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Drone vs. Police Helicopter in my own hometown

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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
 
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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

Another plus for registration if that was the case, it weeds out idiot drone owners. They are going to levy some huge fines on him even before FAA has at it.
 
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
 
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

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.
 
They’ve tentatively identified the suspect as the President of Yuneec Aircraft..........o_O


Jake

Can you share a link?
 
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.
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.
 
Al, it was just an attempt at humor, which was why I added the smiley.
If this offends you may delete it.

Jake

Oh no offense at all sir. I was just looking for the back story :)
 
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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.

It's perfectly legal for a helicopter to follow a drone but 100% illegal for a drone to follow a helicopter. As for landing in the lake to avoid being identified or having the drone confiscated - well that would be 200% stupid, not to mention dishonest. The cops would simply deploy a diver to retrieve it.
 
Trying 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.
 
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.
 
Trying 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.
The helicopter can fly at low speeds, slow enough for the drone to keep up ;)
It depends how far below the helicopter the drone was, if far enough then the prop wash would have dissipated enough. I'm an airborne infantry vet, I used to dangle under helicopters for a living ;)
 
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.
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 :D):
  • The drone pilot launched the drone from that playground.
  • The home point was set at the spot it was launched from.
  • He (or she) spotted the helicopter and thought it would be cool to get some video recording the helicopter, or at least to follow it around, or something equally stupid.
  • At some point, the drone pilot panicked and hit RTH on the remote, after which he ran like crazy when the helicopter followed the drone down.
  • The drone dutifully landed at its home point and the helicopter crew confiscated it.
Larry
 
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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:
  • 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.
This will be an interesting story to follow.
 
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:
  • 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.
This will be an interesting story to follow.
A couple of clarifications:
  • The drone wasn't reported to always be below the helicopter. Though I agree it would be difficult, as long as the drone and helicopter were both in VLOS to the drone pilot, he could have kept up more-or-less with the chopper (from behind) if the helicopter was flying slowly enough.
  • Once the drone wound up below the chopper, I would agree that all bets are off. I can't imagine any consumer-level drone maintaining any sort of flight control in that (downward) prop wash.
  • The drone was seized, but the drone pilot has not been apprehended, at least as of this writing. The police have indicated they know who it is, but he's not in custody.
There is one positive (if you can call it that) from this story: The police reported that they had identified the owner of the drone within hours of the incident. That hints strongly that the drone was registered, anyway. I can't imagine how else they could have identified the owner so quickly.

Larry
 
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