Concerned about our hobby

[landonsjohnson]

I wanted to share this with you all - yes I am new here but I am determined to make a difference in our hobbies and professions involving these awesome birds.

I teach robotics at a school here in WA and am soon to start implementing courses to train people how to maintain these birds once the industry grows. Someone has to maintain, fix and test these PrimeAir birds... Here is a newspaper article about my endeavors.

Additionally, this is a hobby for me.

Unfortunately this is a problem, as I live directly under the left traffic pattern at a local runway. Being a private pilot I also know where these planes are altitude-wide and what they will likely do as they circle. The kid down the street, who is enamored with mine (I hover at 10-15 feet in the front yard for hours, doing figure 8s and practicing) seems to have no end to his resources and plans to get one for Christmas this year. He is not a pilot at 15 or so and will likely have his bird up there in the pattern with the C-172s and Piper Cherokees.

Sooner or later, here or somewhere else, this is going to bring the hobby down. If DJI can put no-fly zones in the guidance app, then the groundwork is laid for forced regulation.

I want to leverage our position in the community as a College and develop some things ahead of time - workshops at hobby stores, etc. it's only a matter of time before these are available at BestBuy and they will walk out of there in droves for $1K and chaos will rule.

Any thoughts?

 

[Mal_PV2_Ireland]

Just fly it and enjoy it. Chances are he wont kill 300 odd people. Every new conservitive phantom pilot worries about it. Still hasnt happened. Whats the average weight of a canadian goose? 3-9kg a phantom vision with gimbal is around 1.5kg. When a commercial airliner comes down due to a bird strike its normally when its engine strikes a FLOCK of birds weighing maybe 600kg. So let me know when a 1.5kg piece of plastic kills 300 people on a commercial airliner. Until then stop being dramatic and enjoy flying.

 

[TheloniousMac]

With all the death and violence that exists outside our cosy by comparison first world countries we should enjoy what we can.
This recent story clearly put a bit of thought into how UAV's can be used for harm.
http://www.suasnews.com/2014/08/30611/w ... challenge/

And expect it all to cause outrage when the next Call of Duty hits stores in a few months. It specifically includes drones for terrorism and you can watch the trailer where they blow up a bridge with drones.

There are plenty of Darwin candidates already piloting all kinds of craft and currently deaths by light aircraft and airliners far exceed any injuries by remote quads (being zero).
It will happen and people will overreact but welcome to the world. Just don't look behind the curtain.

 

[Clipper707]

Just fly it and enjoy it. Chances are he wont kill 300 odd people. Every new conservitive phantom pilot worries about it. Still hasnt happened. Whats the average weight of a canadian goose? 3-9kg a phantom vision with gimbal is around 1.5kg. When a commercial airliner comes down due to a bird strike its normally when its engine strikes a FLOCK of birds weighing maybe 600kg. So let me know when a 1.5kg piece of plastic kills 300 people on a commercial airliner. Until then stop being dramatic and enjoy flying.

I believe it's not about the weight, but the fact geese are soft and organic while drones are soft plastic and hard metal. The military often conducts FOD walks over active runways and helicopter landing zones, looking for objects that could damage an aircraft if it got sucked into an intake.

FOD stands for Foreign Object Damage and I'm pretty certain a Phantom would qualify.

A Phantom (or any other drone) doesn't have to bring down an aircraft with 300 people or a commercial airliner for there to be major negative repercussions. Even a non-fatal collision with a Cessna carrying a single soul would be enough.

 

[damoncooper]

I wanted to share this with you all - yes I am new here but I am determined to make a difference in our hobbies and professions involving these awesome birds.

I teach robotics at a school here in WA and am soon to start implementing courses to train people how to maintain these birds once the industry grows. Someone has to maintain, fix and test these PrimeAir birds... Here is a newspaper article about my endeavors.

Additionally, this is a hobby for me.

Unfortunately this is a problem, as I live directly under the left traffic pattern at a local runway. Being a private pilot I also know where these planes are altitude-wide and what they will likely do as they circle. The kid down the street, who is enamored with mine (I hover at 10-15 feet in the front yard for hours, doing figure 8s and practicing) seems to have no end to his resources and plans to get one for Christmas this year. He is not a pilot at 15 or so and will likely have his bird up there in the pattern with the C-172s and Piper Cherokees.

