The number of "flyaway" and "battery failure" threads on this board ought to be enough to convince any responsible person that flying in a populated area is risky bordering on dangerous. I don't buy for a minute the argument that "I'm in complete control of my craft" because there's always the possibility that no matter what your flying skills, you may lose control of your craft at any time.
Take, for example, this recent video someone posted testing our their new Dronexpert gimbal:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JB-PbMYb9BE[/youtube]
They're flying in a heavily urban area (San Francisco near the Giants ballpark) and even though it's in a small-ish park, if "all of a sudden I lost control and my Phantom shot straight left at a high rate of speed" it's very likely to smash into the window of an overpriced condominium. Likely not much harm there but still a risk. My problem is around the 0:24 mark where he flies right out over The Embaracadero (one of the main streets in SF). If he experienced one of the well-documented Phantom battery problems and "my drone just fell straight from the sky like a rock" it would most likely have caused an accident as startled drivers reacted.
If the drones were much more reliable than they are it would be one thing but to have known, well documented problems that cause these types of adverse situations at unpredictable times means every time you're flying in a populated area you're taking a risk. Maybe not a high risk, but certainly a risk. How reliable do the Phantoms need to be before you'd consider it "safe" to fly over a crowd of people? One crash per thousand flights? Are we at that point with DJI's quality control?
As beautiful as some of these videos are, my skin crawls every time I see a drone pass over a major highway with cars and trucks whizzing by - I think "how irresponsible of that Phantom owner!"
Take, for example, this recent video someone posted testing our their new Dronexpert gimbal:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JB-PbMYb9BE[/youtube]
They're flying in a heavily urban area (San Francisco near the Giants ballpark) and even though it's in a small-ish park, if "all of a sudden I lost control and my Phantom shot straight left at a high rate of speed" it's very likely to smash into the window of an overpriced condominium. Likely not much harm there but still a risk. My problem is around the 0:24 mark where he flies right out over The Embaracadero (one of the main streets in SF). If he experienced one of the well-documented Phantom battery problems and "my drone just fell straight from the sky like a rock" it would most likely have caused an accident as startled drivers reacted.
If the drones were much more reliable than they are it would be one thing but to have known, well documented problems that cause these types of adverse situations at unpredictable times means every time you're flying in a populated area you're taking a risk. Maybe not a high risk, but certainly a risk. How reliable do the Phantoms need to be before you'd consider it "safe" to fly over a crowd of people? One crash per thousand flights? Are we at that point with DJI's quality control?
As beautiful as some of these videos are, my skin crawls every time I see a drone pass over a major highway with cars and trucks whizzing by - I think "how irresponsible of that Phantom owner!"
