For a while it looked like HoverAir’s innovative Versa gimbal-camera-drone was going to be a way to sneak modern drone tech into the US. That door has now closed.
More bad news for US drone fliers. While it looked for a while that using a powered snap-on propeller kit might be enough to convert the HoverAir Versa into a drone that could be imported into the US despite FCC restrictions, now that the Versa is live on Indiegogo the reality appears to be rather different.
Backers in the US that try to buy the gimbal and propellers are now seeing a message that states “You cannot place an order with items that cannot be shipped to this location. Please remove them from your cart to proceed with the order.”
HoverAir has further clarified this with a statement to customers who have already placed orders saying “If your shipping destination is in the United States, due to a few remaining logistics updates with the Flight Kit, we're currently only shipping our PocketOnly and PocketCombo combos to the US. We'll keep everyone updated on full availability.”
“Logistics updates” sounds suspiciously like a euphemism to us. And it’s a quick pivot. On August 18, the company was reassuring backers that “HoverAir Versa has received the required FCC certification, allowing us to ship to the U.S. Indiegogo backers as soon as units are ready.” By August 21 that had changed and the emails were being sent.
As The Verge details, the Versa was approved by the FCC in early August, but that approval was for a camera alone (and, indeed, unlike the DJI Pocket 4P, that remains available to US backers for now). HoverAir is a brand of China’s Zero Zero Robotics, and while that company is not on the FCC Covered List, all companies that make drones and critical drone components are. That has forced it to stop accepting pledges on the Flight Kit for now, and potentially may even do for the core gimbal camera in the future as these can be classed as drone components.
HoverAir was reportedly slow in refunding customers when its AQUA drone fell foul of the FCC earlier this year, and was also less than transparent over what was happening. Now that everyone is wearily aware of the ban and how it works, hopefully it will be a bit more on the ball this time around.