Yet another bad news story for our hobby

[ascension]

Birds have have about 15,000,000 decades to get used to dodging other things moving at a few tens of miles an hour. They have had 7 decades to get used to dodging things moving at a few hundreds of miles an hour.

Birds don't have to dodge "things moving at a few hundreds of miles an hour."
Birds are not at the altitudes that airplanes fly those speeds.
They are very good at avoiding airplanes going between 50 and about 160 mph.

 

[warlock 31]

What I absolutely do not understand is why would anyone want to fly their drone near an airport? I just don't get it. Airports are not scenic, its asphalt and planes.

Its just dumb in every regard.

I agree with you 100%

 

[warlock 31]

Anybody that flies a drone around airplanes is an inconsiderate not give a **** moron

 

[warlock 31]

And what about irresponsible airplane pilots?!?!?

Do you have liability insurance if you're drilling does damage to something most planes do

 

[warlock 31]

Do you have liability insurance if you're drilling does damage to something most planes do

That is supposed to say drone it's something

 

[erkme73]

This industry needs to look at what the electronic cigarette industry has went through and try to find some takeaways that will help us avoid that kind of end-result.. Misinformation and outright lies have all but turned the general public against the electronic cigarette.

While a bit OT, that's a very good point @jimmybbq. And the important take away from what's happening to the e-cig industry is that the resistance to what is arguably a safer, less addictive alternative to cigarettes, is that the opposition is neither spontaneous or organic. It's coordinated, well-funded, and agenda-driven. The weapons aimed at the fledgling e-cig industry include well-paid lobbyists, powerful PR firms, and thousands of funded social media contributors that help foment opposition. Astroturfing, as it's called, is a powerful, yet nearly imperceptible form of public opinion manipulation that is very effective. And when an industry is threatened by a new startup alternative, the waters get muddy pretty quickly.

Where it relates to droning might not be so obvious. When a .gov employee crashes his drone into the whitehouse at 3AM, it makes headlines. Was that .gov employee really just a nobody who was stupid and drunk? Or was he a willing participant in a PR campaign designed to strike fear and alarm in the minds of voters. When we learn that a Phantom pilot who recklessly charged his drone towards an NYPD helicopter was actually trying to get away from it, and it was the helicopter pilot who was chasing the drone, we rarely hear that the charges were dropped, and evidence vindicating the drone operators is never published.

My point is, I simply do not believe any claim of drone sightings, or reckless drone operators, at face value. There are too many interests in seeing this hobby snuffed out or controlled to the point where it's no longer practical. That doesn't mean I don't believe there aren't stupid operators who do dumb things - but we must reserve judgment, and always keep an open mind (with a healthy dose of skepticism) - and understand that .gov motives are neither pure, altruistic, or nobel.

 

[MisterMavic]

Stated that stupid or illegal behaviours must be be avoided, if a big airplane is seriously damaged each time is hit by an object whose weight is 0.7Kg (a duck weights double), there should be a documented (and long time story) of plane accidents, caused by "single" birds... and not only by bird flocks.

The FOD prevention walk on Navy aircraft carriers is a common drill, conducted before each launch and recovery cycle, and a number of times during the day depending on the schedule of flight operations. They walk step by step, a hundred men shoulder to shoulder, stretching the width and walking the length of the flight deck, their heads down looking for any tiny debris that could cause FOD -- foreign object damage. Why is it they do this do you think? To think something the size of even a Mavic couldn't cause a catastrophic engine failure is insane. Let's take anyone who thinks that up to 30,000 feet and we'll see if they want to take a chance of sucking a Mavic through the engine.

 

[grizzard]

Yet another "Blame everything on a drone" story! No proof, no pictures....

Fake News is Everywhere ...... I don't pass it on.

 

[RobertD]

Misinformation and fake news help pay the bills. Sadly they also cause people to overreact and laws to be enacted when not needed. Fear wins over logic every time!

 

[westcoast604]

Yeah I wonder in the future how many unskilled pilots that screwed up or need a go around but don't want the company to go hard on them will use the drone excuse.

That's highly unlikely. The fact is airplanes don't divert just for the fun of it. Nor do they blame a go around on a drone that doesn't exist. There are no repercussions for a pilot a doing a go around therefore no need to cover it up.with a fake story. Most airliners now have safety recording software that shows exactly why a go around was accomplished. (Flight Data Analysis) The fact is this drone operator screwed it up.for the rest of us by flying like an idiot near an airport.

 

[Firemedic72]

will the airports ground radar pick up something so small or is it more of a visual thing???

Yes. Ground radar can pick up a sparrow flying across runway hold areas. No for any other ground radar

 

[Mauri59]

Prevention is a must, stupid behaviours must be avoided and discouraged, laws enforced.

Technical speech should be performed by experts and professionals, discussing on REAL numbers, FACTS and STATISTICS.
Among of the worst disadvantages of internet: news are given approximately to be "the first", everything is a plot, fake news becoming often the truth (actuality or science, is less interesting or considered "biased information"), the man of the street and journalist, "gains in minutes", the basis to discuss arguments, a "stupid" engineer needs years to study and to gain experience (on field).