Sooner or later, here or somewhere else, this is going to bring the hobby down. If DJI can put no-fly zones in the guidance app, then the groundwork is laid for forced regulation.

I want to leverage our position in the community as a College and develop some things ahead of time - workshops at hobby stores, etc. it's only a matter of time before these are available at BestBuy and they will walk out of there in droves for $1K and chaos will rule.

Any thoughts?

If he gets a new Phantom, he will be restricted by default in no-fly zones.

 

[Wedeliver]

I wanted to share this with you all - yes I am new here but I am determined to make a difference in our hobbies and professions involving these awesome birds.

I teach robotics at a school here in WA and am soon to start implementing courses to train people how to maintain these birds once the industry grows. Someone has to maintain, fix and test these PrimeAir birds... Here is a newspaper article about my endeavors.

Additionally, this is a hobby for me.

Unfortunately this is a problem, as I live directly under the left traffic pattern at a local runway. Being a private pilot I also know where these planes are altitude-wide and what they will likely do as they circle. The kid down the street, who is enamored with mine (I hover at 10-15 feet in the front yard for hours, doing figure 8s and practicing) seems to have no end to his resources and plans to get one for Christmas this year. He is not a pilot at 15 or so and will likely have his bird up there in the pattern with the C-172s and Piper Cherokees.

Sooner or later, here or somewhere else, this is going to bring the hobby down. If DJI can put no-fly zones in the guidance app, then the groundwork is laid for forced regulation.

I want to leverage our position in the community as a College and develop some things ahead of time - workshops at hobby stores, etc. it's only a matter of time before these are available at BestBuy and they will walk out of there in droves for $1K and chaos will rule.

Any thoughts?

You might consider joining the Academy of Model Aeronautics http://www.modelaircraft.org/

 

[kjopc]

it's only a matter of time before these are available at BestBuy and they will walk out of there in droves for $1K and chaos will rule.
Any thoughts?

Enjoy the bird while you can 'cause the hobby's days are numbered.

Airspace danger, privacy, police security - name the reason. These toys are going to be widely banned.

At best you'll need a license to operate one, perhaps only in designated 'ranges'.

 

[Meta4]

Enjoy the bird while you can 'cause the hobby's days are numbered.

What a lot of unwarranted gloom and doom.
I wonder if people had similar opinions when Wilbur and Orville showed off their new fangled flying machine.
Or when the first horseless carriages began to appear?
We manage to get by with cars being easily available even though the occasional idiot gets behind the wheel.
I've even heard of terrorists using them but we don't have calls for car use to be banned or sad sacks predicting the end of easy access to driving.

 

[ProfessorStein]

Doesn't sound like the OP is talking about a commercial airliners, Mal, so much as private Cessna and Piper planes. Not only can a Phantom cause a lot of damage to smaller planes (impacts to the windscreen, or on home builts, impacts on the wings or fuselage could tear through the canvas skin), but also, imagine you're a private pilot in the middle of take off or landing and suddenly a drone flies into your flight path or hits your plane... you're going to, at the very least, be distracted if not scared out of your wits. How dare you think it's an inconsequential thing.

 

[ProfessorStein]

We manage to get by with cars being easily available even though the occasional idiot gets behind the wheel.
I've even heard of terrorists using them but we don't have calls for car use to be banned or sad sacks predicting the end of easy access to driving.

I do agree with you, and am not as pessimistic about the hobby as some, apparently.

But you obviously haven't spent time in the US since 9/11. Cars and trucks are, indeed, banned from specific areas around Federal buildings and other important structures. A sort of "no-drive zone" for ground vehicles. AND, because cars are inherently dangerous, you are required to be trained and licensed to drive one... so your arguments don't really hold water.

 

[TheloniousMac]

Maybe we should be petitioning for MythBusters to do a drone special...

Will a drone kill you if it falls on you from 300 feet?
How much damage would a drone do to a helicopter or small aircraft?
How visible is a drone from a cockpit?
What other "Myths" do we need busted because there is so much fear on some places regarding these things.

Anyone would think we were playing with nuclear reactors or something (BTW that was a real toy in America in the 50's & 60's http://www.cracked.com/article_19481_th ... ys_p2.html )

 

[Clipper707]

Maybe we should be petitioning for MythBusters to do a drone special...

