This is about to be the news equivalent of the "Unintended Prius acceleration" fiasco years back. Bogus incidents, no threat, lawmakers pounding their fists, demanding something be done. The damage will already be done before the media accepts it is a bogus threat. Our hobby will be the loser.
Heathrow Departures Stopped As Drone Spotted
- Thread starter BobbyBrownPants
- Start date
Four to five minutes on that section of the M25 at 17:45... they could all have been stationary...
If I was driving on the M25 id probably be concentrating on the road ahead instead of using my hawk vision to pick out and make assumptions of what’s flashing in the sky
More than likely at that time. It's certainly possible that whatever was being observed might remain visible to someone in a car trying to move along the M25 for 4-5 minutes.
The timing's a little off though. The given time of the cameraman's sighting is about 40 minutes after the initial report that led to flights being stopped, so if this was *the* drone, it either has a really good flight time or this was the second flight of the evening. Alternatively, it might actually have been a police drone, or something else entirely.
Also, what kind of *cameraman* is he that he couldn't get some **** footage??? Yeah, he was driving (AKA "parked" in M25 parlance), but still...
The Fat Controller
Well-Known Member
It's BDOG, he got one of those beanies with a flashing LEDIf I was driving on the M25 id probably be concentrating on the road ahead instead of using my hawk vision to pick out and make assumptions of what’s flashing in the sky
ColinF
Well-Known Member
So a BBC cameraman says he saw a drone at 300 feet altitude while he was driving on a highway. Sounds very suspicious to me. As we know, our drones get fairly difficult to see at 300 ft unless you know exactly where to look, and this was at night and he could tell the lights are a drone’s light with all the other lights in the night sky in a busy area; second, he is driving on a highway, so presumably he can’t spend a lot of time scanning the skies, and third, a BBC cameraman, perhaps he “wanted” to see a drone to get a scoop for the network. This sounds like utter garbage to me.
Come on Colin, can’t you tell this is a drone at night
the general public can so why not a BBC cameraman
Or this
In my eyes both of these are drones, yeah right
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The claim is near the M25/M4 junction. Which if true is about 1.1 miles from the airport. Assuming it was daytime that flight would be perfectly legal (the current UK law is 0.6 miles from the airport fence....)
I thought about this straight away, but last time I was on M25 around that time it was often difficult to use second gear in any lane - i.e walking pace.
Actually this is incorrect; the UK's Drone Code stipulates "it against the law to fly your drone within 1km of an airport or airfield boundary", and that puts the M25/M4 junction within the NFZ, although if the drone (or whatever it was - this was more than half an hour after the initial report, so may have been something else entirely, or maybe an police drone) was to the west of the junction it might actually have been legally flown. Even so, that's a pretty dumb area to be flying a drone in though as some of aircraft are still really low at that point and most responsible pilots would not be operating there at all, and if they were (e.g. for a survey) would have at least contacted the tower beforehand and being *very* careful to keep their altitude as low as possible.
Also, keep in mind that DJI (and most NFZ apps) mostly take a lazy approach and draw an NFZ circle on a point at the approx centre of an airfield, rather than actually calculate based on the perimeter. The new flightpath based NFZs that DJI are currently in the process of rolling out to DJI GO are a significant improvement in this regard, especially for busier airfields, IMHO.
Looks like a manned aircraft to me, proper coloured and laid out navigation lights, properly timed beacon strobing.
Nah it can't be, a BBC cameraman thinks it was a drone because he said they have distinctive lights, and why wouldn't I believe one guy watching a distant flashing light over 300ft away at nighttime from the M25?
Military called in after Heathrow drone sighting
Has anyone else considered this is being done by the military in a bid to rebrand themselves as an American style 'Home Guard' or to increase funding for new anti-drone Research & Development.
Has anyone else considered this is being done by the military in a bid to rebrand themselves as an American style 'Home Guard' or to increase funding for new anti-drone Research & Development.
Rockowe
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REALLY AGAIN ?
All these drone EXPERTS !!!!
Report: BBC cameraman Martin Roberts said he was driving on the M25 past Heathrow airport at about 17:45 GMT when he saw what he believes was a drone. (What No Proof again ?)
"I could see, I'd say around 300 feet up, very bright, stationary flashing red and green lights, over the Harmondsworth area," he said.
"I could tell it was a drone - these things have got quite distinctive lights - not a helicopter.
"The lights were very close together. It was a very clear night and the object was stationary, it was turning very, very slightly. I could see it very clearly, I'd say for about four to five minutes."
============
Please note he said he was driving on the M25 past Heathrow - but He could tell that what he saw was a drone and stationary- Green and red lights flashing (All this he said from diving on a highway past one of the busiest AIRPORTS in the world- where red green lights are commonplace - with antennaes in the air-
Heres a Typical Look at what he saw -
Typical highway views driving past an airport have hundreds of lights in the Sky-
… but this EXPERT knows while driving on the highway that Looking up at 300ft that it was a DRONE ??????????
NONSENSE !
Anything's possible, but I think this is unlikely and it's probably just a case of them having the necessary equipment for defending against the use of drones by various groups in the Middle East while the police did not. Military R&D is generally handled by the defence contractors in response to requirements that then get procured (or not), so it's not really likely to have any significant on the MoD's budget; Drone Dome is peanuts compared to warships and stealth fighters. Besides, police work like that just isn't "sexy" enough, e.g. the "Top Gun" mentality that led to the insistance that the F35 be able to dogfight and pack a cannon despite it already being pretty clear that BVR missiles and UAV platforms are the future.
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ColinF
Well-Known Member
Come on Colin, can’t you tell this is a drone at night
Or this
In my eyes both of these are drones, yeah right
hah. Yes, silly me. It must have been clearly obvious to this BBC cameraman!
Test pilot
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Test pilot
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