LESSONS FROM THE BRUSHBEATER DRONE ISR COURSE
Some lessons learned as a drone operator from this past weekend’s iteration of @Brushbeater‘s Drone ISR course:
1. Finding a decent height where you can surveil the entire area and just rotate from one location to another is helpful, as it conserves drone battery life.
2.…
— 4nt1p4tt3rn 🏴☠ Appalachistan Wolf Lodge #47 (@4nt1p4tt3rn) November 24, 2025
Some lessons learned as a drone operator from this past weekend’s iteration of Brushbeater’s Drone ISR course:
1. Finding a decent height where you can surveil the entire area and just rotate from one location to another is helpful, as it conserves drone battery life.
2. digital zoom sucks, which means you may have to fly lower to take better advantage of optical zoom.
3. Having someone else as RTO while you’re piloting is crucial.
4. Having someone on the ground, possibly also with thermal or another enabler, is highly beneficial, as they can walk the pilot onto a target because the guy on the ground has a much different and, perhaps, better angle.
5. Staying a ways off your target and looking down at an angle is much better for PID than being overhead.
6. Airspace deconfliction is a thing, and if you’re going to have more than one drone airborne at a time (like we did Saturday night, me and one other guy), it’s important to coordinate flight elevations.
7. Small aircraft cannot see your drone (as we found out when Sky buzzed us)
8. Having multiple drones available so you can loft another when one needs to refuel greatly aids in maintaining eyes on.
9. Having a drone you can black out at night is extremely beneficial.
10. altitude restrictions are dumb, and Autel encrypting their drone and controller firmware is dumb.
11. When doing surveillance or recon with multiple drones, approaching from multiple directions not only helps with deconfliction, but will give you different angles on the same target, possibly for better views.
12. Always circle buildings; make sure you get a 360 of the structure, angled down.
13. PID is MUCH more difficult at night with thermal. Being able to coordinate between drone operator and PL was extremely beneficial for boots on the ground, to let them know approach vector, distance, speed, and method. At the increased risk of additional radio TX. Drones are also extremely useful for scouting ahead of a patrol.
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About the Author: NC Scout
NC Scout is the nom de guerre of a former Infantry Scout and Sergeant in one of the Army’s best Reconnaissance Units. He has combat tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He teaches a series of courses focusing on small unit skills rarely if ever taught anywhere else in the prepping and survival field, including his RTO Course which focuses on small unit communications. In his free time he is an avid hunter, bushcrafter, writer, long range shooter, prepper, amateur radio operator and Libertarian activist. He can be contacted at [email protected] or via his blog at brushbeater.wordpress.com .
GUNS N GEAR
