What Will Happen?

[tstowe]

I'm tired of hearing about people being stupid with drones.

I teach high school and I have no illusions about the the average IQ of the general public... but ****, Really?

What's going to end up happening? Banning them? Requiring a license... like for HAM radio?

One fix I can think of to stop people from doing stupid things... like around airports is with software. Why not block certain airspace by GPS? Build it into the software so a drone won't fly into certain areas... or won't even take off. Maybe some sort of non-manual, manual-override?

I never got past programming in BASIC. Would this be possible?

 

[Hughie]

The Phantom 2 already does this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... oXAMRQoIAA

 

[Cadillac Bill]

I also have a concern that college students will have these drones buzzing around football stadiums, maybe indoor sports like basketball and other densely populated areas. This could be a real hazard.

 

[wattage]

I'm wondering how long it'll be before someone invents and sells an electronic "phantom repellent."

 

[Larry L]

I feel a lot of people do not know the rules & regulations. If you look around, there are tons of options for UAV's. What I read the other day is Home Depot, has one that states that it has a altitude of 500 meters. Other stores are selling them too. Some parent buys it for their kid as a present. He reads that it will go up to 500 meters & what is the first thing he is going to do? Until the word gets out that you cant go above 400' or people have to have some kind of training or ground school, this will continue to happen. I think a lot of these sightings around airports are just that. People who do not know any better. Cadillac Bill, Even with rules in place, you are still going to have stupid people! Until they are caught & some are heavily fined, I feel that these story's will continue.

 

[tstowe]

I also have a concern that college students will have these drones buzzing around football stadiums, maybe indoor sports like basketball and other densely populated areas. This could be a real hazard.

Then why do I keep hearing ... almost daily ... about some bozo flying a drone beside/over/way too **** close to an airport runway?

 

[SteveMann]

Then why do I keep hearing ... almost daily ... about some bozo flying a drone beside/over/way too **** close to an airport runway?

Because there are tens of thousands of these things being flown by hobbyists and there are certain to be some who just don't know or care about common sense. After next week there will be double that amount. The second reason is that airline pilots tend to lack common sense either. Almost ALL of the "drone sightings" are unverified. It's as if the pilots say "what was that?", "I dunno, lets call it a drone".
You hear about them because the "news" is sensational and meant to scare people.
So, with tens of thousands flying, where is the blood, let alone a crash?

 

[Meta4]

The third reason is that it's become a thing.
Journalists are falling over themselves to get in on the bandwagon with stories or repeats of stories about drones interacting with planes. Never mind that it's an unsubstantiated account. Go to press with it and cut and paste a bunch more that have been run already. Hinting at potential carnage is the next best thing to actual carnage. In news, if it bleeds - it leads.
I also wonder if there's some organisation behind this. The FAA has been asking towers and pilots to be on the lookout and report all sightings. The FAA released their list of 194 drone sightings - that's sightings, not incidents.
And then we get a rash of lurid stories like ..
Near-collisions between drones, airliners surge, new FAA reports show
Drone close-calls with airliners a daily occurence in U.S., FAA reports or
Drones Are Beginning to Pose a Real Threat to Flight Safety Says FAA Data.

Instead of worrying about concocted news drama written by ignorant thrillseeking hacks you could read this for a better idea of what's really going on ...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngoglia/ ... you-think/

 

[lake_flyer]

I'm wondering how long it'll be before someone invents and sells an electronic "phantom repellent."

Read in a dutch paper they are working on that at the Technical University at Delft or Eindhoven, in the Netherlands. They want to create a device that can nock a drone out of the sky with a burst of energy of some kind. They are also developing electronic shielding to keep every RC craft that flies from certain areas. They have to find out exactly how each different make of drone (plane, heli or multi) can be jammed.

Pretty sure the guys working on the project have a lot of fun!

But I'm positive that jamming devices, handheld, portable, probably also flyable (anti-drone drone or blimp), as well as ground based, will be on the market very soon.

 

[The Editor]

Yes... I fear Christmas Day the skies will be alive with UAV's being piloted by irresponsible/ill informed numpties!!


The good news?...... By Boxing day only 50% of them will still be in one piece and flyable :lol:

Mind you... none of them will be Inspire 1's since they are delayed (AGAIN) and will not be available until 'early' January..... (So around around March then)...... I will say one thing about DJI. They are very consistent at f**king up every product launch they do! And that's a level of incompetence few companies can ever reach :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Hughie]

Yes... I fear Christmas Day the skies will be alive with UAV's being piloted by irresponsible/ill informed numpties!!

The good news?...... By Boxing day only 50% of them will still be in one piece and flyable :lol:

And 50% of those will have flown off due to bad pre-flight checks.

 

[MadMitch88]

Yes... I fear Christmas Day the skies will be alive with UAV's being piloted by irresponsible/ill informed numpties!!

I do NOT want to be on any commercial flight from Dec. 26 to around Jan. 15 or so --- so many nimrods getting Phantoms for Xmas presents and flying high into the sky around airports!

Luckily, by late January 99% of those Phantoms will be crashed and lost in the thick underbrush or sleeping with the fishes, and the world will be safe again! :lol:

Mind you... none of them will be Inspire 1's since they are delayed (AGAIN) and will not be available until 'early' January..... (So around around March then)...... I will say one thing about DJI. They are very consistent at f**king up every product launch they do! And that's a level of incompetence few companies can ever reach :lol: :lol: :lol:

I think it's about time to start abandoning DJI in droves --- they really committed suicide with this Inspire One debacle --- they got all the arrogance of Apple but make crap products!

