buy one.
Along came the sub 250g drones with reasonable cameras and I discovered that I can fly them in a lot more of the places that I want to photograph, so I bought one. Now I have concerns that the CAA will change the rules to render my (expensive to me) purchase useless in the future.
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Those concerns have not changed in the 7 years I’ve been flying them
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Exactly. So we are hoping that young people, probably with little spare cash, will take up a hobby that they may effectively be banned from participating in quite soon after they buy a drone.
Ironically, its also (often) the same generation that are using the same drones irresponsibly to aggravate people for views on social media which are likely to trigger the tighter restrictions.
Excellent idea 
Yeah that is completely correct. In my opinion the younger generation don’t have a sense of privacy for the public (I’m kind of insulting my own generation now🤣)
And think that drones in the wrong place is just a funny joke. But in my opinion those who are responsible and not obsessed with gaming or social media (getting rare these days though sadly) haven’t got much opportunity to get involved.
I’m only 30. Do I still count as a member of the ‘younger generations’ ? 
maybe tie in some minor design skills like a bit of 3d design and 3d printing… that way “young uns”… learn a few skills … more than just which way to turn a screwdriver and yes some screws have a nut… and a self tapping screw + nut are not friends
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