Reference charts
Thirteen tables built to be checked in seconds, not read.
Researched from published specifications and verified owner reviews · updated 2026
The short answer
These thirteen charts are lookup tables rather than articles: FAA limits and airspace classes, weight thresholds in the United States and abroad, ND density and shutter speed, video bitrate and storage, ground sample distance by altitude, aircraft and battery specifications, LiPo voltages, propeller sizing and wind speed. The physical ones do not go stale. The regulatory ones should be confirmed against current FAA guidance before every flight.
There is a difference between understanding something and remembering it while standing in a field with a controller in your hands and a client waiting. Guides handle the first. These thirteen charts handle the second: no argument, no build-up, just the number and enough context to use it correctly.
BTMETER
BTMETER BT-100 handheld anemometer
Wind speed, temperature, CFM
The wind chart on this site is the one people check most, and almost everyone feeds it a forecast for a town rather than a measurement from where they are standing. A handheld meter costs about the same as a set of propellers and converts the most consequential input in flight planning from a guess into a reading.
Prices move constantly. We earn a commission if you buy through these links, at no extra cost to you.
Rules and airspace
These four are the ones worth having on your phone. The quick reference collapses both the recreational and Part 107 limits into a single table, the airspace chart tells you what each class means for a drone and whether you need authorization, the weight chart marks where the two thresholds fall, and the country chart exists because nothing about a threshold survives crossing a border.
Use them as memory aids rather than as authority. Rules change, temporary restrictions appear daily, and no static table tracks either. Confirm current requirements at faa.gov/uas and in whichever airspace app you use, and read the full explanations on the rules hub.
FAA rules quick reference
Every recreational and Part 107 limit in one table, so a launch-point check takes thirty seconds.
Open →Airspace classes
Class A through G, what each means for a drone, the sectional symbol, and whether authorization is required.
Open →Drone weight classes
Where the 250 g and 55 lb lines fall, what each changes, and how accessories move you across them.
Open →Registration thresholds by country
United States, EU, UK, Canada, Australia and Japan compared. Nothing about a threshold transfers across a border.
Open →Camera, filters and data
This group is the arithmetic behind footage that does not look like drone footage. A drone camera has a fixed aperture, so exposure is set by shutter speed and ISO alone, and daylight forces the shutter far above the roughly double-the-frame-rate figure that produces natural motion blur. The only fix is to physically cut light, which is what an ND filter does.
The chart tells you which density; a Freewell All Day 6-pack ND filters (Mini 3 series) ($40) is the set that covers overcast through open desert on a Mini-class aircraft, and the fixed versus variable comparison covers whether to buy a set or one adjustable filter instead. The bitrate chart then tells you what those settings cost in storage and, more importantly, what sustained write speed the card has to hold.
ND filter density chart
Which ND density for which light, in stops and in filter numbers, with the shutter it gets you to.
Open →Shutter speed chart
The 180 degree rule expressed as a shutter speed for every frame rate you are likely to shoot.
Open →Video bitrate and storage chart
Minutes per card at every common resolution and bitrate, plus the write speed each one demands.
Open →Ground sample distance by altitude
Centimetres per pixel at each altitude for common sensors, forwards and backwards.
Open →Hardware, batteries and build data
Five tables for the physical side. The aircraft specification chart exists so you can compare weight, sensor and endurance without opening six product pages. The battery chart adds watt-hours, which is the number airlines actually care about when you are packing a bag. The LiPo voltage chart is the one that saves money: knowing that storage voltage is materially below full charge, and that a pack left at full for a fortnight is a pack you have shortened, is worth more than most accessories.
Propeller sizing and wind bands round it out. Prop diameter, motor size, KV and cell count are one decision rather than four, which is what the propeller chart encodes and what the prop and motor matching calculator computes for a specific build. On the battery side, a 1-8S LiPo cell checker with low-voltage alarm ($6) reads every cell individually for a few dollars, and a pack whose cells have drifted apart is telling you it is finished.
DJI drone spec chart
Every current DJI consumer aircraft with weight, sensor, rated endurance and approximate price in one table.
Open →Drone battery spec chart
Capacity, voltage, watt-hours and airline carriage status for the common flight packs.
Open →LiPo voltage chart
Per-cell and pack voltages at every state of charge from full to storage to the line you never cross.
Open →Propeller size chart
Prop diameter and pitch against motor size, KV and cell count for FPV builds that actually agree.
Open →Wind speed chart
Beaufort force against mph and knots, with what each band means for a drone in the air.
Open →How to use a chart without misusing it
Physical charts do not go stale. Regulatory charts do. Voltage, wind, shutter arithmetic and propeller geometry are the same this year as last. Registration thresholds, airspace requirements and operating limits are subject to rulemaking, and a table on a website is always behind the source.
A chart gives a starting point, not a verdict. The wind chart says what a given band means for a typical small multirotor. Your aircraft, at your altitude, with your payload, on a two-year-old pack, has its own answer, and the wind margin calculator gets closer to it.
Weight is measured, not remembered. The single most common error involving these tables is taking a takeoff weight from a specification sheet rather than from a scale with the current configuration fitted. Filters, guards, strobes and extended packs all count, and they are exactly what push an aircraft across a threshold. Use the weight and registration calculator.
Prices are for comparison only. Every figure was the observed listing when the page was written and drone pricing moves hard. They are useful for ranking options against each other and useless as a quote.
What these charts feed into
Most of them exist because a calculator or a build guide needed them. The ND and shutter tables sit behind the ND filter calculator. The bitrate table sits behind the card capacity calculator. Ground sample distance sits behind both the GSD calculator and the mapping mission planner. And the weight table sits behind every buying decision on the complete builds.
If you would rather have the explanation than the number, the guides cover the same ground at length, and the gear picks compare the products each chart describes. Everything here is researched from published specifications and published FAA material rather than from hands-on testing, and none of it is legal or professional advice.
Questions people ask
+ What is the difference between a reference chart and a guide here?
A guide teaches a procedure and explains why it works. A reference chart is a lookup table designed to be checked in the field in seconds without reading anything. Several topics have both on purpose: the ND guide explains why shutter speed produces motion blur, and the ND chart tells you which filter to fit in bright sun without re-deriving it.
+ Are these charts safe to rely on at the launch point?
For the physical ones, yes. Voltage, bitrate, propeller sizing and shutter arithmetic do not change. For the regulatory ones, use them to remember the shape of a requirement and confirm the current state of it with the FAA and your airspace app, because rules change and temporary restrictions appear daily.
+ Why are the aircraft prices approximate?
Because drone pricing moves constantly, especially around new model announcements and seasonal promotions, sometimes by hundreds of dollars on the same aircraft. Every figure here was the observed listing when the page was written. Treat them as planning numbers for comparison rather than as quotes.
+ Do these charts cover non-DJI aircraft?
The physics charts cover everything, because voltage, wind and shutter speed do not care who made the airframe. The specification chart is DJI-heavy because that is what most readers own, with the main Autel alternatives included. Where a rule or number is manufacturer-specific the page says so.
+ Which chart should I keep on my phone?
Two. The FAA rules quick reference, because the numbered limits are the ones you are expected to know and the ones you will be asked about, and the wind speed chart, because it converts a forecast figure into an operational decision faster than anything else here.
