An item on tonight's local news mentioned that, according to the helicopter pilot, the drone was being flown about 800 feet above ground level. The helicopter pilot followed the drone until it landed in a school playground, after which the pilot "confiscated" the drone. I'm guessing it was registered, because they already have a suspect.
Larry
I’m thinking kinda fishy. To many holes in all points of view. Was drone pilot doing stupid stuff maybe. The plus side they used a drone for the footage of the news broad cast. So they own one too. Lol
They’ve tentatively identified the suspect as the President of Yuneec Aircraft..........
Jake
True. Of course. Every city I have stayed in I certainly see police copters in the 800 plus range. Lol.Not "kinda fishy" but certainly 100% stupid and illegal if the details of the incident are true. Allegedly flying at 800 feet (double the legal maximum) and close to a helicopter. Illegal, stupid and all of the other derogatory adjectives you can throw at it.
Of course, we will need to wait for all of the facts to come out in the court case before passing judgement.
Al, it was just an attempt at humor, which was why I added the smiley.
If this offends you may delete it.
Jake
True. Of course. Every city I have stayed in I certainly see police copters in the 800 plus range. Lol.
Either way stupid. I would have landed in a lake before giving it to them. Lol if he was following a copter I’m sure he knew they were following him lol.
The helicopter can fly at low speeds, slow enough for the drone to keep upTrying to wrap my head around this one, how does a hobby drone such as a mavic or yuneec, even keep up with a police helicopter?
How does going below the heli even sound sensible, the prop wash below a heli is intense, to say the least. More than enough to throw a drone around.
WOW hope he loses his quad and receives maximum fines. He should also be banned from owning another quad. This should be a strong deterrent to other idiots from endangering lives and property.
I have no further information about the incident (looking forward to updates), but I have to wonder about the following possible scenario (around here we call it a SWAG ):Ok, so the drone can land almost anywhere but he picks a large playground where the helicopter could land? It could just be a police exercise to show how bad drones are (playing devil's advocate here).
Whatever the case there are some pretty dumb people out there, I can see some idiot doing this.
A couple of clarifications:If this is all true (800 foot altitude, coming close to a police helicopter, following said helicopter, trying to escape) then this pilot deserves everything they throw at him. Stunts like this are what give us all a bad name and cause more regulations to be proposed.
I will however reserve judgement until all the facts come out. Some of the points mentioned already are quite valid:
This will be an interesting story to follow.
- How exactly does a small consumer drone keep up with a police helicopter? I'm sure the copter was not moving quickly, but unless the pilot of the drone was in very close VLOS then it would be nearly impossible to accurately follow it, much less hide underneath it. The perspective and angles at any sort of distance would make it very difficult to pull this off. If it was beyond VLOS then doing this solely with FPV is basically impossible.
- If the drone did approach close to and underneath the police copter then the prop wash from the helicopter would have certainly caused havoc for the drone. I understand the valid concern of the police officers, but worrying about the drone flying into the cockpit is probably something that couldn't happen due again to the helicopter rotors directly overhead.
- Since this guy was apprehended and the drone was seized, finding out the true story should be very simple. After obtaining a court order, the police can review the flight logs and any pictures/video from the drone.