Drone hits public car in Oz

[marzipana]

http://tenplay.com.au/news/melbourne/2016/2/4/anger-over-drone-pilots

Someone flew a Yuneec from their backyard, flew 2kms before it dropped from the sky and hit a car. Pilot hasn't come forward of course. To be honest, I really do have to wonder why these things are capable of flying that far away, I imagine some folk here like that feature but it scares me witless. I have a P3A and am too scared to let it out of my sight [emoji52]


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[Grae]

It's strange how we don't hear about this happening every day. Millions of drones, millions of cars and thousands of careless consumers.


UK

 

[marzipana]

I guess it doesn't have to happen thousands of times to be an issue though...imagine if it had hit a pedestrian or cyclist and killed them.


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[yankee65]

I am new to all this and I am very surprised at how far these are capable of going, and all the crashes I read about on here amazes me that someone hasn't gotten hurt badly


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[TrevorTron]

To be fair, these things aren't generally that heavy, you'd be pretty unlikely to hurt someone "badly". But when there's a potential claim at stake of course, even a bent fingernail seems to count as an injury these days. Then there's the mental distress etc. etc. etc.
Happily I live in a country where the 'compensation culture' hasn't caught on (yet?)- and long may it continue.

 

[marzipana]

If they fall from 120m, they're not heavy?!


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[Mark The Droner]

The vid didn't work for me. This one works: Category: | NT News

 

[TrevorTron]

If they fall from 120m, they're not heavy?!


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Yeak, I suppose that would hurt!

 

[ELHEAPO]

I guess it doesn't have to happen thousands of times to be an issue though...imagine if it had hit a pedestrian or cyclist and killed them.


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Wouldnt be so bad if it was a cyclist, they are so anouying on the roads especially when they are wearing all that lycra just to get to work...your not in the tour de france!! Ive just had a brainwave im going to create a new sport.....drop a drone on a moving cyclist!!

 

[ScatSpeak]

Wouldnt be so bad if it was a cyclist, they are so anouying on the roads especially when they are wearing all that lycra just to get to work...your not in the tour de france!! Ive just had a brainwave im going to create a new sport.....drop a drone on a moving cyclist!!

Do you feel the same way about...
Motorcyclists wearing leather jackets/pants?
Runners and their clothing?
Men in suits?
Women in dresses?
Weighlifting/working out in cool sweat wicking fabrics?
Team fans in jerseys/logo gear?

Everybody has got a uniform for different activities... what's wrong with that?

Cyclist clothing performs a function during the activity to wick away moisture, stay cool, look cool, store snacks, hold personal goods and provide something to tear away besides skin when/if you crash... many riders like to support their favorite cycling teams and wear their colors too... just like footballers, soccer, motor sports, etc...

Cyclists have just as much right to use certain motorways as any other vehicle... and they're more environmentally friendly, good exercise, reduce traffic impact.... as long as the rider follows applicable laws just as we should expect of motorists...

 

[jasonkoehn]

Just curious. If no one has come forward to claim responsibility, how do they know it flew from 2 km away?

 

[impilot51]

Just curious. If no one has come forward to claim responsibility, how do they know it flew from 2 km away?

I think from pictures that were found on the drone memory card of a neighborhood 2 KM away from the crash site. It was mentioned in the news video clip.

 

[ELHEAPO]

Do you feel the same way about...
Motorcyclists wearing leather jackets/pants?
Runners and their clothing?
Men in suits?
Women in dresses?
Weighlifting/working out in cool sweat wicking fabrics?
Team fans in jerseys/logo gear?

Everybody has got a uniform for different activities... what's wrong with that?

Cyclist clothing performs a function during the activity to wick away moisture, stay cool, look cool, store snacks, hold personal goods and provide something to tear away besides skin when/if you crash... many riders like to support their favorite cycling teams and wear their colors too... just like footballers, soccer, motor sports, etc...

Cyclists have just as much right to use certain motorways as any other vehicle... and they're more environmentally friendly, good exercise, reduce traffic impact.... as long as the rider follows applicable laws just as we should expect of motorists...

No one wants 2 see a fat guy in bright skin tight lycra, end of!!

 

[ScatSpeak]

No one wants 2 see a fat guy in bright skin tight lycra, end of!!

LOL... you mean like this?

 

[ELHEAPO]

LOL... you mean like this?

Ha ha that is funny except I'm a massive man United fan but I get your point!

 

[shipdriver]

I'm not familiar with Yuneecs: do they have a RTH function on loss of signal? It hit the side of the car and suffered relative little damage (heck, the gimbal remained attached). Not what I would expect from 'dropping from the sky' from even relative low altitudes. Pictures on the SD card don't mean much, but if they are indeed flights over the owner's neighborhood, it shouldn't take much police work to find the chickens***. Mine must have flown 200 km if one goes off of SD pictures, though. Then again I don't think you can get that kind of range out of Q500 even with a booster in an urban/suburban environment. Flyaway? Operator was actually nearby?

 

[JKDSensei]

I guess it doesn't have to happen thousands of times to be an issue though...imagine if it had hit a pedestrian or cyclist and killed them.

Do you fly a DJI Phantom or ANY sUAV weighing more than 1 lb?

If so, then you should realize that no matter how hard you try to be safe, there is no guarantee that your sUAV won't take off on it's own and head straight for a day care center and possibly take out 3, 4 maybe even 5 children at one time.

Since that is in the realm of "possibilities", how can you continue to fly them in good conscious?

BTW....
This video ASSUMES the pilot did this out of irresponsibility......that may not be the case.
And maybe he didn't know where it went. Maybe he.she will come forward now.
When you fly these things, you can never guarantee safety.

 

[mmtphoto]

I gather this happened somewhere overseas, like England, and I don't know if they have regulation like what we are going to have in place 2 weeks from now (registration and id numbers on the UAV) but if it is, in fact impossible to 'guarantee safety', then there is no reason to ever fly without liability insurance, and I suspect that is what is going to happen here.

You could still, after the fact, be issued fines, citations or 'tickets' (or worse if blatantly reckless),for infractions based on flight records,eyewitness complaints or video evidence like any registered motor vehicle, and you'd need to pass a test to be allowed to fly one, like a motor vehicle. Fact is, with all the things being reported in the media, it is the logical conclusion to all of these things that are happening. Sad, but I think it might be inevitable.

The moral of this is please do not crash into the 40th floor of the Empire State Building, and resist flying out of line of sight, stay under 400 feet, and if it does fly away on it's own, be responsible and report it, but I seriously doubt even doing all those things are going to allow things to continue as they are now.