Pilots of the Caribbean Podcast

22/08/2026

New US tariffs, up to 100% on imported drones, just landed, and since most fleets in the region run on DJI gear bought through US retailers, this is one to watch closely. Full breakdown on the news page:

The White House imposed tariffs of up to 100 percent on imported drones and components on August 13, 2026, under Section 232 national security authority. The steepest rate hits large or sensitive drones like those with thermal cameras, while smaller consumer drones face a 25 percent tariff. Caribbea...

20/08/2026

This week we sit down with Derrick Annan, Co-Founder and CEO of Axis Drone Surveys in Ghana. Derrick built a drone survey business across five African countries using one certification.

We get into regulation, mining and energy work, and the state of the industry in Africa.

Full episode is live now, link below.

One Ghana drone certification. Five African countries of survey wor...

18/08/2026

In Big Falls Village, Toledo District, Belize rice farmers are using drones to fertilize their fields, cutting costs and saving time. The trade-off? Fewer hands needed in the field. Full story:

https://pilotsofthecaribbeanpod.com/drone-news/belize-rice-farming-drones-toledo/

In Big Falls Village, Toledo District, Belize rice farmers are now using drones to fertilize their fields, part of a broader shift toward agricultural drone technology in the Caribbean. The approach is cutting fertilizer costs and improving field efficiency, but it is also reducing the number of wor...

17/08/2026

Would your drone team pass an airline-style checkride?

Most SAR teams get the drone long before they get the training. That gap is exactly what we're closing this Thursday, August 20 at 7 PM Eastern (4 PM Arizona), in a free live training with Captain Kyle Nordfors.

Kyle is a Boeing 737 captain with 26 years in aviation and the drone team coordinator for the Weber County Sheriff's Office. He took the safety systems airlines run on every flight (CRM, threat management, structured briefings) and turned them into a repeatable training program for his SAR team.

Now he's walking you through it:

- How lost person behavior shapes your flight planning
- Airline-style briefings and CRM applied to drone operations
- Where thermal actually finds people (and where it falls short)
- The seven phases of a SAR drone flight, with the emergency drills, mock scenarios, and proficiency lanes his team trains on

Click the link below to register for free. You'll also get the free SAR Training Resource Pack if you attend (presentation slides, Kyle's pre-flight briefing card, and a lost person behavior reference guide).

If Thursday doesn't work, register anyway, and we'll send you the replay.

Save your free seat before Thursday 👉 https://pilotinstitute.com/drone-sar-training-webinar

17/08/2026

The Barbados Defence Force is building a new multi-role drone unit, one meant to handle disaster response, maritime surveillance, agriculture and security patrols. Full story:



https://pilotsofthecaribbeanpod.com/drone-news/barbados-bdf-drone-unit-expansion/

15/08/2026

DroneGuyTT ( Levi Hinds ) is one of Trinidad and Tobago's most recognized FPV drone pilots, and this episode gets into: the real cost of building an FPV business here, the client conversation that changed how he prices his work and so much more

New episode of Pilots of the Caribbean is up now.

In this episode of Pilots of the Caribbean, Alan Gabriel sits down ...

12/08/2026

DJI has launched the Mic Mini 2S, its first Mini microphone with internal recording, up to 28 hours per transmitter. It is not coming to the US though. Full story:

DJI has launched the Mic Mini 2S, its first Mini wireless microphone with internal recording, storing up to 28 hours of audio directly on each 12-gram transmitter. The mic adds two levels of AI noise cancelling and connects up to four transmitters to a single receiver, but DJI has confirmed it will....

11/08/2026

11/08/2026

The US Navy just extended its Saildrone counter-drug mission across the Caribbean, keeping 21 uncrewed Voyager vessels on patrol through 2027. Full story:

https://pilotsofthecaribbeanpod.com/drone-news/caribbean-saildrone-navy-counter-drug/

The US Navy has extended Saildrone's Caribbean counter-drug mission with a new $16.3 million task order, keeping 21 unmanned Voyager surface vessels patrolling regional waters through 2027. The extension follows an October 2025 interdiction in which a Voyager helped the Navy track a smuggling vessel...

07/08/2026

Happy 64th Independence from Jamaica Drone Soccer!