Anyone recognize this Fine Upstanding Quad Pilot?

Why in the hell does everything here...almost...have to turn into an argument. Are you not getting laid enough? It's like watching a bunch of children.
 
These posts always amuse me. Similar to the the firearm owners in the US most of them never do anything news worthy, but when something questionable but not criminal happens the media does its best to vilify all associated and the owners generally turn on each other and fight amongst themselves. Laws will potentially get written that won't improve anything and then we will all end up fighting to get back the freedoms we once enjoyed or paying to get a permit to do what once didn't need one.

What happened here was victimless and it may have not been intentional, but lets all fight about all the details we don't know. We only have one side of the story.

I can see why they guy might have thought it'd be fun to fly over and see what's going on, we have no idea if the copters were there first or not.

This all comes down to responsibility if he does something negligent and affects somebody else the responsibility should fall on him to make it right. I doubt he was going to take down a helicopter and likely the worst that would happen is he'd knock a shingle off the roof of a house if his quad fell from the sky and if it did he should make it right.

However personal responsibility seems to be dying in our society.
 
I agree with you Apparition, and that personal responsibility is dying. There is a risk/reward to every decision we make in life. I know personally, I don't risk people's safety with my flying. But, and herein lies the rub, operating a RC aircraft really is no different safety wise than operating an airplane, helicopter, blimp, hot air balloon. All are capable of coming down quickly and creating a degree of damage. The operators of "real" aircraft are allowed to fly over populated areas without any real restrictions (before some Johnny Legal Eagle decides to get chirpy, I am speaking in general terms). There is a huge amount of assumed risk in that for the operator of the aircraft and in my opinion the FAA in allowing it. I mean, let's play devil's advocate for a second if you would indulge me. Clearly the FAA can mandate certain "air corridors" (a la Berlin Airlift) for commercial air traffic between airports. Civil aviation on the other hand is given a quasi free pass to fly over homes, parks, schools, churches, etc. Just not sure, to me anyway, how operating a quad over any of these same areas is any different or more dangerous. Motor goes out on your Cessna and your going to come down quickly, and if you are lucky you can control the landing and limit damage/loss of life. Drop a motor in a quad and you are also coming down. You may damage something in the ground, you may not. It's a risk/reward decision you made when you took off.

FPV vs LOS = What is the difference if you lose a motor. You are going down and pretty much straight down. So why is FPV maligned? Is it because it provides the operator with the ability to push the quadcopter further? What does it matter? With the RTH functionality in these things, once you get too far it's going to start coming back anyway.

I just don't see all the hub bub about flying FPV outside of LOS. It's a garbage argument to me.

You opinions may vary.
 
I created a Google Earth map of the area where I believe this happened. The red dot (A) is where I think the fire was, Yellow dot (B) is the quad operator, The green dot (C) appears to be a Spanaway Airport, and the blue dot (D) is Mcchord AFB. This all means absolutely nothing but was fun to do :mrgreen: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zNXhs4UqRCnI.k3yszysPMtXE
 
Monte55 said:
This all means absolutely nothing but was dun to do ...What does this mean? Cant see the link

Sorry for the typo, dun now means fun and the map is now public.
 
GoodnNuff said:
LOL. Before starting this thread I knew Steve Mann would be on here! I knew he would be berating the OP for showing this video, and telling the rest of us we are over reacting! Steve, that is all I see you do on here lately is defend stupidity.

I see him defending a more insightful viewpoint myself, with always a less reactionary and emotive outburst, trying to keep things calm and in perspective to what actually is going on. I wanted to "have the guy" as well but small mercy's I knew there is always more going on and waited for Steve's insight to the bigger view as he does. My "OH dear" reply wasn't directed at the guy I was afraid of us :)

Defending stupidity sometimes means recognizing who is truly stupid, seeing the agenda is clever and there is clearly one here. As said where's there's money and lively-hoods there's an agenda.
 
Monte55 said:
This all means absolutely nothing but was dun to do ...What does this mean? Cant see the link

Relax, Monte55, it means he had fun putting the map together and that's about it.
 
It's so funny when a EXTREME FRINGE FEW you guys see a video like this you call out the posse because we gonna have us public flogging of another "IDIOT WHO IS GOING TO RUIN IT FOR US"

Everytime i see one of you post that nonsense it makes my skin crawl and makes me happy i dont live anywhere near your ill-informed fear mongering.

On another note this video is perfect for productive conversation and debate but that recycled "ruin it for us" banter gets everyone all tied up in knots and then the side picking starts lol like in elementary school lol

As i and others have always said there will be more and more regulation as we push these to the limits and figure new exciting ways to use them and that brings regulation regardless if you stay in the corn fields with your toy or not.
 
sdtrojan said:
I just don't see all the hub bub about flying FPV outside of LOS. It's a garbage argument to me.
You opinions may vary.

