As drones gain popularity, some accessories stand out about all others. Some accessories are simple, like a lanyard. All it does is hang your controller around your neck. You don’t really need a lanyard, but a drone landing pad is a great long-term investment for many reasons if you are a drone pilot.
A drone landing pad is a no-brainer accessory to buy for your drone, since it solves many issues camera drone pilots and FPV pilots have to deal with every single flight.
Here is everything you need to know about drone landing pads, what they offer you, who they are for, what the best drone landing pads are, and where you can buy one to make your drone flights a better experience!
How do Drone Landing Pads help?
Drone landing pads can help lost pilots find their way back home, protect your drone’s expensive electronics, keep it from getting dirty or wet, and provide a sense of scale when you’re in the air.
Easy to Spot From the Air
One of the best features a drone landing pad offers is a very visible spot on the ground for lost drone pilots. Drones are getting more popular, and one common upgrade with every new drone is longer range. This is great and allows for more possibilities when flying, but makes it REALLY hard to find where you took off from, and you might lose your drone. Drone landing pads solve this issue by giving you a bright-colored spot on the ground making it easy to find, as well as solving many more issues! Bright orange or bright blue are the two main colors that you can buy, and are a lot easier to see than trying to remember the certain hill or tree that you took off from.
Keep your Electronics Safe
Your drone is expensive! There’s a lot of fragile electronics inside, and everybody knows that electronics and water don’t mix.
The landing pads are made out of waterproof fabric, so even if you’re flying in the early morning and the grass is covered in dew you can keep your drone super dry.
Another great thing the drone landing pad protects against is dust and rocks getting in your motors from all the wind that landing and taking off your drone creates..
These small rocks are a pilot’s nightmare! They can be almost impossible to get out without taking the motors apart, since the motors have little magnets in them that the rocks like to stick to.
Keep your Drone and Camera Clean
The pad provides a flat surface to take off from to start your flights the right way! This flat surface also keeps pieces of grass and dirt from sticking on your drone and getting it dirty.
Keeping your drone away from the ground also makes sure that your camera stays clean. It’s the worst realization when you realize all your beautiful drone shots have a smudge in the middle of the picture!
Gives a Sense of Scale from the Air
When you’re flying, it can be hard to tell how far away or high you are if your drone doesn’t tell you.
Most drone pads are between 20 to 30 inches in diameter. It’s really easy to glance back at the landing pad to get an idea of how far you are if you keep this in mind.
Who should use a Drone Landing Pad?
If you’re flying any type of drone, you should have a drone landing pad. It’s that simple.
They’re cheap, super light, and pack down to almost nothing. You can stick them in any bag, purse, or case and set them up in seconds.
This is the first accessory we’d recommend to anybody buying a drone. It’s unbeatable when you consider the amount of features it provides for such a low price.
Most pilots think that they can get along without a drone landing pad, but think of it this way; a drone landing pad is cheap insurance.
You can have hundreds on hundreds of successful flights, but that one time you get confused in the air and lose the drone, or one little drop of water ruins your electronics, the 20 dollar landing pad will be nothing compared to the price of the drone.
Best Drone Landing Pads of 2022
Here’s a list of the five best drone landing pads offered in 2022! At EasyDrone, we know that everybody’s landing pad needs are going to be different so we placed the five pads into their own categories so you can pick the best one for you.
Smallest Pack Size (Author’s Pick)
The STARTRC Drone Landing Pad Pro takes the cake for being the most portable landing pad, packing down to the impressive size of an iPad. If portability is your number #1 priority, this one’s for you! It even comes with a nice little travel bag.
The PU PVC material provides a nice thin surface that is waterproof, stain-proof, and easily washable. It packs down to storage size in three quick folds!
Another plus of the thin PVC material is the wind resistance. This pad is probably not going to blow around in the wind or air from your drone, but comes with holes on each corner to stake it down if it’s an extra windy day.
This pad provides a nice 20 inch surface to work with. Depending on your landing skill as a pilot and your portability needs, it might be nice to upgrade to a slightly larger pad (the next one down!).
The only downside to this landing pad is that it doesn’t come with pegs to anchor it to the ground. Due to its material and wind resistance, it shouldn’t be much of an issue though.
You can buy the STARTRC Landing pad here at Amazon.
Larger Pad, Good Pack Size
If the STARTRC pad is a little too small to your liking, this SYMIK pad is a good alternative. It’s another 7 inches longer on each side, with most of the main features.
The only downside of this landing pad is that it doesn’t have peg holes, so if you want to stake it to the ground you’ll have to get creative.
Instead of having a carry-bag, the SYMIK comes with an elastic band that keeps it together when it’s folded. I personally prefer this method over a storage bag, it makes it easier to pack up quickly.
Larger landing pads do make it a bit easier to land, so if you have a bigger drone or are ok with carrying the slightly bigger pad, the SYMIK is for you.
You can buy the SYMIK landing pad here on amazon.
Budget Landing Pad Option
The KINBON drone landing pad is the best landing pad for the lowest price. It’s quite big at 30 inches, packs super small, and weighs practically nothing.
To cut costs, this landing pad is made from a nylon fabric material instead of plastic, and instead of folding, it has a springy outside so it pops into place.
This makes it great for setting up quickly, but can be hard to learn how to put away. I personally like folding my landing pads, it feels a lot easier.
The feature that makes this pad stand out is the built-in reflecting strips. The other folding pads don’t have good reflective strips, and can make folding difficult.
This landing pad is super light, so it’s advised to use the included ground stakes with every flight if there’s any wind at all.
You can buy the KINBON drone landing pad here on Amazon.
Weighted Landing Pad
If you find yourself flying in the wind a lot, this ACROTOR weighted landing pad is for you!
The size is reasonable, at 22 by 20 inches, and the premium PU and PVC materials are used. This pad folds up pretty small as well, which is a great bonus.
Weighing in at just under a pound, this pad isn’t going anywhere in some wind, and isn’t too heavy to carry around either.
The ACROTOR comes with a nice little storage bag for carrying your landing pad in.
There isn’t a lot of orange and blue on the landing pad compared to the other ones we’ve looked at, which is the only downside.
You can buy the ACROTOR landing pad here on Amazon.
Super-Large Weighted Ultimate Pad
If you want the ultimate landing pad with the best size and features and are willing to sacrifice the ultra small portability size, this is for you!
The Hoodman Drone Landing pad comes in at a whopping three feet in diamater! Landing on this pad is going to be easy, and it will be a very visible landmark from the sky.
High winds do not faze this landing pad. It weighs over three pounds, and can stick to the ground through some pretty good winds. If the wind’s too high for this pad, you shouldn’t be flying your drone anyways.
Tall grass is easily covered with this pad, and it comes with a nice carrying case with a shoulder strap.
The Hoodman Drone pad can be bought here on Amazon.
Final Thoughts
If you’re flying a drone, a drone landing pad is one of the most valuable accessories you can buy at one of the lowest costs!
Our pick for the best drone landing pad goes to the STARTRC pad. It’s unmatched in portability, and has all the best features you want in a landing pad.
The same features at a slightly larger size can be found from the SYMIK landing pad.
The best bang for your buck goes to the KINBON pad.
If you’re flying in high winds, you’re going to want to pick up the ACROTOR weighted landing pad.
The best landing pad overall is the Hoodman landing pad, but comes with a slightly higher cost.
Let us know if you use a drone landing pad in the comments below! Happy flying!