Will a drone kill you if it falls on you from 300 feet?
How much damage would a drone do to a helicopter or small aircraft?
How visible is a drone from a cockpit?
What other "Myths" do we need busted because there is so much fear on some places regarding these things.

Great idea, but I noticed you limited your questions to small aircraft and helos.

It seems impossible to ask that without also asking what a drone would do to an Airbus or Boeing. I can imagine sensationalistic, computer-generated graphics of a Phantom bringing down an A380.

As drone operators, would that be a plus or a minus for us?

 

[TheloniousMac]

As long as someone does the testing. And you know mythbusters would do a practical test of all the things to hit.
Then they'd blow it up.

 

[BigTulsa]

Maybe we should be petitioning for MythBusters to do a drone special...

Will a drone kill you if it falls on you from 300 feet?
How much damage would a drone do to a helicopter or small aircraft?
How visible is a drone from a cockpit?
What other "Myths" do we need busted because there is so much fear on some places regarding these things.

Great idea, but I noticed you limited your questions to small aircraft and helos.

It seems impossible to ask that without also asking what a drone would do to an Airbus or Boeing. I can imagine sensationalistic, computer-generated graphics of a Phantom bringing down an A380.

As drone operators, would that be a plus or a minus for us?

Let's not forget that a flock of geese ingested into an Airbus brought that airliner down in the Hudson. And it was likely just one goose that got sucked up into the engine.

Let's not trivialize the risk. Let's also hope that people don't try shooting these things up to pattern altitudes either. That's supposed to always be 1000' above ground level.

 

[ProfessorStein]

Nice that you just automatically assume they'll get "busted", too.

 

[Greyfox51]

Whenever this subject crops up, there seems to be a very strong leaning towards collisions with other aircraft; whereas, in reality, the chances of that happening are probably quite remote.

My own fears and concern for the hobby would be a couple of incidents whereupon a Phantom dropped out of a clear blue sky and crashed down onto the hood or windscreen of a car travelling at speed on a busy freeway, causing an accident. Such an event would attract a lot of adverse publicity.

 

[MikeON]

I wonder if people had similar opinions when Wilbur and Orville showed off their new fangled flying machine.
Or when the first horseless carriages began to appear?
We manage to get by with cars being easily available even though the occasional idiot gets behind the wheel.
I've even heard of terrorists using them but we don't have calls for car use to be banned or sad sacks predicting the end of easy access to driving.

But also consider that cars, trucks, and airplanes, and the people that operate them, require a lot of training, licensing, inspections, registration, and regulation, all of which cost a lot of money. We don't want to bring all those burdens down on our hobby.

 

[derrickduff]

I wonder if people had similar opinions when Wilbur and Orville showed off their new fangled flying machine.
Or when the first horseless carriages began to appear?
We manage to get by with cars being easily available even though the occasional idiot gets behind the wheel.
I've even heard of terrorists using them but we don't have calls for car use to be banned or sad sacks predicting the end of easy access to driving.

But also consider that cars, trucks, and airplanes, and the people that operate them, require a lot of training, licensing, inspections, registration, and regulation, all of which cost a lot of money. We don't want to bring all those burdens down on our hobby.

Yet we are still much more likely to get killed in a vehicle accident than any other accidental cause of death. I'm not sure where you're from but it requires very little training in the US to get an automobile license. Inspections are nonexistent in some states. A friend of a friend has several DUIs. In order to start his car he needs to blow into a breathalyzer. He often times has friends blow for him because he is a raging alcoholic.

You can't fix stupid. No amount of regulation will stop stupid people from doing stupid things.

 

[ProfessorStein]

You can't fix stupid. No amount of regulation will stop stupid people from doing stupid things.

Very true.
But that doesn't mean the regulations don't get written. Which is the point. Regulations are likely to be brought down on the hobby just because of the actions of a few idiots.

 

[kjopc]

Regulations are likely to be brought down on the hobby just because of the actions of a few idiots.

Not even just idiots... fiction will do it.

Wait until an action movie shows the bad guys delivering hundreds of explosives to a stadium via a squad of DJI Phantoms!

People think it's a cute promotion until they start to blow up and then...Panic time!