 

[Happyflyer]

It would be interesting to be able to have a count of how many Phantoms were under the tree on December 25th and how many were smashed, crashed, splattered, totally destroyed, and drowned by December 31st. I am sure the number of "dead quads" would be very high.

 

[MadMitch88]

It would be interesting to be able to have a count of how many Phantoms were under the tree on December 25th and how many were smashed, crashed, splattered, totally destroyed, and drowned by December 31st. I am sure the number of "dead quads" would be very high.

It causes me ulcers, but lots of spoiled brats and "trust fund kiddies" will be getting Phantoms under the tree on Xmas morn.

I fully agree with you that vast majority of these birds will be catastrophically wrecked and lost into the nether regions by January 1, 2015. Thank God for that. Seriously, can you imagine that a spoiled idiot privileged kid of two dummies like Kim Kardashian and Kanye West having any common sense or technical skill to be able to learn to fly a Phantom with competence ?? I don't even want Jaden or Willow Smith anywhere near a microphone or movie camera --- let alone a powerful quadcopter that can maim people! :shock:

Hate to sound snooty and superior --- but high end quads are only for smart folks like us who put in the many hours to learn to fly these sophisticated machines with precision and know all the safety parameters to protect the lay people from harm. My undies get in a wad when I start thinking about Phantoms and Walkera Scouts and 3DR Iris+'s ending up in the hands of moronic noobs who are going to RUIN our beloved hobby with their own selfishness and ignorance of the potentially dangerous consequences involved.

Sad to say, but I think our days are numbered, especially when the FAA starts to tally up the damage.

 

[wattage]

In my tuppence worth of opinion, I could see in the not too distant future - in Britain anyway - some form of registration/licensing scheme where a valid license is mandatory for using a UAV on anything other than private land. The existing CAA rules would still apply and paperwork would have to be carried at all times when out flying otherwise police confiscate your aircraft and prosecute you. The cost of a license would obviously have to be expensive enough to put it out of the reach of kids and to cover the costs of its implementation in the first place.

Although this is a saddening prospect, I think something like this is inevitable and it would still be preferable to an outright ban

 

[eckoner]

In my tuppence worth of opinion, I could see in the not too distant future - in Britain anyway - some form of registration/licensing scheme where a valid license is mandatory for using a UAV on anything other than private land. The existing CAA rules would still apply and paperwork would have to be carried at all times when out flying otherwise police confiscate your aircraft and prosecute you. The cost of a license would obviously have to be expensive enough to put it out of the reach of kids and to cover the costs of its implementation in the first place.

Although this is a saddening prospect, I think something like this is inevitable and it would still be preferable to an outright ban

Thats exactly what i have been speculating on as a way to solve some of the issues we are having.

I don't mind having to become licensed as long as i don't have to sit in a classroom for months.
And most importantly i don't mind having to pay for some sort of registration sticker showing i have paid my $50.00 or whatever for the year to be able to fly it.

The problem is alot of people dont want to have their names on some sort of registry as they feel the feds will use that info in ways not intended. I just don't see any other way.

 

[Happyflyer]

The idea of a license would not surprise me. If something like my CCW license from 8 years ago, it would not be all that bad. About 6 hours of class and two hours of range firing. The bad part was the $105.00 cost of the license. Which I will be taking my renewal paperwork and turn it in on Tuesday. But even with a license program it will not fix everything. As an example we in the USA have over 23,000 gun control laws on the books and it still does not stop the "bad people" from doing bad things with guns. So there would still be some out there that would fly without any license or knowledge. The government agencies here just could not put a total stop on the RC sport. It is just too big to be able to do that.

 

[PhantomFanatic]

I'm wondering how long it'll be before someone invents and sells an electronic "phantom repellent."

Look at my post in the news section about how to bring a drone down, for $100. The instructions were published as a "defense from drones." Why is a defense needed? Probably due to daily negative press.

How do we change the media? I don't know how.

 

[SteveMann]

It would be interesting to be able to have a count of how many Phantoms were under the tree on December 25th and how many were smashed, crashed, splattered, totally destroyed, and drowned by December 31st. I am sure the number of "dead quads" would be very high.

It causes me ulcers, but lots of spoiled brats and "trust fund kiddies" will be getting Phantoms under the tree on Xmas morn.

I fully agree with you that vast majority of these birds will be catastrophically wrecked and lost into the nether regions by January 1, 2015. Thank God for that. Seriously, can you imagine that a spoiled idiot privileged kid of two dummies like Kim Kardashian and Kanye West having any common sense or technical skill to be able to learn to fly a Phantom with competence ?? I don't even want Jaden or Willow Smith anywhere near a microphone or movie camera --- let alone a powerful quadcopter that can maim people! :shock:

Hate to sound snooty and superior --- but high end quads are only for smart folks like us who put in the many hours to learn to fly these sophisticated machines with precision and know all the safety parameters to protect the lay people from harm. My undies get in a wad when I start thinking about Phantoms and Walkera Scouts and 3DR Iris+'s ending up in the hands of moronic noobs who are going to RUIN our beloved hobby with their own selfishness and ignorance of the potentially dangerous consequences involved.

Sad to say, but I think our days are numbered, especially when the FAA starts to tally up the damage.

I see, you were NEVER a nooB.

 

[IflyinWY]

HA :lol: HA :lol: HA :lol:

This is goin to be fun to watch