Gulp! Sorry about the misspell. Aside from that, seeing something on national news means nothing. I was at an even a few years back that was experiencing some difficulties. I watched the news about the event and they were reporting things that were not at all true. They were reporting that the event was over. That everyone was leaving, and this was while people were still arriving and the event hadn't even started. I don't know if they were fed incorrect information by the police just to get the public to quit coming, or maybe the news was getting information from some other source, but I was just shocked. I always believed the news but this changed the way I look at news. I believe that if we are relying on the Network news for our source of information, we should not be re stating it as truth. Since that time, I have paid closer attention to news broadcasts, and never has it been worse than with this latest election debacle. It's not so much what they say as the way they say it and the words they use that make us think that it is as they want it to appear. Like to describe the social services when they remove a child from a family because of abuse. From the service, they were saving the child. From some reporter not sympathetic to the childs situation, and without any further investigation, report the child as being "ripped" away from it's family. Words are used like that all the time to elicit a particular reaction to their story. And with the election, reporters just flat out reported the news of our president-elect with an unconcealed bias of their own. I wouldn't repeat anything I heard on the news, as being true.
The worst I have seen so far, concerning the subject of drones, was when they reported the "agressive" manner of the drone that was "approaching" the sheriff's helicopter. The helicopter was actually approaching the drone that they had spotted in the air. That's what I saw. It wasn't like the drone was approaching the helicopter. (You may have noticed that there was only a couple of times that we actually saw the sheriffs helicopter on the news. The first report was that the helicopter was going over to investigate the drone. There were lots of observers there and the only ones who saw a problem was the Sheriff's who were apparently afraid that they were going to be attacked by the drone. It's like the entire attitude of police. If you don't do exactly what they say, you are being agressive. And we all know what would happen if our drones got struck by a slow moving big object. We all fly drones. How difficult do you think it would be to fly your drone into the intake of a moving helicopter even if you were trying. Maybe some drone racer would have the quick responses to dart around and be a danger. And what do you think would be the result of a helicopter blade hitting our drone. Remember the guy who wrote in wondering about the blood on the props of his Phantom? If I were flying a drone getting photos of what was really going on in such a wild confrontation at the pipeline standoff in Dakota, and saw a sheriff's helicopter approaching, I'd want to get pictures of it too. Just because there is a real helicopter in the area, doesn't mean that they can't share the air space. Two helicopters can do it by watching each other and not getting in each others way. They do it all the time. Just because a helicopter is in the area, doesn't mean that we should immediately get out of the air. The way the news reported it makes it sound like just being visible to each other constitutes a danger. If I was in the air and a Helicopter approached me I'd watch it closely and if it didn't stop I'd have to assume that it was being agressive to me so I would keep out of it's way.
I know there are lots of idiots out there at drone controls. You know the FAA says that if an airplane comes within a half mile of another aircraft it's a near collision. Unless of course they are near an airport, where apparently people are aware and watching where they are going and then they can come lots closer without danger. Let's quit being babies and work on integrating airspace with some common sense. It's going to happen eventually. You see people freaking out when they think that a drone is there to watch THEM. How can you fight that kind of paranoia? People are so self centered, they think that everything is about them. If there is a drone it must be spying on them.
ANd while I'm on a rant, I did some digging into the subject of Laser Beams. To have a laser strong enough to burn anything or cause blindness or injury, you have to spend a LOT of money on the machinery that can produce a dangerous amount of light and then you'd have to aim it accurately. If a laser can blind pilots, then why send a missile in a war? These little pens and levels on our saws and tools (and especially the bar code readers on check out registers at wall mart, etc. I have caught a beam in my eye inadvertently quite often) are not dangerous. Someone standing on the ground pointing their little pen towards an airplane. Picture it. The pilot sees a little green or red spot on the ceiling of his cockpit. Danger? Well maybe if you were to stare right into it for a long while. But risking blindness, even temporary? Come on. So what does a pilot do. Why, he looks out of his port to see where it 's coming from! If you see a laser light--- don't look at it! Don't they know that? Where would you have to be located to shine a laser light into a pilots eyes? ( Oh, I know, on a mountain top, or in a tall buiilding near an airport. Well, we can imagine anything) People don't look into the truth of much at all. They think all lasers are dangerous. All drones are spying on them. If you don't run, you are aggressive. I find it hard to take people who are afraid of everything. The world has gone mad and I think our fixation on danger is going to kill us. And it's not so much the danger being real, but if someone does have a problem, they want someone to BLAME! You'll probably not believe this, but a lot of people don't like me.
There. I feel better now. sorry for stirring the pot. Lets get back to reality and enjoy our fine photographs!!
MikeyP
I learned all about the Coolpix Nikon P900, a peeper's dream camera!
