Drones Illegal in Austin, TX

scotth

scotth

Member
This should be interesting..

http://www.newsradioklbj.com/news/a...drones-dont-fly-austin-especially-during-sxsw

http://www.keyetv.com/news/features...endees-do-not-use-drones-our-city-11356.shtml

According to the Chief: "They can be hijacked by other folks," he said. "There's been studies done by experts that the security of drones can be problematic. We don't want a situation where someone with that intention takes your legitimate drone."

If all drones are illegal, which are the legitimate ones?

Good grief.
 
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Old Man

Old Man

Active Member
"(C) The operator of an aircraft in the corporate limits of the city shall deliver the operator's airman's certificate and the aircraft's certificate of air worthiness to a police officer or airport official on demand."

That's going to end up a fight in a federal court. An airman does not have to deliver (surrender) his pilot certificate to a law enforcement officer. He only needs present it upon demand. An airman is governed by federal regulations, not local, when operating an aircraft.

OTH, Austin just banned all radio control flight functions by default,and hammered local hobby shops in the process. Austin should be placing an ad for a new chief. The one they have is limited in reasoning. ScottH was right on, you can't argue with a cop. They have a badge and a gun and are quick to make use of either or both when disputed.
 

AustinFPV

AustinFPV

FPV Recon
Mactadpole said:
Ridiculous! But I understand too. You know what our slogan is in San Marcos?

"Keep Austin 30 minutes away"
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:) If you're lucky you may be able to break that rule at 3AM. I'm 30 minutes away on the other side of Austin in Liberty Hill, and anything south of 45/620 is downtown as far as I'm concerned. I try not to venture in if I can avoid it.
 

Mactadpole

Mactadpole

Member
Have you seen what some Austin flyers have posted as far as vids and pics go? One guy posted on MRF photos taken pretty much adjacent to the airport. He got mad when I pointed it out. He thinks it's ok since he's a "pro" I guess.
 

AustinFPV

AustinFPV

FPV Recon
I haven't seen much Austin video except for the debacle at the courthouse a year(?) ago where a well-intentioned modeler unintentionally allowed the media to represent the hobby in a bad light. But there is plenty out there to feed on, and we will all feel like criminals shortly if we don't already. The noose tightens ever so slowly. Enforcers will continue to selectively enforce as we go, and an unfortunate few will face charges and represent in the media to keep the people in fear of the harmless drones. Perhaps a government death drone can protect a citizen from an evil hobby drone violating privacy in a future episode of News.
 


AustinFPV

AustinFPV

FPV Recon
Great photos thanks! So good in fact I'm sure the city-level rulers must struggle somewhat with supporting the agenda against drones when the drones do so well to promote the city.

Have you ever had a failure of one motor/prop/ESC in a hex/octo where the additional drive redundancy prevented a crash? I am only building my second quad after a year out of the hobby.
 


H

haha49

Member
AustinFPV said:
I haven't seen much Austin video except for the debacle at the courthouse a year(?) ago where a well-intentioned modeler unintentionally allowed the media to represent the hobby in a bad light. But there is plenty out there to feed on, and we will all feel like criminals shortly if we don't already. The noose tightens ever so slowly. Enforcers will continue to selectively enforce as we go, and an unfortunate few will face charges and represent in the media to keep the people in fear of the harmless drones. Perhaps a government death drone can protect a citizen from an evil hobby drone violating privacy in a future episode of News.
Click to expand...

Most people simply don't like people telling them what they can and can't do. It's like a kid and putting a cookiejar on the table and going don't eat the cookie. IF you never put it on the table they wouldn't want one... Tell someone you can't do something just makes them want to do it. If you go OK you can do this but this is the limit then people don't tend to push it as much as long as it makes common sense.

Don't fly near an airport with out permission. If you have a rule like that it's straight forward. Then have a process to apply and give them a chance to go no it's in use at that time how about this date and time then you can. For a busy airport it would be simple to just say no. Flying at an airport is no big deal as long as it's not in use at the time and everyone knows about it.
 

Hexacrafter

Hexacrafter

Manufacturer
At some point, this will be challenged in court. If the flyer is a hobbyist on a AMA field or complying with all FAA rules governing RC aircraft, then hungry lawyers will be filing 1983 Federal Civil Rights Suits against these Police Departments and Cities......
I will be interesting to see the first suit go to the Federal Level.... I do not believe that they will have a leg to stand on.... The US Congress has provided RC Hobbyists permissions as Federal Citizens and the FAA is aligned with those permissions granted by Congress.....
 

Mactadpole

Mactadpole

Member
scotth said:
The Chief should be more concerned he doesn't have a repeat of last year's SXSW tragedy instead of hijacked drones. He must have seen the Audi commercial just before the press conference.
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I was thinking about that tragedy too.

I wasn't planning on taking my copter to any of the SXSW events I'll be attending so he doesn't have to worry about me.
 

GotHeliRC

GotHeliRC

http://gothelirc.com
What's SXSW event? and what tragedy?

I'm so tired of social media and the news.... On one side bad thing get exposed to help peoples, but then there's good thing that get exposed as bad things.
 

scotth

scotth

Member

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