The FOD prevention walk on Navy aircraft carriers is a common drill, conducted before each launch and recovery cycle, and a number of times during the day depending on the schedule of flight operations. They walk step by step, a hundred men shoulder to shoulder, stretching the width and walking the length of the flight deck, their heads down looking for any tiny debris that could cause FOD -- foreign object damage. Why is it they do this do you think? To think something the size of even a Mavic couldn't cause a catastrophic engine failure is insane. Let's take anyone who thinks that up to 30,000 feet and we'll see if they want to take a chance of sucking a Mavic through the engine.

 

[gutbucket]

Yet another "Blame everything on a drone" story! No proof, no pictures....

And yet the media skewers Trump over "Fake" news. I've been watching fake news for over 30 years. What they don't know or can't comprehend, they just ad-lib or make up.

 

[Stakes]

Prison worker fired after South Carolina inmate escapes

Next news story. They blame a "possible" drone, that no none ever saw nor heard, for this man escaping prison... again.

 

[Gary7399]

Unfortunately we have a percentage of idiots that would actually do these stupid things and now all the firmware locks your Mavic down. It's a shame. All because a douche decides to post a video and say ooh look what I did. It causes mom problems for us pilots that are responsible. I know I would not go near an aircraft. I never even want that on my conscious. But I did notice something. I do know we are to stay below 400 ft but we had a awesome storm cell brewing and I wanted som great video and pics. So I flew up and it shut down at 500 meters in which screwed my shot angle as I needed about 1000 more feet. This is in an area not restricted and planes never come close to this area. I've done it before at 4400 ft before all the firmware updates that have just hinders the Mavic. I have the latest firmware and it's also slow very slow. The only speed I can get is in sport mode but then you lose your obstacle avoidance. My question is.... does anyone know the firmware version that I can go back down to to get my elevation back. Thanks

 

[SAm Dodge]

will the airports ground radar pick up something so small or is it more of a visual thing???

Most drones are too small to show up on airport radar. If they do it would look like a bird.

 

[Blades]

I get so tired of these really silly opinions that have absolutely no factual background.
It doesn't take "serious damage," to take an airplane out of service, incurring huge time consuming and expensive repairs, and massive passenger inconvenience and expense. Any dent must be fixed.

Second, this nonsense about birds/ducks/whatever is just that.
Birds and others that share the airspace have pretty good avoidance skills. In over 40 years of flying everything from fighters to the 777, I have had exactly three bird strikes.
The single greatest threat to increased drone regulations is people stating that they can't hurt anything or their illegal intrusions don't matter, and thus alienating all of the other manned aircraft, certified folks that occupy airspace.

How about Turtle strikes?

 

[erkme73]

Prison worker fired after South Carolina inmate escapes

Next news story. They blame a "possible" drone, that no none ever saw nor heard, for this man escaping prison... again.

Yup. That's the first thing I thought when I read the story this morning. Why mention it w/o proof? Who stands to benefit from these unsubstantiated accusations that help rile up public opinion against our hobby?

THIS is why when people post "Don't fly recklessly or illegally or they'll ban/over-regulate our drones". Wrong. They'll just create stories like this, and the public will be screaming for the ban.

 

[Blades]

Rick....Please tell me how many serious injuries and/or deaths have been attributed to hobbyists flying drones when compared with certificated airplane pilots...

How is it a real passenger airplane is shot down and yet nobody can find out who is responsible and punish them appropriately and we're talking about little quads that have yet taken down one?
Yes I have heard it " what do we just wait for it to happen" Yes and lets hope it NEVER DOES!

200 Turtle strikes with airplanes since 1990 to 2015. Yes there are some dumb people out there that are not flying responsibly but it is a very small percentage compared to the millions of quads and responsible quad Flyers. You can build your own quad with no fly zones and you can control it any place. NOTHING WILL STOP SOMEONE FROM BREAKING THE LAWS/RULES IF THEY WANT TO!

You can not hold a million responsible quad owners accountable for one or two bad pilots. If that was the case we would not evolve because everything would be regulated restricted out of control when someone got hurt or hurt someone. I got a paper cut now ban paper or only the government can have it to protect us all.. The paper cut could get infected and you could die.

We should all help educate new quad pilots and encourage safe and responsible flying habits. Pre and post inspection of the quads along with knowing where you are flying as just some basics. Yes I know the list can be very long and do a search to find others list print them and enjoy your quad no matter if it's $1,000 mavic a $6,000 Inspire or a $50 fpv mini quad. Have fun and always fly safe and be respectful of other people.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28357880

 

[Rogat19]

Really tragic. If this state of things continue we'll soon face a serious accident and, potentially, the ban of our hobby. Very sad...

So make the penalties draconian plane and simple, if you fly near an airport ( and we will track you and we will find you ) Thanks Liam: then its 12 months jail no appeal no leniency mandatory 12 months off you go FU@#&* see you in a year