It's hard to imagine an operator having the same level of situational awareness when he's flying beyond LOS, FPV or not.
 
Clipper707 said:
sdtrojan said:
I just don't see all the hub bub about flying FPV outside of LOS. It's a garbage argument to me.
You opinions may vary.

It's hard to imagine an operator having the same level of situational awareness when he's flying beyond LOS, FPV or not.
The FOV on a wide-angle setting on a GoPro is probably as good as what I can see as a human. I don't see how it's any more dangerous than any other aircraft in the same airspace. I have yet to develop the ability to see behind me, but at least with a quad I can rotate to check out the area. To me, being out of LOS (ie cannot see my tiny 2.5lb drone) does not mean I don't still have situational awareness of the airspace I am operating in. That's a bad arguement
 
My 2cents (two options).

I see it like this. The guy was up fairly high over (not illegal yet) a park to get some view of the fire which as you mentioned was over 1500ft away so he most likely thought hey I should be fine here as the news choppers will be over there. Then you have this heli pilot who would most likely get paid decent $$$ doesn't like the fact that he could be replaced by a $2000 quad and wanted to make an example of it.

or

I see it as the guy was flying, saw the heli approaching where he is flying above the park so went up to clear out of the heli path (as he did seem to be above it & then had to navigate around to get back etc). As we know its quicker to go up with these things then decend (VRS is one bad outcome). So he flew up to clear out the path, the heli then hovered there to make an example so the pilot couldn't decent above the park anymore therefore he had to decend away from the heli and quickly in case the heli moved, hence why he came down on an angle away from the heli fairly quickly and over the houses as the park had a heli hovering over it. Once he was down low he then proceeded to return back to his take off point out of the way of the heli. I don't think he was that close to the ground as it appears, I believe the camera looking down made it appear closer than it was. However remember he could also be fighting rotor wash from the heli pushing him down and also make it look like erratic movement with the wind from the rotor wash pushing him down, hitting surfaces and spreading over the houses , trees etc.
 
Someone claiming to be a friend of the news chopper pilot recently made a post here on the forum. Maybe they will post here with more information.
 
sdtrojan said:
IflyinWY said:
Hey sdtrojan,

Accurate information makes a better point.

Bell thinks this:
Std internal gross wt 5,000 lbs 2,268 kg
http://www.bellhelicopter.com/en_US/Com ... 32291.html

I could be wrong, but not as wrong as you.

Okay, I would rather a 5,000 lb helo crash on me than a 10,000 lb'r. Either way, my newly renovated protected home will be just fine.


:lol: :lol: :lol: Perfect response.

I wasn't trying to offend ;)

Edit:
2:45 minutes later, I'm still laughing... "protected home", that's a good one.

So, has anyone come up with anything this drone pilot did wrong?
I already know he flew over houses, cars, streets, probably dogs, cats, OMG... people (maybe).
What did he do wrong?
He did a great job of avoiding EVERYTHING, including VRS.
 
IflyinWY said:
So, has anyone come up with anything this drone pilot did wrong?
I already know he flew over houses, cars, streets, probably dogs, cats, OMG... people (maybe).
What did he do wrong?
He did a great job of avoiding EVERYTHING, including VRS.

Seems to me the only thing he did "wrong" was get to the newsworthy subject before the news. Once there were helos in the vicinity, he descended and landed.
 
sdtrojan said:
The FOV on a wide-angle setting on a GoPro is probably as good as what I can see as a human. I don't see how it's any more dangerous than any other aircraft in the same airspace. I have yet to develop the ability to see behind me, but at least with a quad I can rotate to check out the area. To me, being out of LOS (ie cannot see my tiny 2.5lb drone) does not mean I don't still have situational awareness of the airspace I am operating in. That's a bad arguement

A bad argument might be one that debates the wrong point.

My aim was comparing LOS to FPV, not to other aircraft and its pilots' fields of vision. LOS might be defined as a 3rd Person View, where the operator has in sight his drone and its surroundings.

You're comparing a wide-angle GoPro's FOV to the helo pilot's view, who has the benefit of peripheral vision, the ability to turn his head as well as his aircraft, and communications with Air Traffic Control and other aircraft around him. Situational Awareness is more than just the view.
 
Good points on both posts Clipper707. ;)
 
SilentAV8R said:
http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/faa-investigating-drone-flying-near-news-helicopte/nkYk7/

Not flying a Phantom at least. Serious lack of judgement and really poor flying skills.

Edited: Seems I was wrong, he was doing nothing wrong and I am the one in the wrong for sharing his exploits. My bad.
Well I finally agree with ya on something SilentAV8R !
The Edited ;)
 
:eek:

and . . . :lol:
 

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