Recent content by hank970

Wouldn't an elevator shaft have door-openings on each floor? Wouldn't such openings afford easy access to the interior of the shaft over most of its height for the purposes of determining clearances for elevator installation? There have to be easier and more precise ways to take such...

Anyone can fly as far as environmental conditions, drone characteristics, battery charge, and their own poor judgment allow. But they can't violate the laws of physics. In this instance, neither arithmetic nor mathematics have anything to do with it.

Simple physics: gaining altitude incrementally doesn't save energy when compared with gaining altitude in one continuous ascension. In both instances, the same amount of work is involved, and the same expenditure of energy (battery output) is required over the course of a flight. A third...

Of course, folks are free to call geographic features whatever they want. There's a little rise behind my home that we call Gazebo Hill. But such informal names won't ever appear on official maps unless someone petitions the Board on Geographic Names and makes a case that the name be...

Well, I guess I'm lucky, because reflections on the screen don't bother me when the $16 hood is in place on the controller. Another benefit of the hood is cost. No need to buy an additional $235 monitor screen and another $40-$100 for the mount, or a backpack with attached golf umbrella, or to...

About sixteen bucks on Amazon. Kind of a pain to put on the first couple of times, but it gets much easier. Stretches into place for a perfect fit, like putting on a pair of socks. Durable, and no fiddly hinges. Doesn't interfere with controls, controller status lights, antennae, or...

How about VLOS?

As a practical matter, nobody on the ground could precisely or effectively measure clearances below or to the side of something as amorphous and mobile as a cloud without some specialized instruments. And so, because everybody here knows that the intent of the law is to minimize risk of aerial...

I didn't say he was a beginner. I said he made a beginner's mistake. And I still don't understand the allure of deliberate range testing, unless it's to garner views on You Tube videos. Imagine a private pilot hopping into a new plane and then flying it to the extremes of its range just to...

A beginner's mistake. If Dunhill isn't an idiot, he's certainly careless and non-observant. What, exactly, is the purpose of a range test other than to tickle the tiger? Is it really necessary to see if a manufacturer's claims of flight duration and distance are entirely accurate?

It's all about safety. The intent of the regulation is to prevent a flier from entering in or encroaching upon an inherently low visibility environment like a cloud or fogbank and risking a possible collision with a low-flying aircraft -- a helicopter, for instance. If the bottom of the cloud...

Are you referring to Section 107.51 (d)? If so, I disagree. It couldn't be more clearly stated.

It means that you can't fly less than 500 feet below a cloud or less than 2000 feet from it laterally, assuming that the cloud is low enough that you could encroach upon it within permissible flight parameters. In other words, if a low cloud is hovering only 700 feet above ground, and you're...

Well, yeah, I suppose if a drone were flying at dove range or hovering at squirrel range, then somebody could hit one with a full-choke shotgun or .22. No doubt every cop in central Kentucky is equipped for dove and squirrel hunting on the job. Having served 27 years with a federal law...