Dogs vs drones.

[TRuav]

I want to bring up a serious subject.
I see a large amount of posts on fb and yt, where people are teasing their dogs with drones and rc vehicles. I’ve seen this on very popular channels such as RCSaylots.
(Popeye)

When I was 18, I thought it was fun to let my dog chase my rc10 around the back yard. Till I came home on day and he had got into my room and chewed it and my batteries up. (Thank god the packs were ni-cad)
I then realized that I had encouraged bad behavior.

Fast forward to when li-ion came out, I was a firefighter, one Friday evening was paged to a structure fire. When we arrived we found a home completely engulfed and a dog in the back yard with singed facial hair and minor burns to the mouth.

After putting the fire out we found a carbon fiber car chassis with bite marks on it. I used my rc hobby experience and with the homeowner and fire marshal, we determined that the homeowner had left his car and packs accessible to the dog. And he punctured a pack, and caused a runaway chemical fire. He had escaped thru the dog doors. The owners had confirmed they had teased the dog with the car.

Also I have pointed out on posts to people that if a dog was to catch the drone they were risking severe lacerations to the dogs facial tissue. The response I always get is “it won’t cut you”

Your thoughts?

 

[TRuav]

I feel as an experienced rc hobbiest, and former firefighter and trained emt, that I have a responsibility to point this out to the younger generation, and could cause a very serious accident, and loss of life and property.

 

[Former Member]

Ive repaired a few "dog bites" and luckily the batteries didnt get punctured.

 

[BD0G]

Wow!
Thats such a one in a million chance home fire that was started by a dog puncturing a LiPo battery.
Can it happen? I believe it absolutely can. Will it be something that is widespread and happens frequently. I seriously doubt it.

The leading cause of home fire is ---

Wait for it



Wait for it









Cooking Fires and not electrical issues as most people believe. Actually Electrical fires are a very small minority compared to cooking related fires.

So be extra vigilant when cooking anything with grease or oil associated with it. Have a fire extinguisher nearby and dont use water on a grease or oil fire.

 

[FormerMember07122019_2]

I agree that the chance of starting a fire this way is very low. Battery manufacturers have been continuously evolving their liOn battery chemistry to make them less dangerous due to physical deformation and other hazards. They have made massive improvements in the last 10 to 20 years.

For me an equally worrisome point is the danger to dogs (or other animals) or even potentially kids. I have seen too many videos of irresponsible drone pilots playing around with dogs, kids, or even wild animals.