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- Apr 2, 2019
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Surf the web much and you’re bound to run into a video or two of people getting into verbal or even physical altercations with people flying sUAS. While most of my experiences with drones and drone flyers has been pretty positive, there is, nonetheless a segment of the public which views drones in a very negative light. I’ve noticed as well that this phenomena is unique to modern quadcopters and never happened with other kinds of remote control aircraft. I think it has to do partly with the ubiquitous nature of these kinds of UAVs. Their VTOL capability, ease of control and low cost make them more accessible to the public and don’t require the additional discipline that conventional RC aircraft and helicopters did to gain mastery.
CONSPIRACY AND PARANOIA
The widespread use of sUAS amongst the public coupled with the integration of small, high resolution cameras into the airframe has led to a misconception that drones are part of an ever increasing surveillance state, despite the fact that in general, consumer drones have no more ability to photograph or shoot video than a GoPro or a smartphone camera does. This is a widespread fear and so much so that the city council of Deer Trail, CO, once entertained a bill to allow homeowners to shoot down UAVs overflying their property. Fortunately I don’t believe this was ever seriously considered to vote on, but the paranoia still exists. People in public places are often very irritated by the idea that someone with a drone could be filming them. The other concern is that people are using drones for electronic voyeurism and spying into people’s homes. Again, just like a cellphone camera, a consumer drone can’t peer through walls and see what you are doing at typical operating altitudes. Now there have been cases of people using drones to harass other people (see below). That’s a different animal altogether.
IDIOTS AMONG US
“Think of how stupid the average person is and then realize that half of them are even stupider than that.”
- George Carlin
Another thing that irritates the general public - and deservedly so - is the idea of a drone falling out of the sky and hitting their person, their family or their property. Drones are powerful aircraft and can pack considerable speed and energy. Combine that with the sharp, spinning propeller blades on a quadcopter and put control of that machine into the hand of a careless or thoughtless, ignorant person and accidents are bound to happen. As mentioned above, the modern flight controllers associated with quadcopters also makes them more accessible to these types of people who now don’t need the additional cost and pilot discipline that more conventional RC aircraft did to become a general menace to the public. There is ample evidence of this on social media.
TROLLS AND GRIEFERS
Spend much time in an internet chat room or the comments section from a Facebook post, you’ll sooner or later run into these emotional parasites. There is a subsection of the public whose whole existence revolves around how much attention they can garner by inflicting misery and emotional distress for their own entertainment or their dumb little buddies’. The aversion of the public to being harassed by a flying camera like this just gives said people a tool through which to be an even bigger jerk. Another subset of these people are the attention seekers who intentionally use drones to do illegal or dangerous things with such as flying them near aircraft, over restricted areas like sporting events, etc. the combination of widespread access to social media combined with the drones’ camera makes it a tool ripe for this use.
CONSPIRACY AND PARANOIA
The widespread use of sUAS amongst the public coupled with the integration of small, high resolution cameras into the airframe has led to a misconception that drones are part of an ever increasing surveillance state, despite the fact that in general, consumer drones have no more ability to photograph or shoot video than a GoPro or a smartphone camera does. This is a widespread fear and so much so that the city council of Deer Trail, CO, once entertained a bill to allow homeowners to shoot down UAVs overflying their property. Fortunately I don’t believe this was ever seriously considered to vote on, but the paranoia still exists. People in public places are often very irritated by the idea that someone with a drone could be filming them. The other concern is that people are using drones for electronic voyeurism and spying into people’s homes. Again, just like a cellphone camera, a consumer drone can’t peer through walls and see what you are doing at typical operating altitudes. Now there have been cases of people using drones to harass other people (see below). That’s a different animal altogether.
IDIOTS AMONG US
“Think of how stupid the average person is and then realize that half of them are even stupider than that.”
- George Carlin
Another thing that irritates the general public - and deservedly so - is the idea of a drone falling out of the sky and hitting their person, their family or their property. Drones are powerful aircraft and can pack considerable speed and energy. Combine that with the sharp, spinning propeller blades on a quadcopter and put control of that machine into the hand of a careless or thoughtless, ignorant person and accidents are bound to happen. As mentioned above, the modern flight controllers associated with quadcopters also makes them more accessible to these types of people who now don’t need the additional cost and pilot discipline that more conventional RC aircraft did to become a general menace to the public. There is ample evidence of this on social media.
TROLLS AND GRIEFERS
Spend much time in an internet chat room or the comments section from a Facebook post, you’ll sooner or later run into these emotional parasites. There is a subsection of the public whose whole existence revolves around how much attention they can garner by inflicting misery and emotional distress for their own entertainment or their dumb little buddies’. The aversion of the public to being harassed by a flying camera like this just gives said people a tool through which to be an even bigger jerk. Another subset of these people are the attention seekers who intentionally use drones to do illegal or dangerous things with such as flying them near aircraft, over restricted areas like sporting events, etc. the combination of widespread access to social media combined with the drones’ camera makes it a tool ripe for this use.
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